Ticket Prices

I can't say I've ever paid more than $30 for a concert, mainly because the bands I'm interested in seeing are in smaller venues and the fact that in NYC a band either plays in MSG or the Meadowlands and everything else is small cramped venues which usually have a better atmosphere. A friend of mine however is going with his girlfriends family to the Lady Gaga concert and they have splashed $1000+ on tickets. I'm sure it will be fantastic but... damn.

I took a look at the economist Alan Krueger's article on the pricing of concert tickets and it was very interesting. He found that ticket prices are increasing at a rate much higher than normal inflation about 61% in the past 5 years. He offers 4 explanations but the two I felt relevant to the class is that with the advent of piracy, there has been a shift to making performances more entertaining, raising the game of many popular artists and increasing the demand to go see their concerts (the top 5% of artists generate 62% of all concert revenue).

Also interesting to note is that the main increase in concert prices comes from older rock/pop musicians such as The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney. The reasoning behind this is that these bands not only hold on to a large audience of fans from their heyday but continue to attract younger fans to their music. It appears classic rock isn't as classic and old as one may think.