lower concert ticket prices? whee!

says here:
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Lower Ticket Prices On Horizon
April 13, 2005

As concert promoters head into the busy summer season, ticket prices are expected to drop up to 30 percent, with Clear Channel Entertainment leading the way. A report in The New York Daily News says that CCE will drop the price of lawn seats at its outdoor venues - tickets that previously had been selling for as much as $40 each - to $20, and will also eliminate the four dollar facility charge that used to be tacked on to the final price. This is good news for music fans, as the average ticket price had risen more than twice the inflation rate in the last ten years. Promoters hope this will lead fans to look at concert tickets as more of an impulse purchase than a financial decision.

'When I was young, buying a ticket didn't cause any anxiety,' Jonny Podell -- who works with The Allman Brothers, Cyndi Lauper and others -- told The Daily News. Podell went on to point out that this summer's top-price ticket for The Allmans will be $40, 20 percent lower than last year.

Clear Channel also is said to be asking acts to take lower guarantees, offering a greater percentage of box office receipts in exchange, in an effort to keep prices down and avoid a season like Summer 2004, when attendance dropped by more than five percent and overall concert revenue remained flat from 2003. Concert-goers can expect to still pay top dollar for major artists such as U2, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, the latter two are expected to tour this year.
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The dirty little secert behind ticket prices? The BANDS have been demanding to be paid more, so the ticket prices go up. This is a sign that the BANDS are going to be paid less for their shows.

Make no mistake it is the bands that set the prices for tickets. On his last tour Peter Gabriel had a deal with Clear Channel to do shows for a set amount, not a percentage of the ticket sales. That set amount determined how much the tickets sold for. They were really expensive. His tour was not well attended, his Oakland show was not close to a sell out. Oops. Peter still got paid, it was a guarantee, but CC took a bath on the tour.

from this 2003 ABC news report (that includes the usual Clear Channel bashing, but try to get past that):

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"It is high attendance, not high ticket prices that benefit Clear Channel ... More than 100 percent of the ticket price increase in 2002 went to the artists," the company said in its statement.

Is Online Downloading the Culprit?

So who's telling the truth?

Miles Copeland, owner of Ark 21 Records and former manager of Sting, admits that Sting and other artists have a lot of control over ticket prices. If they seem greedy, Copeland says, it's because they're being ripped off every day -- not by Clear Channel, but by their fans.

"Five years, 10 years, 15 years ago ... every time you wanted music, you'd go to a record store and you'd have to fork out money to buy records. Well nowadays they say it's just OK to steal," Copeland said.

Steal online, that is. Apparently, many of us simply cannot resist the temptation of downloading music from the Internet. But all that free music is not without a price.

"The public ought to realize as they're complaining about ticket prices, that they're forcing ticket prices up because stealing music from the artists eliminates that source of income.

Recording artists like Sting used to make the majority of their money from just that: recording. Now, they're making 62 percent of their income from touring. "So now the only source of income is tickets," Copeland said, "and basically the public will have to pay the price of that."

The Stones 'Get What They Need' ... and Want

It's a big price. Bands like The Who that came of age in the 1960s have left all that peace, love, and flower power behind. Now, mega acts like the Stones, with pyrotechnics and large stage shows, have grown into big corporations with payrolls and overhead.

"It's a big fat cow, the entertainment industry, and sometimes it's shameless," says Matthews, who was born in the '60s.

Matthews is also having his pocket picked by downloading fans. But he says theft online can't begin to explain the huge price tag attached to the ticket prices of the rock 'n' roll idols he grew up with. "There's an obscenity when you get 200 bucks a ticket," he said.

Even Matthews' ticket prices have gone up -- but only a little -- to $40 for any seat in the house. And he still makes enough money to be one of last year's top money making tours. "If it costs you 25 bucks, or 30 bucks to put on a show for each person and you charge 40 bucks, that seems like a reasonable profit," Matthews said.

We asked Stones tour manager Michael Cohl why Mick Jagger and his boys aren't satisfied with 40 bucks a head. Cohl said it's simply a matter of money. "If they wanted to play for free, wouldn't they just go down to the pub in London and play for free anytime they want? ... They would like to make money too."

Cohl said the Stones want to make money for their hard work, just like everyone else. But the Stones live like royalty when they're offstage, renting out entire hotels where a single room can go for as much as $4,000 a night.

So, aren't the fans are paying for this lush life? "No," Cohl said, "the Rolling Stones are paying for it. If the fans buy the tickets we get reimbursed."

If the sky is the limit in ticket prices, the Stones have no reason to stop until they hit the ceiling. Even with ticket prices of up to $350, they sell out every night.

Top Dollar for Nosebleed Seats

Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the concert magazine Pollstar , says another way the big acts gouge concertgoers is by charging top dollar for seats at the very back of the arena.

A back-of-the-stadium seat at a Elton John/ Billy Joel concert could run you $85, and you'd need binoculars to see the piano men. For a $250 ticket to a Paul McCartney show, you'd get a seat off to the side and a couple hundred feet away.

So have some musicians forgotten the fans who put them where they are? Rocker Lenny Kravitz says yes. "I can't sing 'Let Love Rule' and then, you know, charge people, you know, 500 bucks to get in. It's not what it's about," he said.

But some industry insiders says that it's not just about the love. Pollstar's Bongiovanni says younger bands playing today know that their fan base can't afford the ticket prices that a Paul McCartney fan can. So, because they can get away with it, legends like McCartney, the Stones, Cher, and Billy Joel and Elton John put together the four top-grossing tours in 2002 -- with a combined draw of $330 million.

As long as people are willing to pay huge sums to see the rockers of yesteryear, prices will keep going up.
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Rock and Roll is a bit like sausage, tastes great, don't tell me how it is made....