From The Times June 28, 2007

Megastars play to empty seats after fans balk at ticket prices



Charles Bremner in Paris and James Bone
Some of the most enduring names in popular music are suffering a European backlash from fans refusing to pay inflated prices for live concerts.

Sir Elton John, George Michael and The Who have all cancelled dates at big venues, while the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand have played before tracts of empty seats.

The trend, fuelled by access to music on the internet, has been stark in a summer awash with high-priced concerts by Anglo-American rock and pop dinosaurs.

Ticket prices to see top US and British acts have soared in recent years, driven by what economists have identified as “The Bowie Theory”. Named after David Bowie, one of the first to issue a warning about the impact of online file sharing and copying, it suggests that bands who used to keep concert prices low to help to sell albums and generate royalties now regard live events as the best way to make money.

But managers and promoters appear to have misjudged the market. Barbra Streisand sang in France on Tuesday for the first and supposedly last time in her half-century career. Yet 3,000 seats were empty in the Paris Bercy stadium. The top Paris prices were €582 euros (£390).

The Stones played to a thinly populated Stade de France in Paris this month, and Sir Elton cancelled a planned Paris mega-show with seats at €750 last February and replaced it with a gig at the Paris Zenith at €150.

An appearance by the Stones in Werchter, Belgium, this month, sold only 33,000 of the 70,000 places. George Michael and The Who abandoned plans to sing at the same venue and opted for a Belgian hall. “The agents and managers of these big commercial machines that operate on a planetary scale do not believe that they have to adapt their prices to local markets,” said Belgium’s Trends magazine.

The high prices of Streisand’s brief European comeback, which opened in Zurich last week, have caused grumbling, mediocre sales and some cancellations. Her planned shows in Rome and Nice were called off, officially for technical reasons, after consumer groups campaigned against the prices. The Paris promoters upgraded 600 people from the “cheapest”, €112 behind-the-stage seats to fill empty rows for Streisand’s single French concert.

Britain is the exception to the fans’ revolt in a summer during which Genesis, the Police and Paul McCartney are also touring. Most seats at Streisand’s London appearances next month start at £100 and have sold well.

Her loyal army of British fans will fill Manchester’s MEN Arena on July 10 and the O2 Arena, formerly the Millennium Dome, for three nights from July 18. British prices are the costliest in Europe, with seats up to £825.

Streisand made $95 million (£47.5 million) when she toured the United States with an identical show in recent months. US prices have risen steeply but are below those demanded in Europe.

The promoters defend the charges, pointing to the huge costs of such things as Streisand’s 58-piece orchestra. French impresarios also complain about the big charges imposed by the state on live productions to finance generous welfare schemes for “resting” performers and technicians.

But the chief reason is that the artists are recouping income lost from the big decline in CD sales in recent years, say insiders. “Greedy artists are recovering what they lose with downloading,” said Philippe Manoeuvre, the editor of the French magazine Rock and Folk. “France is No 1 in Europe when it comes to free copying. The artists have lost 40 per cent of their revenue in four years so they are getting back by stinging the public,” he said.

Bowie said some years ago that “music itself is going to become like running water or electricity”. He advised performers: “You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring.”

Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University, found that concert prices jumped 61 per cent in the US between 1996 and 2001 – faster than admission to the cinema, theatre or sporting events.

Price of fame