Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

lol fuck you

Jon Landau addresses #2023Tour #springsteentickets in a statement to the @nytimes: “In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing. We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others…”https://t.co/9iJkIuR4bW

— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) July 26, 2022

I mean, this is all sort of like saying, "Actually, the guards in the panopticon are only watching you 11.8% of the time so what's the big deal?" The point is not the number of tickets that do this, it's that everyone now has to navigate this mysterious and opaque system dominated by the idea that you don't know what tickets will cost because the artist can just keep jacking up the price based on demand. The idea of Bruce holding tickets just out of reach so he can sell them to the highest bidder is the exact opposite of the brand he's built over the years, and everyone who's trying to go see his show now has to engage with that version of Bruce. If Bruce and Landau aren't getting that, they're either being deliberately dense or they've reached a level of out of touch that you normally only see in sitcoms.

"'That Darn Bruce'...This Fall On HBO MAX!"

Tunnel of Love tour was my first concert, in 5th grade with my mom. I took my fiance to see him on the Rising tour with my mom and when my mom went to the High Hopes show with my wife and I we told her she was going to be a grandmother again. Her granddaughters are now old enough to see him but I can’t be bothered to buy that many tickets for that much money.

xp In which Bruce and his family* somehow lose all their money and have to move back into his childhood home in Freehold.

*including the kids, the new grandkid and Jessica's horse

...and the horse talks...only to Bruce!

I mean, I'll take Bruce's side over Ticketmaster 100 times out of 100.

That said, I also don't think it's unfair to hold Bruce to a higher standard.

That said, fuck Ticketmaster.

Is Jon Landau an abrasive, unfriendly guy in real life? I always had that impression from what I've read about him and from him - I can see why Bruce would want him as a manager, because he's like the asshole you'd need to do things you'd feel too uncomfortable doing yourself.

I wonder if some of this aggressive pricing (or the acceptance thereof by artists) is the result of the loss of revenue resulting from the migration from album sales to streaming. Touring is now largely their only source of revenue.

I'm sure that's partly true, but none of these people (least of all Bruce) should have to worry about any revenue at this point. I imagine they charge this much because they can. Many years ago I interviewed Mel Gibson. At the time he was getting paid something like $20 million a movie, and he was complaining about the roles he's had to turn down because they couldn't afford his price. So I asked him, what if you just asked for less money? And his response was something like "I *could* ask for less money ... but I won't."

Anyway, I'm sure Landau is a huge asshole, just as I know Ticketmaster are assholes. There was a really good piece on Ticketmaster some years ago that went into the idea that in the end Ticketmaster mostly exists to take the heat off the artists, who obviously are the ones that ultimately set prices and OK policies. Also a good Planet Money piece on how tickets are or should be priced. (Warning: lots of Kid Rock, but I always like hearing him talk about the music biz. Also, ironically, the piece names Springsteen as someone who bucks the, er, big bucks ticket trends.)

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/671583061

A niece of mine just got tickets today fairly easily for either Albany or Buffalo. She signed on early into the waiting room and got in the queue quickly. Someone else I know got Baltimore tickets. So maybe it’s slightly easier in smaller markets ( although they’re still using variable pricing in those places as well and not capping price limit)

By sign on early, do you mean, just sign in to TM? Because I signed in to TM, and see the countdown, but obv it's too early to enter any code, so not sure what signing in early gets me. Saves a step?

OK, I see. I am now in the waiting room. (Cue Fugazi.)

his response was something like "I *could* ask for less money ... but I won't."

LMAO. I'm not really a Mel Gibson fan but at the height of his fame, I think he took a pay cut to work with Wim Wenders on The Million Dollar Hotel (co-written by Bono of all people). But according to Wenders in a recent Guardian interview...

The movie’s prospects were hardly boosted when Gibson called it “as boring as a dog’s ass”.

“Oh, Mel killed the film,” Wenders agrees. “He’s very, very good in it. And he thought so. But his next project was What Women Want, and his own people said: ‘If you want to really kill What Women Want then show Million Dollar Hotel – it’s not helping you.’ He decided to turn against the film. It didn’t survive the blow.”

In the queue. "2000+ people ahead of you."

Eh, fuck it, I just don't have the heart to pay even $100 for nosebleeds. I'll check back in (looks at calendar) 7 months.

I ended up paying $132 total - $104 + fees - for the cheapest ticket I could find that wasn't behind the stage. If I'd ever seen him before maybe I would have skipped this one, because that's too much money. ugh.

Yeah, I've seen him at least 20 times, always great seats, so I feel very lucky. This time, I just closed the tab and went straight to buying tickets for Meshuggah/Converge/Torche in September. Total price for two tickets to that awesome triple band bill, even with lame (but at least not hidden!) fees, was much less than the cost of a single shitty Springsteen seat.

I have a ticket to see him in Hamburg as well, but so many things could happen with that, I don't want to count on getting to go to it. The appeal of being able to walk down the hill and go see Springsteen is hard to resist, even when the seats are terrible and the pricing is bullshit.

Lily, you've never seen Bruce in concert before?

Bruce was on my bucket list to see someday but lol, so not gonna happen.

xp No, he wasn't even on my radar at all until 2010 or so, and at that point I was living in Alaska and it never occurred to me to travel to the lower 48 for a Springsteen show. Plus I was barely a fan - I mean, I knew the hits and had a couple of albums but that was it. I became an actual fan in a sort of bolt-from-the-blue Sudden Conversion three years ago.

Oh man, I had no idea. If you're ever in the NY area in hopes of seeing a Springsteen show, let us know - if by some chance I can land an extra affordable ticket, I can definitely save it for you. (Whenever I've gone, I always had the chance to get another ticket as well.)

Oh wow, thank you!

Curious, I logged back on to look at Milwaukee. It's still the verified fan presale, but prices have now gone up to between $500 and $1500 each. On the other hand, that means 3 1/2 hours after going on sale, verified fan presale did not sell out.

Oh by the way when I joined the Ticketmaster queue this morning it said there was 1 person ahead of me. And then it instantly let me in and pretty much all the seats were available. Is that normal or did I get insanely lucky?

For shows that had enough to demand to create a queue, I've never had that happen to me, so yes, you were insanely lucky!

all i care about now for this tour is that Lily sees a show, even if she hates Bruce by that point

just to read about it

And 24 hours later ... hundreds of "verified resale tickets" already available for the Milwaukee show.

Pretty sad that Kid Rock's organization is doing a far better job of doing what's right for the fans than the Springsteen camp.

Kid Rock is a man of the people.

Just hopped on to one of the two Long Island pre-sales (the only one I got into). It's been three full minutes and STILL 2000+ ahead of me...

Still 2000+ and this popped up:

10:13 AM
Due to demand, ticket availability is limited and ticket options may vary throughout the venue.

Man, still 2000+ and this popped up:

10:19 AM
Due to high demand for today’s sale, ticket availability is extremely limited. As you continue to shop some options may be unavailable. If you are unable to find tickets today, we recommend checking back frequently as additional tickets may become available.

I don't remember it being this hard to get tickets before - maybe I just lucked out in the past?

No, this whole situation is fucked in a new sort of way.

"Verified resale" tickets for the Milwaukee show exist for the *entire row in front of the soundboard.*
https://i.imgur.com/sBq5RwG.png

Like, how was that entire row purchased, who purchased them, and how are they able to place an *entire row* up for sale just a couple of days after the official sale?

What's weird, is good affordable tickets DID pop up...but they were already taken even when I tried to get them right away. Like tried a nosebleed for $70, tried a good lower tier for $100, but nada.

Took 32 minutes to get through FWIW

Also noticed that I can't buy one ticket on Verified Pre-Sale they only allow pairs, FWIW.

Yeah, I ran into that trying to get a single ticket for another show earlier this year. Just love to see the entire ticket buying process get worse and worse.

I hope whoever goes bootlegs the shit out of everything. I want full-length videos on YouTube the next day!

Bruce TwitchStreams

I'll thank my partner for being a big Coldplay fan. At least we got to see Bruce from a good seat, if only for two songs.

Bruce made $500 million from recently selling his publishing, and already had plenty of $, so he could have said no to variable pricing but he didn't.

^^ future of the music industry

That's if Bruce was even aware of variable pricing. Most likely, he just told Landau he wanted to tour, said he wanted to do x dates in these locations, come home with $x, and Landau's people made it happen. I would be surprised if Landau himself was even made aware of variable pricing by his team. And why should he be bothered about that? Dates are booked and tickets are selling, so as far as Landau's concerned, the tour is already a success.

Any backlash would only be strong enough to get Landau's and Bruce's attention if some/most dates were half-full by showtime. Sadly, that probably won't happen.

The fact that Landau made a (defensively BS) statement means that Springsteen is aware, and the fact that Springsteen himself as not made any statement, let alone any moves to remedy the situation, means he doesn't really care.