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Re: Concert prices



>But what about bands who have _not_ been around for 30 years, yet 
still
>command fanatical, though younger followings -- U2, Garth Brooks, 
Hanson,
>for example.  (Spice Girls?  Do they actually perform in public?)  
I'd say
>it's generally true that the high-demand seats are bought by those 
who can
>pay the scalpers for them, whether it's the younger audience members 
or
>their parents who actually do the paying.

U2 played a concert here in my town not too long ago, and while face 
values were pretty high, scalpers were all but GIVING away tickets.  
I know several people who attended that show for only a dollar or two.
  To use another band as an example, I have never heard of Pearl Jam 
tickets having a face value of more than about $20.  In fact, their 
well-publicized but sadly futile battle with TicketMonster was 
because of the band's determination to keep ticket prices low and 
TM's determination to add high convenience charges to the tickets.  
Most young people can't afford expensive tickets, so bands with young 
fans had better keep prices low.  Bands with an older fan base can 
charge higher prices, but at the cost of excluding the next 
generation of potential fans.  Apparently most such groups have 
weighed their options and decided which side their bread is buttered 
on.  Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with this, I mean, 
they are trying to make a living at this game!  I merely resent the 
implication by some members of this list that high ticket prices 
serve to scare away the casual fans and riff raff that might 
otherwise clutter the sacred concert grounds.

>A front-row seat is like any other commodity.  It has a market price 
and
>those who can pay are more likely to get it.  The opening-day box-
office
>sales are more or less a lottery to distribute tickets on a basis 
other
>than market value.  Some bands hold back good tickets to release on 
the day
>of the show, to try to even this out as well.

The people who can afford the tickets are the people who get the 
tickets, I know.  I understand how the system works.  What I DON'T 
understand is how anyone could possibly think that this system 
insures that only so-called real fans get tickets.  Unless you define 
"real fans" as "people with lots of money"!  The only way to make 
sure all real fans have the chance to get tickets is to keep ticket 
prices low.  Of course, the people who make the money off of ticket 
sales rarely care if the people buying them are real fans or not, 
which is why things are the way they are.

-Yellow "I said a young fan ain't got nothing in the world these 
days" Ledbetter