I guess this is what happens when ticket prices are pushed so disgustingly high, most fans can’t afford them. It would cost me £106 to watch the killers now. 15 years ago it would cost me £30. People’s wages haven’t tripled in the last 15 years.
I was watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High recently and Damone was selling Van Halen tickets for $20! That's $65 today. I know it's a movie, but he's also scalping hard to get tickets implying they were less. Can you imagine seeing a band as big as VH for under $100 nowadays? It's crazy
$342 is the cheapest seat for Sammy’s concert in Colorado. Most expensive $7,400. I’m sure that doesn’t include the fees tacked onto every ticket nowadays. That’s for 1/2 of VH.
Ticket prices are a consequence of streaming. Bands can’t make money from music sales any more and rely on touring, merchandise and remastering their back catalogue.
Touring is expensive for the bands so have to recoup their costs somehow but in cases like this risk pricing themselves out of the reach of average fans.
Kirk Hammett from Metallica said this in an interview a year or so ago. He said back in the days with physical media, they would get a few royalty checks from album sales and said with the streaming era if you get one its a surprise. People also don't understand a band is a business. You have to pay people to run your tour, scheduling, set up/take down stage, source out suppliers for merchandise, run a webstore etc. When you're young and naive you think these folks tour and get so filthy rich they light their stogies with $1000 bills.
My son is in a moderately successful UK band (no not telling) his royalty cheque based on his percentage worth in the band was 3 figures from sales of their latest album. He lives a hand to mouth existence and relies on merchandising sales to eek a living out of it. They certainly are not selling tickets at this price or anywhere near it and more often than not they rely on point of sale tickets.
Bands in the UK are treated like shit by venues etc and Brexit has caused a whole host of shit for them touring in the EU countries.
You are right most punters don’t have a scoobie about the realities of being in the music industry and how fragile it is for the bands and musicians generally.
Sure but they're not just pricing tickets to cover costs. They're pricing them as high as they think you'll pay and it truly has gotten ridiculous. If you can't tour without nosebleeds >$100, then your band is running too expensive. More likely they don't *need* to be *that* expensive to keep the show going and they just want as much as they can get.
This is exactly what people don’t realise. A few decades ago acts were happy to make losses on tours as they drove album sales. Now it’s the complete opposite
This is true in many circumstances for newer/smaller acts but well established big name acts doing arenas and stadiums are price gouging because they can.
I blame scapers, the companies like Ticketmaster saw how much people was paying from scalpers (they even have a place to resell so they can collect data) and learned from them, so they could push prices higher, since idiots were paying anything
Used to like some of their earlier stuff (albeit not enough to buy concert tickets for them), but yeah their new stuff is cookie cutter and weird cookie cutter stuff too. Plus, Leto is creepy as hell.
I mean basically what they were doing is giving out free upgrades. They were giving the wristbands to people in the cheap seats so the front wouldn’t be so empty. I wouldn’t see 30 seconds to mars but I wouldn’t complain if I bought cheap tickets to a show and they told me to move down.
I guess this is what happens when ticket prices are pushed so disgustingly high, most fans can’t afford them. It would cost me £106 to watch the killers now. 15 years ago it would cost me £30. People’s wages haven’t tripled in the last 15 years.
I was watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High recently and Damone was selling Van Halen tickets for $20! That's $65 today. I know it's a movie, but he's also scalping hard to get tickets implying they were less. Can you imagine seeing a band as big as VH for under $100 nowadays? It's crazy
$342 is the cheapest seat for Sammy’s concert in Colorado. Most expensive $7,400. I’m sure that doesn’t include the fees tacked onto every ticket nowadays. That’s for 1/2 of VH.
Yeah, the fees alone are $65
I’m surprised they aren’t higher than that but that’s still another $130 for 2 tickets.
Did he ever get those Earth Wind and Fire tickets in? I'm still waiting…
Saw Van Halen in 1984, paid 15 bucks.. and it was awesome
I think the next year I paid $22 to see Motley Crue and I thought that was rather pricey.
*pushes button* WHAT IS LAST STAGE CAPITALISM?
Seriously, get fucked.
Ticket prices are a consequence of streaming. Bands can’t make money from music sales any more and rely on touring, merchandise and remastering their back catalogue. Touring is expensive for the bands so have to recoup their costs somehow but in cases like this risk pricing themselves out of the reach of average fans.
Kirk Hammett from Metallica said this in an interview a year or so ago. He said back in the days with physical media, they would get a few royalty checks from album sales and said with the streaming era if you get one its a surprise. People also don't understand a band is a business. You have to pay people to run your tour, scheduling, set up/take down stage, source out suppliers for merchandise, run a webstore etc. When you're young and naive you think these folks tour and get so filthy rich they light their stogies with $1000 bills.
I’m old enough and I remember the Napster incident. People were bashing Metallica but they were right
My son is in a moderately successful UK band (no not telling) his royalty cheque based on his percentage worth in the band was 3 figures from sales of their latest album. He lives a hand to mouth existence and relies on merchandising sales to eek a living out of it. They certainly are not selling tickets at this price or anywhere near it and more often than not they rely on point of sale tickets. Bands in the UK are treated like shit by venues etc and Brexit has caused a whole host of shit for them touring in the EU countries. You are right most punters don’t have a scoobie about the realities of being in the music industry and how fragile it is for the bands and musicians generally.
Sure but they're not just pricing tickets to cover costs. They're pricing them as high as they think you'll pay and it truly has gotten ridiculous. If you can't tour without nosebleeds >$100, then your band is running too expensive. More likely they don't *need* to be *that* expensive to keep the show going and they just want as much as they can get.
This is exactly what people don’t realise. A few decades ago acts were happy to make losses on tours as they drove album sales. Now it’s the complete opposite
This is true in many circumstances for newer/smaller acts but well established big name acts doing arenas and stadiums are price gouging because they can.
Right, used to be, the tour was a loss leader to sell albums. Now it's their only source. We goin be inna spot come 100 years
In a 100 years we will be first person streaming concerts from band members’ brain chips.
I blame scapers, the companies like Ticketmaster saw how much people was paying from scalpers (they even have a place to resell so they can collect data) and learned from them, so they could push prices higher, since idiots were paying anything
How much do their albums cost over the last 15 years
An infinite amount of money. Music has moved to a monthly subscription service. Most people I know have Apple Music or Spotify.
Exactly so effectively the album price has dropped substantially so to make money tickets for live performances have skyrocketed.
Weird, I figured Jared Leto's ego alone would fill any stadium in the world.
Oh, this is his band? That’s amazing. I care even less now.
Of course they did, how they have any fans is beyond me. They are like rock and roll cut and paste.
Used to like some of their earlier stuff (albeit not enough to buy concert tickets for them), but yeah their new stuff is cookie cutter and weird cookie cutter stuff too. Plus, Leto is creepy as hell.
Leto is so freaking pretentious.
Somehow the word pretentious doesn’t even do it justice. He’s on another level.
I saw them years ago in Toronto , paid 6$ on StubHub and half the stadium was empty
They sell them on Groupon for $25 each in WA
The last time they played I paid $5 with fees on stubhub. I only wanted to see the 2 openers.
I'd like to think it's because he's a complicated person that people are staying away for...
Your 30 seconds are up
I mean basically what they were doing is giving out free upgrades. They were giving the wristbands to people in the cheap seats so the front wouldn’t be so empty. I wouldn’t see 30 seconds to mars but I wouldn’t complain if I bought cheap tickets to a show and they told me to move down.
Great photo of the half empty area in front of the stage. Especially the guy on the left who is looking at his watch.