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Putting a Price on Live Music

posted by Matt at 11:08 am.

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Everclear played a show at the Canopy Club last school year. Tickets were $25. People laughed.

Dave Matthews Band played at Assembly Hall two years ago. Tickets were $40. It was packed.

Ryan Adams played at Foellinger for a Star Course show earlier this month. Tickets were $23. The Auditorium was one third full.

Ticket sales are an absolute crap shoot on this campus. Students are poor and putting on a show is expensive, but if an artist is popular enough the tickets will sell, right? You would think so. Unfortunately things are far from that easy.

Venue managers spend lots of time estimating an artist’s worth, pursuing a show, negotiating contracts, and promoting a show. The most important decisions made are the ones deciding an artist and how to promote them. Factors such as venue size, artist popularity on campus, cost of the artist, and show date all help determine what a reasonable charge for tickets would be. A couple dollars too much and a venue could lose hundreds of ticket purchases. After the show is confirmed a promotions campaign has to get started quickly. Locally, things usually don’t get running until a month or two before the show date. How many people are reached and excited by the artist can make a huge difference in not only ticket sales but the success of the concert.

Students are cheap, flaky, and capricious enough to make this entire process a living nightmare. An occasional trip to Ticketmaster should be enough to remind concert-goers that CU concerts are for the most part service charge, shipping charge, and printing charge free. Instead of indulging a Jimmy John’s fetish three times a week or spending too much money on beerses try putting a few bucks away every week to save up for several concerts a semester. Most of them are a way better experience and a cheaper price than spending two hours getting a contact high at DMB circus shows.

Matt Fender: I'm put together beautifully