[RobRoy]

I’m an amateur musician. I’ve been in 8 bands and love watching local acts, both for entertainment and “evaluation and learning”. That said, I don’t do Ticketmaster. The last “big” act I saw was Genesis around 1980.

[TexasRepublic]

Maybe lack of talent has something to do with declining sales.

[tx_eggman]

The Eagles, Rihanna and Maxwell have canceled tour dates. A wobbling "American Idol" tour has flooded the market with discounted tickets, and the resurrected Lilith Fair tour has called off concerts from Dallas to Salt Lake City. Even teen idols the Jonas Brothers announced this week that they're scrapping some shows.

ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ..... whew .... ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ..... whew ....ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha .....

Stop it, you're killin' me

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Or more like most of these acts are massively overpriced or nobody cares to see live.

[llevrok]

basic economics. The fourth part of every supply/demand/price equation is the intrinisc - value.

It appears concert goers are not seeing the value in the high prices they pay. Prices will have to fall or supply shrink/value improve to match the shrinking demand.

[11th_VA]

I hear a Jackson Brown song in my head ...

[Snickering Hound]

Packaging different acts together isn't always working. The Eagles, one of history's most successful rock bands, who grossed $42 million touring last year, sought to expand its audience this summer by tapping into country music, recruiting Keith Urban and the Dixie Chicks to open eight stadium shows. But the bill didn't entice country fans en masse, and Eagles fans had already had many opportunities to see the band, which has been touring to promote its most recent album, "Long Road Out of Eden," since its release in 2007. Shows at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, and a stadium gig in Hershey, Pa., were jettisoned. An Eagles spokesman says the group recently sold out arenas without the country acts.

So to shorten a long paragraph, ditch the Dixie Chicks and you can sell your tickets.

[KarlInOhio]

You always have to ask if going to a concert is worth it. For the price of one ticket you can buy a stack of CDs (or iTunes/MP3 equivalent) and have the music long after your ears would have stopped ringing from the concert. There are a few groups I go to see when they pass through town, but usually the tickets are in the $10-$20 range in a small club.

[a fool in paradise]

The concert business is supposed to be the music industry's one sure thing. But not this summer. The Eagles, Rihanna and Maxwell have canceled tour dates.

Elvis and Donny Osmond aren't selling out concert tours either these days.

Maybe The Eagles, Rihanna, and Maxwell should find a Branson or Vegas stage somewhere.

How long are they going to milk past hits?

[a fool in paradise]

Even teen idols the Jonas Brothers announced this week

Their fan base is growing up and no longer need to convince daddy to fork over $80 to go see their poster idols prance onstage.

[a fool in paradise]

The top 100 tours in North America show gross ticket-sales revenue of $965.5 million, down 17% from a year earlier.

Only made a billion dollars on tickets, with Livenation-Tickemaster owning ticket sales (and handling fees), promotion, a cut of merch sales, and venue leases.

BOO frickin hoo.

[a fool in paradise]

This summer, everyone seems to be on the road. Classic-rock fans could have paid $95 for two tickets for a recent Chicago and Doobie Brothers double bill at Boston's Bank of America Pavilion. But they also had the choice of Meat Loaf, Cheap Trick, Bad Company or Heart. All had gigs scheduled there in the month of July.

It's like the 70s never ended.

[a fool in paradise]

Meanwhile Jones Hall in Houston (where the Symphony plays) has been selling out massively attended concerts from the likes of Tom Waits, Morrissey, and Neil Young (solo performance). These shows sell out within minutes.

And yet none of those artists can get anything they recorded in the past 20 years (if anything at all) played on radio.

[Freddd]

Are Americans finally waking up to the fact that the ‘stars’ be it, music, movies, t.v., hollywood, media and congress, and sports, do absolutely nothing meaningful for their lives?

I hope so.

[a fool in paradise]

But considering how many young fans acquire and listen to music, the music seems to have less sticking power. For instance, 70% of the music obtained by 13-to-24-year-olds isn't paid for; instead, it's pulled from peer-to-peer networks, or ripped and copied from friends, according to the NPD Group. "They get so much free content, a lot of it they don't really value," says NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick

And people who listen to dance music aren't so impressed to see someone sing (or lip synch) to their club hit either. What's the point?

[Iron head mike]

“I’m an amateur musician. I’ve been in 8 bands and love watching local acts, both for entertainment and “evaluation and learning”. That said, I don’t do Ticketmaster. The last “big” act I saw was Genesis around 1980.”

I'm in the same boat as you. I am going to see grand funk saturday at our county fair. it's free save the cost of admisson to the fair.

[Le Chien Rouge]

I’d rather listen to a local indie group play something new then pay beau coup dollars for some 70’s group rehashing their glory days of yore.

If memories were all I had I’d rather drive a truck.—Ricky Nelson

[InvisibleChurch]

To score a pair of tickets to see singer-songwriter John Mayer in Cincinnati on July 27, Beth Collins of Radcliff, Ky., spent $172, including about $30 in service fees, for the best two seats available on Ticketmaster at the time, in section 700, adjacent to the rear lawn at the Riverbend Music Center. Ms. Collins, a 27-year-old homemaker whose husband works in a UPS warehouse, borrowed $75 from a local loan service to help pay for the seats; with interest, she paid the service about $100.

yuk yuk yuk! So what is involved in the service fee anyway?