How Much Do You Really Have to Pay for Live Music?

Madonna Fans anticipated for 2 years for her return to the U.S., and then encountered an eminence amount of sticker shock at the beginning of her Confessions Tour in May. The list price for premium (first floor) tickets to her shows at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, was $350, and that’s before you factored in service charges, premium parking, food, drinks, etc. By the time you hit the show, you may have been down over a grand.

And furthermore, Kirk Miller, a New York based writer and editor states that it is no longer easy to buy concert tickets to the best of concerts. I suggest searching the internet. There is a lot of places online where you can buy tickets including but not limited to: stubhub.com, Craiglist.org, concertlivewire.com/swap.htm, and of course eBay.com. Or you could just do what I usually do and rely on a friend to get a hold of them. But, why? Why are ticket prices so high?

Artists now realize that they can now make much more money touring than recording, and we pay the consequences, which is higher ticket prices. Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the concert trade magazine Pollstar says, “It’s true, prices to shows have more than doubled in the last ten years.”

Pearl Jam was caught charging $51 for seats to their summer tour. Mariah Carey’s prices ranged up to $150.
Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and Kenny Chesney? They went for $50 - $90 per ticket. Even Roger Waters, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd was asking $260 for a show at the Hollywood Bowl in California in August. He was playing the entirety of his old band’s classic album “The Wall”, but shouldn’t a few extra Floyd members come with that price? Which begs the question: Is it worth it?

The most important reason for those high-end tickets? It’s you! Yes, you heard what I said. “It’s you” In the end, all sides agree that general supply and demand will continue to determine the price of concerts. So go back to the first question. Is it worth it? Personally, I think so, but not for Madonna, hehe!