Concert Ticket Prices

[+ jeezopete]

Wow, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve gone to a concert in an arena. Just looked at prices for Bruno Mars’ concert in Oct. Single tickets range from $189. to $1714.50.

With prices like this, do artists still sell out concerts?

What’s the most you’ve paid and was the experience worth it?

[+ poolboy48220]

John Cleese from Monty Python is speaking before a showing of Holy Grail. Tickets are $90 and up. Much as I'd love to go, I can't justify that money for what's probably a short talk before a movie I've seen so many times I can quote the whole thing.

[Nvr2Thick]

For years our riverfront was host to free concerts by some pretty good names including the formerly popular and the up and coming. Now it's been replaced by a state-of-the-art amphitheater, contracted to Live Nation. We get the same tours that every other city gets through Live Nation, but often at higher prices. Tickets in the front bowl of fixed seating sells for $75 - $175, with some special packages adding on to that for meet and greet privileges. Lawn seats behind the bowl are $35. They have rigid control on what you can bring to these outdoor events, so that they can sell you $5 sodas at the concession stand.

 

Scalping was a dirty word when I lived in NY and NJ, but here it's an industry. Ticketmaster and Live Nation compete with Stub Hub to resell your tickets for you, and everyone seems to buy tickets for the express purpose of reselling at a profit. Here's how it often works: a couple decides that they want to see a concert at the downtown theater venue. They both get access to the Internet presale code and both bang on their computers when the presale starts, and each buy four tickets -- the maximum per buyer. They keep the two best seats and resell the other six for a profit.

 

I tried to get tickets to see Phoenix at this theater, and the demand was so high that I couldn't get a decent seat even though I was ready at my computer when the presale started. I kept getting "best available" seats in the back of the theater until the presale was over. When the general sale started two days later it sold out quickly. The day before the show I logged on to Stub Hub and bought great seats at 3X the original sale price. What was amazing though, was the sheer number of tickets for sale on Stub Hub or "verified resale" on Ticketmaster. For this show it looked like one third of the theater's seats were up for grabs, for an extremely popular sold-out show.

[+ GregM]

Since the Drowned World tour I have seen every Madonna tour except for Sticky and Sweet. Her tickets can range just under $100 into a couple grand with this last tour. Drowned World and Reinvention I think I spent $150 for decent seats. Not great not super just decent and at that time that was the higher priced seats I think. I now spend about $400 a show for a seat. The last tour I had 2nd row from the tip of the um heart. First time I saw her in Chicago for Confessions I was right next to the cat walk (I could touch it) right at the point where the disco ball came down and for MDNA I was a guest of someone who had won golden triangle tickets. When an artist or singer reaches the accomplishments of someone like Madonna and puts on her type of show with all the dancing and awesome stage set up I will pay a good penny to see them. As far as I know all her shows sell out. For me having a full house means 95% of the seats have been sold. Now if people show up after buying a ticket is another story.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[OCClient]

I bought a pair of Rufus Wainwright tickets for $258, after fees and everything. I guess nowadays that isn't too bad. I've been waiting to see him for a long time.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Kylie Minogue, front row, $600.

 

Worth every penny.

[fillmycakes]

I bought 5th row Mariah Carey tickets for $250. This was her residency show in Vegas though and I guess she isn't terribly popular these days. The seats would have been really decent if people weren't standing up for literally every song =P

[+ Hoover42]

Ten seconds after tickets went on sale for Katy Perry's September Witness the Tour concert in DC, I snagged a 14th row seat, right of center stage, for $250.

 

The tickets in that row are now going for over $500.

[+ Eric Hassan]

I tend to avoid arena concerts, and fortunately, most of the live shows I would want to see aren't going to be in big venues. I like going to clubs where it's GA and there are about 1-2 thousand people. The average price I pay for a ticket to see a band I like is around 30-40 dollars.

 

Sometimes, though, I get into a band, and then they get big. I saw Radiohead when they were touring for The Bends at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, RI. I think I paid about 17 dollars (this was in 1995). I was right up front - I could see the strings on Thom Yorke's guitar and the wiggle of Colin Greenwood's forearm muscles as he plucked his bass strings. Now, they're so big they'll never play a small show for 20 bucks again, and unfortunately, that means I'll never see them again. I would gladly pay hundreds of dollars to see them, but only in a small venue. Paying hundreds to be hundreds of feet away from them is foolishness to me.

[+ GregM]

I tend to avoid arena concerts, and fortunately, most of the live shows I would want to see aren't going to be in big venues. I like going to clubs where it's GA and there are about 1-2 thousand people. The average price I pay for a ticket to see a band I like is around 30-40 dollars.

 

Sometimes, though, I get into a band, and then they get big. I saw Radiohead when they were touring for The Bends at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, RI. I think I paid about 17 dollars (this was in 1995). I was right up front - I could see the strings on Thom Yorke's guitar and the wiggle of Colin Greenwood's forearm muscles as he plucked his bass strings. Now, they're so big they'll never play a small show for 20 bucks again, and unfortunately, that means I'll never see them again. I would gladly pay hundreds of dollars to see them, but only in a small venue. Paying hundreds to be hundreds of feet away from them is foolishness to me.

 

That kinda of reminds me when I saw Pearl Jam when they were near their peak. A lil up and coming band called Green Day opened up for Eddie and the crew. PJ was awesome! My friend and I were close enough to the stage that I noticed Eddie had an erection for most of their set.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[+ WilliamM]

I may have the longest history of arena concerts, Judy Garland at Boston Garden in 1961 to Bruno Mars at the Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center in 2013.

 

It appears the cost of tickets is now far beyond 2005 and 2006, the last times I saw many, many arena concerts each year.

 

I was a freshmen in college in 1961, so tickets even for the best seats were likely under $10.

 

Frankly, I do not know a lot about Garland, but the first few songs were beyond anything I had ever heard before.

[+ quoththeraven]

Like WilliamM, I'm used to inexpensive tickets, but I paid a reseller $135 for a mezzanine seat at the first of BTS' two sold-out concerts at the Prudential Center in Newark in March. It was totally worth it. Also there are tons of videos of the concert on YouTube. So much is going on that I've noticed things in videos that I didn't notice during the concert.

 

Although they were not onstage the entire time, the show lasted two and a half hours, during most of which they were also dancing complex choreography. The encore alone, which included three songs and closing remarks by every member in English (except when Suga said "thank you" in Korean), lasted 24 minutes.

[+ azdr0710]

my parents often told the story of being in Las Vegas about 1960 and seeing Wayne Newton when he was just getting started........free admission, free drinks, please come in and help us fill the seats

 

during college (early 80s), a fraternity brother was in charge of ushering for big concerts that came to campus, so got to see Styx, Rush, and the like for free

[+ WilliamM]

Like WilliamM, I'm used to inexpensive tickets, but I paid a reseller $135 for a mezzanine seat at the first of BTS' two sold-out concerts at the Prudential Center in Newark in March. It was totally worth it. Also there are tons of videos of the concert on YouTube. So much is going on that I've noticed things in videos that I didn't notice during the concert.

 

I always enjoy your posts about music. Very, very nice to have you back.

[+ Funguy]

Garth Brooks tickets are $68 + tax, of course, at the Forum next month - floor mid-section, middle seats.