Concert Ticket Prices

golfball37

2 gigs went on sale in the last week I would have an interest in. Leonard Cohen and Depeche Mode. The price of a Depeche Mode ticket was over 80 euro yet the price of a ticket for any of their English shows was 40stg. How are Ticketmaster allowed to get away with this?

Leonard Cohen was 125 euro btw, didn’t have the heart to price the UK gigs.

Nody

golfball37 wrote: »

How are Ticketmaster allowed to get away with this?

Because they still sell.

ejmaztec

But Leonard Cohen fans like being depressed.

Nody

Only expect it to get worse, and a lot worse as well. Why? Because there is still a very big black market selling at 50 to 300% above the sell price and the tickets still sell. Now for the promoter that is 50 to 300% more profit they could have put in their own pockets with a higher price since clearly people are willing to pay that price.

bluefinger

Looks like those up the north are going to have to pay handsomely to see lenny. tickets are 90, 85 and 75 sterling. yet in liverpool they're 75, 65 and 55 sterling. i think i'll be hoppin on a ferry.

grumpytrousers

golfball37 wrote: »

How are Ticketmaster allowed to get away with this?

It's not ticketmaster. It's the Act and the Promoter who demand the fee. Ticketmaster sell the tickets. You can bitch about TM and the service charges and booking fees, but that's where it stops.

Acts charge based on what they think they can get away with and what the costs are of putting on the gig in a particular locale.

Bob Z

grumpytrousers wrote: »

It's not ticketmaster. It's the Act and the Promoter who demand the fee. Ticketmaster sell the tickets. You can bitch about TM and the service charges and booking fees, but that's where it stops.

Acts charge based on what they think they can get away with and what the costs are of putting on the gig in a particular locale.

Why do they think they get away with it inIReland and not Britain?

Is it anything to do with Ireland being smaller? and if so do they charge other small countries more? Or do they just know ireland is a soft touch?

rubadub

Nody wrote: »

Only expect it to get worse, and a lot worse as well. Why? Because there is still a very big black market selling at 50 to 300% above the sell price and the tickets still sell. Now for the promoter that is 50 to 300% more profit they could have put in their own pockets with a higher price since clearly people are willing to pay that price.

I think that is very true, but there is usually a limit of around €100. In recent times I have noticed tickets coming down in price a little, especially in smaller venues they can be around €30 when a while ago the same "popularity" of artist was getting away with €45-50. I go to a fair few gigs and hate buying online due to the additional fees, I only buy if I think it would sell out. Very suprisingly a lot of gigs did not sell out in the last year, or only in the last week or so.

If people are not buying they cannot increase more. There will always be touts cleaning up on the big name gigs, unfortunately I cannot mention most of them!, I did see one €65 ticket going for over €300 on ebay yesterday. I think that is crazy money, it is in effect offering a casual fan €235 NOT to go, they could have a weekend away instead!

Bob Z wrote: »

Is it anything to do with Ireland being smaller? and if so do they charge other small countries more? Or do they just know ireland is a soft touch?

Holding a concert here does cost a lot more, venues charge more, shipping equipment to an island is a lot more expensive, the staff etc are charged more, hotels etc. This came up several times in the gigs forum.

grumpytrousers

Bob Z wrote: »

Why do they think they get away with it inIReland and not Britain?

Is it anything to do with Ireland being smaller? and if so do they charge other small countries more? Or do they just know ireland is a soft touch?

Part of it's down to the fact that our own promoters see us as being a soft touch (they have to make a profit too) and part of it is that there are no economies of scale in playing here. In other words, if an act is to play 6 dates in the UK then air-freight only has to be paid once and then it's probably road freight to get the stuff from venue to venue. You can spread the total freight costs over six nights.

Compare with Dublin where there needs to be a whole load of nights in the one venue to compare with that; however, the population ratio between UK and Ireland will tell you that it'll always make more economic sense to play more shows in UK which will, axiomatically, be cheaper to put on.

---

Now playing: R.E.M. - Beat a Drum
via FoxyTunes

foggy_lad

grumpytrousers wrote: »

Part of it's down to the fact that our own promoters see us as being a soft touch (they have to make a profit too) and part of it is that there are no economies of scale in playing here. In other words, if an act is to play 6 dates in the UK then air-freight only has to be paid once and then it's probably road freight to get the stuff from venue to venue. You can spread the total freight costs over six nights.

Compare with Dublin where there needs to be a whole load of nights in the one venue to compare with that; however, the population ratio between UK and Ireland will tell you that it'll always make more economic sense to play more shows in UK which will, axiomatically, be cheaper to put on.

---

Now playing: R.E.M. - Beat a Drum
via FoxyTunes

it is the same situation with wholesalers selling the exact same goods to uk stores cheaper than they sell to irish stores, they know they can get away with it here but in the uk the shows would be empty if they tried to sell tickets at irish prices!

eth0_

golfball37 wrote: »

The price of a Depeche Mode ticket was over 80 euro .

They are actually 65 euro, please get your facts right!