Ticket Prices

I wasn't in class for the discussion of ticket prices on Friday, but the "outrageous" prices associated with big name acts are likely a combination of supply-and-demand and the cost of the production. When a big name comes to the HSBC Arena, it's not unreasonable to think that 50,000 people are competing to fill just over 18,000 seats. Artists, managers and promoters are well aware of this, and price their shows accordingly. As long as the shows continue to sell out and people are still willing to pay the high prices, nothing is going to change. I remember reading somewhere that Jay-Z's makes something like $300,000+ per show, but I guess if people are going to shell out the money, why not? If people were willing to pay me thousands of dollars a night to do what I love, I wouldn't complain.

There are very few artists, in my opinion, that are worth paying $100 to see. I've been to hundreds of shows, and most of my favorites cost around $10 dollars and were held in basements or small clubs. But, it makes perfect sense that multi-platinum artists are able to set such high prices. It doesn't require an insane amount of talent, an extremely energetic/exciting live show, or anything like that. It's just a matter of popularity. A $100 ticket is generally too expensive for my tastes, but for people who only go to maybe 1 or 2 concerts a year, and who's favorite artists are the one's selling out arenas, I don't think it's that insane.