To think pop/rock concert tickets are way too pricey nowadays...

[jobhunter7]

To think pop/rock concert tickets are way too pricey nowadays...

You couldn’t pay ME £33 to see Billy Bragg!

@SleepingStandingUp

Front block for the Masked Singer is OVER £100 each. No artists are making their living but the producers will be rolling in it

You have to pay to see that

I assumed it was just one of those audience things you sign up to like Britain’s Got Talent!

Do you mean that people actually go to see the Masked Singer participants on tour? Why would you do that? The game is up, surely, because we all know who was inside the costumes. Do they do the whole ‘take it off’ charade at the end?

Also, £100 to watch Aled Jones dressed up as a traffic cone, plus Gloria Hunniford and that boring sod from Westlife? I would want payment for that.

@WheelieBinPrincess I mean the live tour this April not the show.

@Iamthewombat no its new contestants. So there's 6 venues and will be new contestants at each so its a surprise. DS is somewhat obsessed. We talk a lot about what costumes we think they might use and what he's dress up as if he was on it. We're not in the posh seats though

I had no idea there was a masked singer tour!! Do they put different artists in the costumes

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@WheelieBinPrincess I mean the live tour this April not the show.

@Iamthewombat no its new contestants. So there's 6 venues and will be new contestants at each so its a surprise. DS is somewhat obsessed. We talk a lot about what costumes we think they might use and what he's dress up as if he was on it. We're not in the posh seats though[/quote]
Ah I see. Sorry I missed that. Still!

@WheelieBinPrincess

I had no idea there was a masked singer tour!! Do they put different artists in the costumes

He's 6 and very excited

Off the point but my major gripe with how concerts have changed is how the audience behaves and THAT is why I doubt I'll spend the kind of money it costs between tickets, petrol, accommodation etc. The last few big gigs I was at were exercises in frustration - the majority of people seem unable to just go to the concert, be wholly present and engaged and just enjoy the music. Between having to watch everything through other peoples phones, excessive drinking, chatting, up and down to the toilet every 10 minutes, it's impossible. I recently watched the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert from 1992 on Sky Arts (amazing by the way) and just felt really sad that that kind of 'whole crowd together lost in the music' vibe could probably never happen now. Or at least I've not had it at the concerts I've been to in the last decade. Standing is definitely better if an option, at least you can move if near total bell ends. I'm in Ireland and I wonder if the experience is different/better elsewhere and particularly on mainland Europe where people seem to neither drink nor be wedded to their phones so much.

@theleafandnotthetree spot on! -Saw a comedian hilariously shame someone front row for rustling crisp packets. If you must eat at least take something quiet! Loads of very drunk people when I last saw a band too- fair enough make a night of it, but I don't want to stand up every 5 minutes from the seat I've saved and queued to pay for because you need a wee/seventh pint.

How long until someone blames Brexit?

[quote GellerYeller]@theleafandnotthetree spot on! -Saw a comedian hilariously shame someone front row for rustling crisp packets. If you must eat at least take something quiet! Loads of very drunk people when I last saw a band too- fair enough make a night of it, but I don't want to stand up every 5 minutes from the seat I've saved and queued to pay for because you need a wee/seventh pint.[/quote]
People have 364 other days of the year to get hammered. Or can do so afterwards! I simply cannot understand someone spending 100 euro on a concert ticket and spending most of it chatting, on your phone, in the toilet, etc etc. Fine if you weren't dusturbing other people to do so I guess. One of the last concerts I went to was an artist I had wanted to see my whole life, I bought tickets for my mum and sister for Christmas also at great expense and it was fucking ruined by a group of 7 or 8 drunken, thoughless wagons with zero interest in the concert who whooped, drank, fell all over the place, roared, filmed themselves etc as if they were the only people there.

@Easterbunnyiswindowshopping

Concert cancelled 2019 and 2020. Selling tickets now 10 quid more than those prices! Same band. Same venue.

Fair enough though surely? They have employees to pay.

We go to a lot of gigs....have 11 booked before the end of May. Not big arena stuff....we have some good sized venues in our city and rarely pay more than £50 a ticket.
I'd pay up to £100 for someone amazing, and would have sold my dcs to see Bowie again!
I dread to think what I've spent on Hamilton tickets over the years

Agree re the behaviour. I've seen Ed Sheeran in the earlier days stop singing to tell the audience to shut up (rightly so, they were dicks) because they were chanting for one song rather than being there to see the artist perform.

Standing is better if you can manage beikng squashed. I had a panic attack in the small crowd to see Noah and the Whale so we had to be at the back (grrr) and it was just lots of people sat about talking, playing on their phones etc. Presumably got free or cheap tickets and not very interested. Only about £20 a ticket but they're fab live and it isn't hard to socialise somewhere other than the concert venue

Ooh I'm jealous @AuntieMarys, I've got musicals but only one gig

@jobhunter7

There was no Glastonbury 1996. But 1995 tickets were £65 and 1997 tickets were £75.

So a Glastonbury ticket shouid be £140.

Pretty sure I paid £100 for a Glastonbury ticket in 2002. You just FEEL you get better value because other gig tickets are so expensive!

I think a lot of the prices mentioned here are OK. It's when you look at the cost of a Stones that you consider selling a kidney
There are lots of smaller gigs out there that are good value.

The point I raised in the thread you started a few days ago on the same topic was that we are not comparing apples with apples.

The quality of the live music experience is so much better - yes a gig was twenty quid in the nineties, but that was when a band mostly rocked up to a venue and brought their instruments. Major artists are now bringing a whole av set up - screens, lights, lasers, projectors - it is incomparible.

Same as glasto - it used to be about 6 stages and the music ended at 11. It now runs for 6 days, there isn't a dance tent - there are multiple areas dedicated to various different subgenres. Thus stuff costs more money because the experience is more complex and more expensive to put on

Also that recorded music has died as a revenue stream - Spotify is simply too cheap to support artists, hence the live show has to replace that revenue or artists cannot make a living

Live shows are expensive, but the economics of it all isn't sinister - it has just changed alongside technical development and evolving demands from consumers

Blimey iron maiden has gone up we paid £75 each for Manchester arena 3 years ago with two very good support groups i wouldnt pay $630 for one night out

yes a gig was twenty quid in the nineties, but that was when a band mostly rocked up to a venue and brought their instruments. Major artists are now bringing a whole av set up - screens, lights, lasers, projectors - it is incomparible

I wonder how many of the audience actually want the lasers and smoke machines and god knows what else? Or whether they are thinking, “more trimmings to attempt to justify £90 a ticket”. I know what I think.

Also that recorded music has died as a revenue stream - Spotify is simply too cheap to support artists, hence the live show has to replace that revenue or artists cannot make a living

Now we come to it. Gigs are now the money making activity. I wouldn’t be worrying too much about Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones and Iron Maiden ‘making a living’ though. I hear that they are scraping by, just.

Does MTV exist anymore? I have a freeview but there's no music channel on there - you'd think they'd have one at least... not sure why this is... on cable tv back in the 90s, there would be MTV, VH1, The Box....

Also record shops used to have listening posts... whatever happened to them? And you could use them to listen to albums by artists you'd not heard of...

Will piratebay be closed by the new online safety bill being as it is filled with porn?

You keep ratting on about piratebay and streaming like they're the same class thing, which just makes you sound like a luddite. You realise that artist based streaming was the biggest move against music piracy and the growth of legitimate streaming sites caused piracy to drop dramatically right? Because people don't chose to pirate when they can stream for free and artists still get a cut of the ad money. And a push against streaming would push people back towards piracy.

The fact is the music market is oversaturated, anybody can sing a song and so that alone isn't profitable anymore now people aren't dependant on record labels and radio DJs to share music. But putting on a show which requires a venue and crew etc is and that's where the big artists can still make their money by filling the venues at a high profit.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone Brexit has made it more difficult for British artists to tour in Europe, not sure it is the reason for high ticket prices.

@TinySaltLick

The point I raised in the thread you started a few days ago on the same topic was that we are not comparing apples with apples.

The quality of the live music experience is so much better - yes a gig was twenty quid in the nineties, but that was when a band mostly rocked up to a venue and brought their instruments. Major artists are now bringing a whole av set up - screens, lights, lasers, projectors - it is incomparible.

Same as glasto - it used to be about 6 stages and the music ended at 11. It now runs for 6 days, there isn't a dance tent - there are multiple areas dedicated to various different subgenres. Thus stuff costs more money because the experience is more complex and more expensive to put on

Also that recorded music has died as a revenue stream - Spotify is simply too cheap to support artists, hence the live show has to replace that revenue or artists cannot make a living

Live shows are expensive, but the economics of it all isn't sinister - it has just changed alongside technical development and evolving demands from consumers

I don't begrudge a band charging 50 to 70 quid in a large venue. Just the older bands and artists or those who I guess don't actually need the money charging 300. It prices fans out which is a bit shit. I'm seeing the Cure later in the year and it was around 50 a ticket which is really reasonable. They probably could have charged more. But they didn't.

@nosyupnorth

Maybe we could get rid of online piracy...

YABU.

Artists charge what the market will bear. If Adele’s concerts are selling out in minutes at an average price of £100 a ticket, why should she charge any less?