Do you remember when the price of a concert ticket was $20? I do. I’m sure some of you might even remember them being less for top acts. I remember paying $25 to see Metallica during the black album tour and that was expensive in 1992. I paid $50, I think, to see the great Guns N Roses and Metallica with Faith No More concert too. That was a super big deal back in the mid-90′s but both main acts did full on headliner shows. That concert started at 6pm and ended at 2am. The most I ever paid for a single ticket though was $135. For $135 I went to Woodstock 94, the good one, and got 3 entire days of music played on 2 different stages with countless number of performances. We didn’t set the place on fire back in 94 because we were much more civilized than those hooligans 5 years later. I even saw some acts that played at the original Woodstock 25 years prior.
Today though, there is a much different story unfolding. Gone are the days when Garth Brooks required his fans not pay a penny more than $25 for a ticket, including all the damn fees. For the most part, gone are the days of artists truly caring about performing their music for the most number of fans willing to spend their hard earned money to listen. There are still some acts out there that do not allow promotions people to charge outrageous amounts of money for a few hours of live music.
But what the hell is going on? Why such discrepancies these days? Who the fuck are you people kidding? I’m gonna name names here because of a certain artist I was genuinely happy to see was performing here in HIS hometown of Orlando. I’m talking to you Rob Thomas. Yes, you are one of my favorite artists and songwriters out there today. I enjoy your solo material as well as your little band matchbox twenty. I was all set to go see you play your hometown Orlando show with my wife in tow. I’ve been to a few hundred concerts and seen over 1,000 performances in my short lifetime. Now when I go to a show, I refuse to go with the standing room only general admission. I much prefer a place to sit down when I want and enjoy the performance and music. So when I went online to seek out my seats for the show, I discovered what you are allowing who knows who to charge for a ticket. $80. For 1 seat. For the upper part of the balcony. The lower part of the balcony was $110.For what it’s worth, the standing area tickets cost $45 each. After fees that’s about $60 for the ability to stand in a room and listen to you perform your art.
Are you kidding me? Did you not see that just 15 years ago I paid $135 for 3 WHOLE FUCKING DAYS and you are going to charge what for 2 hours? Looking at the $80, for a pair, with all the fuck me in the ass lube free fees, the grand total came to $191. That’s using standard mail which is the only free option aside from will call to get your tickets. For some reason, printing at home using your own ink on your own paper costs $2.50 per ticket. So for me, $191 to have a seat and watch the headline act play for about 2 hours. I have to pass. Sorry Mr. Thomas, I LOVE your music, but not that much. You haven’t been around that long to warrant such prices. I saw Sir Elton Fucking John twice for less than 1 ticket to your concert would have cost and I had a comfy seat both times. I saw you with your band just 2 years ago play with Alanis Morrissette and Mute Math for about $100 for 2 tickets including fees. Let’s not forget parking as that’s rarely ever included in the “convenience” fees.
Oh those fees, so outrageous and so variable to each artist, venue, and day of week it seems. Sometimes, for some events, I have seen the fees for 2 tickets equal the cost of 1 more additional ticket. That’s outrageous fuck you in the ear type fees. Ticketmaster holds the monopoly there though so I guess they can do whatever they want. We allow them to do whatever they want because they hold the touring management companies by the balls. It’s grotesque. I don’t understand how, in today’s economy, anyone going to these concerts can afford such outrageous prices. I can go to a movie for $10 and get the same amount of time with the headlining feature. If I buy my ticket online, I pay a convenience fee of $1. Yes, that IS convenient. $1 to avoid standing in line at the theater. However the “convenience” fees from Ticketmaster are hardly that as I really don’t have the option to buy from any other source.
Mr. Thomas, I don’t wanna single you out. There are several other artists such as the Counting Crow’s charging unnecessary and insanely elevated prices too. I wonder if Detroit and other newly impoverished areas of the country have anyone show up at all. Why is it I can go see Green Day for $50, or O.A.R. for $30, or watch Brittney Fucking Spears dance and lip sync for $50, but Rob Thomas is $80 and Counting Crow’s is $100. What happened to musicians and artists who felt privileged just to have people who wanted to see them perform their music live? What happened to artists who didn’t see a tour as an opportunity to fleece the people still buying their artistic visions, but an opportunity to share an evening with those who enjoyed their art and willing to pay for the right to do so? I just don’t understand how or why there is such variances in cost and how the hell we as a society allowed such discrepancies to occur.
Pretty soon we may see movies adopt the same model. You’ll pay $20 to see the latest blockbuster on a big screen or just pay $10 to see a lower budget comedy on the same screen. In today’s economic climate, I just can’t find the logic in such pricing. Although even in a good economy, I can’t see the logic either. It’s sad and depressing and if the music industry doesn’t change it’s ways, it will die out completely. The industry didn’t embrace the electronic medium quick enough, and look what happened there. Pretty soon we’ll stop coming to shows as well and stop buying $50 t-shirts. Then what? As a music lover and concert going lover, I am deeply saddened.
