@rusty Well according to the web, Bruce Springsteen's 2022 net worth is $700 million and his corporation pays him a $4 million a month salary.
I wasn't aware he is that wealthy. Bruce is worth more than Clapton, David Gilmore, Roger Waters, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who are around $500 million each.
Apparently Bruce is too rich to be squeezed. The people running his corporation perhaps are charging that kind of money.
Why pay $700.00 for two seats to see Bruce or anybody!! I wouldn't pay that to see anyone out there. If TTB or Gov't Mule charged that I would never see them again. My wife loved the Eagles but we dropped out when tickets hit $90.00.
I'd rather buy one of those beautiful Les Pauls they have at the big music store here that cost $700.00. A couple there are over $1,000.00.
@robertdee The one good thing about being old - we got to see the great bands - all original members - when tickets were under $20! All of these acts (most of 'em) can still play a good show, but all are playing on what will likely be their last concert tours. If people don't mind paying these prices - I guess I have no problem with the bands taking the money. Lots of good up and coming acts as well as some who haven't started financing their retirement funds are out there. Over the past 10 years I have become a big fan of Marty Stuart and the Superlatives. As with Morse, Johnson et al - no better guitar playing out there! Tickets are always reasonable and they play in small venues.
@rusty Yeah I'm 75 and saw the Allman Brothers Band many times for less than $20.00 and paid less than S1 a gallon for gas. Early 1970's less than 50 cents a gallon.
But I saw Clapton, Led Zeppelin etc for less than $30.00 I think.
I forgot about Steve Morse and Eric Johnson. Yeah I'd pay $50.00 or maybe $90.00 a ticket to see them.
Today's NYT's "Money" column addressed The Case of the $5,000 Springsteen Tickets . No link because it won't let you read w/o subscription
For in-the-know fans who wanted to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets this month, applying for a special Ticketmaster access code seemed the best way to beat long odds. If they got one, they would have an opportunity to try to make it to the front of the service’s virtual queues on the days when batches of shows were up for sale.
Only then, however, did countless numbers of them discover that the normally priced tickets they had been hoping to buy were nowhere to be found. Instead, a demand-driven dynamic pricing system had taken hold — with someone, somewhere having decided that remaining seats should cost many times the normal price, up to $5,500 or so.
To be clear, no scalpers were selling those tickets. Instead, a new definition of face value had emerged, one that many fans had never encountered. Confusion reigned, and anguished reactions poured forth in Facebook fan groups, into my inbox and onto Twitter.
This tweet, from Bill Werde, a former Billboard editorial director who writes a newsletter about the music industry, made my heart hurt: “Hard to believe that Bruce Springsteen turned out to be the one to make music fans miss scalpers.”
After days of this sort of commentary, Mr. Springsteen and his camp had heard enough. “In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing,” his manager, Jon Landau, said in a statement. “We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others.
“Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range,” he continued. “I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation.”
Indeed, people did buy nearly all the tickets. On Tuesday morning, 90,000 people were in the queue seeking seats for a show in Philadelphia, according to the event’s promoter. Still, a triumphant return to the stage — Mr. Springsteen has not performed with his band on a big U.S. tour since 2016 — is now another chapter in the decades-long tale of how buying tickets for in-demand events gets more unpleasant over time.
Ticketmaster and Mr. Springsteen have some history. In 2009, Ticketmaster tried to nudge his fans into its proprietary, StubHub-like resale system featuring scalperlike prices.
That didn’t go over well.
“The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you,” Mr. Springsteen said in a statement at the time. The New Jersey attorney general got involved, Ticketmaster settled her investigation, and its chief executive issued a groveling apology.
Since then, Ticketmaster, which is handling most of the U.S. shows on Mr. Springsteen’s tour next year, has tried to wear the white hat, at least some of the time. In an interview in May on a podcast called “The Compound & Friends,” Michael Rapino, the chief executive of Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, noted that many tickets for the best concerts and other events had a much higher street value the moment Ticketmaster sold them. Why shouldn’t an artist capture most of that excess? Prices that are too low open the door for scalpers to make more money — via the profit they gain from selling at the true market price — than performers make themselves.
If artists do want to capture that, Ticketmaster is prepared to help — and to take a fee for doing so. And that’s what Mr. Springsteen seemed to be doing here, using Ticketmaster’s “Official Platinum” system, in which seats are “dynamically priced up and down based on demand.”
You already know what happened next: Those platinum prices were plenty pricey. Outrage ensued. A congressman from New Jersey yelled into the wind.
“This broke our spirit,” said Pete Maimone, a real estate agent in North Brunswick, N.J., who coordinates a face-value-only ticket exchange for longtime fans. He has shut it down for now, he told me, while fighting back tears. “We did not want to participate any longer in this clear-as-day scheme to extract money from fans,” he said.
Over the weekend, in an attempt to quiet things down, Mr. Springsteen’s camp gave Ticketmaster permission to release some numbers. Just 1.3 percent of Ticketmaster users paid more than $1,000 per ticket. Also, 88.2 percent of tickets were “sold at set prices,” according to Ticketmaster, though the remaining 11.8 percent are likely to represent more than 11.8 percent of the revenue per show, owing to their higher face value.
Who set these prices? “Promoters and artist representatives set pricing strategy and price range parameters on all tickets, including dynamic and fixed price points,” a Ticketmaster spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “When there are far more people who want to attend an event than there are tickets available, prices go up.”
So, as many fans suspected, they are, indeed, the latest guinea pigs in a continuing experiment to try to determine the precise market price of ecstatic experiences for fans of live events.
Dynamic pricing isn’t new, though it was new to plenty of Mr. Springsteen’s fans this month.
But it’s not as though fans had not considered the core question: At what price comes Mr. Springsteen’s brand of pure, unbridled joy? His shows can last more than three hours, and he mixes up his set lists more than most major touring artists. Also, by the time he and his band hit the stage in 2023, it will have been seven years since they did so on a big U.S. tour.
All of that feeds the desire for fans to attend multiple shows, to make sure they don’t miss something rare. And, as a longtime fan, I can say this with exactly zero objectivity and even less scientific precision: His tickets are worth many, many hundreds of dollars.
As to exactly how many dollars, Ticketmaster lets artists set high — or low — prices. It will help them boost prices in real time, to leave less money on the table for scalpers. But it operates in that resale market, too, to compete with scalpers on their own turf. Ticketmaster’s gonna Ticketmaster.
Mr. Springsteen’s choices here were fraught. As a bard of the people, his silence on the situation became too conspicuous to those very people who fought and scraped to pay a lot of money to be in his presence.
Mr. Springsteen could have explained what happened here and also tried to change it. One possibility would have been — and could still be — to tell Ticketmaster not to do variable pricing anymore. Crowded House did that two years ago, claiming that the band hadn’t known that Ticketmaster was going to use it.
Placing a cap on how high the variable system is allowed to send ticket prices is another possibility. Maybe it has already happened in the last few days or will in the next few; again, we don’t know. The lower you set the cap, however, the more opportunity there is for scalpers to charge even more on the secondary market. A ban on transferring tickets altogether has promise, but it creates its own logistical, legal and equity challenges.
Not long ago, Mr. Werde of the trenchant tweet was in the Ticketmaster queue for Paul McCartney tickets. His 11-year-old son is a big Beatles fan. His turn arrived, he saw the prices just below $300 per ticket, and a kind of desperflation kicked in. What if this was his last chance to get in the arena at that price? The clock was ticking. He took a deep breath and jumped.
And was it worth it? “Yep.”
Where do I start? This idea of charging EXORBITANT prices for concert tickets - to keep scalpers from making money ... a little like paying someone to knock up your teenage daughter to keep her boyfriend from doing so. I'm scratchin' my head so hard that it's bleeding right now! 😉
I thought it was me. I read the column - by an objective financial columnist - 3 times & got the same message. BS wants the $ the scalpers would get.
The arguments made by various people quoted are contradictory - because BS concerts are varied, many fans go to the concert on different nights so they don't miss anything (kind of like the ABB at the Beacon). OK, that means one buyer may buy 3-4 different nights. He can do that at $200/night. He can't do it at $2,000/night. So, the band is actually losing a customer AND disappointing him for not being able to see the variations he's used to seeing.
The statement that this is the 1st chance to see "the universally regarded very greatest artist of his generation" for the 1st time since 2016 is nonsense. There are at least 1/2 dozen "artists" I consider greater and even more, newer ones that I'd rather see in concert for the first time at those prices. With that inflated view of himself, no wonder he didn't set a cap.
Quite frankly, he could've done a residency somewhere & his biggest fans could spend $ for tickets & the rest of transportation/hotel/restaurants to Las Vegas or Atlantic City or wherever he chose - spread those entertainment dollars around.
I do agree that BS himself could've made a statement - the columnist mentioned several options & so far, BS hasn't done anything.
IMO all entertainers - actors, Broadway, classical musicians, rock, etc. are trying to make up for lost time during Covid & getting what they're worth based on demand - and that isn't more than $300 - $400 tops.
@cyclone88 As stated early on in this thread - I AM a Springsteen fan, but it seems that this ...plan is turning into a public relations nightmare for him.
Wow, this is a head scratcher for me. According to that article I mentioned previously, there were supposed to be tickets starting at 60 bucks. That's doable. But for the shows I looked up they STARTED at $200 for lousy seats and went way up from there. I've seen him so many times and never paid close to what they seem to be going for.
Regarding him playing different setlists, unless he has changed his M.O. recently, that hasn't been my experience. I remember seeing him in Detroit and the second night of his stop he did ask the crowd if anyone had been there the night before and of course the crowd cheered so he said something along the lines of "I have to mix things up then". And he did. A little. I don't think he is anything how The ABB were after Dickey left but they are open to playing different things. Some may recall several years ago when Bruce had a part of his show where people sitting up front would bring in big poster boards of the songs they wanted the band to play. Someone in the stage crew would collect them and Bruce would show them around to the band and ask if they knew how to play a particular song. It was cool in a way but as a die hard fan I would have preferred some deep cuts of his. Still, it was neat.
I guess that is off topic though.
Back to the original topic, who knows who is making all of the money. Probably anyone who can get their hands on it.
Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.
Seems BS could've have avoided the PR problem and still could as the columnists mentioned. Allowing Ticketmaster to release the figures over the weekend that about only about 2% of tickets sold were at the highest level means nothing - anyone looking to buy could see there weren't THAT many $5,000 seats.
I'm not a fan, but did want to pass along the explanation by a financial columnist to those who wondered what factored into the pricing decision.
I don't think his setlist is off-topic if it's cited as one of the reasons there's backlash from fans accustomed to going to more than one night. Given that he hasn't had a US tour in 6 years, hard to say what his "normal" plan is so hard to say that's a reason for fan complaints.
Bruce Springsteen’s Manager Defends ‘Fair Price’ of Tickets
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bruce-springsteen-manager-ticket-price/
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
TICKETMASTER DEFENDS $4,500 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PRICING
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bruce-springsteen-ticket-price/
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
How are ticket prices and fees determined?
https://help.ticketmaster.com/s/article/How-are-ticket-prices-and-fees-determined?language=en_US
The standard tickets sold on Ticketmaster are owned by our clients (venues, sports teams or other event promoters) who determine the number of tickets to be sold and set the face value price. In the case of resale tickets, listing prices are determined by the seller, which can include fans or season ticket holders. Note that for certain events, Ticketmaster may not be the primary ticket provider.
In some instances, events on our platform may have tickets that are “market-priced,” so ticket and fee prices may adjust over time based on demand. This is similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold and is commonly referred to as “Dynamic Pricing.”
Ticket fees (which can include a service fee, order processing fee and sometimes a delivery fee) are determined in collaboration with our clients. In exchange for the rights to sell their tickets, our clients typically share in a portion of the fees we collect. The portion of fees we keep helps us to provide our clients with software, equipment, services and support to manage their tickets and box office, and provide the sales network used by clients to distribute tickets to fans. The remainder, when taken with other revenues, is how we earn a profit.
The total cost of a ticket can be made up of:
Face Value Price
The face value price (also known as the established price or base ticket price) is determined by our clients. In many circumstances, face value prices are set at the time of the initial on-sale and stay the same until the event but prices can, and are often are, adjusted up or down over time. In either case, Ticketmaster collects the face value price and remits it to our clients.
Service Fee and Order Processing Fee
In almost all cases, Ticketmaster adds a service fee (also known as a convenience charge) to the face value price, or in the case of a resale ticket to the listing price, of each ticket. The service fee varies by event based on our agreement with each individual client.
In addition to the per ticket service fee, an order processing fee is typically charged. Unlike the service charge, which is added to each ticket, the processing fee is charged once for each order. The processing fee offsets the costs of ticket handling, shipping and support and as a result, the processing fee is generally not charged on in-person box office purchases. In some cases, Ticketmaster's order processing costs may be lower than the order processing fee. In those cases, Ticketmaster may earn a profit on the order processing fee.
In both cases, these fees are collected by Ticketmaster and typically shared with our clients.
Delivery Fees
Delivery options are determined by our clients and can vary from event to event. We offer a variety of ticket delivery options that vary in price, dependent upon the delivery method chosen. Delivery options may include Mobile Tickets, Will Call pickup, Print-at-Home, US Mail or UPS. The UPS delivery fee may not reflect the actual cost UPS charges Ticketmaster to deliver tickets via UPS. In some cases, delivery fees may include a profit to Ticketmaster.
Facility Charge
Each client decides whether to include a facility charge on ticket purchases. These additional fees typically help clients operate and invest back in the venues themselves. Facility charges may vary from event to event and can be raised or lowered over time. Ticketmaster does not share in facility charges, we simply collect them for venues.
Taxes
City, state, and local taxes (provincial and Federal Goods and Services taxes in Canada) are typically included in the face value of the ticket or in the fees. In some jurisdictions, however, taxes may be listed as a separate charge.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
if you have a few, interesting read....
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/springsteen-ticketmaster-1.6537058
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
