James Villa– By Michal Elizabeth Smith –
My jaw dropped as I filled out the credit card info to purchase concert tickets for the upcoming, Monumentour, featuring New Politics, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore. The final cost read, “$168.50,” for two tickets. Who has the audacity to charge 80 dollars per ticket for general admission before service fees?
Yet, regardless of outrageous prices, venues continue to sell out. Why the high price points? I think there’s’s a disruption in balance afoot.
The music industry is now a “single” driven business; meaning with the click of a button, listeners can pick which songs they purchase. Gone are the days where people are required to buy entire albums. Artists will spend a considerable amount of time marketing each single as it is released in order to make up for the difference and because of the transition into a “single” driven society, and of course, illegal downloading, artists are charging an absurd amount of money for live concerts. It’s a myth that artists aggregate money on a consistent basis from album sales, so both labels and artists turn to concert tickets to balance out the costs.
The prices, and our anger towards them, are increasing, but in reality we’re part of the cause. We have no control over the label’s decisions, but we can control our actions when it comes to purchasing a single, or an album, and downloading it legally. Artists are bound to produce singles we don’t like, but if it’s an artist you follow closely, I encourage you to purchase the entire album. We all play a key role in the music industry, whether you believe it or not, and an artist would not be successful without his or her fan base.
So, that’s my pitch for the day; no more “singles,” buy full albums only. Try it, listening to a full length for a change might both surprise and excite you.
Tim Schumann
James Villa
