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?

There are lots of small bands, which are really good. Have a look at local venues and see what's on. Tribute bands can be fun too.

It’s not really the artists fault. Ticket touts/agents have ways of buying them all up and then selling on to the highest bidder.

Tickets for the Cure were £70 when they went on sale but I couldn’t get any at the time and have now had to buy from Viagogo, which is like eBay for concert tickets - at 3 x times the price.

I also don’t even know whether they’re guaranteed as they’ve said they may not be sent until on the day of the concert and when I’ve looked at reviews online there are some tales of people getting to the gate and the tickets not working - so I’m not counting my chickens. Il be so gutted if we don’t get in though 😢

See my post above though. It doesn’t matter what they sell them for initially if they all get bought up and sold on on resale sites 🤷‍♀️

I don't go to concerts, but I would (& have) pay high prices for certain theatre shows or sports events.
The thing is, these concerts DO sell out. Which means that people are willing to pay - if they weren't, the concerts would be cancelled. The market decides, just as it always does. It's called capitalism.

And, to be fair, the artists only take a part of the ticket price. They don't make money from "record sales" any more, either. Things can change quickly, and they have to make their money while they can. And, of course, it's perfectly legal. So good for them.

I paid £80 for a great Dress Circle seat for "Paddington". Only a handful of premium seats are £250.

A fool and his money...

£250 to see Raye!!! Blimey.

I don’t even know who that is 😅 am I officially old?

Just to say that the best concert I’ve been to for many a year-and I go to lots-was Wolf Alice-so good we saw them twice. Around 50-60 quid for a ticket. Better than Oasis which did only cost £150 which was great but just like seeing a tribute band.

The reason why artists now charge so much for concerts is the fact they sweet fa from music sales. The average price used to be between 1 and 1 3/4p per 45 single record sold back "in the good old days". Now it's a fraction of a penny, if they are lucky.

The record companies used say home recording was killing music, whilst bootlegging their own artists. But they failed to see the rise of on line streaming and now people expect to listen to music for free.

I love 1950s rock and roll always have, always will but haven't bought a physical record or cd since about 2010. No need I can listen for free to virtually everything

It is a fair point that artists aren't making any money from streaming so have to make it somewhere. If you think how much money you'd spend on albums if you couldn't pay £6 a month or whatever to stream everything on Spotify (cds were £10-15 twenty years ago so I imagine would be at least £30 now), then the cost of tickets balances out.

I absolutely agree more needs to be done about price gouging and touts buying all the tickets up and then reselling at ridiculous prices but there's a limit that artists can help with that -the government and sited like ticketmaster need to get their shit together and start enforcing. If that means you have to have your name on each ticket and can only resell back to the venue, fine.

There are plenty of £30-£50 tickets available later on in the year!

We go to quite a few gigs and theatre shows - but we do that instead of a lot of holidays - I paid £150 for my Oasis tickets (on pre-sale so didn't get stung by dynamic ticket pricing) and my DDs had Benson Boone tickets as part of their christmas presents which were £170 each.

Other than those two, I generally pay somewhere between £45 and £75 per ticket depending on the artist / venue.

But I would never in a million years touch Viagogo - it's so much better now that you can get resale tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS etc! I've managed to get quite a few for sold out shows just by waiting until a week before when the resale tickets start going on - there were quite a few Oasis tickets on re-sale on the day we went.

I also make sure I 'like' all my favourite artists on LiveNation and Spotify to get the pre-sale codes or buy some merch and join the fan club when there is a likely tour announcement coming up.

Well yeah. I wouldn't pay anything. If they want me they can put me on the guest list. 😂

I agree, a certain 90's artist is touring this year just at reasonably small venues, and a standing ticket was over £70.00. They've been kicking around for years, but aren't mainstream by any stretch. I expected £45-ish maybe? I shall not bother.

I think the last 2 years has got particularly bad. I won entry for up to 4 tickets in the ballot for Taylor Swift in Cardiff and paid about £145 each, halfway up the stands to one side. Brilliant view. I bought those tickets in - I think - May 2023 or so? Prior to that I saw Coldplay in 2012, £40. Foo Fighters in 2018, £55. Alanis Morissette in 2022, £75. Now I would log into a stadium tour and expect anything from £250-£800. You can get hospitality tickets for football/rugby cup finals for less!

I never go to stadium gigs. They're expensive and I hate the crowds. Go to some grass roots gigs - they're still very affordable. Once a band I like gets to stadium level, they are no longer for me to see live (although I will still buy their records).

Jazzy type vocal with a heavy baseline.

Well I am the opposite - in my youth I could never afford to see any bands and now I can see many more - mostly costing between £15 and 30

the big bands do seem to rake it in but may smaller bands are struggling to make a viable living even touring regularly

i can’t blame them for making hay while the sun shines though - these mega bands do sell out so it’s not like everyone cant afford them

edit spelling

For me, it means I only buy tickets for my absolute favourite artists. But even for them, I wouldn't pay £300.

Also, there are several bands or artists I like who are just better suited to a more intimate venue or a festival atmosphere. Most of the best gigs I've been to have been in smaller venues.

I tried to get tickets for Akon today and it was priced at £577 for two seated tickets, just mental!

I wouldn't pay more than £50 a ticket. If a band charges more I wouldn't go. I'd rather pay a couple of hundred for a festival ticket instead and see a number of bands instead.

I'm glad to see some artists like Harry Styles are charging a levy to the ticket price of the stadium tours to give directly to small venues too.

I know there are cheaper seats available but will have to book quite far ahead now.

Was it good?

Can I ask why you wouldn’t touch viagogo? Most reviews online say they received the tickets and were fine? I can’t get resale tickets for the Cure anywhere but there and StubHub (who I’ve never heard of). So I went with viagogo and crossed my fingers?

Do you think I’d have a better chance of waiting nearer the time and trying ticketmaster? It’s not until August.

We managed to get through the Oasis queue but dynamic pricing had kicked in and we refused to pay it.
We ended up paying almost as much by buying tickets on Viagogo once the tour started though. No regrets at all.