The real reason it costs so much to go to a concert
The real reason it costs so much to go to a concert
We can’t just blame Ticketmaster and scalpers.
It's not demand, as the article claims. It's just greed. Don't act like you have to demand more money for something because more people want it, you simply choose to for more profit.
I mean, people are paying for it, right? That’s like the most basic principle of economics. You raise the price to the level the market will bear. It’s not like these are necessities. They’re limited availability entertainment events. Actually, the existence of scalpers who resell for profit implies the price could even be higher.
The part where this becomes a problem is the income inequality among the people who want to go. If everyone had the same income, it would be a matter of who values the show the most. As it is, a lot of people who get to go are a little richer and don’t care about the cost, while some real fans just don’t have the option to go.
Fantastic insight but your last part is no different than anything else for sale. Inequality has always existed and the gap is currently growing for everything, not just tickets. It's as obvious as saying not everyone that wants a Ferrari can have one.
In the context of the article though, it seems that greed has kept a company like Ticketmaster from doing anything about the bots and scalpers(for instance, halting online sales and selling at brick and mortars in locations where concerts occur). They don't need to because they still sell all their tickets, regardless of whether it's to a bot, scalper or legitimate fan.
Perhaps treat tickets like Sudafed. Show your ID to purchase a limited number of tickets and enter the info into a list so he can't keep looping around or heading to another sales location. It's exploitable(like anything) but much less so than the current system.
Did we read the same article?
If you read the linked article above, the one that included this:
Though there are a number of factors involved in this price creep (including high fees, which a 2018 Government Accountability Office report says make up an average of 27 percent of the ticket’s total cost), **the heart of the matter is simple: demand. **
Then yes, we read the same article.
These things aren't a requirement, they're optional. People don't need to go to a concert.
So by paying these exorbitant prices, they're sending the message the prices are fine.
I haven't gone to a concert in decades, for just this reason. Sorry, I'm not rewarding them.
Wringing every cent you possibly can out of people is also optional, but neoliberals seem to think its mandatory.
You've got it backwards.
The prices are high, because they know enough of their fandom has the means to pay it, and they will.
There's no question that the tickets will sell, and there's no hope that any "message" will ever be sent.
Unrestrained capitalism.
Ticketmaster (Live Nation) must have paid Vox a pretty penny for this PR piece
Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly on ticket sales. They use this monopoly to drive up prices and keep the competition out
Ticketmaster (LiveNation) should be broken up
Just stop online ticket sales. From now on your have to go to the box office.
The secret third option to pour some water on fiery demand is not exactly popular, but it is simple: Make the tickets more expensive on the primary market.
It’s easy to see why artists are reluctant to set their prices to what a ticket would sell for on, say, StubHub. Fans would rightfully complain, and many musicians do want to give all fans the chance to come to their shows. But one surefire way to deter scalpers would be to raise prices and narrow the margin that a reseller could make by flipping a ticket. (Theoretically, there’s a ceiling on what people would pay for concert tickets, and surpassing it would quench demand.) There’s a logic to doing so for artists: If a ticket sells for $100 on the resale market compared to $50 on the primary market, “the scalper’s making more than you are from your art and your labor,” notes Koebler.
Leave it to an economist to find the "solution" that completely ignores the actual problem.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation already fighting dirty on this lawsuit by paying Vox to write this article. Expect a lot more articles like this as they try to sway public opinion for their lawsuit.
I love when people read half the article and not the conclusion