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saltoftheearth
The main problem is, concerts are no more for the fan but they are rather social events attended by successful people. Many people do not go out to see the group they love but if some well-known artist's concert is announced they buy tickets because they want to impress their partner/friends/colleagues. Therefore, the expensive packages sell excellently.
Three years ago we attended an open-air Santana concert where 50% of the audience were people who would have liked to see Carlos Santana play the greatest-hits-album they have at home on stage. Even if he had played carbon copies of the studio recordings they would have appreciated it. It was the event to take the lady out.
For the forthcoming Eric Clapton concerts where the normal tickets cost 110 € you can also book the package complete with a selected menu and drinks. This is certainly not intended for the fan to buy but rather for those well-to-to bankers and managers who are willingly pay the prices. To me it seems ironic that you even would like to see Clapton playing ('Poor man blues') in a luxury ambience.
No envy here on my side - the age of the rock concerts as we knew them back in the 1970s and 1980 is definitely over, at least for the stars of rock music. If you want to see a decent concert go and buy tickets for Gaslight Anthem - they sell for about 35 €, and hopefully you'll see a group palying for the fans who go so listen to the music and not because there is a banquet going on.
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GazzaQuote
tatters
So you see just how expensive those $35 Reed/Cale tickets seemed in 1989.
Small venues, though. Those tickets I posted were for stadiums.
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Stoneage
We can argue about this forever. In the end it's a market economy and they will charge as much as they can get away with. What we can do, however, is to be critical about the bands performance. If the charge $1000 a ticket they better deliver! Personally I think that these concerts primarily will be nostalgia events. A last meet and greet for people with good economy.
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tattersQuote
TeddyB1018
My dad paid $12.50 a ticket to see the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles in 1969. The "regular" top ticket was either $8 or $8.50 but the front section was $12.50. I remember people were outraged.
Hard to believe it was that much because even in '76 when I started going to concerts, a typical arena show was priced at $8.50, $7.50, and $6.50.
I paid $12.00 to see the Stones in '78. General admission in a football stadium.
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2000 LYFH
It would be interesting to know how much the Stones (or any big artist) overhead has changed through the years. Have there been costs added that maybe were not even there in the 70's or 80's? Didn't bands use to take maybe 70% of the gate or even a set price no matter how many came?
As stonesnow pointed out, they do not made money on record sales anymore, so they have to charge more, but maybe its also the overhead costs that have skyrocketed.
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SundanceKid
Highest price I ever paid was around £ 90,-. Not willing to pay much more since the guitarplaying hasn't been improving.
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GazzaQuote
2000 LYFH
It would be interesting to know how much the Stones (or any big artist) overhead has changed through the years. Have there been costs added that maybe were not even there in the 70's or 80's? Didn't bands use to take maybe 70% of the gate or even a set price no matter how many came?
As stonesnow pointed out, they do not made money on record sales anymore, so they have to charge more, but maybe its also the overhead costs that have skyrocketed.
of course they make money on record sales. They had a number 1 album just two years ago for goodness sake. And that was for a reissue!!
Overheads are more of an issue if you dont have a corporate sponsor. Quite a few major acts dont tend to use them. The Stones are the opposite as they get paid tens of millions of dollars per tour by corporate sponsors which overrides the financial risk factor. In fact, their 81 tour was the first tour to use one.
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tatters
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treaclefingers
I had a free ticket for Dodger Stadium, second show in '97.
Mind you, the flight wasn't free.
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BluzDudeQuote
treaclefingers
I had a free ticket for Dodger Stadium, second show in '97.
Mind you, the flight wasn't free.
We ended up with a freebee for that show. The seats on the ticket didn't exist so we were let in with almost nosebleed seats and had our charge to TM reversed.
As far as the Cream concert goes, I paid $5.50 for my seat because I couldn't afford the $6.50 seat at the time.