Let's hope this guy doesn't promote any more gigs by the Stones. Story in yesterday's Independent (UK).



The promoter of The Rolling Stones’ summer concerts, where tickets were sold for as much as £300, has said his shows are under-priced and warned fans they will need to pay more for spectacular performances.

Rob Hallett, president of international touring at AEG, the company which staged the British Summer Time concerts in Hyde Park, said the flourishing secondary ticket market, where fans can re-sell spare tickets at a huge profit, indicated the box office price charged by promoters was too low.

“If you buy a car for £5k and someone comes along and offers you £10k for it, you go, ‘That’s a great profit, you’ve made £5k – well done.’ A ticket is a commodity like any other,” Hallett told Music Week.

“So long as it’s done in a manner where it’s a fan selling to another fan, if it makes a profit good luck to you. In that case (of a resale making a profit) I’ve messed up because I haven’t priced it right – I should have charged more in the first place.”

Tickets for the Rolling Stones two Hyde Park shows were priced from £100 to £300 for a special enclosure at the side of the stage. Prices will continue to rise, predicted Hallett.

“It’s getting the price right for the audience that you’re playing to and the cost of the show. Production is hugely expensive,” he said.

“If you go to a show you’ve paid £100 to see and there’s giant video screens and 100 dancers and people coming out the ceiling and pyro you go, ‘wow that was great’. But if you’ve paid £100 and you’ve got five kids jumping up and down going: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ with a couple of spotlights on them you’re going to think, ‘I’ve been ripped off.’”

Seats for boyband quintet One Direction’s Wembley Stadium concerts next summer are being sold for £80, a price intended to deter online touts buying up large numbers of tickets and reselling them at substantial profit.

Labour is preparing an attempt in the Commons in the autumn to bring in new controls on the resale of event tickets. MPs of all parties, with the support of music promoters and rock bands including Iron Maiden and the Arctic Monkeys, are pressing for Government action to curb the £1bn secondary ticketing industry.

However, AEG’s Hyde Park summer shows, which included headline concerts by Lionel Richie and Bon Jovi, failed to sell out at the box office. “Nothing sold out this summer – everyone who tells you, aside from Glastonbury, their summer events sold out is probably not telling the truth,” Hallett said. “But we did extremely well for our first year in the park.”

Following complaints over noise from residents, AEG built a new “oak tree” stage, pointing away from Mayfair’s luxury apartments, which allowed the Stones to break volume records.

Jim King, AEG event director, said: “The Rolling Stones played the loudest anybody’s ever played in Hyde Park before and we had one complaint. The music could have been off and we’d have still had that complaint anyway.”

AEG, which has won Competition Commission (CC) approval to take over the management of the 12,500 capacity Wembley Arena, said it planned to make the Hyde Park gigs “bigger and better” in 2014.

The Office of Fair Trading had raised concerns that the Wembley deal would lead to AEG, which also operates the O2 Arena and Hammersmith Apollo, controlling three of the four largest indoor venues in the capital.

But a CC investigation found that the company would not be able to use its muscle to raise the hire price for Wembley shows because artists rely on other factors, such as a venue’s prestige, availability and capacity, when choosing where to play.


[www.independent.co.uk]

Ah. Rob is back.
Great memories. Good times.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-14 15:23 by BowieStone.

That whole attitude confirms why controls are necessary.

The optimum price for any ticket is that at which the promoter will sell out [or nearly sell out the show]. Otherwise it's either overpriced or, he's hired too big a venue.

The fact that somebody will then come along and pay twice the face value to get a ticket for a sold out show only indicates how keen/daft/rich a small minority of customers are...not that the ticket should have cost twice as much in the first place.

What a jerk - his "solution" just penalizes fans for what ticket touts are allowed to get away with and makes him no better than them. The only thing driving his great idea (NOT) is his interest is in getting his hands on the money going into the pockets of touts.

Full interview is here:

[www.musicweek.com]

Problem is that so many shows "sell out" (as far as the promoter is concerned) because a heap of those tickets have been bought as a speculation by resellers. The promoter looks at his tickets offered for double face value elsewhere and thinks that money should be in HIS pocket - but what's happening is that the resellers are taking on the risk of being left with the unsold leftovers. If the promoter raises his prices there might be less speculation, but there's also the chance of being left with something so expensive that nobody, including resellers, will buy it - which benefits no-one.

Oh well, looks like Mr Hallett will raise his prices until he burns his fingers.

Gotta love the smug "me greedy? no I aint! all my friends make money by speculating so I am just normal" attitude.

Prick

I paid $37 to see Lyle Lovett open and Willie Nelson headline at the Hollywood Bowl last week. Willie played his 'Stardust' album from 1978 in its entirety, along with a handful of his 'warhorses', backed by the entire Hollywood Bowl orchestra. It was sublime. I paid $85 to hear the Stones try and get through a very tired setlist from a nosebleed seat with an extremely limited view. And I had to be on my toes over a couple days to get in on the small window of time in order for the privilege to get in on the $85 lottery for the Stones ticket.

The highlight of my summer concerts of 2013 is not the Stones. They're not even second. Pink Martini was better ($41). Steel Pulse was better (also $37). By Rob Hallett's logic, I should have paid more for the Stones experience.

'Rob Wallett' is certainly living up to his name. What a tosser....

"Prices will continue to rise", predicts Hallett. Not good news seeing that AEG will now control the 02 Arena, Wembley, Hammersmith Apollo as well as the annual Hyde Park summer shows. Better start saving up just in case the Stones hit London again.

i wanna know what the one complaint was at the stones hyde park show ?

Funny how some people are trying hard to build a market bubble around tix prices.

Before the big US housing market crash of 2007 the motto was "hey we know prices are too high but as long as there are buyers for our houses...". Alas overnight there were suddenly no buyers, and the housing market crashed.

Did that guy Hallett learn his trade in California in the early 2000's?

Ofcourse he ssays that.
he wants more money, filthy lazy sod.

Jeroen

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Spud
That whole attitude confirms why controls are necessary.

The optimum price for any ticket is that at which the promoter will sell out [or nearly sell out the show]. Otherwise it's either overpriced or, he's hired too big a venue.

The fact that somebody will then come along and pay twice the face value to get a ticket for a sold out show only indicates how keen/daft/rich a small minority of customers are...not that the ticket should have cost twice as much in the first place.

Correct ....... and those controls cannot come soon enough. The secondary ticketing market is out of control, there's nothing remotely "fan to fan" about it !!

For the principal companies that function within that market to still maintain the "fan to fan exchange" line is just a sick joke

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

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TheGreek
i wanna know what the one complaint was at the stones hyde park show ?

It was from kleermaker - he wanted Mick Taylor on more songs! ><

I don't necessarily have anything great to say about AEG, but the title of the thread is misleading because the title of the article is misleading. Hallet never says that 300 was too cheap. If anything, since he says his shows did not sell out, he is hinting that the shows were priced too high. Read the actual interview.

What happens when the money is more important than the music.
I wonder if Rob Hallett even watched these shows, was he even there?

Could this talentless, rip-off c**t get more obnoxious if he tried?

Rob Hallett, president of international touring at AEG: “If you go to a show you’ve paid £100 to see and there’s giant video screens and 100 dancers and people coming out the ceiling and pyro you go, ‘wow that was great’. But if you’ve paid £100 and you’ve got five kids jumping up and down going: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ with a couple of spotlights on them you’re going to think, ‘I’ve been ripped off.’”

Uhhhhh. NO. I don't want 100 dancers and giant video screens showing 100 dancers dancing with people coming out the ceiling (WTF?) and pyro. I want a band that sounds like they GIVE A SHIT about people paying £100 to see them that use giant video screens to get the point across.

What a tapered piece of dog shit.

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Silver Dagger
"Prices will continue to rise", predicts Hallett. Not good news seeing that AEG will now control the 02 Arena, Wembley, Hammersmith Apollo as well as the annual Hyde Park summer shows. Better start saving up just in case the Stones hit London again.

So you're OK with paying more. Good for you. Hope you enjoy paying too much.

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drbryant
I don't necessarily have anything great to say about AEG, but the title of the thread is misleading because the title of the article is misleading. Hallet never says that 300 was too cheap. If anything, since he says his shows did not sell out, he is hinting that the shows were priced too high. Read the actual interview.

He didn't say his shows "did not sell out" and that means the tickets were too high. It clearly says:

The promoter of The Rolling Stones’ summer concerts, where tickets were sold for as much as £300, has said his shows are under-priced and warned fans they will need to pay more for spectacular performances.

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TheGreek
i wanna know what the one complaint was at the stones hyde park show ?

I believe it's listed in the thread title.

I've known quite a few top promoters -- when there were such people -- and seldom have I heard any of them talk like Rob Hallett. A major part of being a promoter is to KNOW the audience, the economy, the assorted costs of presenting a show etc.

I would love to know Hallett's background because I thought his words made him sound like a fool. Can't imagine someone like Ron Delsener ever making such comments.

As for AEG in the US, they did a deplorable job of promoting/marketing the kickoff of the recent American tour.

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stonesrule
I've known quite a few top promoters -- when there were such people -- and seldom have I heard any of them talk like Rob Hallett. A major part of being a promoter is to KNOW the audience, the economy, the assorted costs of presenting a show etc.

I would love to know Hallett's background because I thought his words made him sound like a fool. Can't imagine someone like Ron Delsener ever making such comments.

As for AEG in the US, they did a deplorable job of promoting/marketing the kickoff of the recent American tour.

Absolutely.

Personally speaking, judging him (and AEG at large) on "performance to date" and in particular his own rather bizarre attitude, I wish him to fail spectacularly in his business endeavours. I hope he misjudges one or more future events, loses a lot of money, files for bankruptcy, and pursues an alternative career. Live music the world over could definitely benefit from not having him and his like involved !!

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Hope he's not setting prices for future tours...should book him a job with Disney, they speak his language.

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GasLightStreet

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Silver Dagger
"Prices will continue to rise", predicts Hallett. Not good news seeing that AEG will now control the 02 Arena, Wembley, Hammersmith Apollo as well as the annual Hyde Park summer shows. Better start saving up just in case the Stones hit London again.

So you're OK with paying more. Good for you. Hope you enjoy paying too much.

Er, I think you missed the irony there GasLightStreet.

Quote
24FPS
I paid $37 to see Lyle Lovett open and Willie Nelson headline at the Hollywood Bowl last week. Willie played his 'Stardust' album from 1978 in its entirety, along with a handful of his 'warhorses', backed by the entire Hollywood Bowl orchestra. It was sublime. I paid $85 to hear the Stones try and get through a very tired setlist from a nosebleed seat with an extremely limited view. And I had to be on my toes over a couple days to get in on the small window of time in order for the privilege to get in on the $85 lottery for the Stones ticket.

The highlight of my summer concerts of 2013 is not the Stones. They're not even second. Pink Martini was better ($41). Steel Pulse was better (also $37). By Rob Hallett's logic, I should have paid more for the Stones experience.

Its scary the way this could go with prices, i dont care for dancers and so called visual displays.

24FPS the reason i quoted you as i noticed that you mentioned steel pulse, what was they like? its a few years since i have seen them for some reason they dont seem to tour the Uk that much.