Beyoncé - Renaissance

But the scramble is to get tickets(?) Folks seem willing to pay… is demand just higher than ever?

Yeah, I dunno how that works. Wasn't demand huge for, say, Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles in the '70s? Madonna or Springsteen in the '80s? Were people getting shut out left and right due to demand and scalpers? I don't remember it that way, or at least, I don't remember any show I wanted to see that I did not get to see. But I suppose I didn't go to that many arena (let alone stadium) shows.

I guess the preregistration / “fan verification”thing just adds a new level of complexity?

If Ariana Grande ever tours again, it’s gonna be bananas… glad I spent what I spent for the seat I had at the final show of her last tour.

i preregistered and would honestly be willing to pay an unreasonable amount of money but that won't matter!

I'm split between paying an unreasonable amount of money and not paying for "dynamic pricing"/resale tix out of principle, fuck Ticketmaster and scalpers

i am kinda hoping this is the worst possible shit show and she plays to half empty houses and the pitchforks come out

They are demanding a lot more money, and the promoters et al. are also demanding a lot more money.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, February 3, 2023 12:34 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was amazed to see she got $24 million for a single one hour show to open a new hotel in Dubai recently. Not directly related obv.

OK, so my wife, as always, is a voice of reason, theorizing pretty well exactly What Has Changed.

The first thing she noted is the presence of bots. We're a long way past scalpers hiring homeless people to line up for tickets, and what's more, Ticketmaster has no incentive to curb the bots at all, since driving up the secondary market only benefits them.

Second, she noted that before boomers, going to concerts to see big touring acts was not really a mass thing that people did, but it has been since the '60s. Another major factor is that the same acts the boomers saw in the '60s are *still touring*, and, importantly, the boomers are *still going to shows*. Live music, rock and pop and whatnot, used to be just for young people, but now, especially for a major legacy act, you're going to find an audience that ranges from teens to people in their '70s, depending on the act. The fan base of someone like Beyonce or Springsteen or Swift or whomever is just vast, spanning several generations at this point. Back in the '80s, say, Madonna fans were probably somewhere between 15 and 35, say. Now they're between 15 and 65, and the same goes for someone like Beyonce. That's a lot more people for the same number of tickets. Demand is up because the audience has never stopped growing.

That sounds right, although (without wanting to give Ticketmaster the benefit of the doubt for much), it seems like a lot of this rigamarole is meant to curb the bots, even if it's not foolproof(?)

I've gone pretty much from arena and stadium shows to all small venue shows overnight due to the ease/difficulty and expense of getting tickets, but it feels weird how I can get tickets at the door for an established great in a venue seating 150 while I have seconds to grab a ticket for a band in an arena seating 20,000. (Yes, jazz is far less popular than rock, pop and R&B but still...)

waitlisted for both presales/shows

sigh

i'm liking seeing red carpet photos of luke solomon and honey dijon at the grammys for their contributions to renaissance. amy douglas, the singer, was going off on ig about some kind of backlash related to beyonce coming from dj / dance music peeps. glad i never see that kind of hater energy lol. starting to really believe that the best dance music has always been pop music.

anytime RA posts a Beyoncé story you get a lot of purists going off, nary a pro-Beyoncé sentiment to be found.

oh noes

Much more retrograde user base than one would expect, not that I should be totally surprised by anything online involving comments and laugh emojis tbh

crying-behind-happy-mask.jpg

tfw most people think your no vocal 145 bpm bleep bloop fav that draws tastefully from rave culture or whatever is kinda boring

My experience with RA devotees is basically “what if the absolute worst people from Brainwashed.com had enough money for bottle service”

ahahaa

loooool

you really have to be a numbskull to not be down with Beyoncé doing house, it just seems like obviously a great thing?

funny how certain rave signifiers sound “tasteful” now when it was all so crass sounding

Curious.. now that Renaissance has had time to sit with people, how would you all would rank Beyonce's solo albums?

S/T > B'Day = 4 > Renaissance > Lemonade > the rest

Lemonade
Renaissance
4
s/t
B'Day
the rest

Lemonade
Self titled
B’Day
Dangerously in Love
4
= Renaissance
= Sasha Fierce

anytime RA posts a Beyoncé story you get a lot of purists going off, nary a pro-Beyoncé sentiment to be found.

― omar little, Tuesday, 7 February 2023 22:16 (yesterday)

tut tut tut why wont people give this billionaire pop star the reverence she so clearly deserves

4
Lemonade
Renaissance
Dangerously in Love
Beyonce
B’Day
Sasha Fierce

Beyoncé
B’Day
4
Dangerously In Love
Sasha Fierce
Renaissance
Lemonade

But I’m a weirdo on this board

I admit that I don't really cue up Lemonade almost ever, compared to the few I ranked directly below it. But it's obv great, et al

Ooh! Why the last two so low? xpost

I think it’s just a “I like the OLD Kanye” scenario.

Not sure about which of the top 2 to rank first. 4 is my favorite to listen to but I think Lemonade is the more significant, fully realized artistic statement.

Lemonade
4
Renaissance
ST
B'Day

Lemonade = Renaissance = Beyoncé
4
everything else

I think that’s probably right but i have to check my notes

Renaissance
Beyonce
Lemonade
4 (i'm one of a dozen or so people on the planet who thinks "Party" owns iirc)

nah, "Party" is great, if it's derided, that's news to me

Just about the only 4 track I don't rate is the one that makes me, by ILX definition, clinically insane

I heard "Party" on the local R&B station and it felt less obnoxious finally.

you lemonade people live in a different world than me

To revisit the “what has changed about touring” convo momentarily, I think another factor is that at a very general level “we” privilege ephemeral experiences - in the sense of being prepared to invest in them more heavily including financially - than we used to. Seeing an artist perform live has a different social value in a context where you can share (a snapshot of) that experience on social media such that it becomes, however unconsciously, a marker of social status and part of one’s personal brand.

One upshot of that is that a greater proportion of the population is prepared to spend a greater proportion of their disposable income on what is by definition a fleeting (and often a partly inconvenient or even frustrating) experience, because it has a longer term asset value beyond just their memory of it.

(The above is less true of boomers and so on, but I think a key factor here is how prepared even young people are to spend what is an obscene amount of money, in particular compared to their income levels)

See also: the way that social media has transformed the social function of art galleries.

you lemonade people live in a different world than me

― J0rdan S

a sourer one

Ranking Sasha Fierce above Renaissance and Lemonade...I've truly seen it all

In the order of composition, except Renaissance between 4 and the self titled.

I’m gonna pretend that means you like the debut most and lemonade least

Correct.

I would modify my list to replace Beyoncé with Beyoncé (Deluxe Edition).

I’m going to be on former ILX poster Fluffy Bear’s radio show again today at 8 PM Eastern, this time playing music sampled by or referenced in the songs from Renaissance, sourced partially by Matos’ NY Times article about the album. Tune into https://uncertain.fm tonight if you’re interested.

just shockingly got standard admission tix for the opening night show here in Toronto

absolutely shitty seats but still a miracle that there are standard admission tix left

Right now, you are on the waitlist for RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR Verified Fan Onsale.

If tickets remain available to sell after the initially selected fans have shopped, we will use a lottery-style selection to invite Verified Fans from the waitlist to shop.

Stay tuned, if you’re selected to move off the waitlist, you will receive a text with a unique access code and link to join the Onsale.

Only Verified Fans with unique access codes will be able to join the Onsale. Do not attempt to join unless you receive a code.

If you’re on the waitlist, you’re not alone. Because registration demand was 8X over ticket inventory, most people are on the waitlist.

Usually, not everyone that gets an access code shows up to the sale, and some that show up don’t buy. We expect to lean into the waitlist to send more access codes out tomorrow. There likely won’t be enough tickets to go around, but you still have a shot.

If you registered for other onsales, you still have a chance to be selected based on the lottery-style process.

I honestly prefer the old everyone everywhere all at once system but I also prefer the Ticketmaster heads being chopped off by a guillotine system too

Because registration demand was 8X over ticket inventory