Consider it the subsidization for all the "free" music out there now.
Sales of albums used to be a major source of revenue. File sharing has just about killed that business model. Now the actual music is seen as a way of getting people to buy concert tickets and merchandise. Between that and increased audience expectations for what a show should include (i.e. heavily produced) ticket prices have gone way up and likely will continue to.
One can also argue that a lot of these artists are way over-paid for what they do. Myself and my fiance are in the business.
Ex #1: The average working road crew guy works on average from 7AM-2AM the next morning, very long hours, often times more than one show in a row and get highly under-paid, and are not paid when they are not on the road in most cases. In some rare cases some crew guys and gals are paid retainer, which can be the same if not less than their base pay on tour. Some of these crew guys are on big national and international tours just making ends meet and having a little left over for savings.
Ex #2: These days there is a computer program out there called pro tools that has contributed to artist laziness today. Before this software existed an artist had to do take after take in the studio before they were satisfied with what they wanted on the physical copy of the album to be distributed to their fans. These days artists can go into the studio, spend half an hour per track, do four or five takes and leave it to the audio engineer to fix it in the mix, in the past fixing a problem part on a track was the artist responsibility to spend a week if need be on a track to make it right. So artists, these days are doing a lot less in the studio, and relying on pre-programmed instruments and loops on their loops. Its just not worth the money it used to be to buy a whole CD, its a singles market these days. An artist wont profit off of a 99 cent song anyway. I've also yet to hear quality music to come out in recent years except for.
Scorpions - Sting In The Tail
AC/DC - Black Ice
KISS - Sonic Boom
All of which was done old school style, no filler material on either album, audio quality is amazing, and its all 100% legit (vocals, and instruments) both of which are easily replicated live without the need for backing tracks. Hence creating a legit live act.
Not a show that has a zillion costume changes, a stage that spells over production, canned vocals, and over choreographed to the point where you just cant enjoy it at all. Simply being used as a cover up because the artist cant sing live and using all of the listed as a cover up. This is why these shows are so expensive. If they went out with just themselves, and a band backing them up, did a legit live show with a simple stage, lighting, and audio set-up, and traveled by tour bus instead of private jet their ticket prices would drop due to less tour expenses. So instead of having the expense of a $2 million a week show, they could cut back to $750,000.00-$1 million a week.
Ex #3: Artist goes out and does a 90 minute-2 hour show, sure there was rehearsal on their part to be done. But for their 8 or so hours of rehearsal they do in a day, their crew is there long after they leave and late in the night (often times their days run 11AM-4AM the next day during rehearsals), they do not get a day off just because the artist does, if they are blocked in for 3 weeks of rehearsal its 3 weeks, they don't see a day off until the first official day off on tour, and the crew is working before rehearsals even start.
*While I understand that guys and gals chose the entertainment/music business as a career, this is just another perspective you don't hear about often*
That's almost the price for park hoppers - a MUCH better value imo!
