To ask if you've refused to pay ridiculous prices for concerts?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Just a joke. The latest prices for Harry Styles after Oasis.
They are laughing all the way to the bank while most people are struggling with their everyday bills.
Always managed to go and see the latest acts back in the day without being fleeced.

How much money do these pop acts need to live on?

I agree with you, OP. I refused to pay £150 per seat to see Take That this year in London. I've seen them multiple times over the past 30 (!) years since I first got into them,so they've got a lot of my money already!

Barlow needs to pay for his taxes before I buy another ticket 😅

I have, I would have paid the oasis ticket prices but not the thousands of pounds ones, I don’t like them that much.
I’ve pretty much tapped out of going to massive concerts now anyway, they’re a bit impersonal in such big venues. Much prefer going somewhere really small and listening to new bands if that’s the night out I’m going for.
Just personal preference, I’ve lost interest in these big money grab events.
Never been interested in Harry styles or Taylor swift but know a few people who spent thousands on tickets - happy for them,
I choose to spend my money on things that bring me happiness and that wouldn’t be it for me.

I pay it if I want to see them, obvs I wish they were cheaper but they aren't, and they're all at it, Bruno Mars is more than Harry Styles and Imagine Dragons were really expensive last year, as are Take That this summer.

I think the problem is how acts make money now. In the past they would sell physical singles/albums, get a little bit for each one, and if you were a big act you could make millions just selling records. Now with streaming they get very little for each download, so to make any money off what they’re producing they have to do so through concerts/merchandise instead.

Not a concert but this week I refused to pay £350 for a front row circle ticket to take my granddaughter to see Paddington the Musical!! A few weeks ago I paid £99 for the equivalent seat at The Importance of Being Earnest

I’ve refused to pay £110 to stand in a muddy park this summer, Neil Young, I think I’ve persuaded dh not to go either because quite frankly he complains after standing up in the pub for half an hour. You can’t take seating in and the irony is I can’t imagine many of his fans being able to stand for that long. I happily bought pulp tickets last year which were more reasonable and lovely atmosphere, inside and seats for those who prefer

And I think that it gets into a vicious circle. The tickets are expensive so they have to make the event "worth it", so they spend on various special effects which are expensive so it pushes up costs, therefore the tickets become even more expensive so ...

I can't get my head around the concept of shelling out for Glastonbury before you even know who is performing!

I didn’t pay £150 for Take that this year we paid £87 each for manchester standing which is the cheapest of theres for a while! Always a Good time with friends.

I think around £150 is kind of my limit which is pretty much what Oasis tickets were last year. I couldn’t miss it. I had a fab day with close friends and it was worth it.

I ve been going to gigs small and large since 92 when i went to Take That’s first tour as a young teen and prices do seem out of control for some. But people are still paying it!

I’ve a varied music taste so some new music gigs are much cheaper like £20-30 in smaller Manchester Venues. Some even cheaper for showcase type nights. I paid £70/80 for Pulp last year at Coop live which seems ok these days. Although lots of big artists charge ALOT more now.

Musicals/stage shows are expensive too. We’ve got tickets to a west end play next month and it’s £90 including fees for circle midway back.

My love is Opera. Late 2024 I paid £160 each for 2 good seats at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. I took my adult granddaughter and she loved it. Same seats for a comparable opera is £320 each this year. I shall not be going anymore.
Life is becoming increasingly for the elite, rich in the UK. By the way, I’m not low income about £60K. Cannot afford this with CoL as it is. Dreading getting Council Tax bill for this year.

I wouldn't pay £250 plus each for Paul Simon this year. I saw him play in Hyde Park on his "final" tour, and that will have to do.

No. If I want to see them then I’ll pay whatever. I’ve paid up to £700 per ticket

Some prices are ridiculous but that money isn't just for the artist

Each venue will take a commission, there are all the staff on the tour, all the effects, prices have gone up everywhere

There's usually some cheaper seats available too

Honestly it depends on the Artist. Not only is there the cost of the ticket for me there is nearly always hotel stay as well and the prices of those are nuts. There are very few artist I am willing to go to all those costs for.

I paid £170 per ticket to take DD to see Billie Eillish last year. I made it clear it was her one and only present and it won’t be a regular thing.

DD is a Billie superfan and loved every moment, I’d never seen her so happy. But I like birds of a feather song (which I had to wait til the end to hear) and nothing else, I just sat there thinking “I’ve paid £340 for this. £340. I could’ve bought a new bike. Or had a spa weekend. Our shopped only at M&S for a month. Instead I’m sitting listening to a whiney American whose all songs but 1 are the same. IS SHE singing the same song?! DD doesn’t even particularly deserve this, she spends half her like being a stroppy little bastard”

Dont even get me started on the ticket buying process. I was on a bus when I booked them, I’d been waiting all day for them to refresh new tickets and I ended up missing my stop because I was too busy doing the booking and didn’t want the screen to close. I miss the days of queueing at the box office!

For Christmas she wanted tickets to see the Weeknd with me. I actually really like them and I found £95 tickets but I don’t wanna get into the habit of this so I said no and we went to see Six instead for £70 in total.

Yes and after you do it once the fomo almost turns into relief. I’ve started to support smaller venues, stadium gigs are crap anyway.

Yup. Queued for ages to get System of A Down tickets. Got there and it was £260+. And that to the price of a London hotel and it was just ridiculous.

I think £150 is my limit.

Yep.
We're just making an effort to see tribute bands now. They're often really good.

Well people must be paying them as they wouldn't be charging that money. There's no point selling your tickets for £350 if the auditorium is empty.

Somebody is buying these tickets obviously. It's what the market allows.

So theatre/concert tickets are just part of bigger situation.

Btw tickets will cost more for Paddington the Musical than The Importance of Being Earnest because it's a musical with presumably a big cast - dancers, chorus etc. and some kind of orchestra or band, and just a more expensive production I imagine.

So this is true. Artists make little to nothing from recorded music now due to steaming so their only revenue stream is playing live. In some ways that’s a good thing (as a lover of live music it means acts will actually tour), and to some extent it’s the inevitable outcome of the push for free/cheap downloads in the 90s to 2000’s

also yes these things are expensive to put on. I’m in the industry so know that venues (even arenas) are really struggling so whilst yes they take booking fees, and charge the promoter rental etc) they’re not making much.

tours pay for increasingly high levels of lighting, screens, staging etc (sometimes a band has up to 30 truckloads of kit to load in) which comes with costs, and costs of people.

If I love them I will pay it as there is no other choice. Paid over £300 for Bon Jovi tickets as they are my favourite band and it's probably their last tour given his voice problems. Paid similar for GnR. Managed to get Taylor Swift tickets for £90 each which i was ecstatic about!

I wonder if we are spending less money in total on music though because we aren't spending what would probably be £25 a pop on CDs if we accounted for inflation. Although we are paying for Spotify etc - or sitting through many ads!

I frequently pay over £100 for gigs. Done oasis, Taylor, Billie Eilish, got Harry, Neil young and My Chemical Romance, and 21 pilots all of them were over £100. But it’s my thing. I don’t do expensive holidays or hair/nails etc. Going to gigs is such a great experience for me so worth the cost. Especially since artists struggle to earn money from vinyl sales etc because of Spotify and the likes

I can’t think of anyone I want to see enough to pay £150+ for tickets for.

Got tickets for Bruno Mars for £160 each (my dad was getting them through me for my mum) but the top price was over £500 a ticket! Insane!

The business model for music has changed. 30 years ago acts toured to sell records. Now they stream music to sell concert tickets. You now get their music for very near "free" but you have to pay lots to see them live

Agree that theatre prices have shot up too. I love Mischief Theatre and used to see their productions a couple of times because I love the OG cast, I could only see 'The Comedy About Spies' once last year. Tickets were too much and tbh train tickets to get to London are stupidly priced now too.

Luckily I'm not a Harry Styles fan so haven't had to battle that out but it is ridiculous now. Paid £144 for one ticket to see My Chemical Romance this summer though to be fair they are playing their entire Black Parade album and then a few more songs.

For me really depends on the artist. Me and my Mum love Anastacia and when I spotted second row tickets to her tour I thought 'ooh I'll treat us' - they wanted £185 per ticket!? That's actually insane. I think £150 is my limit and that's only for artists I really, desperately want to see.