I think that both of your points are spot on. 1) People charge what they think they can get. He has a monopoly on being Sting, and his business people would advise him to charge as much as the market will take. He does run the risk that he'll price people out and take a loss on venues where tickets don't sell. 2) Most of the diminished sales of an artist like Sting (or the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac etc. etc.) are related to diminished popularity/hipness than downloading. He's not going to have a platinum album just like that, as was the case 10-20 years ago. His income from recordings will therefore suffer. Napster doesn't help, but it's not the sole culprit as Miles would have us believe. 3) Most promoters guarantee a certain take per show when setting up tours, including ticket prices. This means dealing with and paying venues, promoters, etc. etc. As an aside, NYC venues are particularly expensive, so that, and a wealthier audience pool, explain the higher costs in big cities like NYC. Artists can always set the price lower and take a lower guarantee, but generally, given the lower recording revenue, they're going to get as much as they can to guarantee a similar income level from album to album. Some artists do try and keep prices lower (Tom Petty has written more eloquently on this point), but most will get what they can, since you never know when it could all stop. The thing is that all of this is offputting when you're talking about one of the wealthiest pop stars in the world -- but, then again, rising actor costs probably cause the rising costs of movie tickets, but no one blames Julia Roberts -- only because more people are sharing in that increased cost, so no one is hurt all that much by it (well, at least not as much as concert-goers these days). The only way to stop it is not to go -- since they will lower prices on the summer tour if they are taking losses on the spring tour. But that's easier said than done, since I'll probably get a ticket for a pricey NYC show at some point. amaryll <amaryll@norwoodlight.com> wrote: And what about the fans that run out and buy all the singles , because each one has an extra song that wasn't on the cd, and who buy the regular issue cd as well as the imports because each import has added songs that aren't on the US version? Fans buy MORE cd's, not less. Sheesh!!! There are 2 reasons for increased concert ticket prices: 1) Ego - it stokes the artists ego to be able to command top dollar 2) Too many greedy fingers in the concert revenue pie, including promotors, brokers, venues, managers, all those convenien ce charges, etc. on 11/19/03 1:30 PM, Jason Sheldon at jason@digital-solutions.co.uk wrote:
What a load of tosh.
Absolutely disgusting. To accuse FANS of stealing music. Genuine fans are the ones (like Jeremy) go around the world to buy the album on day of release..... Or even not as far as that, but to sometimes even order from overseas, thanks to stupid marketing tactics that in my opinion, contribute to piracy by having staggered release dates....
And then you've got the fans that don't order from overseas, but still buy on day of release in their territory.
So us fans are causing high ticket prices? Bo****ks
If that's the case, lets all buy our overpriced concert tickets, and demand our money back when we show up at the door with our collection of original albums.
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