Bruce Springsteen live in 2016, when tickets were significantly cheaper than his 2023 tour. Photo: AFP
At 72, rocker Bruce Springsteen announced his new world tour a few weeks ago which will begin in 2023. Immediately the news was greeted with glee by his fans, but then there was outrage to see the exorbitant prices he was charging. , with tickets from 200 to 5000 dollars.
The hype was so great on social media that the manager had to come out in defense of his artist. The famous Jon Landau explained that the high price is due to “a dynamic pricing algorithm that has not been fully calibrated”.
Bruce Springsteen this time remained silent in the face of the claim of his loyal fans. He sent his manager to explain. Photo: AFP
The justification
This algorithm mentioned by the manager consists of a code that increases the price of tickets in relation to the demand of users who access the web to buy the ticket.
Thus, tickets that were supposed to cost $ 60 were increasing in price as there was a great demand not to miss the shows. That’s why fans protested that they were scammed.
Bruce with his manager from the 70s, Jon Landau, a former reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Photo: IG
Bruce Springsteen’s rep concluded his statement by criticizing the follower position and said that the price is totally in line with the type of artist they’re going to see:
“Regardless of comments on a modest number of tickets costing $ 1,000 or more, our true average ticket price was around $ 200. I think, in the current environment, it’s a fair price to see someone universally considered one of the best artists of his generation ».
More data
As it became known after the fans’ complaint, in reality only 1% of the total tickets sold to see Bruce cost more than a thousand dollars.
Bruce Springsteen lives in Argentina, at the GEBA stadium, 2013. Photo: Martín Bonetto.
The sale was made with the new Ticketmaster Verified Fan Sale system, a modality that includes the “dynamic price” that Landau alluded to. The company’s justification is that this system avoids reselling at exorbitant prices … even if it eventually ends up producing exorbitant prices that go at least to the artist and not to the middlemen.
In fact, an analysis of Springsteen’s ticket sales showed that only 10% went to resale, a very low figure by historical numbers.
In terms of sales, those prices haven’t intimidated fans, and most of the shows are already sold out. Springsteen is estimated to earn around $ 4 million for each concert at the stadium, and a total of $ 120 million at the end of the US tour.
Years ago, when there was a similar controversy, Springsteen criticized Ticketmaster and the company apologized. This time it didn’t happen the same.
How much does it cost to see an artist like Bruce?
Just as many critics periodically assure that “rock is dead”, the tours of the great artists of the genre have turned out to be the opposite and every year they set new collection records.
A FinanceBuzz study analyzed 13 musical styles, taking data from the Pollstar ranking of the top 200 US tours from 2019 to 2021.
The result was that classic rock was the most expensive genre in terms of ticket price, averaging $ 119, while pop and Latin music averaged $ 85 and alternative rock “just” $ 63 greenbacks. .
The marquee of the famous Bruce Springsteen show in a Broadway theater, where tickets cost around $ 500. Photo: AP
And it was Bruce Springsteen’s acclaimed Broadway show that helped raise that average, with tickets averaging $ 500. In that studio, the other artists with the most expensive tickets were Lady Gaga and Metallica.
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Source: Clarin
