Coldplay - Dublin 2024 - Update Post 1 on Toutless

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935349#Comment_120935349

That’s untrue, the likes of Taylor Swift, Coldplay, beyonce, Bruce etc of the world have the leverage and they ensure they get every penny possible from all possible avenues at a show. The promoters are happy to get the millions from these shows. They won’t risk losing an act to another promoter for sake of % of discretionary income source.

the infamous Peter Kay car parking story is a good one.

back in 2009 Peter Kay had written into his contract that promoters had to give him £1 for every car they were charging for car parking at the arena. the promoters all agreed to it. He was selling hundreds of thousands of tickets so promoter was hardly going to refuse him.

the story goes after first night at one of the venues Peter gets his statement/breakdown of his income for the show. He notices that the car parking income for this massive arena is only a few quid, he asks where the other thousands are, promoter/venue tells him we only have four car parking spaces, an third party firm own the car parking lease and we only have a few complimentary spaces so that’s your cut of our spaces.

RolandGoose

Pearl Jam tried this in the 90s at the height of their popularity. Unfortunately they didn't get the support they needed from other major artists at the time, only Neil Young it must be said. Sadly it's over 100e to see either of these live today.

It is the consumers that drive these daft markets. People on this very thread have been shelling out 300e for a single Coldplay ticket. Some VIP packages have shifted too I'd say (at approx 900e). Live Nation take the stance if people pay it, we'll charge it. To my disbelief people are willing to shell out several hundred euro each to go to a gig. Madness!

Just in the event I am accused of being anti Coldplay, I am not. Their first 3.5 albums were amazing. They completely lost me after this, with the exception of the odd radio friendly, bubblegum pop, catchy tune. I tried asking a few pages back what people's favorite album(s) were, it seems to me the worse Coldplay get, the more popular they become. 95% of their latest album would not be out of place at the Eurovision.

jams100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120928787#Comment_120928787

Will you ever stop exaggerating 😂

Firstly stubhub isn't or was never owned by ticketmaster / live nation.

Secondly with most concerts you can still go for a reasonable price <€50 or €60, yes, you may not have the best seat in the house, but in the likes of the 3arena even the worst seat isn't that bad.

Thirdly, as you mentioned it's the artist that ultimately sets the price, if you and others don't like the price it won't sell out and if the big act comes to town again they'd revise their prices.

Ultimately the price of a gig isn't all that bad, generally speaking, and to be fair we have probably been underpaying for some gigs for a long time. (Relative to going on a weekend break down the country, a football match over in England etc.)

Del Griffith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935617#Comment_120935617

Artists made money off albums back when Pearl Jam did that. Different story now.

greenspurs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120937949#Comment_120937949

And they havent played ireland since 2010 !!

Not enough money in it , and insurance costs ??

MOR316

How come U2 can dictate their ticket prices?

Whatever about their residency now in LV, any time they've been to Ireland between 2005 and 2018, I got tickets priced between €40 and €77.

Doesn't make sense to me when the likes of working class, man of the people, Springsteen and Coldplay have excuses made for them in terms of ticket prices.

For inflation purposes, you could see Queen in Slane in 1986 and Michael Jackson in Cork in 1988 for less than €50. But, we've gotten clowns charging hundreds for "listen only" tickets these days. And yes, I'm fully aware of the lack of money for artists due to streaming services, but it's zero excuse!

Shedite27

There's loads of different models for contracts here, people on here every time there's a big concert try to guess what the contract type is but really we're only guessing.

• Smaller bands are hired for a gig and then the venue can charge what they like (obvious example being wedding band or live band in a bar)
• Middle bands that are hired as support or on a festival would be paid a set amount for that and given no influence.
• Bigger bands have their own companies setup that manage the tour and can influence pricing as they see fit.

Most are some combination of the above, a set fee plus a "profit share" of tickets, some even get profit shares of concessions sold at the gigs. Trying to figure out what Coldplay, U2, Taylor, Garth Brooks have in their contract is impossible from the outside

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938000#Comment_120938000

The only people making excuses for Springsteen, Coldplay, Taylor Swift etc. are their fans who refuse to believe that their favourite artists are actively gouging them. Add to that that Ticketmaster, MCD etc are easy fall guys.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938000#Comment_120938000

How is that zero excuse? It is extremely relevant. The artists get little or nothing from Cds, Lps etc, now. For the majority, gigging would probably be their main source of income. I have no problem in relation to gigs that were approx €60 rising to around €80 now. But it is pure greed charging €250/€300 for gigs like Coldplay, Taylor Swift etc. That's ridiculous. Coldplay will sell approx 300,000 tickets for the 4 nights in Dublin next year. Even if we took an average of €150 per ticket - that would be €45,000,000. Even if they had say €15m expenses for that whole week, it leaves €30m for the band and crew, for a couple of days work. I could be completely wrong in my figures, but even if it is anything like that, it is excessive greed.

But then fools and their money. I have never seen the scenes in my work place the morning those tickets went on sale. People nearly crying because they were 100,000th in a virtual queue for an event that is over a year away, and tickets will become available.

magic_murph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938188#Comment_120938188

I would expect alot of people were looking for tickets because everybody was looking for tickets. Its the Garth brooks syndrome. The country went mad. How many of the people going to those gigs were actually fans vs going because it was all over social media and the news - the fear of missing out is powerful

Everybody knows the current ticket selling process/ ticketmaster is broken as it only serves the seller. So in a harsh way anybody that got upset with the prices, TM site crashing is on them a bit as that scenario, for any big gig these days, is expected and isn't something new

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938290#Comment_120938290

The majority of people wanting to go were fans (whether they were 'die-hard' or casual fans). You had to sign up to the Coldplay mailing list to get access to tickets (unless you got one of the few in the MCD sale) so by the time the media and social media lost their minds over it and people got sucked in by hype, it was too late for people to even try to get tickets.

And remember there was a massive worldwide demand for the tour with likely an enormous concentration for Dublin (particularly given that there are no UK gigs on that leg of the tour).

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938188#Comment_120938188

I'll rephrase it...

There is zero excuse for charging the excessive prices that they are. I have full knowledge of what goes on and I can tell you here and now, they know full well what they're at. There is no evil agent, promoter etc, it's the artists and the management teams. I know the record industry is down in terms of sales, purely because of streaming. I get that and it's been on the cards for decades. That blame is purely on the general public. I might use Spotify, but I always buy the physical product of an artist I like. Most others don't go looking for new music anymore or go to gigs in search of artists. They want to be told what to listen to and then stream it on their phones for a tenner or download it illegally from YouTube. Can you or I blame them? Nope, but it's a fact that has led to the downturn in the music industry. It's now at a point where Ed Sheeran, by his own admission, can just write something and it'll sell.

"Blue collared, man of the people, working class, Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen" Do me a favour 🙄

Music is subjective in people's tastes and that's why we love it but, I mentioned 3 artists and others have mentioned 3 artists.

U2, Queen, Michael Jackson = €177 (Based on inflation and the cost of a standing ticket the last time U2 were here)

Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen = €471

Whatever way you look at it, that is absolutely outrageous!

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938418#Comment_120938418

Not saying this is the majority, but everyone I know, apart from 2 people, all never liked Coldplay. Now they're their biggest fans...

Was the same with Garth Brooks and was the same with U2 in 2001 and 2005

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938188#Comment_120938188

The Coldplay figure are way off.

using the rough €45 million.

Vat is 13.5% so that’s €6m gone straight away.

GAA HQ probably getting at least €3m.

garda will probably charge €500-€1m for off duty work

staging/set up could easily be another million

security will be another €1m or so for the week.

realistically Coldplay will probably get between €15 -€20M before they own expenses. I’m sure they probably have a crew of over 200/300 on tour with them.

Not saying that Coldplay tickets couldn’t be cheaper but this whole Coldplay walking away with €30m in their pockets is nonsense.

Exclamation Marc

It was reported that revenue from the 2017 gig was $8,970,100 if that helps.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938445#Comment_120938445

Don't forget the merchandise that they sell. That goes straight into the artist's pocket

greenspurs

https://www.nme.com/news/music/coldplay-touring-money-made-2017-2384495

The figures from the 2017 tour !

The band played 63 shows in 2017 , a turnover of £63,667,007  - profit for 2017 was reported at £38.4 million.

£59.1 million of performance fees 

£4.5 million in merchandise and royalties

Also they have spent £4mill on those wristband yokes for this tour..... Someones gotta pay for them ! :)

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938483#Comment_120938483

not necessarily live nation usually demand 25% cut for their shows.

i’m sure Coldplay team have negotiated that down.

not sure if Coldplay would sell alot of merch tbh.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938523#Comment_120938523

Chris Martin will be selling those wristbands on eBay come the end of the tour

Beasty

No-one is forced to pay

There's an easy way to express your dissatisfaction. If you do though I suspect those making money out of this may not notice

And equally I suspect the hotels are making more per punter than the band

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938494#Comment_120938494

Those figures dont make sense. 63m turnover, for 63 gigs. That's an average of €1m per gig. If average ticket was say €80, that's only 12,500 people per show. THey played Croke Park that year, so presumably they were playing large stadiums worldwide. I would have thought that the average attendance per show would be be far greater than 12,500.

And you can multiply those figures by several multiples this time around - 4 shows, and the prices are significantly increased from 2017.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938445#Comment_120938445

Ok. But in the costs that you provided, you have only amounted to €12m expenses, before their own crew. How much do you think the crew are paid for the week in Dublin that it would eat into the €15m approx costs that I proposed. If there was 300 crew, and they got €10,000 each for that week's work, that's another €3m, to bring to approx €15. I'm only guessing, as are you. But it may not be too far off the mark.

On any case, the overall point is that it is excessive greed charging the prices that they are for a 2 hour performance. There can be no denying that surely.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938738#Comment_120938738

Accommodation for the crew alone could be another million.

cost of the stage that Coldplay are bringing is probably a lot.

transport costs of bringing 20/30/40 trucks from Europe/uk to ireland and tour buses with crew.

their agency takes 15% as well.

I’m sure Coldplay have a uk registered company and when the tour is over you can easily see the profit they made but honestly you’ll be surprised that it’s far from those estimates you threw out.

yeah they are millionaires and will make millionaires on this tour so they can of course decide to not charge platinum prices.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938870#Comment_120938870

True. With Dublin accommodation prices, it could eat up the entire turnover.

I could mess around with figures for several days, but at the end of it, its going to show that Coldplay (or their corporate vehicle will have several, several millions (before the money is extracted by salary, dividends or whatever they do these days). I'm just saying (like many others) that there was no need to increase the ticket prices to such an extent. Could have fallen on an average figure of say €120 per ticket, and they would still several, several millions. But at the end of the day, its simple economics - Supply and demand etc. If those are willing to pay, they will charge. And from what it seems from the media attention, Coldplay could have trebled their extortionate prices and they would still sell.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938870#Comment_120938870

That's not always the case.

The crew works through the night and they travel from gig to gig. Most crews have their own bus and sleep overnight as they travel. It wouldn't be possible to have a crew sleep over for X amount of nights whilst a stage needs to be set up elsewhere.

Zardoz

Prices have gone mad, just been told that the Jonas Brothers are charging 125 euro for upper tier seats in the 3Arena.

The fecking Jonas Brothers.

Dontfadeaway

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120938420#Comment_120938420

If Queen and MJ were playing today, it would be high prices too.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120939101#Comment_120939101

Possible...

Queen and MJ, I know they both used to make sure ticket prices were affordable for fans. But, it is of course possible. None of us know what steps they'd take if they were around today. Those 50 shows Michael was supposed to be doing in 2009, ticket prices were high (Think it was close to 90 or 100 quid for the cheapest) but it's well documented now that had nothing to do with him. That was a very murky scenario altogether and one case where it was the promoter swindling the public

Mr321

Insurance another million or two

MOR316

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours