Belleville, MI
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Surely YOUR purchasing power has increased since 1984? If it hasn’t you’ve made some pretty poor life choices.
Again, it’s just like pinball. Concert tickets were wildly underpriced forever, and bands got sick of scalpers stealing all their profits. You really think a ticket to see Metallica should cost $34? Why? So they can be bought by scalpers who sell them for market value?
I don't know many people whose purchasing power has multiplied 20, 50 or 100 times since 1984 - forget the $1200 Metallica tickets, what about a run-of-the-mill $200 ticket? I was making about $8 an hour in 1984, I'm not making $160 an hour now.
At $34, a 20k seat venue would still net $680,000, not bad for a nights work. Not as good as the $24 million at $1200 a seat, but hey, mama needs a new pair of everything....
What makes you think ticket prices were "wildy underpriced" for decades? Wouldn't some starving musician have pointed that out back in the 70s or 80s? Van Halen and the record companies were still making money selling tickets for $15 or they wouldnt have been doing it. Do you really think scalpers could buy EVERY TICKET TO EVERY SHOW and nobody would ever get any for a good price? It's just fucking greed, period - Christ, it's not scalpers charging $1200 a ticket, it's the fucking bands themselves -
