Dear Aerosmith:Do you enjoy ass-raping your fans? If your answer is “no”, than please…someone…tell me how you are justifying charging upwards of $200 for your latest tour (a pair of tickets costs $464). As of now, there are still 13th row tickets available at this link. It used to be tickets to Aerosmith were impossible to get, now you have to skip your car payment to attend the show. According to a recent video message posted by Joe Perry he talked about how great the recent Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame was because fans were allowed to be there. It changed the atmosphere of the event and the stuffiness went out the window and in came a breath of fresh air for a ceremony that may never be repeated. So why limit the majority of your fans from attending your shows? You do realize that when you charge what you are charging you alienate your core fans and open your arms to corporate suits who couldn’t name you ten Beatles songs, let alone ten Aerosmith songs. Yeah, I know there is a $35 lawn ticket, but after service fee’s its way past $50, for a lawn ticket. Even if they were playing theaters, these prices would be insulting. Not even AC/DC charged these prices when they returned to the road last year and they had a seven year absence from the road. You guys have come so often and played the same songs over and over again is there anyone who hasn't seen you?
It’s not as if you guys are hurting for money. You have a huge contract from Sony, you’ve grossed hundreds of millions of dollars between 1997 and 2007 and you have a Guitar Hero game that grossed $50 million in its first three months of release. I understand that you guy got screwed on your publishing and basically snorted any and all money you ever made between 1973 and 1986, but $200 for the best seats is ridiculous. I love you guys, think you’re underrated, I think the Geffen years are spectacular and despite my reservations, the September 2007 show I caught in Chicago was spectacular. However, there were quite a few empty seats at that show and the top ticket price was $130. If you couldn’t get 12,000 people to attend the show in Chicago (the third largest concert market in the US), how many people do you think you will get at prices ranging from $89 to $200 (before fees)?
You guys toured in ten different calendar years between 1997 and 2007 (taking only 2000 off and even then there were a few scattered international dates that year). 2008 was the first full year you guys had off in quite some time and then couldn’t even finish a new studio record! To make matters worse, your co-headline jaunt with ZZ Top doesn’t have the Texas threesome playing either show in the Chicago market. Yet, tickets are higher than they are in other markets. For a band who saturated the market with their live show, you would think that every ticket would be $75 and under. I want to like you, I want to see you, I want you guys to rock my socks off, but these prices are pure greed.
Until you guys remove a certain body part from my ass, I won’t be seeing you live any time soon and neither will the next generation of music fans.
Read all of my related Aerosmith articles at this link.
8 comments:
Sadly, Tony, as angry as you and I and many of your readers get over ticket prices today, there will still be people out there that will pay these face value ticket prices in order to get the good seats. And that sends a message to the artists that it's ok to charge that much for a ticket.
I certainly hope that the artists start listening to the average concert goers that just want to see their favorite band and have a fun night out.
Sabina is right and we all know it. I may be the lone person out there that's never seen Aerosmith live, but then I've seen over 200 other bands and the days of me going to see a lot of shows in a year are long gone. I can't afford these prices, yet, those with all the money will fill the arenas for Aerosmith and the other bands charging these prices. And to think when I saw the BEATLES in 1966, the ticket was $3.50.
Aerosmith may sell these seats but the fact that 14th row seats are *still* available 12+ hours after they went on sale tells you there is a problem with the price.
*Some* fans may be foolish enough to pass these prices, but ultimately, it will mean the shows will become smaller and smaller...
The last 2 times Aero played Chicago in 2006 and 2007, they had less than 12,000 people in attendance. A big change from 2001 and 2002 where there were 27,000-30,000 per show...
I thought you sugar coated the problem a little......lol....actually you are right on target. Problem is, it ain't just Aerosmith....I just attended two Springsteen shows for less than the price of that 13th row ticket that is still available, and having seen Aerosmith a bunch of times, there is no doubt the comparison in "bang for the buck" between the two shows is out loud, belly laugh, laughable.
M
Heck, I still think Springsteen charges too much (IMO all balcony and behind the stage seats should be under $50). Alas, I do give him credit for not auctioning off his tickets and as you said, foor around $113 (with fees), you get a 3-hour show and no two Bruce shows are ever alike, good or bad.
If you want to tour almost every year, that's perfectly fine, but follow the Dave Matthews way of thinking and toop your prices out at $75 and for some acts (I'm talking to you Motley Crue), $45.
Eventually people will wise up and these acts, promoters and managers will wake up.
It's my understanding that at some venues Bruce had some $20 seats available in some of the outer areas. I'm not sure the seats behind the stage at a Springsteen show should be discounted because this last show I sat directly behind the stage and they were some of the best seats I ever had for a Bruce show. I guess I'm splitting hairs now, because, you're right, for most artist behind the stage isn't that good.
I'm in total agreement. I think $200 is outrageous and completely uncalled for but let's look at who the promoter of this tour is.....LIVE NATION! This is the promoter who is charging $125 for Poison and Def Leppard so you had to know Aero was going to be pricy too. I hope tickets sales are poor and Live nation loses their A**. Aero gets their high guarantee each night and it's LN that gouge us. I also think that these multiple band billings are rising the prices as well (zz top is a populare and established band who doesn't come cheap by any means). LIve Nation waves the money in their faces to get the tour and then they jack up the prices to sell the tickets. Let's also look at another factor that has me starting to move to the Anti-Aerosmith side (and they are my favorite live band of all time). AERO FORCE ONE FAN CLUB Packages. they've been raping their fans for years with $1,000 vip packages and then some. People pay it too. It's insane! I couldn't believe the VIP package prices for the upcoming Def Lep/Poison tour but then I saw the VIp Aero Force One and I have to think to myself, MY GOD. Enough is Enough! But as long as people pay it the band and promoters will be laughing all the way to the bank. I'm guilty of paying this at times. And the REALLY Crappy part about this is that the setlists of the shows that we're paying this ridiculous amount of money to see these days are all Main Stream Greatest HIts, so the bands aren't even catering to the REAL fans (yeah, poison, i'm calling you out on that). Throw us a bone and give us some rarities that make our jaws hit the floor and not such a predictable show that we are paying top dollar for. Ok, i'm off my soap box for now. Sorry, this topic hit a big nerve with me.
I'm done with it all....here's to boycotting all of these artists' shows w/ whom i use to love going to so dearly that are as you said, 'raping' me and their fans. I can only hope I am not the only one following suit. I won't buy the cheap seats either....thing of it is, i don't even want to go to the shows anymore. How sad is that when the music takes on a different meaning and has become jaded?
Lara
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