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?

It's cheaper to go to a festival 🤷‍♀️

I don’t care who sets the prices and how much goes to the artist. I’m not paying it.

My DDs (in their early twenties) are very envious of my cheap Smash Hits Roadshow tickets back in the day.

You didn't get to see a lot from each act, but you got the couple of biggest hits by a whole load of acts. It was cheesy, but great.

I pay what other people probably think are high prices for shows and gigs etc.

it’s just about whether it’s worth it to you.

It depends which festival.

Even smaller ones like Kendal Calling - tickets are £300 this year. Same for Isle of Wight - £320 each. We went a few years back and I’m sure they were more like £200. Then you have to factor in getting there/ferry tickets/the cost of camping, food & drink etc.

Yes I did.

But then, it’s the Foo fighters.

The FOO FIGHTERS!
So I relented AND used savings.

It’s the FOOs for the love of God!

And once inside everything you can think of costs £10. Chips £10. Glitter glue on your face £10. Can of coke £10.

Yeah I'm not paying those crazy prices out of principle. Luckily my new favourite band are fully independent with no record label and they still sell out gigs left, right and centre for a very reasonable price. 😁

I have just paid £200 for Harry S, I don’t think that’s bad at all. There seemed ro be loads available at that sort of price. I asked chat gpt how much it would cost a music artist to hire Wembley Stadium and up to £7,000,000, mind boggling sums of money.

Sadly, because of such wide spread pirating of music, gigs are a large part of income for bands. They used to be a way of promoting their music, seems to have turned around somewhat. People can only really blame themselves for downloading illegally etc.

I don't go to anything too expensive, luckily not keen on mainstream so most of my gigs aren't too bad.

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.

Even that cut sounds phenomenally tight. Unless they were desperate to get into the Top 40 on promotion, single 45s used to cost £3.99, so surely the artist should have got a bit more than that - even, say, 10p? There must have been a decent chunk of profit left, even after allowing for all the other costs along the line.

This is why we're going to see Yungblud. He keeps his prices reasonable for the fans and makes the music accessible. Would have loved to have seen Pink, but no way were we willing to pay £300+ for tickets up the back of a stadium

I paid £160 to see Taylor Swift at Wembley, we had fantastic seats and it was worth every penny to see my daughter's face.
The Eras tour was a whole day out though and completely different to any gig and I'm not even a Swiftie!
Viagogo were selling tickets in our block for £2300 and people were buying them.

I've only seen her occasionally on TV - on Jools' programme mainly - and I do think she's very talented.

Even so, I must be officially old too, as hearing that name instantly makes me think of the wonderful Ray Charles, who - for very obvious reasons - sadly won't be touring again

Black Sabbath is my all time favourite band. I refused to pay a starting price of £400 for tickets for their final show last July. That price is obscene for seated or standing tickets. No band is worth that. I wouldn’t even pay that if Kurt Cobain rose from the dead.

I paid £60 for a Sabbath standing ticket in London pre-Covid! £50 for AC/DC, £50 for Metallica. I’ve seen Sabbath many times before so could let this one go especially as Ozzy was literally on his last legs.

I know the cost of everything has gone up a lot in the last few years but ticket prices seem to have multiplied significantly and disproportionately more than everything else.

On top of that you have to pay the price for a train to Birmingham, an overnight stay etc. it soon adds up. I miss the days so much of just seeing cheap pop punk bands at my local concert venue.

I saw 5ive at the Brighton Centre in Oct for around £50 with friends and the show and seats were incredible and local so barely cost me anything more. You can have great experiences without breaking the bank if you get lucky! I’ve just realised I don’t have to see my favourite bands EVERY time they tour. Once or twice in a lifetime is fine for me.

Well I would have paid any amount for the Harry Styles tickets, anything.

Anyone else: I agree with you and wouldn’t watch Oasis if they were out in my back garden, I would close the curtains. I go to a few concerts but don’t pay big prices, it’s just not worth it to me.

I think it’s getting to the stage now where you can only go to concerts or gigs of your absolute very favourite. It’s just too expensive to go more than once a year.
I agree these shows cost an enormous amount to run safely, it’s not like Harry got all the money. He probably donated a lot of it anyway, he is a nice guy.

Little bit patronising.

OP knows that, but is curious how others are feeling about it 🤷🏻

I stopped having fomo years ago so for me the high prices just aren't worth it.

I can still remember the absolute horror on my parents' faces - and splutters of sheer disbelief at who would and could pay that - in the 80s when they heard how much tickets to see Shirley Bassey cost.

They were £25!

Artists used to make their money from record sales, and their gigs were are marketing function of that.
Now with music streaming, it’s the opposite way around - they make less on their studio music and more on the associated gigs.

I couldn’t justify spending that much money on a concert. If I was loaded, then maybe.
I don’t love any artists that much, so far DD enjoys tribute rock bands at around 30/40 a ticket x2, that’s my limit.

People can choose to pay or not. I won’t pay crazy prices.

Apparently he's getting 2million a show, IDC, I'm still going, I'm Harry mad, but no matter what he donates he'll be getting a lot, but so is everyone playing those venues and I go to a lot each year.

I just can't wait to see what it'll be, what songs we get and how it'll differ from LOT, because that was phenomenal too.

I don't have enough spare cash. I don't think I've been to a proper concert since about 2010.

Take the kids to panto, and also been to see a Taylor Tribute with them and Six The Musical. I sometimes go to theatre (last time I watched Girl on a Train with the girls) and will spend up to £50 a ticket. A big pop star concert I just can't afford.

Oh yes I know who you mean now - she was great!

We understand it, but it’s grossly unfair. We used to pay a £12 for an album, and £40 for a gig ticket. Now they’ve sold out to streaming platforms, they’re getting more exposure for their material, but expecting concert-goers to pay twenty times the cost of an album for a ticket to their gig.

Concert-goers are being stung with paying for free music for everybody. And like everything in our capitalist society, it’s only the wealthy who will ever be able to go. It’s the same with theatre or football tickets.