We’re In The Age Of The $500 Concert Ticket

Been concert ticket hunting lately? So many great shows like Taylor, Bruce, Luke Combs, Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks and, when he gets back to work, Morgan Wallen.

Trying to buy into one of these shows and sit in a reasonably located seat? With parking, it can be almost $1,000.

If I had a thousand bucks in the late ’60s, would I have paid it to see the Beatles … YES! So maybe this is a moot discussion. It just doesn’t feel right that the so-called “premium” seats are so outrageous. Yes, $1,000 to take a date to a concert is outrageous.

“Phantom of the Opera” in its first year or so in London was $500 for two. With inflation, maybe that’s $1 000 today. Again, maybe this is a moot point, but it doesn’t feel right.

Taylor Swift may gross 1.6 billion (per Forbes) on this tour, with a potential net of $500 million. She’s the Beatles to thousands of young women in 2023. But in the long run, should going to a concert be an experience for only the wealthy?

Some observations about the ACM Awards show that ties into this $1,000 concert date subject. When the ACM folks took the Amazon Prime Video deal last year, were they thinking about what’s best for the fans? Was anyone even asking if the show could be run later on a mainstream cable channel or some place where NON Prime subscribers could watch? It was a good-looking show, but despite not being behind a paywall this year, you will never convince me in the U.S. that many actually saw it.

If Country music is following the NFL down a rabbit hole with fan unfriendly licensing deals, this story will not end well. Country music is not the NFL.

The ACMs really had an excellent show: the hosts, the technical quality picture and, especially, sound. The labels are all about streaming now. TV is for old people.

The median prime time TV viewer age continues to creep upward for CBS (63.2), ABC (58.5), NBC (59.2) and Fox (52.4), plus CNN (60) and Fox News (65). Is this a well-known fact? I don’t think so.

If you are having an award show in 2023 and you are pushing all these baby acts, how is that a rating grabber for TV? Food for thought.

Maybe the norm in 2023: concerts with good seats are for the elites, and award shows should be streaming or on TikTok to chase the audience.

See where ABC is doing the “Golden Bachelor?” Women and men over 60. Sounds like someone ought to be do music show that appeals to the audience actually watching TV. What an idea!

Peyton Manning and Luke Bryan are a good choice again for the CMA Awards show.

We are at such an information crossroads. Newspapers and traditional media are shrinking, TV is aging, and AM radio is potentially about to disappear. Many houses don’t even own a radio except for the one in their gas-powered car/truck. Change happens when you close your eyes.

BuzzFeed News, MTV News, Vice all going, and they served a now again demographic.

If TikTok is the most popular media in the country, how is that going to work? Do these Tokkers have 1,000 for two concert tickets? Sixty percent of TikTok users are Gen Zers. Gen Zers are trendsetters. Next year, 74 million people in the U.S. will be part of Gen Z, which will make it the largest generation of all. How is this all going to work out? To be continued …