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I work at a club so I never pay for tickets, but recently the price of tickets has gone thru the roof!! I'm constantly working concerts where the ticket price is easily double or triple my salary for the night. Or more!
If I had to buy my girlfriend a ticket to get her in it would actually cost me money to work my job.
The most amazing part of the high priced ticket scam is that the shows are almost always sold out. People in row Z are complaining about paying 125$ to see Neil Young or whoever.
How long will people continue to fork out this kind of cash just for a concert? Will the economy improve and cause ticket prices to jump, again?
I always pick up tickets on ebay for much less. I saw U2 from the 12th row for $29/ticket ($58 for two tickets). I had to pay $18 for next day fed ex to get the tickets though.
I remember going to Van Halen's concert for their debut album and tickets were $5 each. Jump ahead a few years and we went to see them again and some tickets were up over $100.
It all comes down to the fact that if a band's music is being downloaded for free - the money is going to be recovered some how and in the last decade, a transition from touring to sell records has become releasing a record to tour.
If a band sells 250k units in a world of downloading for free and it would normally sell 500k, then they are still going to need to make up for that money in some way. And it is not just ticket prices. Merchandise like t-shirts has also gone up although the cost of manufacturing those shirts in third world countries has gone down.
The cost of touring - logistically has gone up too. With fuel prices being more now than ever, at least in the US. Even a small band that plays clubs on a 30 date US tour has an infinite amount of expenses associated with touring, including fuel for their tour bus and equipment. Booking agencies secure between 10-15% of a bands touring revenue for each show, their are things like having a tour manager, FOH sound, monitor tech, roadies, tour insurance, tour bus rental, musicians in the band that are touring members that get paid per show, hotels (they don't live on buses), incidentals, etc etc - Gearing up just prior to a tour is also expensive since a band commits to a certain amount of dates well in advance of when tickets even begin to sell and if a band is going overseas, their gear and tour personnel need to be flown over. In the case of European bands playing in the US, in lieu of the US dollar not being worth as much as the Euro, they are actually taking a pay cut to perform live every night.
There are even some smaller bands that do not generate enough revenue from touring at the end of their recording contracts to even pay their label back for all the tour support that was financed, and as a result wind up selling their back catalogue back to the label just to cover the money that they owe.
I think ticket prices are so high now because the shelf life of bands today is so short that they are trying to get their money now before the next "Lady Gaga" becomes popular.
Old bands are on their "401K Tour" trying to fund their retirements touring for baby boomers who want to relive their youth.
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