Red Mosquito

Bi_3 wrote:Is it realistic to tour without dealing with TM/LiveNation? Seems like 80-90% of venues use their services and thus probably have to agree to conditions like dynamic pricing. Concerts are not like they were back 20 years ago. They are far more elaborate and the venues are more like malls with stages. It's evolution baby.

wease wrote:

Many of Pearl Jam's most loyal fans are teenagers who do not have the money to pay the $50 or more that is often charged today for tickets to a popular concert. Although, given our popularity, we could undoubtedly continue to sell-out our concerts with ticket prices at that premium level, we have made a conscious decision that we do not want to put the price of our concerts out of the reach of many of our fans. Moreover, we do not want to be responsible for teenagers, who may be influenced by peer pressure to feel that they must see Pearl Jam perform, spending more money for that concert ticket than they can really afford. All of the members of Pearl Jam remember what it is like not to have a lot of money, and we recognize that a teenager's perceived need to see his or her favorite band in concert can often be overwhelming.
For these reasons, we have attempted to keep the ticket prices to our concerts to a maximum of $18. We have also tried to limit any service charges that may be imposed on the sale of those tickets to 10 percent of the ticket price, and to ensure that any service charge will be separately identified from the price of the ticket itself so that fans know how much is being charged for the ticket and how much is being added on by the company selling the ticket. As a result, even where a service charge is imposed, our goal is to make it so that no one will pay more than $20 to see a Pearl Jam concert.

Our efforts to try to keep prices for tickets to our concerts to this low level and to limit the possibility of excessive service charge mark-ups have put us at odds with Ticketmaster.

The level of the service charge is not the only problem that Pearl Jam faces in connection with the sale of tickets to its concerts. Beyond the excessive service charges there are the problems of ticket scalping, counterfeiting, and commercial advertising on tickets. For example, at some of our recent concerts, an informal poll of fans in the audience revealed that more than 40 percent of them bought their tickets from ticket brokers. At many of our concerts, we are experiencing a counterfeit ticket rate of about 2.5 to 3%. And at one recent concert in Boston, we learned that some of these counterfeit tickets had been sold to fans for $250.

The problems of ticket scalping and counterfeiting are not new or unique to Pearl Jam concerts. There are, however, steps that can be taken to address those problems. These include specific monitoring to ensure that when tickets to a concert go on sale to the public, none are held back for the benefit of ticket brokers.

Obviously, their main fan base is no longer teenagers, but that doesn’t mean they should just accept the practice of self-scalping and charge thousands of dollars for a ticket when it keeps a lot of their fans from being able to see them.

oneway23 wrote:Wait...They could've opted out of this farce and elected not to?
What kind of a cut do they get?

I'm a little slow, admittedly, but, isn't this just legalized scalping where the band, in collusion with TM, intentionally withholds a pre-determined number of seats in order to artificially inflate the price?

numbers wrote:

oneway23 wrote:Wait...They could've opted out of this farce and elected not to?
What kind of a cut do they get?

I'm a little slow, admittedly, but, isn't this just legalized scalping where the band, in collusion with TM, intentionally withholds a pre-determined number of seats in order to artificially inflate the price?

You could put it that way

numbers wrote:It’s my understanding that bands can opt out of this if they choose, Pearl Jam chose to participate.

96583UP wrote:it is legalized price-gouging

fundamentally disrespectful to your supporters

tragabigzanda wrote:Allow me to once again share my ideal PJ tour scenario:

A select run of major market stadium shows with reasonably priced tix for the average Joes. Longer sets, greatest hits plus some deep cuts, all the merch you could ever want…Tix max out at ~$180, with 10C access to the pit/front seats.

Alternate those dates with much smaller middle market shows with premium priced tix, an opening act, deep cuts/acoustic set, limited premium priced merch, with a good chunk of revenues going to local orgs. No 10C priority. “An Evening with Pearl Jam.”