I'd have to see a damn good show to shell out $100+ a ticket. I'm talking something like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.

I have to admit though, I'd probably pay $300 or more for good seats to see Pink Floyd. I heard they were playing again, and "disappointed" is an understatement when I heard it was in f#%#ing ENGLAND!!!

I am fortunate to live in Austin and there are good shows to see almost every night.  Usually $10-$15 max for most traveling acts except fo the icons.   Regional/local performers are often free if you get to the venue a little early and drink a few beers while waiting.    

Look around for the smaller local/regional shows.  They are inexpensive and you can catch lots of good music that way... guys working on their chops or older acts that are still great, just not "in style".   You can usally get "up close & personal" too... maybe shoot the breeze or have a few beers with the folks in the band.  

CD's aren't selling very well right now and more and more people are downloading it off the internet so they need to make it up some how.

Simple.

Artists make SHIT from CD's. The label takes almost 90% of the money from CD's, and they use the other 10% for HALF of the logistics that it takes to have a tour.

The band only makes money off the merchandise and show tickets. A lot of the money from the show tickets goes to pay the venue, they need to pay the loans and bills on their multi-million dollar arenas after all.

Downloading music isn't what makes tickets and CD's cost so much. CD prices were still over $18 a CD back in 1998. At least then you were getting more than 10 songs on a CD most of the time though.

Record sales haven't gone down that much at all, the MPAA and the RIAA are the VPC of the music business. They just suck, and they lie to get their way.

Music labels are greedy and are completely destroying music. You can thank them for the mass produced, over mixed, and cookie cutter music that you all love to hear on the radio.

hey if you get the chance motely crue does a pretty  good show,  even with the outrageous prices

not really kid friendly, they spent about 10 minutes filming young women flashing and   broadcasting live on the monitors. until one them dropped the camcorder. dam

i didn't get to see a lot of concerts when i was younger but now in the last year i have seen
kiss, aerosmith, Ted Nugent, George thorogood, motely crue and Friday night it will be zz top

they are charging to much per ticket but at least now i can afford to see them hell i might even go see billy idol next month for less then 30$

Quoted: CD's aren't selling very well right now and more and more people are downloading it off the internet so they need to make it up some how.

Music sharing doesn't kill CD sales, study says
Published: March 29, 2004, 3:58 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.

For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.

"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."

The study, the most detailed economic modeling survey to use data obtained directly from file-sharing networks, is sure to rekindle debates over the effects of widely used software such as Kazaa or Morpheus on an ailing record business.

Big record labels have seen their sales slide precipitously in the past several years, and have blamed the falling revenue in large part on rampant free music downloads online. Others have pointed to additional factors, such as lower household spending during the recession, and increased competition from other entertainment forms such as DVDs and video games, each of which have grown over the same time period.

Executives at file-sharing companies welcomed the survey, saying it should help persuade reluctant record company executives to use peer-to-peer networks as distribution channels for music "We welcome sound research into the developing peer-to-peer industry, and this study appears to have covered some interesting ground," said Nikki Hemming, chief executive officer of Kazaa parent Sharman Networks. "Consider the possibilities if the record industry actually cooperated with companies like us instead of fighting."

The study, performed by Harvard Business School associate professor Felix Oberholzer and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill associate professor Koleman Strumpf, used logs from two OpenNap servers in late 2002 to observe about 1.75 million downloads over their 17 week sample period.

That sample revealed interesting behavioral, as well as economic, data. Researchers found that the average user logged in only twice during that period, downloading about 17 songs. Some people vastly overshot that average, however--one user apparently logged in 71 times, downloading more than 5,000 songs.

The two professors narrowed their sample base by choosing a random sample of 500 albums from the sales charts of various music genres, and then compared the sales of these albums to the number of associated downloads.

Even in the most pessimistic version of their model, they found that it would take about 5,000 downloads to displace sales of just one physical CD, the authors wrote. Despite the huge scale of downloading worldwide, that would be only a tiny contribution to the overall slide in album sales over the past several years, they said.

Moreover, their data seemed to show that downloads could even have a slight positive effect on the sales of the top albums, the researchers said.

The study is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Previous studies have been released showing that file sharing had both positive and negative effects on music sales.

The Recording Industry Association of America was quick to dismiss the results as inconsistent with earlier findings.

"Countless well-respected groups and analysts, including Edison Research, Forrester, and the University of Texas, among others, have all determined that illegal file sharing has adversely impacted the sales of CDs," RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss said in a statement. "Our own surveys show that those who are downloading more are buying less."

news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5181562.html

Quoted: Don't forget the bullshit "service fees" that get tacked on to the prices.

You got that right. Ticketmaster has basically a monopoly on concert tickets. $46 for a Motley Crue ticket, $8.50 for a "convienence fee", and $2 for some misc bullshit fee.

I wish they'd break it down as follows: $35 for the venue, $8 for the RIAA, and $3 for the band. I can live with a couple bucks for selling me the ticket online so I don't have to drive 3 hours to the venue to get tickets...

Shit, I remember back in the early '80s, tickets were $17-18. More than 3 X that now. Still, I find myself trying to see bands that I missed back in the day because I couldn't afford it. Now I can, and most of the bands are gone. The ones that are doing reunions, I go and see.

Quoted: Quoted: Brooks and Dunn $49.75, Black Crowes $39.00, Motely Crue $69.75 geez. Who the !@#$ are they?

You kiddin right?

I could see you saying that about the "Black Crowes" cuz no one gives a fuck about them.

But Motley Crue and B&D?!?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Brooks and Dunn $49.75, Black Crowes $39.00, Motely Crue $69.75 geez. Who the !@#$ are they?   You kiddin right? I could see you saying that about the "Black Crowes" cuz no one gives a fuck about them. But Motley Crue and B&D?!?

Brooks and Dung suck. They are about as country as my pen.

THe Black Crowes rock. I would like to see them. Have all their CD's.

THe Crue wouldbe fun to see, but I just don't have the extra cash to spend on concerts.

Brooks and Dunn $49.75, Black Crowes $39.00, Motely Crue $69.75 geez Who the !@#$ are they?   You kiddin right? I could see you saying that about the "Black Crowes" cuz no one gives a fuck about them. But Motley Crue and B&D?!? Brooks and Dung suck. They are about as country as my pen. THe Black Crowes rock. I would like to see them. Have all their CD's. THe Crue wouldbe fun to see, but I just don't have the extra cash to spend on concerts.

I said the same thing back in the late '80s, early '90s. I couldn't easily afford to go to the concerts. So, I didn't make the effort to scrounge up the money, preferring to pay some bills. Now, many years later, I can afford to go to the shows quite easily, and the groups I liked are more or less gone. I have been kicking myself for several years wishing I HAD seen them when they were around, bills be damned.

Make a real effort to go to whichever shows you want, for you may not get another chance. I wish to hell I'd seen some of the "Monsters of Rock" shows; they'd have been awesome.