Why are gig tickets so expensive?

Some guy called Dan Woolfie has convinced the BBC to write an article for him to persuade people to be happy with paying more for stuff.

I agree with two of his points.

Bigger shows: There's a lot of production that goes into putting on a tour like Beyonce's Formation.

More people to pay: A bigger show means more people working on it.

Yes, buying tons of fireworks and hiring loads more dancers is going to increase costs. Also inflation.

However, he also gives two BS reasons.

Record sales: People aren't spending as much money on buying music, but streaming or illegally downloading it instead.

No, this does not increase the cost of a concert. The O2 isn't going to charge you more to hire the venue because of some internet piracy.

Greater expectation: People might only go to a gig once a year, so they want it to be good and often shows sell out very quickly.

I don't follow the logic here. People are going to fewer gigs, so the gigs sell out more quickly? This only follows if we state the assumption that artists are putting on fewer gigs (that are of higher quality) as well. This isn't about expectation, why would we go to fewer gigs if we had the same or more available, and they were of a higher standard?

What do you think are the real reasons that gig tickets are increasing in price?

Reply 1

Doones

Original post by ThomH97

Some guy called Dan Woolfie has convinced the BBC to write an article for him to persuade people to be happy with paying more for stuff.

I agree with two of his points.

Yes, buying tons of fireworks and hiring loads more dancers is going to increase costs. Also inflation.

However, he also gives two BS reasons.
No, this does not increase the cost of a concert. The O2 isn't going to charge you more to hire the venue because of some internet piracy.

I don't follow the logic here. People are going to fewer gigs, so the gigs sell out more quickly? This only follows if we state the assumption that artists are putting on fewer gigs (that are of higher quality) as well. This isn't about expectation, why would we go to fewer gigs if we had the same or more available, and they were of a higher standard?

What do you think are the real reasons that gig tickets are increasing in price?

The O2 doesn't set the ticket prices, the artists do (or more correctly, their promoters).

If artists aren't making as much revenue from downloads or physical media sales then they have to recoup the deficit from gigs.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

Notoriety

Most gigs put on do not involve huge international stars. They're just your average relatively famous bands, touring 300-1000 venues in towns across the country, and you can easily get tickets for £20 and less. It is a complete falsehood to focus on a narrow cross-section of gigs, and portray them as the average!

Who gives a **** about Beyonce. People who got to three gigs in their life time? Mainstream twonks are hardly representative of "gig goers".

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

Prefect1992

Eh, doesn't matter people who want something will always pay up no matter how much the price gets hiked up (in this situation) because at the end of the day there will always be someone who wants to see them perform live.

Reply 4

FightToWin

Original post by ThomH97

The first reason is a completely valid reason. Artists need to be paid for the content they make, it's their only occupation. They earn literally nothing if everyone just illegaly downloads their songs. So if they're not getting the income they're entitled to from iTunes or whatever, they need to find it elsewhere. How many people DON'T make it to major music festivals because the tickets were sold out? There's enough people who are willing to pay that price, to fill the whole venue out.

I kind of get the second one.. if you went to every gig you could you'd get bored very quickly of the atmosphere and everything good that comes from going to a gig, that's why people tend to go to only one a year.. so the staff setting up the bigger gigs realise that this could be the one gig some of their crowd choose to go to all year, therefore they need to make it good and keep people returning. So yes, they will need to put a lot of money into it, and get a lot of money back.

Gigs are undeniably getting expensive, maybe too expensive, but as i said before, they'll sell out even when ticket prices increase, so there's big money to be made.

Reply 5

Manitude

Original post by Notorious_B.I.G.

Most gigs put on are not huge international stars. They're just your average middling bands, touring venues in towns across the country, and you can easily get tickets for £20 and less.

Who gives a **** about Beyonce. People who got to three gigs in their life time? Mainstream oinks are hardly representative of "gig goers".

Indeed. I bought a ticket tonight for a gig featuring ~5 fairly well known acts (within their genre in this country) and it cost £10. It's going to cost me WAY more to get there and stay a night in a hotel.

Most gigs I go to at the moment are free or <£5 to get in. Big international touring acts tend to be much more expensive, but obviously big venue hire, professional sound people, proper professional equipment, security, technicians, roadies, tour buses etc all cost more than a local band turning up at the pub and setting up some PA mics in front of their amps.

Reply 6

Notoriety

Original post by Manitude

Aye, you can get to see a lot of quite famous bands for as little as a tenner. But somehow Beyonce's is really expensive, so gig prices are ipso facto really expensive. More people should find their local venues and see the quite big-name bands gigging. They'll probably be quite surprised at the names, and moreover, the prices!

Reply 7

uberteknik

Original post by ThomH97

What do you think are the real reasons that gig tickets are increasing in price?

Once upon a time the artists made money through contracts with the record companies to sell albums and singles.

In the 70's a typical album may have cost £4.00 to £8.00 for perhaps 9 or 10 songs and 40 to 45 minutes of music. A typical gig for a major band in a stadium venue could cost £5 to £10 including support acts.

Top bands sold albums globally and the biggest netted 20+ million. The top ten selling albums collectively sold 230 million+ globally. You do the maths on how much that was worth to the record companies and to the bands - adjust for inflation at todays rates.

Digital streaming nets a paltry sum for the artists by comparison and most of the revenue generated by clicks and advertising goes to the internet search engines and service providers.

Which is why merchandising has grown to the proportions it has and why gig tickets are eye wateringly expensive and why festivals are big business to pull in the maximum number of punters whilst keeping costs down.

I'd argue, it's also the reason why music itself is no longer the scale or standard or experimental range it once was, and why the band image/target demographic/stage act/choreography/marketing etc. has become the main selling point.

Streaming also means that music lead-ins are seconds now because the punter needs to be captured quickly or they will pass on just as swiftly.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

gjd800

What sort of person only goes to one gig a year? I generally got to one gig a bloody week :laugh:

Reply 9

gjd800

I suppose me and my mates are a niche crowd so I can't apply that to everyone. I just can't relate to going to a single gig a year. Weird.

Reply 10

The wifey

I will gladly pay for a good sound and talent of a band or singer not the extra crap and extrangance of what else they think I like.. I like u, your singing, sing... Get it pack ya trapeze and giraffe etc and let me hear u

Reply 11

mojojojo101

Don't think I have ever paid more than £20 For a gig.

The large pop acts that charge £100+ for tickets at places like Wembley aren't really in the business of music, they are in the business of the loosely defined 'entertainment'.

They exists solely to make money, largely for record execs and advertising agencies. Do t be fooled though, most of these big artists are rolling in cash.

Reply 12

ax12

Original post by mojojojo101

Agreed. I won’t pay more than £40 to go see someone live, and even relatively popular artists like Macklemore, Bastille, and Imagine Dragons cost less than that. The huge artists only charge that much because they can, but I don’t think I could justify spending that much on a ticket.

Reply 13

Tiger Rag

I don't think I've ever paid more than £30. But if people pay more than that, they'll continue to be charged more than that.

Reply 14

L i b

They're not. In many cases, they're significantly undervalued, as the existence of ticket touts and the resale market demonstrates.

Original post by ThomH97

However, he also gives two BS reasons.
No, this does not increase the cost of a concert. The O2 isn't going to charge you more to hire the venue because of some internet piracy.

That's not BS at all. The music industry wants to monetise its product. If it can't through record sales, it will look elsewhere. Once upon a time, doing a tour was seen as a way not to raise money, but to promote records.