The cost of concerts today is extortionate. I saw the WHO, R.E.M., and The Clash at the old JFK stadium in Philly for a whole $20.00 in 1982, and that ticket was from a scalper!
I saw the Who in Vegas back in 1999 for $10. Of course all of the bands were swindled by the promoter in a bogus stock deal.
The concert industry changed in 1969 and you can look to Woodstock and Bill Graham. The music industry figured those days would always be here.
Plenty of bands were excluded from that formula and rejected outright on the basis of politics (Bill Graham said as much on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show when he sat roundtable for a discussion with Kim Fowley, Joan Jett, and Peter Weller of the Jam).
But that “underground” circuit of fame and performance has continued. If there was no money in it, it simply wouldn’t exist. Not for 40 years.
Look at Nashville’s bastardization of country music. They shunned Johnny Cash. There are plenty of good artists today who don’t get through to the “public” in mass media. But they’ve been touring worldwide for 20 years.