Who is "paying" for $ 5,000?

Author | Peng Peng Editor | Fan Zhihui

Recently, Bruce Springsstteen, one of the greatest rock singers in the United States, announced the tour of him and the Ejie band at 2023.

Unfortunately, most of the expectations of fans were dispelled after opening the ticket interface. It is reported that the prices of front seats in many cities such as Hollywood and Governor of New York during this tour have exceeded $ 5,000.

This not only caused anger between music fans, but also caused criticism from many practitioners. On July 22, Bill Werde, the head of the previous announcement plate editorial department, teased on Twitter: "It is difficult to believe that Bruce Springsteen is a person who will let fans start missing the ox."

So what exactly contributed to Bruce Springsteen's soaring ticket price? How rationality does it take to account for 13.47%of the average annual salary of the United States?

Why is the high fare provoked?

Who determines Bruce Springsteen's soaring fare? This is a question of the fans.

On the evening of July 20th, Bruce Springsteen's fans Backstreets replied to the fans' questions on Twitter: due to the cooperation with the ticket platform TicketMaster, the tour launched the "Platinum Seat Program".

To put it simply, T 4TMASTER provides a "dynamic pricing" for the performance, that is, the demand for user users in real -time analysis of the algorithm. Essence According to the official explanation, this pricing logic "is similar to the sales method of air tickets and hotel rooms."

As a rock star that exceeds Bob Dylan, the tour of Bruce Springsteen is obviously in short supply, and the situation on the ticket sales platform is the skyrocketing price.

Of course, relying on market supply and demand relationships to determine the fare is nothing wrong. Taylor Swift, Drake, etc. have previously adopted a dynamic pricing ticket sales strategy. However, this tour artist is Bruce Springsston. In the perspective of worship of him, the price of sky -high tickets betrayed his original intention and conscience of rock music.

Fifty years ago, Bruce Springsteen stated in a radio interview after performance that he felt frustrated after hearing that many music fans had to pay more than $ 10 to buy a ticket. At that time, the 23 -year -old Bruce Springer's view, it was more than enough to watch a rock performance cost $ 5. "If rock abandons its root of its civilians, it will die."

Obviously, the $ 4,400 mentioned in the official Twitter has far exceeded the tolerance of "civilians". As ELPAIS reporter MIQUEL ECHARRI said, "When you sell the faith of the proletariat, you should not decide the price of Iranian caviar."

In the controversy of the continuous fare, TicketMaster had to stand up for a week after the ticket sale.

T 4TMASTER has released a series of statistics since the release of tickets, saying that "dynamic pricing" tickets account for only 11.2%of the total ticket, and the remaining 88.2%of tickets are sold at a fixed price. The price ranges from $ 59.5 to $ 399. Including additional service fees.

As of July 24, the average price of all tickets sold was $ 262, of which 56%of the ticket price was less than $ 200. From the statistical data, the high fare of more than $ 4,000 is obviously "valuable and there is no market", with only 1.3%of the ticket price of more than $ 1,000.

Two days after the platform was issued, Jon Landau, the agent of Bruce Springer, also accepted an exclusive interview with the New York Times to defend the high fare of the tour. . Our fare is equivalent to other people's fares, and even lower than some tour prices. "

LANDAU acknowledged that "a small number of tickets" sold at a price of more than $ 1,000, but he asserted that the average cost of each ticket was around $ 200. According to his explanation, higher prices are the result of dynamic pricing algorithms. Its role is to intelligently use the laws and demand rules to allow more resources to get better seats near the stage and help reduce the price of the remaining tickets.

In response to the dissatisfaction of music fans and the industry, Landau said, "I believe that in today's environment, this price is fair to see a person who is generally considered to be one of the greatest artists in this generation." In his opinion As one of the best -selling authors and live artists in history, Bruce Springsteen, a big IP, is enough to be worth $ 5,000.

However, the defense of high fares did not calm down the anger in social media and continued to release dissatisfaction. In the report, Variety pointed out that the pricing mode of the ticketing platform is "cut leeks". "It is worth pointing out that there is no evidence that someone purchases tickets at a high price of $ 5,000 or $ 4,000. Go, see if someone bite the hook. "The Spanish media" Elpais "endorsed the discounted fans, saying" Bruce's concert will become more and more of his loyal fans, no matter whether there is an algorithm or not? A burden of luxury goods. "

Is the high fare reasonable?

Dynamic pricing is not the first of the Bruce Springsteen.

The dispute over dynamic pricing can be traced back to the reputation tour concert of Taylor Swift in 2018. At that time, fans near the seats found that they would be hundreds of dollars in fares because they had different purchases.

Although a certain degree of discrimination is implemented, the price of tickets is still within the acceptance of fans. Even if there are fans dissatisfied, Taylor's fans are obviously more suitable for the model of business operations and the bonus of little belief value. Therefore, it is not as good as Bruce Springsteen.

In China, high fares are backfrained by public opinion due to the dark box operation of the performance organizer and the ticket platform.

This dates back to Faye Wong's "Phantom" concert in 2016. At that time, the organizer divided the fare into three gears, which were 1,800 yuan, 5,800 yuan, and 7,800 yuan. According to media reports, the organizer only left 10%of tickets to the first -level ticket platform Damai.com, which will 90%of the 90%of the 90%. Tickets were put on a number of second -level ticketing platforms. At that time, the price of tickets rose all the way, from thousands of to tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of millions.

It was questioned as the "collusion" of the organizer and the ticket platform. This concert once became the target of the criticism, and the result was also lost. On the day of the concert, the ticket price of the secondary market was diving, and the price of the ticket was directly below the ticket. It even made the government partially involved in the incident.

What has a long -tail impact is that the price of sky -high tickets is undoubtedly a loss of emotions and star images of music fans.

Before discussing this issue, we need to clarify a basic problem that is often ignored, that is, what role of the star on the tour of the star on the tour. However, the reality will make the fans feel cold, because the stars are fully aware of the pricing mechanism of the organizer, and usually have a vote veto for high -priced votes.

In 2020, the Australian singing group Crowded House issued a statement, rejecting the IN DEMAND ticket launched by Live National (the parent company of Ticketmaster). This type of ticket is also "adjusting prices based on real -time supply and demand relationships." In this regard, the LIVE Nation party responded, "How to pricing and sales always depends on the artist, especially the in Demand ticket, the platform aims to ensure that all income returns to the artist audience instead of falling in the ox's pocket."

In the end, under the request of Crowded House, Live National provided economic compensation for fans who purchased the ticket for the premium.

Bruce Springsteen's agent Landau also made it clear in the interview that the tour team refused to set the upper limit for the ticket price, because "it will be beneficial to the ox, they can buy at a price below the algorithm, and then use what they want in the black market they want Any price to be sold for tickets. "And, Landau asked in an exclusive interview," If someone is willing to pay more than $ 5,000 to see Bruce, why pay for criminals instead of Bruce and his business partners? "

Whether Bruce Springson or Faye Wong, they cannot be alone in the anger of music fans on high fares. To a certain extent, all high fares are at the cost of consuming the emotional links of music fans and stars. From another perspective, high fares are actually highly dependent on the emotional value of the fan economy. Therefore, the pricing strategy of high fares has always had paradox.

Based on such a big premise, the hosting of the performance is becoming more and more enthusiastic about performance value -added services to further tap the value of music fans.

For example, the organizer often sells tickets with peripheral products, while increasing the price of tickets, driving the sales of peripheral products; in the case of small performance venues such as Livehouse, the visual presentation and sound effects of the venue, the performance is limited, the performance is performed, the performance is performed, and the performance is limited. The organizer started to mark the price in advance and take a group photo. Taking Jiang Yunsheng, which has also recently caused heated discussions, was also touched in 2022, fans who purchased the maximum 669 yuan fare can get early qualifications for admission and receive peripheral products and signature posters.

In addition, the value -added service also brings more value release to online concerts. In 2020, TFBOYS held the seventh anniversary of the "Sunshine Travel" cloud concert. The organizer has a three -speed fare, which is 30 yuan, 158 yuan and few online performance high fares of 860 yuan. Different grades have been differentiated with different grades. For example, fans who purchase 158 yuan and 860 yuan fares can unlock all single -player positions; fans who purchase 860 yuan fare can get the privilege of the purchase of limited physical surroundings and subject blind boxes. In fact, even with so many flexible pricing attempts, the rationality of high fares is still questioned.

After all, in the final analysis, the high fare far exceeding the average market is difficult to escape the purpose -the fan economy. Based on the entire industry, the fan economy is too unstable. "Superstar worth" and "emotional bubbles", "value -added services" and "leeks" seem to always be only a line.

Conclusion

For high -fares, the organizers often believe that high fares can restrict the secondary market where the performance tickets are rampant. At the same time, the high fare is also the "guarantee" of the performance level of the organizer to fans.

However, every high fare will cause fans' anger and industry criticism.

On the one hand, music performances, as a cultural product, are ranked at both ends of the artistic attributes and economic attributes, and it is inevitable to attach importance to economic returns. People listen to "instead of" rich people "; on the other hand, a sky -high vote is enough to break the balanced situation of an industry. Although the high fare will bring a short -term return once or twice, in the long run Cultural consumption in the market.

The most difficult age to perform offline, only reasonable pricing strategies can help the performance market steadily return. On the contrary, the disadvantages of high fares are greater than profit, but they are drinking quenching thirst and fishing.

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