Unless David Gilmour tours again, I don’t see myself buying tix to any gigs these days. All my other favorites who I would pay todays’ stupid prices are either retired or dead.

My wife works for Live Nation/Ticketmaster! I think they are expecting a court battle. I will keep my opinions to myself on this one tho!
B

When I heard Elton John tix we're $500 minimum and he sold out Levi stadium 2 nights in a row I was like,"no thanks". I don't like Elton John but if you want to see a real train wreck watch him sing "I'm still standing" from the COVID concert. Oy....

On the Boston local news this morning, they were saying this will be happening from the T-swift fiasco. One part on their tech, one part on their fees, and one part on bots.

Also, speaking of TM/LN fees, that company can eat shit. Trying to take my son to all the aging acts before they're gone for good, so the Metallica M72 tour was a must-buy. Look at these F'ing fees! Almost $200!! Remember this is for just 2 tickets, and though it's a 2-day festival, it's still one Ticketmaster transaction... FOR TWO TICKETS!!!

Seriously, WTF (resized).jpg

Most bands I'd see are still small shows so it wouldn't be as bad. But obviously Ticketmaster is a piece of shit and always has been.

Metallica knowms how much you pay for their pinball machine Yoko

Yep, was going to cost $1600 for my girl and me to go.

We saw Iron Maiden for less than $400 combined. About $450 for both of us to go see Journey. $1600 for Metallica......nah. I'll pass.

Ticketmaster shows why monopolies are great if you're the owner of the monopoly. And terrible if you're on the receiving end.

Nothing against your wife but I hope they get nailed to the wall. But instead I predict a few long-running government inspections that end in fines too small to appear on the quarterly shareholder reports, and a class action so in 2029 everyone in this thread gets a $1.75 credit for future ticket purchases. Just standard costs of doing business as an American monopoly.

It really boils down to the same as pretty much any other market or hobby: supply and demand.

The Metallica shows are at a stadium. If you think they are overpriced, just watch ticket prices. They routinely drop prices if shows aren't selling, and the same can be found on the aftermarket like Stubhub etc.

If prices don't drop, well, tough titty, guess you'll just have to stay home that night.

It doesn't really bother me either way, I buy tickets to shows I want to go to if I think it's worth it. Just like anything else I spend my money on.

What cracks me up is the once every 10-years thing when it suddenly becomes news. Some Senator can't get tickets for his daughter for Taylor Swift? Issue a press release and start an investigation! Where was this guy when I was trying to get AC/DC tickets 15 years ago!? Nothing has changed.

In the end, you'll never make everybody happy. Nobody is entitled to a Taylor Swift ticket. She's playing 60,000 seat stadiums. If 400,000 people want tickets to the show, well, do the math. That's not Ticketmaster's fault.

As far as the specific example posted - $960 for four good tickets to Metallica (it's a two day ticket) doesn't seem too outrageous to me. That's $240 per show per ticket to see Metallica. Perfectly fair value in 2022 to see a huge band like that (if a little on the cheap side). People always gripe about how they saw Metallica in 1984 for $12...I mean, how much money were you earning in 1984? What percentage of your net worth was $12 in 1984, vs. now? How much more does everything you buy cost today than it did in 1984? It's not 1984 anymore.

Lucky for me I like really shitty music and 90% of the bands I like never get radio play so they dont have the inflated prices

And that's why I bought them. Not many times my son will be able to see Metallica. Plus when I was his age, it was the Load tour and my mom took us all because we were perceived as too young to go ourselves. And now I get to take my son. Circle of life.

But man, those fees! Dividing the ticket price alone by 4, we get $195. So $240 as the real price "per one night ticket" makes you scratch your head. But as shown below, not all the money goes to Ticketmaster. But they also won't tell you where the money goes and that needs far more transparency in this industry.

I've never been to a stadium for a concert. The cost of the ticket and all the tacked-on fees (without clearly explaining what they're for and why they're necessary) is just plain crazy in my eyes. In general, I don't go to concerts often--I mainly stick to smaller venues, live bands playing around town, or local music festivals.

That sounds like absolute insanity to me. No way that I'd pay that kind of money for a concert. $20-$50 is more my range.

This is a great point regarding aftermarket. The market fluctuates like crazy so you have to determine your price point and seat requirements and be ready to pounce when you see them - the great deals may only last a minute or two.

I use normally use Seatgeek and only payed $200 for Elton John & $85 for Paul Simon to sit in the luxury boxes at Wells Fargo Center with private bar/bathroom. Payed $75 for VIP at the Tower for Elvis Costello that included parking, open bar and dinner. Could have had a PIT ticket for RHCP at Citizens Bank Park for $63 when my friends all had payed $400 thru Ticketmaster. As Levi said you also have to be prepared to get shut out and find something else to do that night if things dont go your way.

Verified Fanclub sales are really a scam. Guess who gets the worst seat in the house?

Just saw Paul McCartney in Oakland CA a while back. 500$ a ticket with fees. Not worth it. He's not what he was. Elton John either. Best shows I saw this year was 21 Pilots and Roger Waters. 21 Pilots was $125 plus fees and Roger Waters was 225$. Way better than McCartney I thought.

He's still in better shape than Lennon or Harrison.

You could say that.

Roger did two shows in Philly - first one was sold out, the 2nd one had many tickets still available at the box office. You can imagine the implosion on the secondary market even for good seats. Lower level seats were about $75 and forget about reselling uppers

.

Mine were $225 a piece and we were 15 feet from the stage. It was fantastic.

Roger Waters at Madison Square Garden (two shows) was $250 a ticket for good lowers. I bought four, before the pandemic.

By the time the shows actually happened, Ticketmaster was selling these same tickets for $125. Don't really care, just pointing out what I had said originally. Much like pinball, it's a market value situation.

At least I bought them at the box office (which is right next to my office) so tickets weren't $50 more expensive. Yes, it's still an option that people forget about. You don't always have to buy from Ticketmaster.

Roger is very political. I'm sure that had a lot to do with selling tickets.

How crazy do you think we all look when we tell our friends how much our pins cost never mind concert or sporting event tickets ?
Spending money is like beauty: It's in the eye of the beholder.

I was willing to sit through his cringy politics for $25 seats to the laser light show! (Though back on topic, they tacked on $11 bucks in ticket-broker fees).

I think it's a funny thought the government going after a concert ticket company. It's a complete luxury good. The prices are so high because like pinball machines, stupid people pay them. Acting like ticketmaster is Rockefeller or something is comical.

A monopoly is a monopoly, and US anti-trust law doesn't have a carve-out for discretionary goods. Ticket prices for top bands will remain sky-high regardless, because supply and demand. But the non-talent, middle-man portion of those costs could be significantly reduced if there were meaningful competition in the large venue ticketing market.

Of course breaking up TicketMaster wouldn't guarantee lower ticket prices for the fans -- Taylor Swift is insanely popular and could sell out at twice the price, so if she wanted she could capture any reduction in ticketing fees. But then her fans could complain directly to her about pricing, which seems at least somewhat more likely that complaining to TicketMaster, which has no (positive) relationship with its customers and gives zero shits about building relationships with them.

I think the fee stuff is or was about the fact the venue no longer has to bear the cost of their own ticket infrastructure. Strange that it is passed onto the customer though. Probably how ticket outfits initially sold their services, to have venues tear down their ticket infrastructure, you'll save money and we will pass it onto the consumer. Scalping used to be illegal (at times - it flip flopped over the years in Masschusetts to being legal (unenforced) or outright illegal). I was actually outside Fenway Park looking for a ticket and a Boston Policeman was telling a guy who was selling a ticket that he needs to give the ticket to the purchaser (for free in the cop's presence) because the policeman witnessed the transaction. (Probably around 2003). Maybe TM/SH get away with it by no scalping but high fee processes instead or "resale" meaning the original ticket holder is the scalper and TM/SH is just the resale market maker. Either way its just semantics means nothing to the consumer that pays big bucks for tickets. I liken this to a situation one time where I was selling some gold bullion and went to a local shop and he said we can't give you spot price we give you spot minus 10% because that's what it would cost you to sell it on eBay. I said Huh? Ok I'll sell it on ebay.

Remember what forum we're on and what we spend on this stuff. People outside this hobby think we're insane (Ex: GnR FanClub at JJP launch).

They effectively have a monopoly on large venues, not just in a specific service area, but *everywhere*.

They have no significant competition. When was the last time you went to another company to buy concert tickets?

Yeah, and I'm not spending $10k on a NIB pin. That's crazy.

Yep and thats why I refused to see his last tour. So sick of that crap.

Me too but his re-take on Comfortably Numb was spell binding.

Fits the narrative of the show for sure, but I prefer the original.

Thanks, I hadn’t heard that yet and it was good but for me it definitely lacked that Pink Floyd Gilmour guitar.

Oh boy

Honestly I didn't even know Ticket Master still existed. We went to three concerts this year and not one of them had anything to do with TM.

John

Fuck TicketMaster, and fuck their fees and support. I bought tickets (paper delivered to home) before the pandemic and the concert was postponed more than two years. Eventually when it was held, I couldn't find the tickets anymore and spend weeks trying to contact TM with various means to get new tickets. No luck, their support is the worst I've ever seen, and this on top of outrageous 'inconvenience' and other fees. So I'll say again, Fuck TM, there has to be a better way!

Every few years a politician does some sabre rattling about going after them and then there’s some class action suit and if you fill out the required paperwork with proof of purchase you get a $3 credit to a show, the lawyers get 20 mil, and the cycle repeats itself. Ticketmaster/Live Nation spend a fortune in political contributions to ensure nothing ever changes. As a music fan I who’s given them a sickening amount of money I’ve given up caring because it will never change. It seems the artists have given up as well. I even had to pay those ball bags a fee to watch a high school football game.

I don't know who makes my piss boil more. Ticketmaster or UPS. Their fees are un-f#cking-real, they both suck ass in a galactic way and both should be condemned to HELL!!! Avoid both of them if your are able to and if you care for your sanity.

QSS

Im glad my city has a great variety of small and mid-size venues to go see live music via the local promoters and not Ticketmaster. Lots of great artists under $50 and very minimal fees, if any.

I've despised Ticketmaster for years now, fucking hate them. The inflated service charges used the be the worst thing, then they started scalping their own tickets and followed that up with the "dynamic pricing" horseshit.

Almost as repulsive as pinball "resellers".

I think the last time this happened you got a couple free tickets to "select shows" and a $4 credit off a future fee.

Any decent shows free ticket alottment disappeared almost immediately and choices left were nobody you had ever heard of. I ended up with 2 lawn tickets to Journey in Indianapolis that I gave to a co-worker and let the fee credit expire

Not to mention, once you pay for over-inflated price for the tickets, you get to go to the concert and watch everyone around you dicking around on their fucking phones during the show. Why even bother going if you are going to sit there on Facebook the whole time??

Sounds like whoever doesn’t have tickets can probably find out what’s going on via Facebook

I’m a big believer in letting people do their own thing and tuning them out as long as they’re not bothering me, but those people are fucking morons and legit piss me off. I get taking a picture or two, I do it myself, but can these people not enjoy anything unless it’s on a screen? What am I missing?

I was at a Brit Floyd concert a few years ago and a woman right in front of me had a fucking ipad in front of my face. I asked her to put it away and her boyfriend tried to fight me. Some people are just insane. I can't understand people that are unable to live in the moment and will ruin their experience for online validation. Crazy town.

But who is validating them? Are they posting them to Youtube and hoping they get x amount of views and follows so they get ad money? Even though there’s 500 other mouth breathers doing the same thing? I had a dude tell me that he was doing it for the memories of being there lol. I was going to suggest his buddy record him recording the concert if that’s what he wanted.