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Live Nation chief executive and president Michael Rapino has defended concert ticket prices, arguing that live music is still “incredibly affordable” especially when compared with sports.
As part of an interview at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference with analyst Stephen Laszczyk, Rapino said that high prices for the world’s biggest music stars made “headlines” but on average “75% of tickets are available for under $100 (£76/€90)” and most shows offered “half of tickets” under $50.
According to reports, Rapino also said that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had yet to “figure out the PR struggle” when tickets sell for much more, as in sport it’s like a “badge of honour to say that court sides were $7,000”, but in music “you’re horrible if you charge $800 for a front row concert”.
Additionally, the Live Nation boss acknowledged Ticketmaster will always face some consumer dissatisfaction – particularly around the most popular concerts – as many will inevitably be left empty handed due to the high demand, adding to the “PR struggle”.
Rapino discussed Ticketmaster’s dominance in the market and argued the business was ahead of the rest of the field because of its tools and offerings around data. “What Ticketmaster has continually done is built the best enterprise global platform,” he commented.
Before Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, Rapino said that the company kept the data it collected on events and ticket-buyers to itself, but now shares this information with venues, artists and teams. This is the “secret sauce advantage”, said Rapino.
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