The Pop Corporation

The price of things are going up, but wages aren’t. It’s a thing that always happens when anyone in any position of power naively believes in trickle down economics. The fact is – and we all know this – rich folk like hoarding their money or spending it on themselves. Add a host of other geopolitical events like an energy crisis, war, Brexit and a pandemic, and margins get altered as businesses have to try and make up money lost. The last thing to ever increase is how much people are paid.

Before we go all Citizen Smith, it’s a stark reality that is facing everyone in the entertainment and hospitality industries. If it costs a restaurant more money to get that wine in that you like, it’s going to cost you more to buy a glass from them. If it costs more money for a band travelling from overseas to get here, then that is passed onto the music fan. It’s a sorry state of affairs.

Rewind to the late ’90s and early ’00s, something happened at music shows. Very suddenly, there was a massive spike in the price of tickets for big bands. It’s easy to think it’s the fault of [insert massive pop star here] making a quick buck, as their career may be seen to be fleeting. However, if you were there at the time, it was Tom Waits who was at the forefront of this jump. Around that time, The Eagles were also asking for a lot of money to see their shows. Since then, a lot of artists were given the green light to hike up the price for a ticket stub.

And so, to present day, and according to a YouGov poll, just over half of Britons feel like they’ve been prevented from attending a live music event due to rising ticket prices.

This should make for worrying news. We’re in a cost of living crisis and the entertainment industry either hasn’t wanted to respond, or can’t. Just over three-quarters of people (77%) felt that gig are “expensive”, with 44% saying they’re “very expensive”. The poll also shows that 75% had paid over £50 for a ticket, with 36% forking out over £100, and 9% spending over £200.

So what’s the fair price for a show? When asked, specifically with regard to watching a popular band in a large venue, a fair price seemed to land around the £40 (or less) mark.

Of course, it goes without saying that you can still watch music much more cheaply. Grassroots shows will still cost £5/£10, and obviously, it’s great to support new music and root for those coming through. However, not everyone knows about unsigned bands or musicians who have been releasing their own music or those on smaller labels – that’s how it works – if there’s a lack of marketing budget, fewer people have heard of you, so people probably don’t even know you exist to even think about taking a punt on you.

The Music Venue Trust chipped in: “There are literally hundreds of brilliant, live affirming, incredible shows happening every single day at local grassroots music venues. The average price of admission is £10.90 a ticket, but there’s almost certainly one near you this week for less than a tenner. They are performed by fantastically talented musicians, just as good as any you’ll see on a huge stage.”

“There won’t be flying pianos or cartwheeling robots, but these days there will be great sound and lighting, delivered by professional technicians. Bar prices are affordable, the staff are welcoming, and the audience in them wants you there as part of the community. And no, Harry Styles isn’t playing, but you know who is? Somebody who deserves an audience just as much, who has written as many songs, is just as passionate about the music they are making, who has something to perform for you that you might fall in love with.”

“There’s something seriously wrong there, because it’s literally the cheapest, easiest, most accessible cultural experience there is.”

“Let’s get out into our communities and make sure that every single person in them knows they have access to live music. Let’s ensure our local and national press are reflecting that. Let’s see the incredible music from these fantastic spaces on our TV, talked about on our radio, part of the national discussion of who we are and what we do.”

It’s very noble and all that, and there’s very little to disagree with what the Music Venue Trust have said, but there’s more at play here than simply saying ‘support local live music’. Bands aren’t making money from streaming services and can’t always afford to press their songs onto a physical format. Indeed, some bands aren’t able to play live at all thanks to the increase in costs. People’s need to make music will always outweigh the obstacles put in their way, but there’s something pretty dire about being a musician at the moment, and sure enough, we’re seeing smaller bands having to charge more for what they do, because the revenue is so shaky at the moment.

And there we have it again – the price of things going up, while wages stagnate.

We’re way past the notion of artists not doing it for the money like previous decades, because the welfare state is fucked, rents are out of control, the government want to clamp down on protests, recreational drug use, you can just play a free show outside or expect to do a squat gig, smaller venues are closing down because it’s not sustainable as a business or landlords and residents are making noise complaints about the very culture they moved to a vibrant area for… pay to play, people on low paid jobs unable to afford themselves the time to make things… it’s tiring and depressing.

Away from smaller shows, when we want to be able to see a spectacular large thing, you’ve got the absolute hellscape of trying to buy tickets online, scalpers, robots, surge pricing, hidden booking fees, countless ticketing apps having to be downloaded (that’ll harvest your data while they’re at it) and… it’s hard not to feel despondent.

£100 to watch Blur at Wembley? Over that to watch Harry Styles? It’s hard to throw yourself into the glorious escapism of music when you’re indulging in something so ruinously expensive.

There’s a chance that your favourite popstar sympathises too. Brexit has meant that we’ve lost access to a lot of workers, especially in haulage. Extra paperwork and delays also cost money. The price of a pint is more expensive, production costs have risen, the soundman still needs paying, and no-one is safe from energy bills. And has everyone’s assuredness and trust really fully returned after the pandemic?

We’ve also seen the idea of ‘surge’ pricing floating around, with Ticketmaster selling tickets like Uber flog taxi rides – if there’s a lot of interest, prices go up. Then there’s tiered-ticketing, so someone can cough-up extra for a much better view and a goodie bag. These things ensure that lower-income people end up getting a shittier time of it than wealthy people.

Is it all hopeless then?

There’s hope, provided there’s some government help (so it’s up to you exactly how you spend your hope). During the pandemic, VAT was reduced to 5%, but now it’s back up to 20% and that’s clearly a thing that could be the difference of making or losing a few quid on a show (for the artist AND the venue).

Naturally, the government were warned about the dire situation that Brexit was going to put the entertainment industry in, and they have resolutely not listened to people from inside music and ents. With VAT on tickets being one of the three highest in the world, it is the government that benefit. Will a different government be any different? Again, it’s up to you exactly how you spend your hope.

We saw something similar with football (bear with us) where Premier League and Champion’s League tickets rocketed. This has seen an explosion of interest in football lower down the leagues and non-league football. The higher reaches of football is basically a middle class endeavour now, and music seems to have gone the same way. So is grassroots music going to see a spike in interest? We hope so. Smaller footballer teams, smaller gig venues – what they lack in facilities they make up for in atmosphere, non-spon pints and promiscuous drug taking. No bad thing.

We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, do try and seek out some smaller bands in whatever way you’re most comfortable doing. Support them on Bandcamp, follow the local independent venues on Instagram and see who is playing. Get into the swing of keeping your ear to the ground and, if the mess at the top ever gets sorted out, at least you’ve left the house in the meantime.