What Ticketmaster Doesn't Want You To Know: Concerts Were Cheap For Decades
What Ticketmaster Doesn't Want You To Know: Concerts Were Cheap For Decades
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have destroyed the concert experience. But it didn't use to be this way. Today, Oasis and Taylor Swift tickets might go for thousands of dollars, but back in 1955, you could see Elvis Presley in concert for less than the modern-day equivalent of $20.
Even in the ‘80s you could see big-time bands for less than $20.
This is why they’re getting sued by the DoJ. And why Harris needs to win if you guys don’t want Trump to immediately quash the suit.
Source/disclaimer: I work for an LN-partnered independently owned venue, so I'm likely to be very biased.
Live Nation/Ticketmaster is definitely a monopoly AND ticket prices are definitely gouged.
However, from what I've heard with many people in the industry, the current antitrust suit isn't likely to change anything. Partnered/independently owned venues will still use Ticketmaster. Live Nation venues will still use Ticketmaster (unless they're forced not to).
Additionally, most people that are complaining about prices don't know that Live Nation typically has little say in the set ticket prices. The artist and/or their tour management sets them. And if people buy them, the prices stay the same (or go up, with the recent dynamic pricing fiasco). If not, the price is discounted.
Tickets aren't even LN's primary source of revenue. It's food and beverage sales, which are also gouged. (Profit margins of 80-90% per item)
LN will continue to blame scalpers (or brokers, the politically correct industry term), which is partially the truth. While this is something I'm not fully aware of, LN has done some things to bring the prices down brought on by brokers. One of them is platinum seating. The most expensive tickets that get resold on ticketmaster are typically purchased by LN and then resold at the "normal" price. Yes, LN is losing money doing this, but it's something they can use to cover their ass in the DOJ suit.
Another thing that several people have already mentioned is the cost of production is MUCH higher than it used to be, especially for stadium shows.
I don't even go to shows myself anymore because of how ridiculous the prices are. We can only hope the DOJ suit does something.
I think Ticketmaster and Live Nation absolutely are to blame for hyperinflated ticket prices.
The fact that scalpers also operate is reprehensible.I will however say that production values of a modern gig are many factors higher than they were decades ago.
Safety standards are much higher, requiring more crowd control, more planning, more specialised equipment (both for the venue, and for the production).
It's no longer "a stack of speakers and a mixing desk with 8 channels". PA design and installation is both a science and an art in itself to achieve an even frequency response throughout as much of the venue as possible. Never mind the production of the actual music.
It's no longer "120 par cans over the stage and a bunch of power", it's a huge quantity of intelligent lighting fixtures with months of planning and days of programming.
Never mind the video side of things requiring months of preproduction with kit that would make the lighting or sound budget look like fisher price.
And all of this has to be built and run with redundancy, so the equipment list is essentially doubled, and likely a lot of spares.
Venue costs are also higher. So all of that production has to be orchestrated to go in and come out in as fast a time as possible. And packed on and off trucks in specific ways to facilitate this. Logistics of a tour are intimidating.There are also entire university degrees based around these roles in production, people want and make a career out of touring. Places on tours are highly sought after.
Gigs are no longer just a band playing. There is a lot more show to it.
Whether this is actually what fans want is up for debate. And if it actually makes the experience better is also up for debate.Ticket prices are obscene, and I don't think they are inline with the production provided.
However, if the live music is in demand then there will be people that pay. A band can only play so many gigs, and venues are limited.
Some of the increased cost can be attributed to making the job easier and safer for all the crew, staff and fans.
Some of the increased cost can be attributed "putting on a better show".
Some of the cost can be attributed to some of these jobs moving from the "passion and hobby" to "a career".
Some of these costs can be attributed to the increased skill level required to put on these gigs.
Some of these costs can be attributed general cost of living & inflation increases.
But I think most of the costs can be attributed to the exploitative behaviour of Ticketmaster etc.My favorite band of all time is ELO. I found out the other day that they are still active. I saw some video and they still sound pretty good. So I looked for a venue nearby. Tickets were $280 +fees. But it's also an hour flight and a hotel plus incidentals. Technically I CAN afford this. I just don't want to. Guess I'll just watch the videos. I can't imagine paying $3000 to see Taylor Swift. I feel sorry for all the lower income Swifties out there. But I guess this won't change since these concerts are still selling out.
Obligatory FUCK TICKETMASTER!
As people have already noted, the $20-$25 shows were different than a modern arena show, I saw Soundgarden with Voivod for $25ish at a local outdoor small venue in the 1990s, and have seen other acts there recently for between $50-$75 (the Alabama Shakes, Cimafunk), that seems like normal inflation.
Arena shows I honestly don't remember what we paid for tickets to see big bands, but I sure remember general admission, running to get to the front, not being able to move once there, and the random groping that always happened. I don't go much to big shows now (or even back then) and have never been to a stadium show.
I don't think it's unreasonable for artists to make money on performance, rather than on sales of recorded music. Not sure what the value of a show like that is, but probably more than it was back when tours were done to promote album sales.
Well not worth thousands of dollars Taylor Swift is a objectively different show than Elvis Presley was.
There was some decoration on stage Presley came out he was the bee's knees everyone wanted to see him, but you were paying to see him and for his roadies toship, roll out and hook up his gear.
It probably cost $100,000 in labor just to haul Swift's stage out and build it an arena. They probably need the arena for a week before the concert starts.
I'm not saying her stuff is worth $1,000 a ticket we should get economy at scale for that number of people. But it's probably worth 300-500.
Unless you're doing the insane level of football field sized stages with embedded screens and catapults, your average couple hour show at your average decent size venue really should realistic beatly be in the $100 to $200 range, You've got to pay the artist You've got to pay their crew and while the ticketing system does deserve to make some money on it, they shouldn't be getting absolutely still filthy stinking lobbying rich off of it.
Given how accessible music is, how accessible musicians are on social media, the fact that you probably have to travel to the venue, shit like COVID, eardrum shattering PA systems that make ear plugs a requirement, what is the appeal today even? And then it costs a thousand bucks?
I understand fun, but I feel like you could get a better deal if you're just looking for a good time.
I went to a bunch of shows in the 80s and 90s for $20-25. I rarely go anymore, the prices are out of hand.
Yeah, some of us are over 25-30 years old and remember concerts being, like $10 to $20, depending on your age.
I was talking with my dad about this just a few weeks ago. He's Gen X and could go and see a big name band for 10 bucks. I'm a Millennial and could do the same for 20. Even as a high schooler, I was able to afford to go see a couple of concerts every summer just on an allowance of a few dollars per week.
I just saw an article about how ticket sales are slumping, and that people aren't willing to spend 600 per ticket anymore. The poor Ticketmaster CEO said that people just don't want to.
Yep my dude, can't be that you've changed concerts from "we should go see _______!" To "I guess it's the one time in my life I'll ever see them, I'll go one time and then never again" level of special occasion. Seriously 600 dollars per person is nearing Disney level vacation money.
So yeah, of course money isn't infinite. You hit the ceiling. Taylor and oasis may gather that much, but your other artists are going to suffer. I'll be honest I paid 600 for Taylor. It was a once in a lifetime experience. But now they want me to pay something like 400 for any random music act that comes to town. No, Ticketmaster, she was my favorite, that was a one time thing. I'm not paying 400 to see like, Weezer.
i saw phish in the 90's over 30 times for ~$27 a show. i don't go to shows any more.
Thankfully, my favorite group, the acappella group Home Free is still inexpensive and even cheap - I paid $30 a seat to see them last year. I could have had a $15 seat in the balcony if I had wanted.
I paid £22.50 for my Knebworth ticket to see Oasis in 1996. Beer was expensive but the lines were so long that two or three was all that was feasible. Instead I got stoned off my face and zoned out on a little hill behind the vip area. It was amazing but I was so smashed that my memory is fuzzy. Ah well. My sister just paid over £1000 for four tickets to oasis. I think I got a rather better deal than her.
I saw Dave Matthews in Austin for 20 bucks fifteen ish years ago. Great show. Tickets can still be affordable if you don't go to arena shows.
I saw TOOL for the Aenima tour for $17 in 1996-97.
While they most certainly suck, so do most other people. As long as there will be a secondary market online someone will scalp tickets. Whether that's some random asshole or these organized assholes hardly matters in most cases.
Of course with random assholes doing the scalping there is still a chance to get a cheap one by being faster, albeit a very slim one.
From what I understand though, this is actually more about people not purchasing albums anymore, so now artists have to basically make the bulk of their money from concerts.
Ticketmaster doesn’t force dynamic pricing for instance; that’s a choice the artist has made in order to maximise their profit from the ticket sales.
I don’t know if the tickets need to be quite as expensive as they are, for artists to make a profit - likely not. But they certainly are making a lot less money from the likes of Spotify than they used to make from albums sales, so it has to be a big part of the problem.
People like Oasis take the piss to be honest, because I doubt they’ve actually run out of money (according to this YouTube channel that was talking about them, they seem to think the brothers both still have plenty of 90s money, I dunno how you check this stuff… but yeah. Makes sense that they shouldn’t have spent it all unless they were really fucking stupid with their investments or lack thereof). So they really don’t need to be making this much money from the ticket sales, but for newer bands the Spotify thing should apply.