Live data from Hacker News

Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

bloomberg.com

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#41
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they didn't want to commit to the extra shows until demand was clear

> Or they didn't want to commit to the extra shows until demand was clear I think the whole point is that only Superstar Divas used to be able to operate like this. Now, even "starving artists" are employing grey-area price-gouging techniques. My anecdata is that concert fatigue is real. I doubt this is going to bode well in the mid or long term. My crystal ball doesn't work any better than anyone else's though...

Would you care to elaborate on what you mean with concert fatigue? I've never heard of it and you're talking about it as though it's something that is so common, it is implied to be known.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#42
There is a psychological hype effect which affects both audience and performers in a capacity room of any size. Whether it's 50 or 5000, if the room is full, you feel it, and it adds to the excitement, tension and maybe magic of the event. There's nothing worse than playing an empty room, and some of the best times I've ever had have been with a band and thirty people crammed into a living room.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#43
post #8

In short, the author thinks it's the same reason that a half empty club will keep a line waiting outside: it inflates demand. Reality is probably that's one of the reasons only some of the time.

There’s a bakery around here that actively works to make their line as long as possible. They might have the best croissants in the city, but they also have one person bagging them up at a snail’s pace and chatty cashier that wants to verify with every customer that yes, indeed, it is a beautiful day outside and the weather this week is supposed to be sunny with maybe some rain on Tuesday and she hopes it doesn’t rain on Tuesday because that’s her day off and she was thinking of going on a hike.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#44
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Live Nation and Ticketmaster literally serve as "the bad guy" in the transaction. The truth is, due to market realities, ticket prices (MSRP, not reseller prices) need to be high so that everybody gets their cut. All those fees people lose their minds about? Those more or less pay out the promoters, because the artists are too chickenshit to roll the full costs into their bare ticket prices, and unrealistic tick…

This is not a reasonable take on what's actually happening. It's never been a reasonable take, but posting this today after Live Nation has literally just been found liable by a jury shows deep confusion. The ticket prices are not high because of market realities. They're high because of illegal monopoly behavior that inflates costs and then steals the money and gives it to Michael Rapino and his friends. The behavio…

1000% this.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#45
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Live Nation and Ticketmaster literally serve as "the bad guy" in the transaction. The truth is, due to market realities, ticket prices (MSRP, not reseller prices) need to be high so that everybody gets their cut. All those fees people lose their minds about? Those more or less pay out the promoters, because the artists are too chickenshit to roll the full costs into their bare ticket prices, and unrealistic tick…

This is not a reasonable take on what's actually happening. It's never been a reasonable take, but posting this today after Live Nation has literally just been found liable by a jury shows deep confusion. The ticket prices are not high because of market realities. They're high because of illegal monopoly behavior that inflates costs and then steals the money and gives it to Michael Rapino and his friends. The behavio…

Livenation’s profit margins are not very impressive for a business that supposedly has pricing power.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/LYV/live-nation-en...

Are you suggesting Livenation’s leaders (Rapino, etc) are stealing from the other shareholders?

Looks like Liberty Live Group owns 30% of Livenation? And Rapino owns less than 2%, per Yahoo Finance.

https://www.libertyliveholdings.com/about

Page 31 of Livenation’s 2025 10-K shows $25B revenue, $19B direct operating expenses, and $4B selling, general, and admin expenses. I wonder how much of the expenses is not going to performers and the expenses of operating venues.

https://investors.livenationentertainment.com/sec-filings/an...

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#46
post #43
post #8

In short, the author thinks it's the same reason that a half empty club will keep a line waiting outside: it inflates demand. Reality is probably that's one of the reasons only some of the time.

There’s a bakery around here that actively works to make their line as long as possible. They might have the best croissants in the city, but they also have one person bagging them up at a snail’s pace and chatty cashier that wants to verify with every customer that yes, indeed, it is a beautiful day outside and the weather this week is supposed to be sunny with maybe some rain on Tuesday and she hopes it doesn’t rai…

This must be a social media thing because there isn't a pastry on earth worth worth waiting ten minutes for

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#47
post #23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which club?

I assume Berghain

Berlin has hundreds of clubs, half of which are constantly about to close. But berghain has sufficient clout it will remain for decades even if it continues to be mediocre and hostile to its customers.

Re: Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows

#50
This is pretty normal on some level. I used to work in audio production and one of the jokes is that the end of an artists career usually resembles the beginning. I.e. older musicians 'classic rock' etc being relegated to largely county fairs and casinos once they have reached the peak of their fame and are on the backside.

Also production costs do tend to balloon dramatically each time you jump from clubs -> theaters, theaters -> arenas, arenas -> stadiums, etc.

Post reply on HN