this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
4 points (58.3% liked)
Art
663 readers
19 users here now
This is a community for art in any medium. Welcome!
Rules:
- This is a community to discuss all things related to art. Posts should be relevant to art, such as sharing art or news about art. To clarify, when we say "any medium," this includes media such as painting, film, music, literature, performance, video games, etc.
- Keep things civil. Critiquing art is fine but attacking other users for their opinions is not.
- Avoid excessive self-promotion. Yes, this is subjective and will be based on how popular this community becomes overall. If you can see a post about your own work on the first few pages, don't post another.
- Follow site-wide rules
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
But tickets are optional, it isn't like food.
Everyone must buy food, one doesn't need to go to a concert.
So by going to the concert, they're saying these prices are fine.
Who's "they"?
Because it certainly isn't the entire fandom.
Someone will always pay more, because they have more to spend. Just because the show sold out doesn't mean an accurate representation of the fandom are the ticket holders.
The prices are not fine for most fans, but there are enough that pay anyway. The majority get punished by the "free market" that they're locked out of. It's not as if there's a cheaper alternative Taylor Swift concert the market can move to.
There's also the fact these are limited time affairs, so even if people aren't fine with it, they don't have a choice if they want to see their favorite artist in their prime.
Also, the idea that if it's not food, it's okay for it to be price gouged is ridiculous. You can take any economic theories you like and blow them out your ass, because the fundamental point is we want a fairer world where the poor are not consistently and routinely fucked over by greed and the wealthy that get to buy special treatment at everyone else's expense. It is not unreasonable to want a world where the poor get to enjoy things at a reasonable cost.
You might as well just say that not everyone needs to fly when we have buses and trains and boats, so why don't airlines just make all the seats first class?
You can try to artificially restrict the prices by limiting access, and maybe you’ll have some success, but as long as there are people out there who are willing to pay more for the tickets, you’re going to be fighting against the market. There’s always going to be someone who finds a way to take advantage. And lowering the prices artificially is directly contrary to the interests of every party involved in creating the show. Maybe the artist is happy with what they make and want to increase access to their show, but the venue, the crew, the label, and the ticket sellers are all going to want to make more if possible.
As I mentioned, the fact that you have scalpers selling for profit on basically every show implies the prices are already artificially low. The way I see it, the only true solution to this issue is fixing the inequality that allows some people to massively out-compete others on price. You can’t really make it cheaper by addressing scarcity in this specific scenario. Only so many people can see the popular artist live. Maybe better simulations of a live show could help. Taylor Swift is doing that to some extent with the theater version.