Are gig tickets selling?

dragonfly!

As someone who goes to gigs A LOT there has been a massive increase in ticket prices across the board.
Taylor Swift (Who I love so I'm not bashing her and the topic has been done to death) was 80ish the last time she was here - €145 this time.
Snow Patrol were €50ish (which I thought was cheap to be fair and this was in 2012) they are €70 before charges this time. I am going to see them in Spain for €45 a month later.
The hotel prices are insane as well which I guess is another topic but it adds up very quickly.
Some acts are here time and time again as well and you just cant go to all the shows. EG The Coronas will always have a summer show in Dublin, Bellx1 will do 2 or 3 in a year most years. I could continue with the examples...
As other people have said there has been a shocking amount of outdoor gigs as well and all in close proximity to each other
I have my 4th outdoor gig since the 15th June tonight.
I've also noticed that more and more gigs are midweek which for people not living in Dublin would be affected by

dragonfly!

Lotus Flower wrote: »

Some of those gigs were on the same night and were for different audiences, e.g. both of The National gigs and Taylor Swift

I like both of the above artists and have been to see them both live before

Lotus Flower

dragonfly! wrote: »

I like both of the above artists and have been to see them both live before

Right, I should have added that some people will like both, but broadly speaking, they're for different audiences.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Suckit

Former Former wrote: »

The cost of tickets is not the issue, it's saturation IMO.

Saturation isn't helping, but the cost of tickets is definitely an issue. I would argue that it is the issue more so than saturation.
Many people may see a gig coming that they only have a bit more than a passing interest in, and the price will usually influence their decision not go.

Lotus Flower

Suckit wrote: »

Saturation isn't helping, but the cost of tickets is definitely an issue. I would argue that it is the issue more so than saturation.
Many people may see a gig coming that they only have a bit more than a passing interest in, and the price will usually influence their decision not go.

I agree with this. I love gigs and will prioritise them over most other things but the cost of some are prohibitive

Ferris_Bueller

The price is what puts me off plus the fact that so many of the gigs are midweek as I live outside of Dublin. I go to a couple of gigs a year but would go to a lot of festivals as it represents better value for money. Went to Arcade Fire a couple of months back and it was a brilliant gig (on a Friday too thankfully), but I spent an absolute fortune between cost of a ticket, travel, drinks and food.. Huge fan of them so it was worth it but not many bands I would do that for again to be honest and if it's midweek it would want to be a really special gig to tempt me. Going abroad for a gig or going to a festival generally works out more cost efficient because you get more than just 90/120 mins of music out of it, if I lived in Dublin I guess I would have a different attitude but I'm guessing this is an issue for more than just me!

Xenji

Cheaper for me to fly to London and see a gig, if you are living outside Dublin and have to take transportation, accommodation and food into account it can start to become ridiculously expensive.

Former Former

PTH2009 wrote: »

The seller could easily not bother his hole uploading the ticket

In which case the seller wouldn't be paid and you would be refunded.

Zardoz

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Yep the market is hugely saturated at this point with a few big acts playing pretty much every weekend.

In tandem with this, gig prices are at an all time high with the better tickets for a variety of gig types such as Taylor Swift tickets going for 145, Rolling Stones tickets at 180, Flight of the Concords at 100, Michael McIntyre at 85.

People just can't afford or refuse to pay for multiple high price gigs.

Because of this, acts or their promoters are vastly overestimating attendance resulting in massive giveaways for Taylor Swift and less so Michael Buble and the Rolling Stones to name a few.

The flip side of the ridiculous saturation of gigs this summer is that tickets can be picked up for half nothing the week of the gig.
Its a buyers market .

Taylor Swifts tickets were being given away free ,the Rolling Stones tickets were available on lucky dip until the day of the gig,Bubles sales are poor, etc etc .
Almost every gig this summer had tickets for well under face value close to the gig.
Some you couldnt even give away the market was swamped.

For all the criticism of the resale sites ,if people are shrewd and resist the urge to buy tickets when they initially go onsale ,most of the time tickets can be bought for below face value.
Play the promoters at their own game,no gig is ever really sold out .

MadYaker

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Its never cheaper for me

okidoki987

The flip side of the ridiculous saturation of gigs this summer is that tickets can be picked up for half nothing the week of the gig.
Its a buyers market .
Taylor Swifts tickets were being given away free ,the Rolling Stones tickets were available on lucky dip until the day of the gig,Bubles sales are poor, etc etc .
Almost every gig this summer had tickets for well under face value close to the gig.
Some you couldnt even give away the market was swamped.

For all the criticism of the resale sites ,if people are shrewd and resist the urge to buy tickets when they initially go onsale ,most of the time tickets can be bought for below face value.
Play the promoters at their own game,no gig is ever really sold out .

Some really great points there.
TS tickets were too dear and loads of people who bought them to make a profit discovered there was no buyers for them and ended offloading them at massive discounts on various sites.
Amazing the number of people who suddenly have weddings/holidays/hospitals to go to instead of going to the concerts!
Promoter then had to offload thousands of free tickets to make it look like it was a reasonably attended concert even though a lot of them were freebies.

I strolled down to Croker with some work mates for the Stones to see if we could pick some cheap tickets outside.
Ended up with 2 tickets near enough at half price but not all of us got in.
We said we wouldn't pay full whack as there was so many floating around but with the good weather a lot of walk up fans bought all the cheap tickets so the others stayed drinking outside the pub.
Most sold out gigs will have tickets available closer to the date especially for massive stadiums like Croker or outdoor festivals.

There's been a few times there have been 2 gigs on same night which isn't a great idea.
You would think the promoters would talk to each other.

Suckit

Zardoz wrote: »

The flip side of the ridiculous saturation of gigs this summer is that tickets can be picked up for half nothing the week of the gig.
Its a buyers market .

Taylor Swifts tickets were being given away free ,the Rolling Stones tickets were available on lucky dip until the day of the gig,Bubles sales are poor, etc etc .
Almost every gig this summer had tickets for well under face value close to the gig.
Some you couldnt even give away the market was swamped.

For all the criticism of the resale sites ,if people are shrewd and resist the urge to buy tickets when they initially go onsale ,most of the time tickets can be bought for below face value.
Play the promoters at their own game,no gig is ever really sold out .

I know of a fair few people that got free tickets to the gigs in Malahide. I also know of someone who couldn't shift their De La Soul/Gorillaz ticket.

rubadub

okidoki987 wrote: »

TS tickets were too dear and loads of people who bought them to make a profit

I doubt there were many people buying 150euro tickets for a gig unlikely to sell out in the hope they could charge even more.

150 is already a tout like price.

I was surprised the far cheaper ~€77 standing stones tickets were not snapped up by potential touts, they were still available every second or third day right up until the end.

Suckit

Mr.S wrote: »

Really, even when you take into account plane / transport tickets and London hotel prices, surely it works out more expensive, or at the very least on par with Dublin?

On par or cheaper as a rule.

Paul Simon in Amsterdam this weekend works out on par.
+ Accomodation was €35 for the night.

Drinks work out cheape, not a necessity, but in the gig itself. Amsterdam being one of the more expensive alternatives to Dublin, and Paul Simon one of the more expensive gigs.

phunkadelic

rubadub wrote: »

I doubt there were many people buying 150euro tickets for a gig unlikely to sell out in the hope they could charge even more.

150 is already a tout like price.

I was surprised the far cheaper ~€77 standing stones tickets were not snapped up by potential touts, they were still available every second or third day right up until the end.

The standing tickets were 'sold out' a few times. Once TM realised the gold circle and more expensive tickets weren't selling, they released more standing.
They released them as 'production hold' tickets.

ghostdancer

I've done multiple festivals/gigs abroad, and they've never been cheaper than Irish ones.
If i had to pay for travel/accom to Dublin, then maybe, but even things like EP is cheaper than foreign festivals, once you take into account going to the airport, flights, travel abroad, accomodation (or extra fees for bringing tents etc if camping).

Zardoz

Mr.S wrote: »

Amsterdam is usually cheaper then London though, your not going to get hotels for under 100quid in London unless you rough it. Not quite sure what €35 gets you in Amsterdam either

London hotels are way cheaper than Dublin and the standard is much higher.
I spent 6 nights over there in a nice proper 3 star hotel in Paddington last month and I paid less than 100 euro a night .That was booked at short notice too .

A similar hotel in Dublin would have cost twice that ,if not 3 times if there was a concert on.

Amsterdam is very expensive for hotels in general ,35 euro would barely get a hostel.

Suckit

AirBNB FTW...

Also, offers at the time tickets go on sale.

Last year it was almost €40 cheaper to see Coldplay in Wales and stay the night than it was Croke Park.
To be fair they sold out in seconds and the price went stupid on Ticketmasters sister site after that.