Pearl Jam ticket prices slashed

victorludorum

A bit of a clanger this one, although it seems that Ticketmaster are taking the lion's share of the flak, which isn't surprising.

barnstorm

There's a big thread going at the Steve Hoffman music forum about arena tours struggling. Was prompted by this article:

https://www.stereogum.com/2267170/arena-tour-ticket-sales-black-keys-jlo/columns/sounding-board/

strumjoughlamps

Wheras I am a believer of ‘something is worth whatever you are prepared to pay’. I must admit I would feel a little off standing next to someone watching the same thing and I had paid £70 ish more for the ticket.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Seems to be just the London gig that has the prices slashed so far. I'm planning on going to the Manchester gig but haven't actually got a ticket. Might hold off another week or so, see if they drop those prices as well...

Have to say, the planning of the UK leg of the PJ tour seems to have been a complete shit show, and not just because of the outrageous ticket prices. The London gig is on the same night as Green Day had already long-since announced a gig at Wembley Stadium (which is sold out). There must be thousands of fans who would have loved to see both bands, but would already have bought their tickets for GD before the PJ tour was announced. 

Green Day are also playing in Manchester and Dublin (the other UK/Ireland venues for PJ) in that same week or so, so again many 90s/00s rock/grunge fans would already have splurged the cash on GD tickets and probably couldn't stretch to the PJ gig too, even if they wanted to.

barnstorm

Between the cost and the irritation at ‘dynamic pricing’, all the other Ticketmaster/Live Nation-related awfulness and the arena experience, lots of people aren’t going to be excited to go again. 

I think the big danger for acts that expect to keep touring is that this approach only works (if at all) as a one-time cash-grab, and that it destroys the relationship that keeps fans turning out every time you come to town.

Bod

While I do go to arena gigs occasionally, I find them horrific.  They're overpriced, largely underwhelming and exploitative, and I'm always left with a slightly sour taste in my mouth regardless of how good the artist was.

skullfunkerry

Bod said:

While I do go to arena gigs occasionally, I find them horrific.  They're overpriced, largely underwhelming and exploitative, and I'm always left with a slightly sour taste in my mouth regardless of how good the artist was.

Agreed. I hate arena gigs, and even more so stadium gigs. Give me a Rock City or Electric Ballroom any day of the week. Or even better, Chinnery's in Southend; in still annoyed that I missed Skindred there last year.

mikeyrob73

oh well thats my chancres of selling my tickets for Manchester gone out the window then 

gonna struggle to make it 

bobblehat

barnstorm said:

There's a big thread going at the Steve Hoffman music forum about arena tours struggling. Was prompted by this article:

https://www.stereogum.com/2267170/arena-tour-ticket-sales-black-keys-jlo/columns/sounding-board/

Thanks for sharing . Great article. There was a piece on Richard Osmans podcast last week about how Ticketmaster and Livenation have pretty much monopolised live music. I believe Livenation used to buy up venues and ticketmaster would buy the rights to ticket sales.When they merged it was game over for any sort of competition. 
Interesting they singled out the Black Keys in the article. They played Cardiff Motorpoint Arena in May but only announced the shows about 3-4 weeks before the tickets went on sale.I've seen them quite a few times but at £60 inc fees  I gave it a miss. At £30-£40 I probably would have gone. 

CaseOfAce

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Have to say, the planning of the UK leg of the PJ tour seems to have been a complete shit show, and not just because of the outrageous ticket prices. The London gig is on the same night as Green Day had already long-since announced a gig at Wembley Stadium (which is sold out). 

It's interesting the top end of the market. Taylor Swift tickets are unobtainable and George Strait in Houston has just recorded the highest US ticketed attendance since the Grateful Dead in '77. 

just under 111,000. 

I've never even heard of him... but they have in Texas...

fretmeister

So how much are the PJ tickets supposed to be?

barnstorm

CaseOfAce said:

It's interesting the top end of the market. Taylor Swift tickets are unobtainable and George Strait in Houston has just recorded the highest US ticketed attendance since the Grateful Dead in '77. 

just under 111,000. 

I've never even heard of him... but they have in Texas...

They're obviously not holding it against him that he did a big farewell tour a few years back! He seems to be out with Chris Stapleton, which must help with ticket sales.

I've no idea what to make of the numbers Taylor Swift is pulling, but then I'm puzzled by the extent of her success in general. It makes no more sense to me than if, say, Michelle Branch had become the world's biggest artist in the early 2000s.

EricTheWeary

As I occasionally comment my son works for a company that runs arenas and he occasionally gets me cheap tickets - typically these are unsold tickets are sold to staff for a £5 admin fee. Usually released about 24 hours before the gig. Or a week before if you are Kings of Leon and your moment of fame has passed  
But even then it’s £16 parking, £5 for a drink,etc,etc. Paying full price for a couple so your evening out is probably £150 is surely once a year stuff for many people. 

The seating arrangements are such that they can block off whole areas and not try to sell them, have them as a further release of tickets if it’s going well. So, it might look like Alice Cooper is playing a sold out arena on a Tuesday night but he’s only playing to 2/3rds. I don’t know who makes that decision once Ticketmaster are involved as they effectively own all the tickets and pay a fee to the venue. 

bobblehat said:

barnstorm said:

There's a big thread going at the Steve Hoffman music forum about arena tours struggling. Was prompted by this article:

https://www.stereogum.com/2267170/arena-tour-ticket-sales-black-keys-jlo/columns/sounding-board/

Thanks for sharing . Great article. There was a piece on Richard Osmans podcast last week about how Ticketmaster and Livenation have pretty much monopolised live music. I believe Livenation used to buy up venues and ticketmaster would buy the rights to ticket sales.When they merged it was game over for any sort of competition. 
Interesting they singled out the Black Keys in the article. They played Cardiff Motorpoint Arena in May but only announced the shows about 3-4 weeks before the tickets went on sale.I've seen them quite a few times but at £60 inc fees  I gave it a miss. At £30-£40 I probably would have gone. 

I’ve found the other person who listens to that podcast! 

Ticketmaster have dynamic pricing so I guess there’s always the risk of down instead of up. Lots of places in the U.K. don’t have that model, it’s fixed pricing on anything sold by The Ticket Factory (for example). 

roundthebend

fretmeister said:

So how much are the PJ tickets supposed to be?

For the Tottenham gig they were originally around £120 for the cheapest seats. Absolutely joke price, even for a band that are phenomenal.

They dropped to £50 yesterday. That's a huge shift, innit?

I saw Smashing Pumpkins last weekend. Paid £86 and we had a spare ticket. The best we could sell it for was £50 but then there were fees to cover from that so ended up like £44.

bobblehat

roundthebend said:

fretmeister said:

So how much are the PJ tickets supposed to be?

For the Tottenham gig they were originally around £120 for the cheapest seats. Absolutely joke price, even for a band that are phenomenal.

They dropped to £50 yesterday. That's a huge shift, innit?

I saw Smashing Pumpkins last weekend. Paid £86 and we had a spare ticket. The best we could sell it for was £50 but then there were fees to cover from that so ended up like £44.

I guess these are exactly the type of Bands that fit the criteria from the article. Not quite as big as Ticketmaster think they are but too big to be playing 1500 seater shows. The reason likes of the Foo's , Greenday etc can still sell out Stadiums and charge a top dollar is that they have multi generational fans and people will make the gig an event. In the last couple of years I've seen Greenday , The Foo Fighters and Kiss with my wife and my two grown up kids. They were all the best part of £100 a ticket and its unlikely we would have bothered if didn't make it a family day out.

theatreanchor

Not surprised. Their Hyde Park show wasn’t great. And the new album blows. 

DefaultM

Too much money for something so easily ruined by morons that are only there to get drunk waiting for the 1 or 2 songs they recognise.

fretmeister

DefaultM said:

Too much money for something so easily ruined by morons that are only there to get drunk waiting for the 1 or 2 songs they recognise.

This is why I much prefer festivals. Bored people wander off to find merch or far-too-cheap tattooing. Keeps them busy while acts they don't like are on.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I think what really sticks in the craw is that I saw PJ at the BST Hyde Park festival just 2 years ago - paid £85 each and got Imelda May followed by Stereophonics followed by Jonny Marr followed by Pearl Jam. Was an amazing day out (apart from getting sunburnt to shit!) and looks incredible VFM compared to this current tour.

DefaultM

fretmeister said:

DefaultM said:

Too much money for something so easily ruined by morons that are only there to get drunk waiting for the 1 or 2 songs they recognise.

This is why I much prefer festivals. Bored people wander off to find merch or far-too-cheap tattooing. Keeps them busy while acts they don't like are on.

I can’t get my head around it. All I can think is there’s a group of friends where 1 guy has convinced all the others to come see his favourite band with him, and they think “yeah I remember that song they did from that advert” and go along but get bored waiting for it.

DefaultM

My favourite time watching another fan was at a Pearl Jam gig though. I’ve probably said on here before. I was sat down and the guy in front of me was incredibly enthusiastic, screaming that he loves Eddie, going mad dancing in his seat.
After what was probably 45 minutes max he got up with a massive smile on his face, put his bag on, left and never came back. They played for another 2.5 hours.