It's the opposite. As an example, take 1977 and compare with 2017. General seating ticket prices are about the same or a little more expensive but an American's salary is much higher. There are times when it is cheaper today, like Foreigner/Cheap Trick for $20.00 (equal to $5.00 in 1978).
The difference is the meet and greet pakages that didn't exist back then. First few row seating could also have gone up quite a bit, but the average seat is more affordable considering income as well than in 1977 or 1987.
Many places have ARW tickets for $50. In 1983, that would have been equal to $20 and what you would have paid to see a 90125 concert.
Metallica has really run with these enhanced tickets packages. I was looking at tix for the show at Cowboys Stadium
you can choose between:
The Hardwired Experience $2500
The Whiplash Experience $429
The Sandman Experience $349
The Unforgiven Experience $249
Here is what you get for $2500 and "The Hardwired Experience"
The Hardwired Experience:
One (1) general admission field ticket to see Metallica live
Watch the show from a seated viewing platform out by the sound and light board
Enter the venue 'Through The Never' Dedicated Entrance
Meet members of the band backstage before the show**
Group photograph with all (12) 'Hardwired Experience' fans and all (4) members of Metallica
One (1) autographed setlist signed by all four members of Metallica
Invitation to the 'Sanitarium Rubber Room', featuring:
Cash bar plus two (2) drink tickets***
Dinner at the 'Spit Out The Bone' Buffet
Access to the 'Memory Remains': A brand new exhibit featuring band memorabilia, performance wardrobes, instruments, personal effects and more
One (1) limited-edition Metallica show poster
One (1) Metallica t-shirt, selected by you in the lounge!
Private merchandise shopping
Dedicated on-site staff
*Limited to (12) fans per show
**Band Members May Differ Per Show
***Local liquor laws apply
For those who watch the show, this ^^ reminds me of that one Billions episode.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
It looks like all dates are at an ampathere or pavillian. Is that county fair level? I'm not sure but don't think so.
Anyway, concerts are more affordable than they were 30 years ago for most people. The glaring exception is the meet and greet, which didn't exist and maybe the first ten rows, but those were usually expensive in the past as well.
The Eagles and Bon Jovi might be more expensive than in the 80s, but we don't want to see them anyway, right??
The sheer greed of multimillionaire rock stars and their management is really quite something to behold. $2,500 for what is essentially a bunch of hooey, and you only get two free drinks?? Well, we wouldn't want to erode the 800% profit margin on this product line, would we?
Absolutely. The cost of a concert ticket has not increased merely by cost-of-living, and the average salary increase often does not even keep up with COL. With all due respect to union-protected blue collar workers, the cost of blue collar work increases steadily in this country. This is one of our grandest paradoxes since we constantly hear how important a college education is, while the white collar worker has no protection at all. As long as this is the case, the rising cost of entertainment will always lap the average salary increase in the US.
That isn't relevent to what I wrote. I didn't say anything about the price of a CD releteive to the charge of admission. Musiclife didn't eplain anythin with numbers either; I did.
The average American salary has defintately increased in real, inflation adjusted terms while the upper 10% has increased faster than the lower 90%.
Meet and Greet didn't exist in the 70s - 90s and I agree that it is possible first 3 to 5 row seating has increased in real terms. I'd like to know by how much but not talking about that either. Nor am I talking about a few bands that may have increased, just in general.
And I also said some bands have been able to pull in higher prices, inflation adjusted, like maybe Rush. But maybe not:
I saw Rush in Wisconsin in 1991 and got a lawn seat for around $40, maybe $40 - $45 after fees. In today's dollars that would be $80 to $90.
But the Rush 40 show was about the same:
"Rush tickets have an average price of $269.80 with a get-in price of $65 for their May 8 show at the BOK Center. It is the sixth-most expensive show the band will play this month. Their most expensive show is scheduled for May 30 in an outdoor venue in Virginia, with an average ticket price of $531.09 and a get-in price of $56. Their least expensive show is the one in Lincoln, Nebraska on May 10, with an average ticket price of under $89.24 and a get-in price of $18, according to Totally Tickets."
So original statement is incorrect: "But going to concerts used to be much more affordable for most people. It's definitely become much more of a luxury. Or at least so much more expensive proportionally that it might give one pause as to whether they'd rather go to a concert or fly somewhere."
Yesstiles' argument is even more incorrecto for the reasons I already pointed out. If the cost of writing, recording, etc. hadn't gone down, a concert ticket would NOT be 3x higher than any artist's current release. Artists now run their own labels, eliminate several middlemen and use pro-tools for recording, manipulating and generally crapping on music. I'm sure that many of the old cranksters here would also argue that music ain't what it used to be in the Golden 60s and 70s because of all or any combo of these factors.
Okay. But.....it is. So, it is.
So what?
We're talking about it from the consumer's point of view, while you insist upon talking about it from the production point of view. It doesn't matter why concerts are more expensive. The point is that they are more expensive.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
It used to be that concerts were the promo to get people to buy the records, where the money was. Many tours were break-even to losses. Now, no money is being made on the recordings, so the concerts have to make up for it...
Gnish-gnosh borble wiff, shlauuffin oople tirk.
My point (which you seem to have a difficult time understanding) is that the price of a concert ticket is exactly where it's supposed to be (unless you are the severely lazy and overrated Rolling Stones). Therefore, the cost of tix to the cost of music is irrelevant because the ratio is unexpectedly skewed (and not where it's supposed to be). The reasoning used to show that the price of concert tix is unfairly/inordinately high is absurd.
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