Concerts seem to be getting more and more expensive every year, especially for all these big name acts. CD sales are down, so more money must be made from live shows and merchandising. Personally, if I’m going to go and listen to music, I’d rather go see a smokin’ hot local band play for 10 bucks, but sometimes these big name acts are often worth it just for the stage show.
Here are the top 10 most expensive concert tickets of 2008, according to average resale ticket prices from Ticketmaster:
- Madonna : $378
- Elton John : $306
- The Eagles : $279
- AC/DC : $263
- Tina Turner : $263
- Celine Dion : $240
- Bruce Springsteen : $235
- Coldplay : $217
- Neil Diamond : $217
- The Police : $216
The award for the most expensive tickets ever sold would go to Led Zeppelin, whose tickets for their reunion tour were auctioned offfor £83,000 ($164,929 USD) for a pair in 2007. Later, three more pairs of tickets to see Led Zepplin were auctioned off with a reserve price of £5,000 ($9,935 USD).
By the way, if you are looking to buy (or sell) concert or sports tickets, try StubHub, it’s a much safer way to deal with ticket transactions than eBay.
Top price at Springsteen shows was $95 plus about $20 in b*sh*t [edited] Ticketmaster fees. Trust me, I went to 4 shows on the last tour. I don’t know where the $235 came from, but it is false.
Not to say even $115 (including fees) isn’t ridiculous…just pointing out the inaccuracy of at least part of this list.
I’m with yosempai. Compared to these, the 150 I spent on a pit ticket for Radiohead seems like a pretty good deal. And that was more than double the face value.
This is why I am so impressed with big bands such as Radiohead and NIN that keep ticket prices relatively low and fan-friendly.