FEATURE:
Chancing in the Dark
IN THIS PHOTO: Bruce Springsteen
Major Artists and the Issue of High Ticket Prices
__________
THERE have bene a couple…
PHOTO CREDIT: Giorgio Trovato/Unsplash
of high-profile cases involving major artists and high ticket prices through Ticketmaster. I know it is not the fault of the artists, but Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift are a two artists where this has applied. Where some fans are charged or have been expected to pay extortionate figures to go and see them. At a time when many artists cannot afford to tour because of costs – more on that later -, is it fair that bigger acts should charge fans so much to come and see them?! Maybe costs are humungous for major artists to mount a shot and take it arou8nd thew world, but one would think that they could cap prices to around $100 tops for any gig. Most fans shouldn’t have to pay more than that, as that is a lot on its own! As this NME reports, Bruce Springsteen fans are finding some eye-watering ticket prices to go and see him and live:
“Bruce Springsteen has responded to the backlash surrounding the ticket prices for his forthcoming tour.
An outcry ensued a few months ago when tickets for Springsteen’s first tour with the full E Street Band since 2017 went on sale, with reports that some tickets were priced at $5,000 (£4152) each thanks to Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” model. This system allows the ticketing site to charge more for tickets when they first go on sale, with the price increasing or decreasing depending on demand and in line with what a “scalper” – someone who resells tickets for profit – would sell them for, enabling the money to go to the artist and the in-house team.
Rolling Stone asked Springsteen about the controversy in an interview about his new album of soul covers, ‘Only The Strong Survive’. The Boss said that while he usually tries to charge “a little less” than peers, this time around, he wanted to do “what everybody else is doing”.
“What I do is a very simple thing. I tell my guys, ‘Go out and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a little less.’ That’s generally the directions,” Springsteen said. “They go out and set it up. For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans.”
He added: “This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ So that’s what happened. That’s what they did.”
He did, however, acknowledge that “ticket buying has gotten very confusing” for both fans and artists. “And the bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range,” he continued. “We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
It does seem like artists could step in and avoid this sort of thing! It is only right they should earn money and get quite a bit in addition to their crew and crew. Consider how many people will see Springsteen on the tour and how much some people will have to pay, and they will get an extortionate amount! I know venues take a large slice, but they are still left with a lot of money. There needs to be something put in place so that fans desperate to see their favourite artists are not having to shell out more money than they can afford. Taylor Swift is another artist who is in the news for similar reasons to Springsteen. She has taken again what Tickermaster have done regarding presale prices. The Guardian reports of developments between Swift and Ticketmaster:
“Taylor Swift: accidental antitrust avenger?
Move over Karl Marx, it looks like Taylor Swift just radicalized the masses. Over the past few days there has been a lot of bad blood between Ticketmaster and enraged Swift fans over the disastrous rollout of tickets for the singer’s “Eras” tour. During the pre-sale process, which was only supposed to be open to around 1.5 million verified Swift fans, 14 million people, including bots, tried to get tickets. Pandemonium and heartbreak ensued. Things got even more heated on Thursday, the day before sales were meant to open to the general public, when Ticketmaster announced it was scrapping further sales due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand”. According to Ticketmaster, demand for Swift “could have filled 900 stadiums”.
This story isn’t really about how many fans Swift has, however, although she certainly has a lot. This story is more about how much power Ticketmaster has. The entertainment company merged with Live Nation in 2010 to create the parent company Live Nation Entertainment, and, since then, there have been concerns about how dominant it is in the space. Last year, for example, five Democratic House representatives sent a letter to the justice department asking it to look into Ticketmaster and Live Nation. “Ticketmaster has strangled competition in live-entertainment ticketing and harmed consumers and must be revisited,” the lawmakers said in their letter.
While concerns about Ticketmaster’s dominance aren’t new, it looks like the collective power of millions of irate Swifties means something might now be done about it. A number of politicians have chimed in to express their concern about the situation in the last few days. Tennessee’s attorney general, for example, said he was launching a consumer protection investigation into the company after his office was bombarded with complaints from Swift fans. The Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate antitrust committee, wrote a letter to Ticketmaster voicing “serious concern about the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers”. The Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh Shapiro, announced he wanted to hear from people who had had trouble securing Swift tickets. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also chimed in to express her displeasure. “Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with Live Nation should never have been approved, and they need to be reined in,” the congresswoman tweeted. “Break them up.”
It looks like the justice department may agree with AOC’s assessment. On Friday afternoon, the New York Times reported the DoJ had opened an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster, focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry. According to the Times the investigation predates the Swift brouhaha, but it is certainly getting a lot more attention now.
Let’s hope that attention is sustained: the Swift ticketing debacle is just one high-profile example of the fact that the US has a major monopoly problem. Across numerous industries, monopolies are preventing healthy competition, which hurts consumers and lines the profits of a few chief executives. Remember the baby formula shortage earlier this year? That was partly due to the fact that just two companies – Abbott and Reckitt Benckiser – control about 80% of the US market. The US’s extortionate broadband and phone bill prices are another example of how monopolies hurt the average American. Here’s a statistic that will shock any European reader who is used to being able to choose from a number of broadband providers: a 2020 study found that 83.3 million Americans have only one broadband option. I live in a major US city and I only have two broadband options: both of which offer basically the same prices and services”.
Essentially, it is an issue with the very biggest artists and sites like Ticketmaster. One cannot necessarily blame artists like Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, but it does seem that whilst Swift has acted, artists like Springsteen are content enough to let things be. It is not fair on fans in any situation but, without outrage and condemnation by more in the industry, the practice will continue. With demand so high for tickets for major artists, the presale prices are extraordinary! This is not a new thing or U.S. thing. Ticket prices have been rising because of cost of living and supply chain issues, and it will only get worse. I know that a lot of artists are exempt and they can provide gigs that are affordable for most, I worry that things will get worse. It is getting harder to afford basic necessities, and does that mean live music will suffer because of it? It is rather shocking to see what has happened with Ticketmaster and this monopoly. Wider afield, so many big artists do charge a lot of money for tickets. I know they have a lot of overheads and costs, but I do think that so many tickets are overpriced. Some might say this has always been the way, though I don’t think that ticket price rises are necessarily in line with inflation. As this article explores, many artists have to cancel tours because of a drop in ticket sales coupled with rising costs:
“Musicians are cancelling concerts and entire tours because the rising costs of staff and materials coupled with a drop off in ticket sales is making them too expensive to run.
Earlier this month, US band Animal Collective cancelled forthcoming European dates as “not sustainable”. Within days, the UK downtempo producer Bonobo called time on future live shows in America, describing them as “exponentially expensive”. Then electronic musician Tourist rescheduled a US stint, saying “sometimes tickets just don’t get sold”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz/PHOTO CREDIT: JM Enternational/Getty Images
These announcements follow cancellations from acts including Santigold, Demi Levato, Poppy Ajudha and Mercury prize winner Little Simz. While some, such as Caroline Polachek, have rescheduled to spend more time in the studio, others, including Justin Bieber and Arlo Parks, have cited mental health.
“Every week we see another act cancelling a tour. It’s not a decision people take lightly,” says Sybil Bell, founder of Independent Venue Week. “It’s such a tough time and the production world is being decimated.” Kelly Wood, national organiser for live performance at the Musicians’ Union, agrees. “Artists are painfully cancelling shows. It’s a really big thing to do and there is no other option.”
The main issue is skyrocketing costs. It is easier for artists to pull dates rather than exposing themselves to expensive, empty gigs. For Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of the Music Managers Forum, it is a perfect storm. “Ticket sales are slow, people are worried about money, there is a massive labour shortage and the cost of hiring vans and trucks has gone up dramatically. On top of that, there is a currency devaluation and a fuel crisis. It’s absolutely horrible.”
It is getting harder to predict which acts will sell tickets. Many promoters use streaming figures and social media numbers to gauge interest. But does a million streams on Spotify mean people want to see an artist live? “Not necessarily,” says Elijah, artist manager at Make The Ting. “Some tracks are bigger than the artists themselves, and don’t convert well into tickets”.
There does seem to be a gulf between huge artists and everyone else. Whilst Ticketmaster are exposing some real problems and scandals, how many mainstream acts are ensuring their ticket prices are reasonable enough for most fans? Is there greater outrage from artists regarding what is happening with ticket sites? At a time when everyone is struggling, can prices be capped so that artists and crew earn what they deserve, venues get a fair cut, and fans are happy? What about the smaller artist that have to cancel gigs? It is a complex and larger issue, but I have been shocked by those recent stories about hugely inflated ticket prices. Something definitely needs to be done. So many fans are either paying too much and suffering or they are unable to buy tickets because they are out of their range. Also, many talented and rising acts are cancelling gigs because ticket demand is decreasing. The situation regarding the cost of living is different here to the U.S., but there is a growing issue in live music that is impacting fans and artists alike. Live music has been a lifeline for so many. From huge artists like Taylor Swift to smaller like Caroline Polachek, it is a pity to see what is happening. Let’s hope that there is progress and improvement…
IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek/PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
IN 2023.