Monopolies and Scalping
When I was a student or "a young lad" I went to see The Offspring, who were still relevant at the time. It was in the MEN Arena 17 years before it was associated with a terror attack (I was away in east Asia when that happened). If I remember correctly, the ticket cost me 20 pounds. Maybe 19 point something. Definitely about 20. I went there with a few friends and it was nice. I still remember that night and who I went with.
Yesterday I went for the usual run around Co-op Live and noticed (on the display outside) that an artist that I used to listen to a lot as a teen was due to perform later in the same day, so I put her CD in my stereo and it brought back memories. Her show was finished a few hours ago [1, 2] (it seems like the arena was packed), but it is incredible how much they charge for tickets these days (sometimes I check as we plan to go later this summer). They charge over 80 pounds per head, even for not-so-famous "artists" or people who used to be something (several decades ago). Stevie Wonder is on today, but seats start at around 115 pounds (roughly 150 dollars) per ticket... for the worst seats. I could get a plane ticket to Europe (return flight) for less than that. How did we get from 20 pounds to over 100 in just a couple of decades? I spoke to a friend who said back in the 80s tickets cost just a few dollars. So this is a form of hyperinflation and people are willing to bear the increases, to tolerate the monopolies and the huge profit margins of fixers and organisers. The impact of scalpers seems to be minimal (when I bought tickets from scalpers - and that was only once that I can recall - they sold my mom and I tickets for the away fans, without forewarning us, which meant we were surrounded by the "other" team's fans).
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the monopolies on tickets and even facilitators. In relation to Co-op Live, specifically, Oasis raised prominent alarms about it. The media spoke about this issue for a while.
Making tickets (or "access") more affordable is not going to hurt artists. They'd be able to perform on more nights, showing their skills to more people. Maybe the prices or total income per night will be lower, but they can make up for that in quantities. Doing the same show 2 or 3 nights in a row isn't too hard and if you double or treble the audience size, that's a good thing, right?
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes. That's a problem. Down with monopolies. █