First and foremost: I'm 42 years old, I earn a good salary and so does my wife. I have no debts other than my mortgage. We have 3 kids aged 9, 11 and 12. In short, I have a good life. I'm a Rolling Stones fan since I was 11 years old and since I was like 16 y.o I used to buy each released album in multiple formats and went to a couple of shows per tour-leg.

I'm not that 'Everything used to be better' kind of person, but only 4 years ago I paid 'just' a third of the price of a general admission ticket in London and Arnhem than they ask for a place with poor visibility in the Amsterdam Arena this summer. And just three years ago I paid €54,99 for the 4LP set Steel Wheels Live in blue and orange vinyl and now they ask a staggering €109,99 for the 4LP El Mocambo on coloured vinyl. That was condonded by some fans "because it was a long awaited, legendary show that required lots of restoration', but yesterday they annouced 'Live Licked in NYC' and that 3LP also will be priced €70..

I'm drawing a line here. How much I love this band, I cannot justify it to myself or my family anymore to pay these insane prices. €100 for just an LP.. not a limited luxury boxset or a hand-signed item.. just another record. What happened here? I really have deep respect for the fact that they're still touring in their late seventees, but they have more money than they can burn. Why do they agree to such crazy prices?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2022-04-14 13:11 by bv.

welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I think the Stones themselves do not decide retail or concert prices. These kind of things seem to be part of contracts with promoters, record companies etc.
And these people realize that the band soon, maybe very soon, will be gone and that means no more tours, and a steady decrease of music sales, because the main target group for physical products will be gone pretty soon too. Just saying.

On the other hand I think that once you've become rich, greed to a certain degree will be a constant part of your life. Doesn't matter if you're inclined so or forced to act accordingly.

I do also draw a line when it comes to prices. As for the expenses you've mentioned, I will stick with the CD version of El Mocambo (20.80 Euro) and lucky dip tickets for concerts in Bern and Gelsenkirchen (~60 Euros per ticket).
Might end up in the pit and if its just a seat with poor visibility I'll still get the sound, because that is the main thing.

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calipachangero
I think the Stones themselves do not decide retail or concert prices. These kind of things seem to be part of contracts with promoters, record companies etc.
And these people realize that the band soon, maybe very soon, will be gone and that means no more tours, and a steady decrease of music sales, because the main target group for physical products will be gone pretty soon too. Just saying.

On the other hand I think that once you've become rich, greed to a certain degree will be a constant part of your life. Doesn't matter if you're inclined so or forced to act accordingly.

I do also draw a line when it comes to prices. As for the expenses you've mentioned, I will stick with the CD version of El Mocambo (20.80 Euro) and lucky dip tickets for concerts in Bern and Gelsenkirchen (~60 Euros per ticket).
Might end up in the pit and if its just a seat with poor visibility I'll still get the sound, because that is the main thing.

Of course they don't decide the ticket prices personally!

This is business. You can't overcome that prices changed over the several years. We generally earn more, so that the cost of living is getting higher.
It is the same with everything, goods, healthcare etc.

Don't worry - you are not alone in this!

I just buy the best-priced option of each one. With Licked Live In NYC, I simply went for the CD+DVD version (I already have Four Flicks, so I was mainly in it for the audio version and the couple of extra tracks). El Mocambo, just the double CD. But I totally get your plight.

In terms of concert prices though, I was surprised at how reasonable they were this time. I paid £110 per standing ticket for London Stadium in 2018, but only £97 for Hyde Park this year. Considering how much everything else has gone up in the last few years, I was expecting for it to be much more this time!

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Oriongalaxy

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calipachangero
I think the Stones themselves do not decide retail or concert prices. These kind of things seem to be part of contracts with promoters, record companies etc.
And these people realize that the band soon, maybe very soon, will be gone and that means no more tours, and a steady decrease of music sales, because the main target group for physical products will be gone pretty soon too. Just saying.

On the other hand I think that once you've become rich, greed to a certain degree will be a constant part of your life. Doesn't matter if you're inclined so or forced to act accordingly.

I do also draw a line when it comes to prices. As for the expenses you've mentioned, I will stick with the CD version of El Mocambo (20.80 Euro) and lucky dip tickets for concerts in Bern and Gelsenkirchen (~60 Euros per ticket).
Might end up in the pit and if its just a seat with poor visibility I'll still get the sound, because that is the main thing.

Of course they don't decide the ticket prices personally!

This is business. You can't overcome that prices changed over the several years. We generally earn more, so that the cost of living is getting higher.
It is the same with everything, goods, healthcare etc.

Don't worry - you are not alone in this!

I guess we just have to vote with our wallets. Unfortunately, evidently there are a lot of die hard fans who are willing to pay these prices...

Another recent example: The 2020 clear vinyl 2LP version of Goat's Head Soup was priced €29,99 at www.platenzaak.nl (still is by the way). The 2021 clear vinyl 2LP version of Tattoo You from last year is priced €39,99 there. Thats's a €10 increase in a year!

And yeah, I know prices change in serveral years (Converted to euro's I paid like €30 for a Voodoo Lounge ticket lol), but the increase over the past few years is really unprecedented. I don't know exactly how things are going in the rest of the world, but here in Holland the prices for energy, petrol, healthcare and groceries are skyrocketing too.

now i have money i really don't care about the ticket prices. used to be a lot different and i can imagine people drawing a line.

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slewan

welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

Not quite - they lowered the prices of the Pit-Tickets. But now Eventim 'invented' the dynamically priced TopSeats in the A-Blocks - which are currently € 776 - [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] .

I wouldn't be surprised if these prices rise even further - like Eventim did with (cancelled) Paul McCartney in 2020 - [iorr.org] .

Good for you mate, I mean it. I don't begrudge anyone anything. It's just that I think the increase is remarkable. As I stated, I have a good life. Nobody has to worry about me .

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Irix

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slewan

welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

Not quite - they lowered the prices of the Pit-Tickets. But now Eventim 'invented' the dynamically priced TopSeats in the A-Blocks - which are currently € 776 - [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] .

I wouldn't be surprised if these prices rise even further - like Eventim did with (cancelled) Paul McCartney in 2020 - [iorr.org] .

I was being cynical… but they really lowered the prices, but as I said before: only for pit tickets. The pit experience is surely nice, but paying 500 Euros for it is still absurd.
The just lowered the prices because the found out in 2017/18 that too many pit tickets remained unsold (and went into the lucky dip). For the show in Stuttgart (2018) they also cut the prices for some seats by more than 50% some three weeks before the show.
Beside that: Germany is well known for very high ticket prices. In case you wanna save some money – go to shows elsewhere (simple example: good tickets for Clapton in Amsterdam are half the price as tickets for shows in Germany)

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

The prices of vinyl are sky high. I read an article that a lot of artists postponed because of COVID their releases and because of popularity of vinyl the industry has a lot of problems with pressing all the releases and there is a delay with delivering the vinyl to the pressing factory because they don’t have enough vinyl. That’s the reason vinyl is way higher priced than in the past and that vinyl releases are way later released than the cd version.

The older they get the higher the price. I paid about $25 for my first gig in 1990. Travel was the big cost then. Now it's the other way around.

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StonedRambler

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

how can you tell? The seating charts provided by the ticket agencies are not up to scale

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Mabru

The prices of vinyl are sky high.

"The vinyl straw: why the vinyl industry is at breaking point" - [MixMag.net] , [www.NME.com] , [Variety.com] .

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StonedRambler

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

they used a different pit in 21. Would seem logical to use that one.

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slewan

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StonedRambler

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

how can you tell? The seating charts provided by the ticket agencies are not up to scale

See my posts in the Munich thread, bottom of page 5:
[iorr.org]

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StonedRambler

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

You're wrong, the pit this time will be smaller or equal than the No Filter tour (i'm not speaking about hyde park). Don't forget this is a new stage, new production. The catwalk will be longer but believe me or not in the pit there still is 2500 people each side

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Stoneage
The older they get the higher the price. I paid about $25 for my first gig in 1990. Travel was the big cost then. Now it's the other way around.

Worse ...
In 1973 I paid 15 DMark for a concert ticket and had to pay 5 times (!) the amount for the train to take me return from Amsterdam to Hamburg.
In 2015 my return flight (across the Atlantic!) to the USA was about the same price as my Stones concert ticket

It wouldn't surprise me if I now have to pay 3 times more for a Stones ticket in comparison to a return trip from the Netherlands to the UK. But ... who wants to miss another great Rolling Stones concert at their 60th Anniversary?



I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

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Stoneage
The older they get the higher the price. I paid about $25 for my first gig in 1990. Travel was the big cost then. Now it's the other way around.

I paid about $10 in 1978 to see them, haha. & they had Kansas, Eddie Money & Peter Tosh open. Peter Tosh was a life changer!

For concert tickets Lucky Dips are a money saver. Without them many people couldn't see them as often as they do. I pay 195€ for flights, hotel and ticket in Madrid! That's cheap!

For recordings I began to use Spotify two years ago. I don't want to spend 100€ for the Super Deluxe Edition of Tattoo You with the Wembley Concert. It's just too much. Spotify is a bargain and offers many special stuff!

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Irix

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Mabru

The prices of vinyl are sky high.

"The vinyl straw: why the vinyl industry is at breaking point" - [MixMag.net] , [www.NME.com] , [Variety.com] .

Great article, very illuminating.

Thanks for sharing Irix.

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hockenheim95

For recordings I began to use Spotify two years ago.

But when the license for the recording is expired (similar to out-of-print) then it's not available anymore on Streaming-Services. Maybe Download (iTunes, Qobuz) is more safe in this regard.

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StonedRambler

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slewan

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StonedRambler

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slewan
welcome to Germany – where they lowered(!) the prices for pit tickets from 799 Euros in 2017/18 to just a little over 500 Euros this time around…

I said it before - the pit this time is not the small pit it used to be in 2017/18

how can you tell? The seating charts provided by the ticket agencies are not up to scale

See my posts in the Munich thread, bottom of page 5:
[iorr.org]

I don't think it's much larger. Beside that: I think I read somewhere that there will be a 'new' show and a new stage. Thus I'm not sure that we can draw any conclusion about the upcoming tour.
The pit at London in 2018 didn't look that small either

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Irix

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hockenheim95

For recordings I began to use Spotify two years ago.

But when the license for the recording is expired (similar to out-of-print) then it's not available anymore on Streaming-Services. Maybe Download (iTunes, Qobuz) is more safe in this regard.

If something like this would ever happen then I can still download those albums. But so far this didn't happen to any stuff I am listening to. And buying all this as downloads is very expensive too. I am very happy with Spotify!

And with this strategy I can listen to everything on release day and wait until the products I'm interested in are on sale for cheap price!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-04-14 16:44 by hockenheim95.

how anyone could rely on a streaming app for his favourite music is beyond me. most of my active listening time is dedicated to "versions" in a manner completely out of spotify depth.

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Nikkei
how anyone could rely on a streaming app for his favourite music is beyond me. most of my active listening time is dedicated to "versions" in a manner completely out of spotify depth.

What's the advantage of hearing Wembley 82 on CD than hearing it on Spotify?

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hockenheim95

If something like this would ever happen then I can still download those albums.

It happened e.g. with GRRR! or the Singles 1971-2006 (173 Tracks).

Listening via Streaming until the physical releases are on clearance for a good price works of course too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-04-14 17:35 by Irix.

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hockenheim95

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Nikkei
how anyone could rely on a streaming app for his favourite music is beyond me. most of my active listening time is dedicated to "versions" in a manner completely out of spotify depth.

What's the advantage of hearing Wembley 82 on CD than hearing it on Spotify?

there is none, but there would be a sort of threshold to cross everytime you switch between what you collected through whatever channels and commercially available product

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hockenheim95

What's the advantage of hearing Wembley 82 on CD than hearing it on Spotify?

Sound quality, because Spotify is vastly data-compressed (lossy)?