Well, it should be noted that U2's highest priced tickets are $250, so the Eagles aren't the only ones! Kept me from going to see U2 this year. My friend and I tried to get cheap seats but those sold out very quickly. Seems very few seats are sold at the low prices.
TBF, John Mayer's ticket prices top out at $66 if you're going by face value. Once you get into the secondary market or ticket brokers/resellers/scalpers, all bets are off. Ticket broker prices for the Eagles' Hollywood Bowl shows go up to $1420 apiece (before fees) on TicketsNow, which is in partnership with Ticketmaster.
Can we blame that on the act? It's hard to say. Obviously Azoff is working with TicketsNow and taking a percentage of their sales, some of which will go to the act. However, he claims it's all above board and no seats are held back for the brokers. He says if the tickets are going to get resold anyway for a higher price, why not have at least some of the extra resale revenue go to the act?
Found this interesting article:
"Concert Bookers Face Sinking Economy with One Hope: 'We're an Escape for People in Tough Times'" With CD sales cut by more than half since 2000 as Internet file-sharing expands, it’s more essential than ever for bands to tour to generate revenue. But the big question facing local concert venues amid a declining economy in 2009 is, How many fans can afford to see them play? Chicago talent buyers are wrestling with that question as they fill in their calendars, and many are dialing down their expectations.
“There are less people going out on a regular basis for sure,” says Bruce Finkelman, who owns the Empty Bottle and books about 150 shows at nine venues citywide. “The economic situation has certainly shrunken the party pool. People just need their cash for more important reasons.”
The good news is that the concert industry really didn’t have that bad of a year in 2008 even as economic conditions worsened. Overall, revenue was up 7.8 percent to $4.2 billion, though ticket sales dropped 3 percent. The revenue was sustained by record-high ticket prices: an average of nearly $67 a ticket for the 100 top-grossing shows. Overall, ticket prices have more than doubled in the last decade.
Can the trend continue? Scott Gelman, vice president of Live Nation, the country’s biggest concert promoter, says the Midwest market continues to look strong.
“We’re an escape for people in tough economic times,” Gelman says. “The big shows will continue to sell out.”
He says ticket prices “will remain constant” and that the big acts are getting “the right ticket prices.” He has high hopes for upcoming tours by the Dead, Phish, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, as well as “at least two” major shows at Solder Field.
But some prominent artists have stiffed at the box office. A Neil Young concert last month, with tickets topping out at $250 plus service fees, played to a more than half-empty Allstate Arena.
“The general-admission floor for an adult artist was probably an error,” Gelman says. “A 50-year-old adult doesn’t want to stand for four hours for three bands, especially when the support acts weren’t as strong as in other markets.”
Nick Miller, vice president at Jam Productions, cautions bands and booking agents to avoid overplaying markets.
“Because bands don’t make all that much money from recorded music, their primary source of income is the road, and they need to tour more frequently,” he says. “They look at Chicago, and they plug it in every three to six months, and that’s where we will see attendance fall off.”
Miller sees the biggest impact on Baby Boomers: “If you had a 401K that just died and you are thinking about retiring in 10 years, you’re going to pull back on entertainment.”
Colleen Miller, who books shows at the Old Town School of Folk Music, saw a serious dropoff in attendance in the early autumn of 2008, but says business has perked up since then. She has become more cautious, however, in the kinds of acts she can afford to book.
“We can’t take too many chances, and that is really challenging,” she says. “I’m looking at a couple of great shows for next November of artists making their U.S. debuts, but I can’t book them because if they don’t sell we lose $5,000 each, and we can’t afford that.”
The Empty Bottle’s Finkelman agrees. “There is still a real excitement about familiar music,” he says. “Stuff that people either know about or that they deem is a sure thing. It’s like looking for comfort food in music.”
Old Town’s Miller came up with a similar analogy in explaining why enrollment for music classes is actually expected to top last’s year 6,500 attendance for the winter session.
“We’re like alcohol,” she says. “People need music, social activities, hanging out with people in their lives right now to get their minds off what’s happening in the economy.”