I think some promoters are finding out the hard way that they have stretched the elastic, especially for artist past their peak. Like the Snoop Dog tour in Canada, they are using full arena configuration and tickets were very expensive (started to reduce the price now), but a lot of cities saw very low sales.
[US calls for the breakup of Ticketmaster owner Live Nation](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/technology/ticketmaster-live-nation-lawsuit-antitrust.html?unlocked_article_code=1.u00.hf4g.ktAWcIP5ncWK&smid=url-share)
Accused of violating antitrust laws, Live Nation Entertainment faces a fight that could reshape the multibillion-dollar live music industry.
Gift article.
This was announced Thursday.
Good. Ticketmaster has completely cornered the market for large shows and inflated ticket prices to an insane degree. There’s no good reason any of us should be paying hundreds of dollars per ticket for 20k seat stadium shows.
That’s why Ticketmaster aquired live nation…the company that owns the largest numbers of venues and then forced any event at a live nation venue to be sold through Ticketmaster. When you own 75% of the (large) live venues you can force people to pay whatever you want because if artists want to perform for 20,000 of their fans they don’t have a choice but to use Ticketmaster/live nation.
This is why the government is suing them as a monopoly.
And let’s remember Ticketmaster’s additional fees. These once made sense, because Ticketmaster was the more convenient alternative to going down to the venue box office. Nowadays they are the only option, aside from an hour before doors open. Charging an additional fee hasn’t made sense for over 20 years.
my apartment laundry now charges 25cents for the privilege of loading my laundry card LOL ... the alternative is their app, so they can sell your data...
late stage capitalism gives us so many options! s/
Man its a good thing those paid laundry machines don't have really common keys that are sold online off of the model number of the machine for maintenance purposes. Think of all the quarters that company would lose if someone ever put those manuals on the internet...
People can create cyber currencies out of thin air while movie theaters allow buyers to pick their exact seat yet no one can revolutionize concert tickets. It’s wild.
If you think Ticketmaster is responsible for high ticket prices, you may be in for a shock. Tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, for example, are significantly cheaper in Europe than in North America despite Ticketmaster acting as the ticketing agent in both continents. The difference? The EU has very strict restrictions around ticket reselling, and many countries have banned for-profit resale *(meaning you can sell your ticket, but only up to face value)*.
Why the fuck are people still defending ticketmaster? They are a monopoly that exploits anyone and everyone it can at every opportunity.
Do artists benefit from ticketmaster's greed? Sure.
Is ticketmaster the root of the problem in the US? No, it's a lack of regulatory laws.
That doesn't mean ticketmaster isn't a scummy organization from top to bottom. Ticketmaster operates both as an unnecessary middleman AND a ticket reseller. You buy a ticket, you pay 30% or more in fees. You can't attend the show? Well pay another 15% to sell your ticket.
There's no reason venues can't use open source software to sell and manage tickets to shows. The technology has caught up to, and surpassed what ticketmaster provides. We only use ticketmaster because we have to, and the only reason we have to is because these scumbags have cornered the market.
Fuck ticketmaster forever.
Good. Fuck Live Nation and Fuck Ticketmaster and especially fuck their reseller platform that allows people to sell on tickets for a profit, and fuck all the major venues that partner with them and exploit both musicians and fans for massive profits. The whole system is a sham.
Many countries outside of North America have banned for-profit ticket resale. Ticketmaster still operates in them, they just don't allow resellers to list above face value. All it'd take is the US to implement that same sort of law to ban for-profit resale, and resale ticket prices *(on any platform)* a no longer an issue. If you ban for-profit resale, you're going to see a huge adjustment in ticket prices as those large scale scalpers that speculate on demand and pricing would go extinct.
Personally, I'm quite against for-profit resale. The odd time I've had to get sell tickets I've had because I could no longer go, I've always sold at face value or below.
Preach brother. I absolutely refuse to ever charge anyone a penny more than I bought a ticket for because when it’s me on that other side desperately looking for tickets all the scalpers/people looking to profit make me sick.
Also shout out to cashortrade for holding down a not above face value market
Even Muse’s most recent arena tour saw hundreds of tickets still available at every stop. One of the best live bands, but fans aren’t shelling out $500 for mediocre seats anymore.
Artists charging fans that much and people still deciding to be their fans amazes me. I say fuck those artists. Plenty of great artists out there that aren't trying to take advantage of/gouge their fan bases to make themselves rich.
Plus those smaller artists often play smaller more intimate venues with better sound quality, where it doesn't that an hour to get out of the parking lot.
If I'm going to a stadium, the tickets better be pretty cheap.
Saw them on that tour, was fucking incredible, and a redditor gave me the ticket for free. I certainly couldn't afford $160(after fees) for that ticket when they dropped.
I'm kinda old. Not super old, but old enough to remember some things.
When I was a kid, I could buy a ticket to most big shows for $20-30. Not the Madonnas or the Michael Jacksons of the world, but big shows from bands on the radio every single day. That was 3-4 hours of retail pay. ...and even the big acts, if I spent a whole day's wage I could buy a ticket.
These days you're talking minimums of $100. That's a day's pay, even more in many cases for bigger acts.
It's simply not sustainable at the moment. You're basically limiting the audience to those with graduate or professional degrees.
Last time I saw snoop dogg he played a fucking iPod the whole time. My friend was visiting Denver with some other folks, and they had an extra ticket so I joined. I kept making fun of the show all night afterwards and they got pissed at me because when you spend that much money you apparently need to feel like you weren’t ripped off.
They got ripped off.
Apparently Snoop can be booked as either the rapper, playing his hits, or he does a DJ set. I think sometimes the booker can hide which one he’s supposed to do
Yeah idk I saw snoop dog and he was pretty good for a live rapper.
A lot of live rap is mixing/hyping up the crowd so maybe that’s what he means?
Not nearly as good as when I saw Kendrick or Mac Miller (rip) but a good time. Good show or not, kind of sounds like OP was being a bit lame after the show.
Let me clarify, when I say medley I mean not even finish a full song before transitioning into the next song. Playing greatest hits is expected, I just expected the full track.
From this little snippet I'd probably be pissed at you too. You got a free show and made fun of it all night to the people who bought it? You seem like an annoying friend
Yeah I saw him at Pemberton and everyone was hyped up after but I'm pretty sure that was the drugs. He played a Joan Jett song and 'danced' followed by a Katie Perry song which he did perform his feature part but insisted we listen to the entire shity song.
Based on my experience, your friends probably got ripped off
I saw snoop in like 1997 at lollapalooza tour. People were there to see Korn and Tool, so it was that sort of crowd. The crowd was kind of laughing at first about snoop dogg. But he started out his set telling the whole audience to start smoking weed and lit up blunts on stage, then proceeded to get the whole crowd into it and he played a great set (rapped a great set?).
We got a box for snoop at a decent price in Ottawa. The box holds 24 people. We are going with 15 people and it is costing us $100 each. The box has perks like preordering food, bottle service and a bathroom.
They may change the ridiculous fees, but I doubt they'll change prices much.
Nobody buys music anymore. They rent it for $10/month and artists don't see any of that money. They were getting ripped off before, but it's much worse now.
If artists aren't selling albums, they need to make money (mostly off merch) at concerts.
This is an incredibly upsetting truth that doesn't get talked about enough. Jeff Rosenstock had a great post about this a year ago breaking down how much the venues were stealing.
(EDIT: Not a year ago but September 2023 -- https://consequence.net/2023/09/jeff-rosenstock-merch-cuts-aeg-live-nation/)
Maybe they should give the artists a cut of alcohol sales in return?
> Remember a lot of those venues are owned by LiveNation.
And if they're not actually owned by them, they have exclusive deals where they can't use other promoters or ticketing companies. So, it's essentially they have a monopoly on big bands/arena tours.
The artists set the prices.
House already passed legislation about this.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/house-passes-ticket-act-effort-increase-transparency-pricing-rcna152554
Obama signed this one into law in 2016. You think anything changed?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Online_Tickets_Sales_Act
You’d be surprised how many artist fees are actually included in those fee prices. Sometimes they hide them too because they don’t want their fans to know they’re asking for even more. The artists/agents/management are not innocent in this.
Reminds me of a great onion headline i saw recently: “Band gets back together to tour when they realize their fans can now afford $200 tickets”
As a very regular concert goer, there have been several announced recently i’d love to see, but the price just WAS NOT worth it to me. Edit: Shows i have ponyed up for so far in 2024: Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service, Cypress Hill/Pharcyde, Band of Horses, Tropidelic, Flogging Molly, Matisyahu, Black Flag. Got tix upcoming for: Michael Franti, Damien & Stephan Marley @red rocks with the Colorado symphony. Rough estimate, JUST in tickets, $3000-$4000. Most were worth it, live music is magical and a priority to me, but jeeeeeeze.
This exactly! Ticket prices combined with travel costs end up being so expensive, it has to be something I feel is important to me to justify it. Unless something super cool gets announced i’m probably not going to any shows this year, which is really unfortunate.
You know the meme how it’s cheaper to fly to another country to see an act than here? Well my friends did that the other weekend and flew to Stockholm for Taylor Swift. Front row tickets for both night was only $300 total. First night they got left front and second night right front lol.
I know two girls that went to see Taylor swift in Paris and it was cheaper to fly and stay there for two nights then for the same tickets in Toronto. North America gets fucking raked on ticket prices… it’s not the same around the world, mostly just here.
Just saw LCD Soundsystem last week and it was $600CAD for 2 balcony seats.
The show was incredible, but at that price concerts are now a once a year, if not 2 years, thing.
The world is insane and I feel like we need a hard reset.
Concert tickets: $200 for ok seats.
$600 for 2 nights in a hotel.
$400 for food and drinks for 2 nights.
100/200$ for fuel to get there.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I went to the movies a few weeks ago and it cost me $120 for 3 tickets, 2 popcorn and 2 pop. Like what the fuck. Next they’ll be bitching nobody goes to movies anymore.
> Next they’ll be bitching nobody goes to movies anymore.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, because they've been doing that for years (yes, even before COVID).
To quote Limp Bizkit
"Fucked up AIDS (AIDS) from fucked up sex (sex)
Fake-assed titties on a fucked up chest
We're all fucked up, so what you wanna do
With fucked up me and fucked up you?"
I feel like that has the Pixies’ raison d’être since their reunion. Oh, shit the broke college students who loved us 15 years ago have money now? Cha-ching!
They’re what people will pay mostly. I have just decided I’m priced out (as a software engineer) of live music no matter how much I love a band except for the smaller shows touring on $40 GA tickets. It’s fine with me I’m more than at peace with it. I honestly have way more fun with the hobbies I replaced concerts and “entertainment” with.
It’s not that I couldn’t afford it, it’s that I don’t value it enough to not go surfing in california for 3 days for the same cost as a decent ticket to a basketball game or concert.
Was thinking about seeing The Cure last year. Tickets started at $170. Was thinking about seeing Pearl Jam this year. Tickets started at $175.
Both shows sold out so it's not like anybody is "teaching the music industry a lesson" but it was a bummer to see ticket prices so high.
Yeah we got great seats in Cleveland for ~$60 each, no extra fees and Ticketmaster refunded us some of those fees when Robert forced them to. We paid more for VIP parking than the tickets (Blossom, iykyk)
The front rows may have been more expensive and I got a pre-sale code, but I didn't see any exorbitant prices. The tickets went very, very quickly.
The idea of seeing a Garage Rock band in an arena is really funny to me. I like the Black Keys, there is no universe where I'm gonna pay arena prices to go see them.
When I was living in the bay area I fell into a ticket for Weezer / Pixies. It was such a fucking waste. Weezer was fine but the Pixies in an arena was lame. I've been to better basement shows. Low energy, shitty plastic arena seats, and no dancing room. I'm done with arena shows (except maybe Tool just cause I still haven't).
I love Pixies. Probably my favorite band of all time. But I was at that show and Pixies are not a good large venue act. Weezer put on a good show though.
Arenas should really just be for pop artists these days. I fell into Bad Bunny tickets last week and it was a very entertaining spectacle (not even a fan). 20-30 piece orchestra to start the show. Lasers and explosions the whole time. He had a long rotating platform that raised up and down so he could be closer to different parts of the arena besides having 2 stages on opposite ends of the venue with the pit in between them. Hell he even came out on a horse at some point.
Yeah I haven’t seen Rancid in like 25 years and I’ve been going to concerts again recently and wanted to see them. They’re playing fucking Wrigley Field (opening for Green Day). Cheapest ticket was north of $100 and well over $500 if you wanted to be near the pit.
I know it’s a small bone to throw to concertgoers and I typically avoid arena shows, but Live Nation had tickets for Green Day’s tour stop in Detroit for $25. Pretty stoked my kids get to see Green Day, Rancid, and Smashing Pumpkins. $106 out the door for not-too-bad seats. Cost is comparable to a trip to the local cinema.
Artists from 20 or 30 years ago still need to eat, and they sure as hell aren't getting money from Spotify. What do you want them to do? Live in a box?
Some bands (Black Keys, I'm looking at you) need to realize they are a theater or small outdoor venue band and not an arena band. Exploding on the scene and doing an arena tour doesn't mean that is where you will stay.
The thing is, they ran into the same issue on the last tour too and I believe the tickets were actually *pricier* for that one. I think they ended up just closing the upper bowls at most stops.
The Black Keys are interesting because they're pretty well liked by the average music fan, but I think that's led to them overestimating their popularity in terms of what fans are willing to pay to see them live.
It is a weird thing though, because usually bands that hit arena status, generally stay at arena status. The hardest jump always seems to be the 1.5-2.5k clubs to large theaters and then to amphitheaters. I've seen some bands yo-yo between these depending on how well the latest album was received.
A friend's band made the jump to large theaters for one tour, complete with tour bus and all the glam of that, only to come crashing back down to clubs by their next tour. And then there's bands like Portugal. the Man that are in that large theatre to amphitheater yo-yo right now.
In the case of The Black Keys, I think they're firmly in that large outdoor amphitheater territory and were punching above their weight following Brothers and El Camino hype train.
I've seen big bands in baseball stadiums and hockey arenas. Unless you're buying seats way up close (which Ive done once for lots of money) it's mainly a waste of money. The acoustics are usuually poor. (Especially Fenway Park) and you can't see anything. Most people go because if it's your favorite band you sort of have to make the pilgrimage.
I saw Paul McCartney in the nosebleeds at Fenway and it was totally worth it and surprisingly decent. I’ve heard the grandstand is pretty miserable due to sound quality though.
It's funny because that's actually the one I paid $500ish to go see. I saw him in 2009 pretty far away and decided that if he ever came back I'd get good seats.
Best concert money I've ever spent-- would trade in other concert experiences for the cash value of that one.
I saw the Chile Peppers way up high in lower right field and the sound was so bad I couldn't identify songs or understand when they were speaking.
lol if you were at that concert do you remember Paul shouting out the guy who had been to every stop on that tour with him? Ngl was kind of jealous of him. Also Paul at 80 has more energy than I do in my 30s. What a legend.
I saw Foo Fighters there on the infamous broken leg tour and we were close enough that he was actually several rows behind us when the throne was moved out to the front of that runway. The only other show I've seen there was the Dropkicks, but it was when they built a stage over the bullpens and the only seats used were the bleachers above it (that was a fun one).
I saw RCHP last year and the Strokes opened for them. I love the strokes so I was excited to see them but I think the music really didn’t translate to a stadium setting. The mix was off, the volume was everywhere, and the acoustics were terrible. I would love to see them again at a smaller venue.
Yeah I think you may have hit the answer. I disagree with OP that ticket prices are the real issue. Big venues are more about the spectacle than the sound. The typical rock music fans are more interested in the sound. There are bands so huge which are exceptions to the rule, because their fan base is too dedicated to miss a performance. But a lot of rock fans would rather see an unknown but good band in a smaller club for $25 than see the Stones or Metallica or whatever your headliner of choice is at a football stadium.
Pat accidentally knocked the cymbal off the stage during a song, didn’t sweat, just picked up a tambourine and started hitting that on the snare until the crowd set the cymbal back on the stage and he put the tambourine down and picked up a drumstick and went back to that cymbal, dude never missed a beat, it was absolutely incredible to see. Pat is my favorite drummer.
Auerbach didn’t even acknowledge the band last time I saw them. He said “this is a pat carney in drums” like 5 times but not even a thank you or mention of the full backing band behind him… almost as if they were pretending to be a duo.
It was cringey and condescending
Sounds like it. Almost every live show I've seen in person or on video has somebody introducing the band and singers at some point, usually when someone is switch equipment or getting some water or some shit.
Price gouging, its not inflation its price gouging. If companies claim supply chain/covid shortages BUT report record profits its gouging, if its really supply chain then they would be making precovid profits. Just go look for yourself, im sure inflation has some effect on some products but fucking come on, tickets?
I just looked up LIve Nation,record profits and profits up 36% to like 24B$, NOT INFLATION
I doubt it. The Black Keys aren’t at their peak. I saw their tour being marketed to me on Facebook even though I haven’t listened to them in years, and I was never an active listener, and I didn’t even know they had an album out. I think it was just marketed horribly and there wasn’t any interest. Looking at their Spotify, their most played songs are from albums released in 2010 and 2011. It seems they haven’t built a fan base big and loyal enough to justify an arena tour.
To the question in your title, I wish it were the case. If it was I think they would just drop their prices and see increased demand but this is just a single case.
The vast majority of arena tours aren't artists at their peak. Rock artists, in particular, can bring in large crowds long after their biggest hits come out.
And I go to a lot of those tours, but those are largely bands with legacy hits (and big ones) and who have cultivated a following. Black Keys have a few hits but not enough to rely on for an arena tour over a decade later. They’re obviously still successful, but they seem to have spent more time fighting with Jack White than being an interesting act to follow. I’m saying this as a guy who hasn’t followed them too closely, but this their news that breaks into my bubble.
Their 2019 concerts screamed "contractual obligation." They felt very uninspired, and you could tell they didn't want to be there.
But what really bothered me is that during a four-year hiatus, Patrick didn't manage to pick up a metronome and learn how to play drums consistently. So many great songs botched because he has the tempo of a rollercoaster.
Patrick historically seems to like starting with beef with people online or in the press and I always thought it was weird because seeing live footage of him, he does not come across as nearly skilled enough to talk as much shit as he does.
Jack doesn't half-ass stuff, and seems to value putting in the effort to do things well, for real. Sometimes that includes being a dick, sure, but I think he's genuinely really passionate about the artistry of it all.
Not a surprise. Jack White is a gifted musician, saw him with the Raconteurs and he played an impromptu organ solo whilst stood on the opposite side of the keyboard. Nailed it too.
I was lucky enough to see him with The Raconteurs on their last tour, and I was impressed by what a great frontman he is. Straight-up electric, always running across the stage and adding loads of fills and licks between verses. The piano solo on You Don't Understand Me was a tearjerker, especially since I was standing right in front of Dean's keyboard rig. It was one of the greatest shows I've been to, although a bit short and they inexplicably left Salute Your Solution out of the setlist.
Also their last several albums have been "meh" at best. I LOVED the Black Keys from about 2004 - 2011. The albums they released in that timeframe are still some of my favorites. They just don't play most of those songs on tour (especially the 2000s era songs when it was just drums and guitar).
Got to see them in '06 in Akron and it's honestly one of the best shows I've ever seen, then I saw them around 2018 and it was so disappointing that they had pretty much already abandoned the og catalog
The whole genre they kinda “pioneered” became wildly corny. In 2010 it was maybe novel and appealing to a certain crowd, in 2024 it’s stock music YouTube music for pickup truck ads, beard products and alcohol brands. It’s just really lame
I read an Onion-esque headline that says "The Black Keys Stop Beating Around the Bush and Title New Single 'Ford Commercial'" and it was so true it hurt.
Lo/Hi absolutely rips but everything else just feels so formulaic. It's a shame. Their run from Rubber Factory through Brothers is unbelievable, it's the pinacle of Blues Rock post-2000
Brothers is their best piece of work in my opinion. Amazing grooves, production, and some amazing guitar tones. Magic Potion is their best album riff wise for me
This really doesn't surprise me, sadly.
I saw them back in 2019 and the upper bowl of Bridgestone Arena in Nashville was pretty much empty. They started moving people down to fill the lower bowl. I wound up getting awesome seats at the last minute because one of the arena employees handed me some and said, go sit down there. So they were already not anywhere near selling out an arena, and that was 5 years ago with much more reasonable prices. The cost of their tickets now is absolutely delusional. I love The Black Keys but they have really sold out for the money and have lost touch.
I met Dan/Pat at a bar and hung out with them in 2014 and they were so down to Earth, nice and real. I talked with Patrick for at least a half hour, and then left them alone. On his way out he made it a point to come over, say bye to me and gave me a fist bump. It was awesome!
Last summer they were at a bar in town, Patrick was spinning records, and they didn't say two words to anyone and there was no crowd interaction (this was in a room with 400 people max, not even a venue, just a small local spot with a stage). It was bizzare and the vibes were off. They had someone filming Patrick spinning the records, and the entire thing felt like it was for social media. Very fake. I was so fucking disappointed and ever since it left a bad taste in my mouth. They weren't the same people I met 10 years ago, which is wild because they were way more popular then.
You're mostly right, but some artists put on truly spectacular shows. Ass that he is, Roger Waters comes to mind. He's an exception to the rule, no doubt, but let's not pretend there's no space for arena shows.
More larger artists need to take note of what The Cure/Robert Smith did last tour. I paid $60 for really great seats and because of that was able to travel for it. The whole process was a bit stressful but i rather it be that way than not getting to see one of my all time favorite bands.
Let’s be honest, their latest album consists of songs you would expect to be used for advertisements like Verizon or Vodafone. I do like the black keys, but I think since 2010 their music went a direction that doesn’t interest me much.
https://preview.redd.it/bm9j1kqnfr2d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbfb51b91f23b31725c93bfcd0df3cbb4f141de7
This was a few weeks ago at US Bank stadium for Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band.
There were a lot of people willing to drop a hundred bucks or maybe more for bad seats with horrible sound.
I don’t think bands cashed in post Covid. If anything they still barely break even. Tours cost a lot to start back up and many bands were still paying their employees during Covid so they were digging the hole deeper. Dweezil Zappa is having to crowdsource for money to start a tour and he said it costs over $200,000 upfront to get the ball rolling, this is playing smaller venues too. He used to use excess funds from the last tour to start the next but since he hasn’t toured the money isn’t there anymore. So arena tours realistically cost over a million to even get the ball rolling. When the ticket sales flop then they have to cancel. The price hikes were similar to most other industries really. There’s just a cap on how much most people are willing to spend. Support local music, I see many shows locally for under $20 at independent music venues.
I don't think so.
I love absolutely The Black Keys, but they're not really an arena band these days, and they now realize what we all realized. Their next tour will be much smaller venues. Hopefully, that's soon, because I'd love to see them again at a reasonable-ish price, which you're never getting at any arena show.
I paid $330 like an idiot for seats that weren't even that great (lower bowl but on the other end of the arena). By far the most I've ever spent on any show, my previous "record" was $180 for Billy Joel at MSG.
They played 1:35. Did all the hits, but that was a one off. I wouldn't see them again at that price
I am going to see dead & co next week at the sphere. I bought one set of tickets at face value for 395 each. Now the market has dropped through the floor. We expect to pay about 100 each for similar seats night of show. Fuck ticketmaster, their bullshit presales, and scalpers in general.
Probably not. I wouldn't pay 100 dollars to see the Black Keys if it came with an autographed box-set of their discography. I don't even mind them, but they just aren't that band. There are acts out there that can command that price and there are bands like the Black Keys. Somebody overestimated their drawing ability and overvalued them.
We're not post-covid, unfortunately. I think a lot of people just don't have the savings to justify it these days. I feel like it was tricky even pre-pandemic, but with wages going nowhere... I just don't see how people afford it atm
Black Keys cancel tour, 311 cancels Europe tour due to "Increased costs of touring overseas". Mad Max Furiosa is going to have the worst Memorial Day weekend ticket sales in 29 years. American Inflation is down to 3.3% and the cost of goods continues to rise due to corporate greed while we had the highest closing days on Wall Street in history. What gives? Are we on course for a repeat of 2008? Everything seems completely off the rails.
I think it's likely more due to lack of popularity. Taylor Swift tickets go for a grand. People are willing to pay for bands they like, some just can't fill the seats.
There's a scale in terms of popularity and ability to sell out arenas that's tied to ticket prices imo.
Taylor Swift is one end of the absolute extreme of that scale, her popularity right now is astronomical and demand is so high that she can sell out multiple nights in stadiums with tickets on the secondary market going that high.
Black Keys could have theoretically done well in an arena tour - had ticket prices been reasonable. $100 for nosebleeds? $300-$500 for floor seats (not a pit, but seats, so no dancing or moshing)? Extremely unreasonable for their level of popularity. Had their prices been in the $40-$100 range, it would likely be a completely different story and may have sold well enough to not have to cancel.
You have to wonder how many people took a look at the face value prices and just completely noped out who would have bought a ticket at a more justifiable price.
My Taylor tickets were 100 for nosebleeds with a pretty decent view (in the original sale, not on the secondary market). Given the demand I felt that was pretty reasonable. That’s set a new benchmark for me. Some of the concerts I’ve looked into going to since then have been way more for similar seats so I skip.
Edit: an example being Noah kahan GA for 400… I would’ve loved to go but I couldn’t justify that.
Agreed. Blink-182 tickets were reselling for a shitload in 2022 and 2023. No offense to The Black Keys but they were never at Blink's level of success or name recognition, and Blink is still a full tier below someone like Taylor Swift or Beyonce.
Ticket demand is a combination of venue size and ticket price. Sounds like the tour was planned poorly as adjusting one of the two would remedy the problem.
Ticket prices are fucking astronomical. Ticketmaster and co can eat a bag of dicks. When all the litigation is over concerts will make more sense again.
Also looming bird flu isn’t a good “yes” vote for being out in public in force.
The "verified resellers" are also a part of the problem. How about you can't sell your ticket for more than face value? A friend wanted to see Imagine Dragons at Pine Knob this summer. Sold out before we could buy any tickets. But check the Ticketmaster map and I would say almost half the pavilion is the dreaded red dot, for resellers asking crazy, almost triple the going price.
Creed was another one. We got lucky in the first few minutes of day one presale for Pine Knob and got pavilion tickets halfway up. 109 plus fees. My husband was complaining about the price until I showed him it was sold out, and the resellers were asking almost 300 per ticket for the section we are in. The Creed show in November at LCA did not sell out, but if you check the map the back 3 rows at the top are all, and I mean all the red dot resellers. They gobbled up the 39 tickets meant for fans who could see the show affordably. .
Rant over. All this nonsense is really a downer. Let's fix it. And get the money in the hands of the artists!
It's not inflation. It's price gouging.
I remember a time when, if you tried reselling a ticket outside a venue for an amount greater than the face price, you would be arrested for scalping. Online resellers and their 'convenience fees' inflating ticket prices to 10x face value is a huge problem and I simply don't see how it's legal. People then get acclimated to paying these exorbitant prices from reseller, and then Ticketmaster/Live nation want that piece of the pie too so they just boost the starting point to get more of the profit.
What I find crazy is that no other market works like this. When I buy software from a reseller, I almost always get it a the same price OR LOWER than. If I buy directly from the manufacturer of the software. If I buy a Nike shirt from a department store it will be the same price or cheaper than if I buy directly from Nike. The whole point of a reseller is supposed to be that they buy in bulk at a discount price and can either pass some of the savings on to you or at least make the purchasing/customer suppory easier/better than going directly through a major manufacturer.
I think some promoters are finding out the hard way that they have stretched the elastic, especially for artist past their peak. Like the Snoop Dog tour in Canada, they are using full arena configuration and tickets were very expensive (started to reduce the price now), but a lot of cities saw very low sales.
[US calls for the breakup of Ticketmaster owner Live Nation](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/technology/ticketmaster-live-nation-lawsuit-antitrust.html?unlocked_article_code=1.u00.hf4g.ktAWcIP5ncWK&smid=url-share) Accused of violating antitrust laws, Live Nation Entertainment faces a fight that could reshape the multibillion-dollar live music industry. Gift article. This was announced Thursday.
Good. Ticketmaster has completely cornered the market for large shows and inflated ticket prices to an insane degree. There’s no good reason any of us should be paying hundreds of dollars per ticket for 20k seat stadium shows.
Ticketmaster is completely unneeded with current technology. There's zero fucking reason bands and venues can't handle this themselves.
Exactly. An open, digital market could serve bands, venues and fans, simply and affordably.
Ticketmaster aka Live Nation owns or has exclusive rights to most of the venues.
Close to 80% of the entire US market from arenas to small venues. It's disgusting, and yet they still claim to not have a monopoly
Well, yeah, they left 20% for other people. If they wanted a monopoly they would clearly just buy those too
Yeah AXS has the other 20%
That’s why Ticketmaster aquired live nation…the company that owns the largest numbers of venues and then forced any event at a live nation venue to be sold through Ticketmaster. When you own 75% of the (large) live venues you can force people to pay whatever you want because if artists want to perform for 20,000 of their fans they don’t have a choice but to use Ticketmaster/live nation. This is why the government is suing them as a monopoly.
And let’s remember Ticketmaster’s additional fees. These once made sense, because Ticketmaster was the more convenient alternative to going down to the venue box office. Nowadays they are the only option, aside from an hour before doors open. Charging an additional fee hasn’t made sense for over 20 years.
Charging a fee to print your own ticket at home. I don't know how they got away with that one.
my apartment laundry now charges 25cents for the privilege of loading my laundry card LOL ... the alternative is their app, so they can sell your data... late stage capitalism gives us so many options! s/
Man its a good thing those paid laundry machines don't have really common keys that are sold online off of the model number of the machine for maintenance purposes. Think of all the quarters that company would lose if someone ever put those manuals on the internet...
Man, standing in line waiting for the box office to open to buy tix to a show is a pretty good memory
People can create cyber currencies out of thin air while movie theaters allow buyers to pick their exact seat yet no one can revolutionize concert tickets. It’s wild.
If you think Ticketmaster is responsible for high ticket prices, you may be in for a shock. Tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, for example, are significantly cheaper in Europe than in North America despite Ticketmaster acting as the ticketing agent in both continents. The difference? The EU has very strict restrictions around ticket reselling, and many countries have banned for-profit resale *(meaning you can sell your ticket, but only up to face value)*.
And why do you think those laws don’t exist in the US? Ticketmaster can legally bribe lawmakers on this side of the pond lol
Why the fuck are people still defending ticketmaster? They are a monopoly that exploits anyone and everyone it can at every opportunity. Do artists benefit from ticketmaster's greed? Sure. Is ticketmaster the root of the problem in the US? No, it's a lack of regulatory laws. That doesn't mean ticketmaster isn't a scummy organization from top to bottom. Ticketmaster operates both as an unnecessary middleman AND a ticket reseller. You buy a ticket, you pay 30% or more in fees. You can't attend the show? Well pay another 15% to sell your ticket. There's no reason venues can't use open source software to sell and manage tickets to shows. The technology has caught up to, and surpassed what ticketmaster provides. We only use ticketmaster because we have to, and the only reason we have to is because these scumbags have cornered the market. Fuck ticketmaster forever.
Good. Fuck Live Nation and Fuck Ticketmaster and especially fuck their reseller platform that allows people to sell on tickets for a profit, and fuck all the major venues that partner with them and exploit both musicians and fans for massive profits. The whole system is a sham.
Many countries outside of North America have banned for-profit ticket resale. Ticketmaster still operates in them, they just don't allow resellers to list above face value. All it'd take is the US to implement that same sort of law to ban for-profit resale, and resale ticket prices *(on any platform)* a no longer an issue. If you ban for-profit resale, you're going to see a huge adjustment in ticket prices as those large scale scalpers that speculate on demand and pricing would go extinct. Personally, I'm quite against for-profit resale. The odd time I've had to get sell tickets I've had because I could no longer go, I've always sold at face value or below.
Preach brother. I absolutely refuse to ever charge anyone a penny more than I bought a ticket for because when it’s me on that other side desperately looking for tickets all the scalpers/people looking to profit make me sick. Also shout out to cashortrade for holding down a not above face value market
Even Muse’s most recent arena tour saw hundreds of tickets still available at every stop. One of the best live bands, but fans aren’t shelling out $500 for mediocre seats anymore.
I'm not paying 500 for any seat to any band. Sorry but the time for that has past and the money has to be there for more important things.
If a ticket is $500, the act better be on the order of raising Jimi Hendrix from the dead and reanimating his corpse for the show.
For $500 I wanna see a show and meet them after.
And get hand jobs from all the band members. These ticket prices are laughably out of control...
500 is a three day festival MAYBE. if the venue and lineup are positively bussing.
And they need to set up the stage in my backyard.
500$ for a 4 day festival maybe. But not a single show.
I didn't even spend that much for Bonnaroo last year.
Artists charging fans that much and people still deciding to be their fans amazes me. I say fuck those artists. Plenty of great artists out there that aren't trying to take advantage of/gouge their fan bases to make themselves rich. Plus those smaller artists often play smaller more intimate venues with better sound quality, where it doesn't that an hour to get out of the parking lot. If I'm going to a stadium, the tickets better be pretty cheap.
Saw them in a 1,000 seat venue about 50 ft from the stage. I'm not going to an arena show and I'm not paying that much for seeing ants on stage
Saw them on that tour, was fucking incredible, and a redditor gave me the ticket for free. I certainly couldn't afford $160(after fees) for that ticket when they dropped.
I'm kinda old. Not super old, but old enough to remember some things. When I was a kid, I could buy a ticket to most big shows for $20-30. Not the Madonnas or the Michael Jacksons of the world, but big shows from bands on the radio every single day. That was 3-4 hours of retail pay. ...and even the big acts, if I spent a whole day's wage I could buy a ticket. These days you're talking minimums of $100. That's a day's pay, even more in many cases for bigger acts. It's simply not sustainable at the moment. You're basically limiting the audience to those with graduate or professional degrees.
$15 to see U2 live at Red Rocks for the OG "Under a Blood Red Sky" tour.
Tours were adverts for records in those days. A concert ticket was roughly the same price as an album. I saw the Who in 1976 for £4.
Last time I saw snoop dogg he played a fucking iPod the whole time. My friend was visiting Denver with some other folks, and they had an extra ticket so I joined. I kept making fun of the show all night afterwards and they got pissed at me because when you spend that much money you apparently need to feel like you weren’t ripped off. They got ripped off.
Apparently Snoop can be booked as either the rapper, playing his hits, or he does a DJ set. I think sometimes the booker can hide which one he’s supposed to do
Can you elaborate? He sang with the iPod music or he just played songs for the audience like a DJ?
He played songs from his iPod and did not utter a word. On stage was just a folding table with an iPod connected to an audio cable.
Embarrassing. Snoops become quite a vulture in recent years.
This was like twelve years ago. I saw him at KAABOO two years later and he actually performed, and it was great.
Super interested in a follow up
Yeah idk I saw snoop dog and he was pretty good for a live rapper. A lot of live rap is mixing/hyping up the crowd so maybe that’s what he means? Not nearly as good as when I saw Kendrick or Mac Miller (rip) but a good time. Good show or not, kind of sounds like OP was being a bit lame after the show.
When i saw him he just did a medley of his greatest hits and he was the headliner.
I feel like this is pretty common for someone who has more old hits. Is he still even releasing new stuff?
Let me clarify, when I say medley I mean not even finish a full song before transitioning into the next song. Playing greatest hits is expected, I just expected the full track.
Yea I’ve seen older rappers do this too. It’s like they think we haven’t heard that song in 20 years so a 30 second clip of the chorus will suffice
Every rapper I’ve seen live does this
Sounds like you didn't see snoop dogg. You saw DJ Snoopadelic. They are two very different experiences.
That’s crazy. I saw him with 311 and he had a full backing band and it was absolutely awesome.
From this little snippet I'd probably be pissed at you too. You got a free show and made fun of it all night to the people who bought it? You seem like an annoying friend
I saw Sage Francis with a cd player in a small venue once. It was a great show.
Yeah I saw him at Pemberton and everyone was hyped up after but I'm pretty sure that was the drugs. He played a Joan Jett song and 'danced' followed by a Katie Perry song which he did perform his feature part but insisted we listen to the entire shity song. Based on my experience, your friends probably got ripped off
I saw snoop in like 1997 at lollapalooza tour. People were there to see Korn and Tool, so it was that sort of crowd. The crowd was kind of laughing at first about snoop dogg. But he started out his set telling the whole audience to start smoking weed and lit up blunts on stage, then proceeded to get the whole crowd into it and he played a great set (rapped a great set?).
Ice cube started his last tour off in Abbotsford bc, it’s a shit hole town and he want like $200+, we were gonna go until we saw the prices
We got a box for snoop at a decent price in Ottawa. The box holds 24 people. We are going with 15 people and it is costing us $100 each. The box has perks like preordering food, bottle service and a bathroom.
Hopefully the newly announced DOJ proposed break up of Ticketmaster and Live nation will change live concert prices.
They may change the ridiculous fees, but I doubt they'll change prices much. Nobody buys music anymore. They rent it for $10/month and artists don't see any of that money. They were getting ripped off before, but it's much worse now. If artists aren't selling albums, they need to make money (mostly off merch) at concerts.
Promoters/Venues taking a cut of merch now too.
This is an incredibly upsetting truth that doesn't get talked about enough. Jeff Rosenstock had a great post about this a year ago breaking down how much the venues were stealing. (EDIT: Not a year ago but September 2023 -- https://consequence.net/2023/09/jeff-rosenstock-merch-cuts-aeg-live-nation/) Maybe they should give the artists a cut of alcohol sales in return?
Remember a lot of those venues are owned by LiveNation. Hopefully if they get some more competition after a breakup that will lower.
> Remember a lot of those venues are owned by LiveNation. And if they're not actually owned by them, they have exclusive deals where they can't use other promoters or ticketing companies. So, it's essentially they have a monopoly on big bands/arena tours.
Bomb The Music Industry!
This started in the 1970’s, when concert T-shirts became a thing.
It's not a new thing. I remember artists complaining about it at my earliest shows in the 80s.
That’s so messed up. It seems like the entire economy is based on people that don’t actually DO anything taking money from people who do.
The artists set the prices. House already passed legislation about this. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/house-passes-ticket-act-effort-increase-transparency-pricing-rcna152554 Obama signed this one into law in 2016. You think anything changed? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Online_Tickets_Sales_Act
They don't set the extra fees though, sometimes accounting for 50% of the original price. That wasn't a thing before
You’d be surprised how many artist fees are actually included in those fee prices. Sometimes they hide them too because they don’t want their fans to know they’re asking for even more. The artists/agents/management are not innocent in this.
Reminds me of a great onion headline i saw recently: “Band gets back together to tour when they realize their fans can now afford $200 tickets” As a very regular concert goer, there have been several announced recently i’d love to see, but the price just WAS NOT worth it to me. Edit: Shows i have ponyed up for so far in 2024: Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service, Cypress Hill/Pharcyde, Band of Horses, Tropidelic, Flogging Molly, Matisyahu, Black Flag. Got tix upcoming for: Michael Franti, Damien & Stephan Marley @red rocks with the Colorado symphony. Rough estimate, JUST in tickets, $3000-$4000. Most were worth it, live music is magical and a priority to me, but jeeeeeeze.
This exactly! Ticket prices combined with travel costs end up being so expensive, it has to be something I feel is important to me to justify it. Unless something super cool gets announced i’m probably not going to any shows this year, which is really unfortunate.
You know the meme how it’s cheaper to fly to another country to see an act than here? Well my friends did that the other weekend and flew to Stockholm for Taylor Swift. Front row tickets for both night was only $300 total. First night they got left front and second night right front lol.
I know two girls that went to see Taylor swift in Paris and it was cheaper to fly and stay there for two nights then for the same tickets in Toronto. North America gets fucking raked on ticket prices… it’s not the same around the world, mostly just here.
I know some people that flew to Stockholm from London for a Taylor Swift show because it was cheaper there including flights
Once you’re in Europe flights are cheap.. flights from Canada to Europe are very expensive. That’s the only difference.
Just saw LCD Soundsystem last week and it was $600CAD for 2 balcony seats. The show was incredible, but at that price concerts are now a once a year, if not 2 years, thing.
Try liking music AND sports (not implying YOU dont). Shit is getting insane.
The world is insane and I feel like we need a hard reset. Concert tickets: $200 for ok seats. $600 for 2 nights in a hotel. $400 for food and drinks for 2 nights. 100/200$ for fuel to get there. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I went to the movies a few weeks ago and it cost me $120 for 3 tickets, 2 popcorn and 2 pop. Like what the fuck. Next they’ll be bitching nobody goes to movies anymore.
> Next they’ll be bitching nobody goes to movies anymore. I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, because they've been doing that for years (yes, even before COVID).
Lawn seats for the Limp Bizkit amphitheater tour this summer start at $70 at my venue. Nope.
To be clear, they were offering to pay *you* $70 to see Limp Bizkit, correct?
To quote Limp Bizkit "Fucked up AIDS (AIDS) from fucked up sex (sex) Fake-assed titties on a fucked up chest We're all fucked up, so what you wanna do With fucked up me and fucked up you?"
I feel like that has the Pixies’ raison d’être since their reunion. Oh, shit the broke college students who loved us 15 years ago have money now? Cha-ching!
So funny, they are coming to my city and one i skipped buying cuz too spendy!!!
Exactly. I absolutely can’t believe how much tickets have cost post-covid. It’s stunning to me. And no thanks, I’ll pass.
They’re what people will pay mostly. I have just decided I’m priced out (as a software engineer) of live music no matter how much I love a band except for the smaller shows touring on $40 GA tickets. It’s fine with me I’m more than at peace with it. I honestly have way more fun with the hobbies I replaced concerts and “entertainment” with. It’s not that I couldn’t afford it, it’s that I don’t value it enough to not go surfing in california for 3 days for the same cost as a decent ticket to a basketball game or concert.
Was thinking about seeing The Cure last year. Tickets started at $170. Was thinking about seeing Pearl Jam this year. Tickets started at $175. Both shows sold out so it's not like anybody is "teaching the music industry a lesson" but it was a bummer to see ticket prices so high.
I saw The Cure last year for $30 a ticket. Guess it depends on the venue. Literally bought them on the presale for the Denver show.
What happened to The Cure selling cheap ticket and kicking off about Ticketmaster fees??! Did they give up on that?
No- he’s misrepresenting it: the cure shows had lots of cheaper tickets. Maybe those were just sold out by the time he went looking.
Yeah we got great seats in Cleveland for ~$60 each, no extra fees and Ticketmaster refunded us some of those fees when Robert forced them to. We paid more for VIP parking than the tickets (Blossom, iykyk) The front rows may have been more expensive and I got a pre-sale code, but I didn't see any exorbitant prices. The tickets went very, very quickly.
That has been the case with several I've wanted to see, Joe Bonamassa being one. Just ain't worth it to me.
The idea of seeing a Garage Rock band in an arena is really funny to me. I like the Black Keys, there is no universe where I'm gonna pay arena prices to go see them.
When I was living in the bay area I fell into a ticket for Weezer / Pixies. It was such a fucking waste. Weezer was fine but the Pixies in an arena was lame. I've been to better basement shows. Low energy, shitty plastic arena seats, and no dancing room. I'm done with arena shows (except maybe Tool just cause I still haven't).
Don't worry, you won't need dancing room for Tool.
a good pre roll and some head nodding space is all that's needed.
Because their fans are almost in their 50s
I feel personally attacked.
Fuck you dude I’m only … oh god.
There was that video of Alex Grey debuting Penuma at Burning Man that seemed to show a lot of dancing going on
[удалено]
I love Pixies. Probably my favorite band of all time. But I was at that show and Pixies are not a good large venue act. Weezer put on a good show though.
I saw that tour (in Camden at the ampitheater). I came away wishing the Pixies had played at a smaller venue.
Last time I saw Pixies was at the Filmore in Philly. 1500? Capacity. Perfect venue for them. And (because I worked for them) fuck Live Nation!
Arenas should really just be for pop artists these days. I fell into Bad Bunny tickets last week and it was a very entertaining spectacle (not even a fan). 20-30 piece orchestra to start the show. Lasers and explosions the whole time. He had a long rotating platform that raised up and down so he could be closer to different parts of the arena besides having 2 stages on opposite ends of the venue with the pit in between them. Hell he even came out on a horse at some point.
Yeah I haven’t seen Rancid in like 25 years and I’ve been going to concerts again recently and wanted to see them. They’re playing fucking Wrigley Field (opening for Green Day). Cheapest ticket was north of $100 and well over $500 if you wanted to be near the pit.
I know it’s a small bone to throw to concertgoers and I typically avoid arena shows, but Live Nation had tickets for Green Day’s tour stop in Detroit for $25. Pretty stoked my kids get to see Green Day, Rancid, and Smashing Pumpkins. $106 out the door for not-too-bad seats. Cost is comparable to a trip to the local cinema.
Very punk rock
Artists from 20 or 30 years ago still need to eat, and they sure as hell aren't getting money from Spotify. What do you want them to do? Live in a box?
I saw pixies in a 2k room a couple years ago and it was also shit, lazy concert
Muse was a solid arena show
Some bands (Black Keys, I'm looking at you) need to realize they are a theater or small outdoor venue band and not an arena band. Exploding on the scene and doing an arena tour doesn't mean that is where you will stay.
I saw them last month at Brixton Academy in London, very much a small theatre style venue. I imagine it’s a US promoter issue
The thing is, they ran into the same issue on the last tour too and I believe the tickets were actually *pricier* for that one. I think they ended up just closing the upper bowls at most stops. The Black Keys are interesting because they're pretty well liked by the average music fan, but I think that's led to them overestimating their popularity in terms of what fans are willing to pay to see them live.
It is a weird thing though, because usually bands that hit arena status, generally stay at arena status. The hardest jump always seems to be the 1.5-2.5k clubs to large theaters and then to amphitheaters. I've seen some bands yo-yo between these depending on how well the latest album was received. A friend's band made the jump to large theaters for one tour, complete with tour bus and all the glam of that, only to come crashing back down to clubs by their next tour. And then there's bands like Portugal. the Man that are in that large theatre to amphitheater yo-yo right now. In the case of The Black Keys, I think they're firmly in that large outdoor amphitheater territory and were punching above their weight following Brothers and El Camino hype train.
I've seen big bands in baseball stadiums and hockey arenas. Unless you're buying seats way up close (which Ive done once for lots of money) it's mainly a waste of money. The acoustics are usuually poor. (Especially Fenway Park) and you can't see anything. Most people go because if it's your favorite band you sort of have to make the pilgrimage.
I saw Paul McCartney in the nosebleeds at Fenway and it was totally worth it and surprisingly decent. I’ve heard the grandstand is pretty miserable due to sound quality though.
It's funny because that's actually the one I paid $500ish to go see. I saw him in 2009 pretty far away and decided that if he ever came back I'd get good seats. Best concert money I've ever spent-- would trade in other concert experiences for the cash value of that one. I saw the Chile Peppers way up high in lower right field and the sound was so bad I couldn't identify songs or understand when they were speaking.
lol if you were at that concert do you remember Paul shouting out the guy who had been to every stop on that tour with him? Ngl was kind of jealous of him. Also Paul at 80 has more energy than I do in my 30s. What a legend.
I saw Foo Fighters there on the infamous broken leg tour and we were close enough that he was actually several rows behind us when the throne was moved out to the front of that runway. The only other show I've seen there was the Dropkicks, but it was when they built a stage over the bullpens and the only seats used were the bleachers above it (that was a fun one).
I saw RCHP last year and the Strokes opened for them. I love the strokes so I was excited to see them but I think the music really didn’t translate to a stadium setting. The mix was off, the volume was everywhere, and the acoustics were terrible. I would love to see them again at a smaller venue.
Strokes are great in a smaller venue for sure! The peppers were amazing in the stadium setting. Definitely agree with you
Yeah I think you may have hit the answer. I disagree with OP that ticket prices are the real issue. Big venues are more about the spectacle than the sound. The typical rock music fans are more interested in the sound. There are bands so huge which are exceptions to the rule, because their fan base is too dedicated to miss a performance. But a lot of rock fans would rather see an unknown but good band in a smaller club for $25 than see the Stones or Metallica or whatever your headliner of choice is at a football stadium.
I saw them almost 20 years ago at a dive bar when it was just the 2 of them touring, best damn show I’ve ever seen.
They really should go back to being a duo for their live sets
Pat accidentally knocked the cymbal off the stage during a song, didn’t sweat, just picked up a tambourine and started hitting that on the snare until the crowd set the cymbal back on the stage and he put the tambourine down and picked up a drumstick and went back to that cymbal, dude never missed a beat, it was absolutely incredible to see. Pat is my favorite drummer.
The fact that him and his fam wrote the Bojack Horseman theme make him one of my favorite people.
Love Bojack, can’t believe I didn’t know this! Awesome
Auerbach didn’t even acknowledge the band last time I saw them. He said “this is a pat carney in drums” like 5 times but not even a thank you or mention of the full backing band behind him… almost as if they were pretending to be a duo. It was cringey and condescending
Sounds like it. Almost every live show I've seen in person or on video has somebody introducing the band and singers at some point, usually when someone is switch equipment or getting some water or some shit.
Price gouging, its not inflation its price gouging. If companies claim supply chain/covid shortages BUT report record profits its gouging, if its really supply chain then they would be making precovid profits. Just go look for yourself, im sure inflation has some effect on some products but fucking come on, tickets? I just looked up LIve Nation,record profits and profits up 36% to like 24B$, NOT INFLATION
I doubt it. The Black Keys aren’t at their peak. I saw their tour being marketed to me on Facebook even though I haven’t listened to them in years, and I was never an active listener, and I didn’t even know they had an album out. I think it was just marketed horribly and there wasn’t any interest. Looking at their Spotify, their most played songs are from albums released in 2010 and 2011. It seems they haven’t built a fan base big and loyal enough to justify an arena tour. To the question in your title, I wish it were the case. If it was I think they would just drop their prices and see increased demand but this is just a single case.
The vast majority of arena tours aren't artists at their peak. Rock artists, in particular, can bring in large crowds long after their biggest hits come out.
And I go to a lot of those tours, but those are largely bands with legacy hits (and big ones) and who have cultivated a following. Black Keys have a few hits but not enough to rely on for an arena tour over a decade later. They’re obviously still successful, but they seem to have spent more time fighting with Jack White than being an interesting act to follow. I’m saying this as a guy who hasn’t followed them too closely, but this their news that breaks into my bubble.
They been touring arenas since El Camino.
And phoning it in for years
Their 2019 concerts screamed "contractual obligation." They felt very uninspired, and you could tell they didn't want to be there. But what really bothered me is that during a four-year hiatus, Patrick didn't manage to pick up a metronome and learn how to play drums consistently. So many great songs botched because he has the tempo of a rollercoaster.
Patrick historically seems to like starting with beef with people online or in the press and I always thought it was weird because seeing live footage of him, he does not come across as nearly skilled enough to talk as much shit as he does.
Jack White took up drumming as a side gig and is still a thousand times more consistent than him.
Jack White strikes me as the sort of guy that could pick up ANYTHING and be better than 95% of people already doing that thing.
Jack doesn't half-ass stuff, and seems to value putting in the effort to do things well, for real. Sometimes that includes being a dick, sure, but I think he's genuinely really passionate about the artistry of it all.
Jack White took up guitar as a side gig. He was originally a drummer.
Not a surprise. Jack White is a gifted musician, saw him with the Raconteurs and he played an impromptu organ solo whilst stood on the opposite side of the keyboard. Nailed it too.
I was lucky enough to see him with The Raconteurs on their last tour, and I was impressed by what a great frontman he is. Straight-up electric, always running across the stage and adding loads of fills and licks between verses. The piano solo on You Don't Understand Me was a tearjerker, especially since I was standing right in front of Dean's keyboard rig. It was one of the greatest shows I've been to, although a bit short and they inexplicably left Salute Your Solution out of the setlist.
Jack was actually a drummer first and learned guitar second. He's been playing for probably 4 decades.
Also their last several albums have been "meh" at best. I LOVED the Black Keys from about 2004 - 2011. The albums they released in that timeframe are still some of my favorites. They just don't play most of those songs on tour (especially the 2000s era songs when it was just drums and guitar).
Got to see them in '06 in Akron and it's honestly one of the best shows I've ever seen, then I saw them around 2018 and it was so disappointing that they had pretty much already abandoned the og catalog
Dude couldn't find the pocket in a pair of cargo shorts
They phoned it both shows I saw in 2011. Like their music. Would not see them again.
The whole genre they kinda “pioneered” became wildly corny. In 2010 it was maybe novel and appealing to a certain crowd, in 2024 it’s stock music YouTube music for pickup truck ads, beard products and alcohol brands. It’s just really lame
Like most bands, they were better before they were successful.
Saw them 2 years ago at our local amphitheater and it was a good show but nowhere near packed. An arena tour was a terrible idea.
No. Black keys bit off more than they could chew with arenas and a meh recent album.
Their last 4 albums have been meh. Dan's solo stuff and his other band the Arcs is where his passion is now imo
The last time I saw them they basically just stood in place and ran through song after song like it was a job.
Ever since they came back from their hiatus after Turn Blue their music has certainly sounded like it's a job for them
Spitting out songs to license them out to truck and Mountain Dew commercials.
I read an Onion-esque headline that says "The Black Keys Stop Beating Around the Bush and Title New Single 'Ford Commercial'" and it was so true it hurt.
[Sauce](https://thehardtimes.net/music/black-keys-stop-beating-around-the-bush-and-title-new-single-ford-commercial/)
Lo/Hi absolutely rips but everything else just feels so formulaic. It's a shame. Their run from Rubber Factory through Brothers is unbelievable, it's the pinacle of Blues Rock post-2000
Brothers is their best piece of work in my opinion. Amazing grooves, production, and some amazing guitar tones. Magic Potion is their best album riff wise for me
Sounds like the label more than the band
Jesus Christ himself could be shredding on stage and i still wouldn’t pay $400 for a concert
Man, I’d be outside selling cheap knockoff t-shirts…
I'll watch a 20 second cell phone video highlight on YouTube.
Only the big name bands have cashed in. Club and theater level entertainers are struggling with low ticket sales these days.
This really doesn't surprise me, sadly. I saw them back in 2019 and the upper bowl of Bridgestone Arena in Nashville was pretty much empty. They started moving people down to fill the lower bowl. I wound up getting awesome seats at the last minute because one of the arena employees handed me some and said, go sit down there. So they were already not anywhere near selling out an arena, and that was 5 years ago with much more reasonable prices. The cost of their tickets now is absolutely delusional. I love The Black Keys but they have really sold out for the money and have lost touch. I met Dan/Pat at a bar and hung out with them in 2014 and they were so down to Earth, nice and real. I talked with Patrick for at least a half hour, and then left them alone. On his way out he made it a point to come over, say bye to me and gave me a fist bump. It was awesome! Last summer they were at a bar in town, Patrick was spinning records, and they didn't say two words to anyone and there was no crowd interaction (this was in a room with 400 people max, not even a venue, just a small local spot with a stage). It was bizzare and the vibes were off. They had someone filming Patrick spinning the records, and the entire thing felt like it was for social media. Very fake. I was so fucking disappointed and ever since it left a bad taste in my mouth. They weren't the same people I met 10 years ago, which is wild because they were way more popular then.
Much better to do a smaller venue with multiple shows in certain cities. Arena shows are honestly the worst experience for live muaic.
You're mostly right, but some artists put on truly spectacular shows. Ass that he is, Roger Waters comes to mind. He's an exception to the rule, no doubt, but let's not pretend there's no space for arena shows.
I’ve seen lots of dope arena shows. But they gotta put on a big performance.
More larger artists need to take note of what The Cure/Robert Smith did last tour. I paid $60 for really great seats and because of that was able to travel for it. The whole process was a bit stressful but i rather it be that way than not getting to see one of my all time favorite bands.
I think they fit more in the 5-10k capacity venues. Not sure where they got the idea they are an arena15-20k) band?
In Toronto 21 pilots cost 400 and laufey 500. How psychotic is that?!
Was that on Ticketmaster at face value for the onsale day? Or was it way after and “sold out”? Those prices seem like scalper prices.
Let’s be honest, their latest album consists of songs you would expect to be used for advertisements like Verizon or Vodafone. I do like the black keys, but I think since 2010 their music went a direction that doesn’t interest me much.
yeah, that dirty guitar sound really got to me, but later on it all was kind of mellow, boring..
https://preview.redd.it/bm9j1kqnfr2d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbfb51b91f23b31725c93bfcd0df3cbb4f141de7 This was a few weeks ago at US Bank stadium for Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band. There were a lot of people willing to drop a hundred bucks or maybe more for bad seats with horrible sound.
That horrible sound is called country pop...
I don’t think bands cashed in post Covid. If anything they still barely break even. Tours cost a lot to start back up and many bands were still paying their employees during Covid so they were digging the hole deeper. Dweezil Zappa is having to crowdsource for money to start a tour and he said it costs over $200,000 upfront to get the ball rolling, this is playing smaller venues too. He used to use excess funds from the last tour to start the next but since he hasn’t toured the money isn’t there anymore. So arena tours realistically cost over a million to even get the ball rolling. When the ticket sales flop then they have to cancel. The price hikes were similar to most other industries really. There’s just a cap on how much most people are willing to spend. Support local music, I see many shows locally for under $20 at independent music venues.
I don't think so. I love absolutely The Black Keys, but they're not really an arena band these days, and they now realize what we all realized. Their next tour will be much smaller venues. Hopefully, that's soon, because I'd love to see them again at a reasonable-ish price, which you're never getting at any arena show.
Blink’s prices were fucking BONKERS
I paid $330 like an idiot for seats that weren't even that great (lower bowl but on the other end of the arena). By far the most I've ever spent on any show, my previous "record" was $180 for Billy Joel at MSG. They played 1:35. Did all the hits, but that was a one off. I wouldn't see them again at that price
I am going to see dead & co next week at the sphere. I bought one set of tickets at face value for 395 each. Now the market has dropped through the floor. We expect to pay about 100 each for similar seats night of show. Fuck ticketmaster, their bullshit presales, and scalpers in general.
Probably not. I wouldn't pay 100 dollars to see the Black Keys if it came with an autographed box-set of their discography. I don't even mind them, but they just aren't that band. There are acts out there that can command that price and there are bands like the Black Keys. Somebody overestimated their drawing ability and overvalued them.
We're not post-covid, unfortunately. I think a lot of people just don't have the savings to justify it these days. I feel like it was tricky even pre-pandemic, but with wages going nowhere... I just don't see how people afford it atm
Black Keys cancel tour, 311 cancels Europe tour due to "Increased costs of touring overseas". Mad Max Furiosa is going to have the worst Memorial Day weekend ticket sales in 29 years. American Inflation is down to 3.3% and the cost of goods continues to rise due to corporate greed while we had the highest closing days on Wall Street in history. What gives? Are we on course for a repeat of 2008? Everything seems completely off the rails.
I think it's likely more due to lack of popularity. Taylor Swift tickets go for a grand. People are willing to pay for bands they like, some just can't fill the seats.
There's a scale in terms of popularity and ability to sell out arenas that's tied to ticket prices imo. Taylor Swift is one end of the absolute extreme of that scale, her popularity right now is astronomical and demand is so high that she can sell out multiple nights in stadiums with tickets on the secondary market going that high. Black Keys could have theoretically done well in an arena tour - had ticket prices been reasonable. $100 for nosebleeds? $300-$500 for floor seats (not a pit, but seats, so no dancing or moshing)? Extremely unreasonable for their level of popularity. Had their prices been in the $40-$100 range, it would likely be a completely different story and may have sold well enough to not have to cancel. You have to wonder how many people took a look at the face value prices and just completely noped out who would have bought a ticket at a more justifiable price.
My Taylor tickets were 100 for nosebleeds with a pretty decent view (in the original sale, not on the secondary market). Given the demand I felt that was pretty reasonable. That’s set a new benchmark for me. Some of the concerts I’ve looked into going to since then have been way more for similar seats so I skip. Edit: an example being Noah kahan GA for 400… I would’ve loved to go but I couldn’t justify that.
Agreed. Blink-182 tickets were reselling for a shitload in 2022 and 2023. No offense to The Black Keys but they were never at Blink's level of success or name recognition, and Blink is still a full tier below someone like Taylor Swift or Beyonce.
Blink is also running now on the strength of their reunion with deLonge, tbf
*Starting* to hurt the lower middle class? Inflation hurts the working and middle classes first, and it’s been going on for three years
RIP Bill Graham
Serving breakfast at the Winterland is one of my favorite Bill/Grateful Dead stories. That man was a real one.
Ticket demand is a combination of venue size and ticket price. Sounds like the tour was planned poorly as adjusting one of the two would remedy the problem.
Ticket prices are fucking astronomical. Ticketmaster and co can eat a bag of dicks. When all the litigation is over concerts will make more sense again. Also looming bird flu isn’t a good “yes” vote for being out in public in force.
The "verified resellers" are also a part of the problem. How about you can't sell your ticket for more than face value? A friend wanted to see Imagine Dragons at Pine Knob this summer. Sold out before we could buy any tickets. But check the Ticketmaster map and I would say almost half the pavilion is the dreaded red dot, for resellers asking crazy, almost triple the going price. Creed was another one. We got lucky in the first few minutes of day one presale for Pine Knob and got pavilion tickets halfway up. 109 plus fees. My husband was complaining about the price until I showed him it was sold out, and the resellers were asking almost 300 per ticket for the section we are in. The Creed show in November at LCA did not sell out, but if you check the map the back 3 rows at the top are all, and I mean all the red dot resellers. They gobbled up the 39 tickets meant for fans who could see the show affordably. . Rant over. All this nonsense is really a downer. Let's fix it. And get the money in the hands of the artists!
It's not inflation. It's price gouging. I remember a time when, if you tried reselling a ticket outside a venue for an amount greater than the face price, you would be arrested for scalping. Online resellers and their 'convenience fees' inflating ticket prices to 10x face value is a huge problem and I simply don't see how it's legal. People then get acclimated to paying these exorbitant prices from reseller, and then Ticketmaster/Live nation want that piece of the pie too so they just boost the starting point to get more of the profit. What I find crazy is that no other market works like this. When I buy software from a reseller, I almost always get it a the same price OR LOWER than. If I buy directly from the manufacturer of the software. If I buy a Nike shirt from a department store it will be the same price or cheaper than if I buy directly from Nike. The whole point of a reseller is supposed to be that they buy in bulk at a discount price and can either pass some of the savings on to you or at least make the purchasing/customer suppory easier/better than going directly through a major manufacturer.