My Chemical Romance Band • Page 566

God she's 15 now, I feel so old

 

Man I must have gotten really lucky on Friday getting tickets to the Philly show, I only had 1000 in front of me in the queue and I got tickets in the 100 section for $170 (still a lot but not nearly as bad as what I've been hearing)

 

Ticketmaster is teasing UK dates it seems?

 

Just gonna leave this here…

“It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either fucking stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

Robert Smith blasts artists over inflated ticket prices weeks after Oasis fiasco

 

I've been thiking of this Robert Smith quote the whole time while watching people talk about these ticket prices.

This band isn't what they used to be, they changed after Black Parade. Even Danger Days felt phoned-in imo. Now they're just a nostalgia act.

It is what it is but it's a bit sad...

 

lol

 

They're only a nostalgia act in the sense that they've released two new songs in the past decade, the criticism about the ticket prices is fair and valid.

 

Two?

 

Fake Your Death! Early 2014.

 

You mean the last song they released before breaking up? I don't feel like that should count.

 

In any case they were largely inactive for six, and effectively then another two, years. They're only a nostalgia act insofar as they haven't released an album in 12 years. They're gonna do what they want, people will pay those prices although I wish they didn't have to.

 

Blasphemy lol

I am a casual MCR fan but Danger Days fuggin rips.

 

I would pay $1k to see a Danger Days x Conventional Weapons in full show.

 

respectfully I think that means you have too much money and it needs to be given away

 

I volunteer to take that money

 

He's 100% right, I think acts are just embarrassed that a seedy part of the business has finally been exposed. Truth be told, I don't think many bany members personally get involved in these talks. They probably have agents/managers negotiate contracts for them, see a lump sum proposed and leave it at that. Robert Smith, admirably, leans in to understand the details which is why he's done what he's done. Most bands probably just have their managers tell them "Alright dudes, $50MM for the tour minus touring costs + my fee" and are like "LOLZ ok."

 

Yeah not sure why people would jump to blaming the band, except for not speaking out about it after they found out. This mess exists because of Ticketmaster/livenation, not just some greedy booking agents.

 

My evergreen tweet

 

(Sigh)

There's not ONE entity that is entirely responsible but everyone needs to stop thinking these massive acts are altruistic beings. Band, crew, promoter, agent, manager, ticketing platform, venue owner, etc ALL need be incentivized to make a profit for concerts. Ticketmaster is just a tech platform that manages ticket sales/data so, yes, they do get a cut of each purchase. Y'all would go nuts if you found out what percentage Amazon's fee is for everything you buy if it was shown in the checkout process.

 

These are the situations where I feel the phrase "separate the art from the artist" actually applies. It's a little naive to think that they know nothing at all of how this is working. Maybe a few years ago I could buy it more, but frustrating with ticket buying/pricing is a national conversation at this point. But also it's not something that's going to impact my ability to enjoy their music or show or anything. Most of us would probably do the same

 

Yeah I’m not dumb and that wasn’t what I was saying. And Ticketmaster is not just a tech platform that sells tickets. They have controlling interest in hundreds of the venues they sell those tickets at, as well as having a close to monopoly on ticket sales in general. But yeah they just manage ticket sales and aren’t the ones that benefit the most. Lol I didn’t say no one else is to blame for it or that Ticketmaster was solely to blame. But Ticketmaster is the reason this shit is going on, so I’m saying it’d make more sense to jump on them before someone jumps on the band, when they might not have even known what was going on until it happened. Nowhere was I contradicting anything you said. But (sigh)

 

Ticketmaster is the tech platform. Live Nation is the entity that cuts artist deals, draws up contracts, and provides advances and oh yeah - they own the ticketing platform AND operate most of the venues. So they’re charging the fee but also collecting it.

 

I know but I also use AXS and the fees there are the same, if not more oftentimes. Not sure how to fix that. Essentially, due to Live Nation's scale, they are able to overbid for tours which is then passed on to the consumer in forms of ticket prices. Given that a lot of these tours do well box office wise, there isn't really an incentive to be more inclusive pricing-wise unfortunately.

 

This tour might finally be an exception. This tour is NOT sold out - they could have sold it all out on Friday if they priced it better, but alas - there are hundreds (thousands if you’re looking at LA Night 2) of tickets still available that aren’t resale, almost certainly due to the insane percentage of Platinum Tickets. Even Dallas/Arlington and Seattle - whole rows on the floor still available but going for 700-850.

The touring market is already going soft this year. They were smart to keep this to 10 cities. But they will need to adjust pricing to move the rest of these tickets. There were so many arena tours this year that prices dropped close to the show because of this. For example, when Usher tickets went on sale the day after the Super Bowl, all his lower bowl tickets were priced at $399 or higher. They were available the day of the show for $79 or less since they were still unsold. (yes I know Usher is a weird example but there’s countless other examples - look at Foo Fighters and Zach Bryan’s stadium tours). With a few exceptions (Taylor, Sabrina), the arena-stadium market is over saturated