how much is someone wiling to pay to see their favourite act live.docx

7/29/2019 How Much Is someone wiling to pay to see their favourite act live.docx

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Candidate No. 34407

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How much is the average young person willing to pay to see one of their

favourite artists?

BIMM05 Research Project

Candidate Number: 34407

Word Count: 3284

07.06.2012


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Contents

Abstract ------------------------------------------------------- 3

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------- 4

Initial Research Ideas ------------------------------------------------- 4

Literature Review ------------------------------------------------ 5

Methodology ------------------------------------------------------- 7

Methods ------------------------------------------------------ --- 9

Project Findings --------------------------------------------------------- 11

Conclusions & Recommendations --------------------------------- 14

Bibliography ------------------------------------------------------- 16

Appendix 1: Interview Transcripts --------------------------------- 17

Appendix 2: Questionnaire Data --------------------------------- 22

Appendix 3: Supporting Graphs ---------------------------- 25


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Abstract

With the rise of secondary ticket selling websites, the past few years have seen the price

range of live music tickets vary extensively. People can now put a ticket up on the internet

for almost any price they want, with a high likelihood of it being bought up. This, in my

mind, gave rise to the question: how much is someone reallygoing to pay?

The main simplistic aim of this project was to explore what differing amounts of money

people would pay to see one of their favourite acts, seeing just how varied those results

would be and if any common figures would appear. Furthermore, I wanted to explore what

factors would affect these results. These included the size of the venue, how far theyd have

to travel, and what material they would be playing (particularly if they would be playing an

album in full, something that has grown all the more common in recent years) I suspected

that the main factor influencing this would be the individuals taste in music, so I decided to

investigate if there was any kind of correlation between this factor and the results.

I designed a questionnaire that I would distribute to students and other young people in the

area, asking them how much theyd pay to see one of their favourite acts and who that act

was. I also asked questions about things which might affect their decision on how much they

would pay, such as what material the artist would play. I also conducted interviews with

prominent promoters in the area as well as further afield and they spoke at length about

various issues that would affect ticket prices as well as issues that would affect a persons

decision to how much theyd pay to see an artist.


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For my professional project next year, I plan to put on a half-dayer, or if I am a little more

ambitious a full day festival. I hope to be able to use some of my findings from this study

to help my approach and planning to ticketing for that final project next year.

Introduction

Countless times, when asking friends to come to shows, Ive had responses such as I love

that band but that is far too expensive. On the other hand, others have commented on the

good value of the show, and would have been willing to pay more. Its because of reasons

like this that If I am going to be putting on shows in the next year, Id like to have some sort

of idea of what gig-goers in the area find a reasonable price. Even some of my friends who

are promoters encouraged me to do research into ticket prices, saying it was one of the

most important things to get right when putting on a show.

Initial Project Ideas

My project originally started out life under a slightly different title, as simply How much is

someone willing to pay... without the young person tag. After much SMART analysis I

realised that this was not specific enough, and that any methods I was going to use wouldnt

hold enough validity. For example, I would not be able to distribute the questionnaire

widely enough to get an accurate representation of the someone referred to in the title,

which is really referring to anyone in general. It would mostly end up getting distributed to

students, via university campus and online distribution. By making it about young people

i.e. the people I could get to participate in the study, I would make the project more


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achievable. It also held more relevance, as the age range of young people (which I defined

as 14-30) was the age group that I would be trying to get to come to shows in the future.

Literature Review

When conducting my literature review, I found it most difficult at first trying to find any

books to do with the study of live music as a business, let alone anything looking at its socio-

economic importance. I slowly began to find many relevant peer reviewed journals and

articles looking into ticket prices, many of which confirmed that live music in general is an

area that still remains heavily under-researched (Cloonan, 2011, p.406).

Much of the literature I found discussed the generally over-arching theme that with the

supposed demise of the record industry, where recorded music has lost its monetary value

(due to file-sharing, cherry picking of individual tracks from iTunes/Amazon instead of whole

albums), the live music sector has seen the concert experience grow to a more sophisticated

level. Furthermore, the links between the record industry and live industry have been

broken, with acts more releasing albums to support tours rather than vice versa (Schultz,

2009; Frith, 2007).

From an economists point of view, Baumol and Bowen (1966) outline what they call the

cost disease: prices will always increase for live music tickets, as there are limits on the size

of audience that can be physically reached by a live show and the costs of live music rise

faster than inflation. Krueger (2005) gives evidence for this, showing that, in the USA, the

average ticket price climbed by 82% between 1996 and 2003 whilst the Consumer Price


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Index rose 17%. Frith (2007) explains in his landmark article that this disease has been

overcome though, due to factors overlooked in sociology rather than economy: The value

of music (the reasons why people are prepared to pay money for it) remains centred in its live

experience.

Schultz (2009) makes the valid point that with the demise of record sales, artists might

struggle to subsidise recording, and would now have to do so with revenue from the live

industry, thus forcing them to charge a higher fee creating higher ticket prices.

The recent dispatches documentary The Great Ticket Scandel showed that certain secondary

ticket websites (who attempted to stop the programme from airing via a super-injuction) had

been misleading customers, with Promoters actually allocating tickets to them directly, where

they could set them at a premium price, well above face value. Its these secondary ticket selling

sites with ticket allocations and other lucrative activities which give rise to situations of people

paying thousands of pounds to see artists live. Cloonan (2011) explains in his article how the

Concert Promoters Association originally led a campaign to have secondary ticketing outlawed,

before dropping its opposition and saying it now supported effective regulation instead, just

before the government would have had to make a tricky decision on passing legislation. Maybe

they realised an opportunity to see for themselves just how much people would pay for a ticket?

One thing my research might show is how high people may be willing to pay, and thus showing

the opportunity for the secondary market, and colluding promoters, to exploit that.


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Methodology

Throughout my project I have been taking a largely objective view, using a Nomothetic

methodology. The relevance of this to my project is that I believe despite looking for

different results between groups of genres and tastes (which might suggest an ideographic

methodology), in each individual case Im looking for a universal or general truth. I also

hold a view of empiricism to this study, empiricism being described by Cohen et al. as

meaning ...certain kinds of reliable knowledge can only originate from experience. By

gathering my data I hope to lead to some sort of empirical evidence to any claims.

I decided that most appropriate approach for finding out what people were willing to pay to

see one of their favourite artists would be one which utilised a survey method. This would

consist of a questionnaire to find out how people felt from the consumer point of view, and

then later, a number of interviews with Promoters to get their perspective on it.

In an effort to validate my methodology further, I wanted to employ triangulation. By using

the two methods of a questionnaire and an interview, both would throw up different types

of data, quantitative and qualitative respectively. By getting these two different ways of

looking at things, Id get a more accurate and double-checked perspective.

Validity can be described as telling us ...whether an item measures or describes what it is

supposed to measure or describe (Bell 2010. P.119). I think the questions I asked were

designed well and held enough for validity for the study. I didnt manage to get as many

responses on the questionnaire as I would have liked though, and thus feel that my results

arent quite as valid as they would have been if the sample size had been bigger.


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Reliability can be described as the extent to which a test or procedure produces similar

results under constant conditions on all occasions (Bell 2010, p. 119). I think that if I did my

questionnaire again with the same participants, I would get largely the same results. This

would be the same with the interviews, although, as time goes by opinions can change, and

as the interview results are largely opinion-based, these could change if done again. I still

believe the methods I used to be highly reliable though.

Bias can be defined as a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents

unprejudiced consideration of a question (Dictionary.com, 2012). When conducting the

interviews, I had to be careful not to make the questions neutral and not questions which

were leading or persuasive towards one answer. I distributed the questionnaire entirely

online so that I could try and prevent any conscious or unconscious influence on peoples

choices. I did not have any expectations on what results would come forward, so I believe

confirmation bias was not an issue.

Ethics werent so much of an issue in regards to the questionnaires, as all participants

remained anonymous, although I did have to abandon some initial ambitions I had for it. I

originally wanted to explore lots of different factors which could affect people decision on

how much they would be willing to pay. These included items such as income and where

they lived. I realised that I wouldnt be able to deal with such probing questions and would

make the whole process far too complex anyway.

With the Interviews though, I had to make sure all the promoters being interviewed were

first of all willing to take part. Secondly, I had to make sure they were agreed on the ground

of confidentiality. I defined confidentiality as a promise that you will not be indentified or

presented in identifiable form (Sapsford and Abbott, 1996. Cited in Bell, 2010, p.49).


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Methods

In the early stages of the project, I was contemplating what methods would gather the data

I needed in the best way, and the idea of a questionnaire very quickly seemed like the right

choice. For a second method of enquiry though, I wasnt sure what to do for a long time.

After much reading on the Survey method, I realised that interviews were a suitable method

to complement the questionnaire, but I wasnt sure who I could interview. I realised that,

after getting the perspective of the consumer through questionnaire, it would be great to

the perspective of the promoter and what they thought.

When designing the questionnaire, I had a lot of things in mind. It needed to be simple, easy

to do, and not too long. If any of these three things were compromised, then people would

be put off from doing the questionnaire. I limited the questionnaire to six questions: 4 text

based ones, and 2 multiple choice ones. I was also extremely careful of how I asked the

questions, as so to get the actual relevant answer I wanted back. All money based answers I

asked to be answered to the nearest pound, and I made use of both the words artist and

band together, to make it completely clear what I was asking.

The first question I asked was purely for verification. I asked how old they were so that I

would know if the rest of their response was of validity to the research project. As I defined

young people as between fourteen and thirty, if any responses gave an age outside of those

boundaries, I would void it. It turned out in the end that all my responses fell safely within

this boundary.

After asking them to name one of their favourite acts, and how much theyd be willing to

pay to see them. I asked a few questions to tease out other factors about that performance


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they were considering. These asked about size of venue, the distance theyd willing to travel

to see them, and the material they would be playing whether or not they would pay more

if the band played an album in full, and if so, how much.

Once I had created the questionnaire on survey monkey, I distributed it online in a number

of ways. I created a facebook event which linked to the survey, asking people to take part. It

briefly explained the research project and invited people to it. Some people shared the

survey with their friends also in order to get a wider amount of people involved which

would include people I dont directly know. I also distributed the survey on twitter where it

was retweeted by a number of people also, again, getting people who I didnt directly know

involved in the research. To further my reach to BIMM students, I posted it on the BIMM

students facebook page, as well as posting it on study direct in the Research Methods

student forum, which then emailed it out to all the students on the BA2 course.

One point where I was hindered in terms of time was gathering the data from

surveymonkey. Without wanting to pay for a premium account, I had to type out all the

individual responses from the site into a spreadsheet, where I could then manipulate the

data. This was very time consuming, and Im sure if I had more responses (which would be

what Id focus on getting if I did it again) then it would have been extremely laborious and

time consuming. I decided to stick to this method though, as it was the only one I could

realistically keep full anonymity with.

All the interviews were structured, and obviously used the same questions in the same

order. Much of the basis of the questions was derived from results taken from the

questionnaire.


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The promoters that I interviewed were all prominent people of the Brighton live music

scene, ranging from companies that put on the larger acts, down to individuals who run a lot

of the shows involving underground music.

Project Findings

I didnt manage to get the amount of responses I initially wanted (a minimum of 200), only

managing 100 completed questionnaires. Nonetheless, my results still showed some trends

that were relevant.

My basic findings showed that the most common amount of money people were willing to

pay to see one of their favourite acts was between 26 and 30. Looking in broader terms,

over half of the respondents (54%) said that theyd pay between 11 and 30. A few

respondents answered with 100 and one even with 300 which I regarded as a statistical

outlier. As the price went up, more people had chosen values that were multiples of 10,

rather than odd figures, which can be displayed on the graph below:


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I dont believe this suggests, for example, that someone is more likely to pay for a show if

the price is of a multiple of 10, rather that when psychologically choosing a figure,

respondents lean towards a round number.

When looking at how much people would pay more if the artist was to play an album in full,

the results showed that it was more or less 50/50 to if they would pay more 48% saying they

wouldnt pay more.Of the 52% that would pay more, half of them wouldnt pay any more

than 10 extra for album set-list. This is shown below.

0

9

12

15

10

17

3

10

2

8

0

3

0

2

1

2

0 0

4

2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Q3. How much they are willing to pay


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With roughly half saying theyd pay for the album set-list, and half not, this was reflected

equally in the interviews, where the interviewees said it works well but equally has its

negatives when the band take away that element of unpredictability.

The most popular choice of venue was the club/medium venue with 50% opting for it. With

50% going for one option, it shows this clearly an important choice, and this was supported

in the interviews when two promoters both said it was arguably the most important factor.

42% said they would travel 60 miles or more to see one of their favourite artists, which was

reflected very well in the interviews, with all the promoters saying theyd numerously

experienced people travelling over 60 miles to shows. The graphs supporting these can be

found in Appendix 2.

21

14

1

7

1

3

1

3

1

0

5

10

15

20

25

1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51+

Q6. How much paid more for album set-list


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Conclusions & Recommendations

From conducting this research project I have gained a greater understanding of how much

time is required when carrying out a research projects. The amount of time needed to gain

enough responses for questionnaires and to process data in order to display it

diagrammatically is more time consuming than I first thought. When I next undertake

research I will make a personal CPA to give myself guidelines of when things need to be

done by. Hopefully this way I would be able to gather a much larger sample.

In a similar vein, I will make it clearer when I need the interviews done by to interviewees. I

had difficulty arranging an appointment with the promoters, as both parties were very busy

much of the time, and I dont think I made it clear enough the dates I needed the interviews

done by.

I also think that perhaps the way in which I asked the questions made it more difficult for

me to analyse the data. For example, when using questions that ask things like how much

it meant that I had a range of figures to handle even if they were to the nearest pound. I had

to then group these into groupings such as one pound to five pounds, six pounds to ten

pounds etc. If I had asked the questions using groupings instead, this would have made it a

lot easier and saved much time.

Some conclusions that I drew from the study was that the album set-list wasnt a decidedly

justifiable reason for raising the ticket price, as there wasnt a majority for or against it.

I didnt decide to analyse the individual taste in musicvia the third question, because it

seemed to bias towards rock/metal groupsvia the third question. If I did the study again I

would try and get a more varied sample in order to look at the factor of musical taste.


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The study also gave me a stronger understanding of the intricacies of research into the live

music industry. Both the economic and social factors involved need to be taken into

account, and a consideration of the impact of other areas of the music industry such as

recorded music is necessary.

I think that it is difficult to draw many realistic conclusions from my findings as upon

reflection I think the sample was too small. It is clear from my study though for definite that

a clear majority of 64% would pay over 20 to see their favourite band and I believe this to

be valid and significant. When you take into account that most gigs tickets are usually under

20 on face value, this highlights the opportunity for the secondary ticket market has to

exploit. Its this type of exploitation that the dispatches documentary showed to be

happening, and it seems that legislation is clearly necessary here.


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Bibliography

Tom Aylott @aylott (2012) If you love Live Music then I'd love it if you did it. Survey for my research

project. Only takes 30secs http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DDWP7XS Twitter, 25 May. Available

at: http://www.twitter.com (accessed: 25 May 2012)

Will Richards @willjrichards (2012) If you love Live Music then I'd love it if you did it. Survey for my

research project. Only takes 30secs http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DDWP7XS Twitter, 27 May.

Available at: http://www.twitter.com (accessed: 27 May 2012)

Ben Biss @Beads_bees (2012) If you love Live Music then I'd love it if you did it. Survey for myresearch project. Only takes 30secs http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DDWP7XS Twitter, 1 June.

Available at: http://www.twitter.com (accessed: 1 June 2012)

Bell, J., 2010. Doing Your Research Project. 5th

ed. Open University Press

Cohen, L., Manion, L., and Morrison, K., 2000. Research Methods in Education. 5th

ed.

RoutledgeFalmer

Aldrige, A. and Levine, K., 2001 Surveying The Social World: Principles and Practice in Survey

Research. Buckingham: Open University Press

Munn, P. and Drever, E., 2004. Using Questionnaires in Small-scale Research: A Beginners Guide.

Glasgow: SCRE Centre

Frith, S. (2007) Live Music Matters, Scottish Music Review, 1 (1), pp. 1-17

Frith, S., Brennan, M., Cloonan, M. and Webster, E. (2010) Analysing live music in the UK: findings

one year into a three-year research project. IASPM@Journal, 1 (1), pp. 1-30

Brennan, M. and Webster, E. (2011) Why Concert Promoters Matter, Scottish Music Review, 2 (1),

pp. 1-25

Earl, P.E. (2001) Travel Theorem and the demand for live music,Journal of

Economic Psychology, 22 (3)

Baumol, W. and Bowen, W., (1966) Performing Arts: The Economic Dilemma (New York: Twentieth

Century Fund).

Kreuger, A., (2005) The Economics of Real Superstars: the Market for Rock Concerts in the Material

World,Journal of Labor Economics, 23(1), pp.1-30.

Schultz, M., (2009) Live Performance, Copyright, and the Future of the Music Business. Richmond

Law Review43.2 [Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mark_schultz/2] (accessed: 04 June 2012)


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Martin Cloonan (2011): Researching live music: some thoughts on policy

implications, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 17:4, 405-420

Dispatches: The Great Ticket Scandel (2012) Channel 4, 23rd

February.

Appendix 1: Interview Transcripts

Interview questions:

1. Some people say ticket prices have been increasing dramatically in recenttimes for various reasons. Is this something you agree on, and if so, explain

what you think the reasons are behind it?

2. In recent years, some bands have been performing their records in full. Do yousee this taking off further or have any bigger impact on the live industry?

3. In your opinion, what have been the most important factors to draw a crowdin, other than who you book?

4. What do you believe to be the furthest reasonable distance that someone willtravel to a show?

5. Have you ever had any issues with the amount a band has charged?6. In the time that you have putting on shows, have you seen much relative

change in venue hire fees?

7. Do you think the recession has had an effect on you putting on shows, orpeople coming out to them?

8. What is your opinion on the growth of secondary ticket selling websites? Whateffect, if any, do you think this has had on the live industry?


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Interview Response 1:

1. I think festivals have seen a steady rise year on year but in terms on live gigs that we

promote the ticket prices seem similar to what they were 5 years ago such as: 6-ish for

small new bands in small venues then from 8-ish to 15 for bigger bands in 300 - 600

capacity venues. I think the ticket prices we charge are fair.

2. I've had firsthand experience of this with our acts The Wedding Present & Gary Numan. I

think it works really well an offers a different show for fans to keep them coming back year

on year.

3. A venue people can find easily, a venue with an informative website, a venue where you can

get a drink for a reasonable price, a venue with good transport links, 14+ age restriction so

younger audiences can attend. All of these factors help sell the tickets.

4. People do travel long distances on occasion (our show with Billy Talent recently had fans

from Germany who had flown in) but on the whole I say the usual max travel time is 60-75

minutes (so down from London & across from Portsmouth/Kent. Mostly Sussex though.

5. Not really. The bands get paid based on what I project the ticket revenue to be. If a bands

ask for over the odds then unless I think it's a guaranteed seller I wouldn't book them.

6. Not really. Venues on the whole are still very reasonable as in Brighton especially there is so

much competition to get the promoters booking in the dates.

7. Not really. I think people are possibly more choosy than they might have been in the pastbut we're having out best ever year so far so if the acts are right you'll do just fine. I think the

festivals are being hit harder due to the fact they need to charge so much which in

comparison most standard gigs are only the price of a few pints anyway.

8. For me I don't see too much of this because these secondary ticket websites are focusing on

the big arena tours which are a step higher than what we are at (for the moment!). However

the Viagogo saga seen on TV was shocking and needs to be policed better. Unfortunately

there are dishonest people in every industry.


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Interview Response 2:

1. It is fair to say that ticket prices have increased recently, but unfortunately this does have to

happen for most promoters to break even. For example; if a band wants to cover all costs

while on tour, but the price of flights, petrol, food etc continue to go up, they will need toask for a higher guarantee, which means the promoter either has to charge more for tickets,

or try out different methods to get concert-goers through the door on the night. Some

promoters are lucky enough to have a good relationship with a venue and can put on free

shows, in return for a guaranteed busy show where the venue make a lot of money over the

bar, then use a percentage of that money to pay the bands on the night. If you get to book

the venue for cheaper or for free, you should be able to charge less for tickets.

2. Some bands have started to play some releases in full, but I usually find that its mostly

relatively new bands that dont have many songs, so they will just play their EP in full. Some

bigger bands have decided to play a classic album in full and advertise it as a one-off special

show to get as many people down as possible. If that album is thatgood, it can work well.

But there are obviously pros and cons to playing releases in full. Some people might enjoy it,

as if they are big fans of a particular release, it can be nice to witness it live and know all the

words. A big problem though, could be that the crowd knows exactly what will happen next.

It can be good for a band to be unpredictable and surprise the audience. If it becomes the

norm to play your back catalogue in full at every show, but you still have to pay for an

expensive ticket, you might decide to stay at home and listen to the album for free.

3. One of the most important ways to get people to come to your show and keep coming tofuture ones is to simply not take the piss; actually provide an entertaining night for the

person who just gave you their money, dont make them queue outside the venue for ages

or wait 45minutes between bands sets and put on exciting supports that dont play every

week. Obviously being polite and genuine helps too.

4. If you put on a one of a kind show, people really will travel to your event if it is that special.

I put on a hardcore half-dayer last year and a lot of people who bought tickets lived outside

of Brighton. A lot of tickets were bought from Manchester, Cornwall, Scotland, Wales, some

even bought tickets from France and Germany.

5. Definitely. Some bands try and charge unrealistically high rates, but you really just have to

say no. If you dont think they enough people will come to the show to pay off their

guarantee, you cannot put them on. In the past, bands have begged to play a show and said

that they will play for free, but at the end of the show they will try and get money. It is

important to confirm fees before the night and maybe even print off emails.

6. Venue hire rates have gone up and down over the past few years. The Hydrant used to

charge about 60, but now generally charges 125-175, but the Green Door Store opened a

year and a half ago and has always charged 75. The reason is probably that at Green Door,

they always have the bar open to the public during any show and have a club night after


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each event, so they are likely to get a fair amount of money every day, but the Hydrant relies

on a big show where a lot of money is taken over the bar.

7. The recession has probably stopped some people coming to shows, but a lot of people will

still come if they like the band enough. Going to concerts is one of the best ways to socialize

with friends, so many will continue to make the effort and put money aside to go at least a

few every month.

8. I havent had any experience with ticket touts or secondary websites selling tickets at higher

prices, but it probably wouldnt affect me much. If a show sells out quickly, it is a great thing

as it means you have definitely covered all your costs and very likely make a profit, and on

the night you dont have to worry about losing any money. But of course, having people

profit on your hard work can be very annoying. I would probably make sure to not send

physical tickets until a couple of weeks before the event, or not send any out at all. This

would put off touts and ensure actual fans of the music can get to see the bands at thecorrect price.

Interview response 3:

1. Its difficult to say, you have many factors to consider...

With the growth of a band, its certainly expected that the amount of tickets sold and prices

they sell at increase.

Sometimes a promoter knows that they can definitely sell out a particular venue with an

artist who have a dedicated fanbase, so they tend to charge more, which is unfortunate. it is

my belief that charging 60 + booking fee to see backstreet boys reform in this current

economy is a joke. Thats not to discredit the artists and their ability; its the abuse of music

fans who will pay whatever to see one of their favourite artists perform.

On the flip side, bands performance fee's have certainly shot up in recent years and most of

the fee's will include a percentage of back end profit to be given to them, this can also driveticket prices up if a band gets too greedy or they over estimate their value.

However, over the years we've seen really creative productions such as Metallica playing the

O2 for 5, rage against the machine playing, as a thank you to their fans, for free at Finsbury

park or smaller bands that play free shows to help promote their album.

2. Its very popular idea because certain albums stick with particular generations. I do find,

however, that unless these performances are to celebrate an anniversary of an albums

release, a back catalogue performance or to coincide with the records release, these

performances sully all the other work the artist has done, its like the fans are saying; "yeah,

yeah, new stuff now play the songs we really care about". I feel the same about fans only


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ganging up to see a band for a one hit wonder.

3. all factors from price, venue, scene etc right down to how the weather behaves on the day.

However, if you're talking about major artists it mainly comes down to the venue, ensuring

they sell out with relative ease

4. Depends where they're from. In London, I find it very unlikely people would travel far as its

a "tour stop". However, you can find that people from York would have to travel to say

Manchester to catch their favourite bands

5. yes, in some parts of Europe live music is subsidised, so a promoter can throw quite a bit of

money at shows. Some booking agents think that the UK is the same market. Ive never had

a problem with sharing profit with the bands, when its made. But when you have a show

that loses money and bands still expect to get paid, I really have to grit my teeth whilst

handing over money.

6. Yes and no. venues change hands almost annually so sometimes you might grab a bargain.

Youll find that hiring a "chain" venue (barfly, o2 academies) is always way over the market

value. However, you can find bargains with smaller venues as they can go for anything from

cost price of the sound engineer to free.

7. I feel the recession hasn't really hit the "ground level" until just recently. Ive found that

people are becoming more particular about which gig they will attend. Which I guess is why

bands/promoters have come up with more creative ways to put on events such as free

shows etc. to increase attendance.

8. Secondary ticket sites are shady business tactic on the same level as ticket touting. The fact

that promoters were aware of these business practices let alone full on collusion is an

abomination and hurt only the fans. If I was in charge of one, there would never be any

increase to the face value of a ticket, just a service fee. With enough people using the service

constant micro transactions could easily work as a business model. I dont think that its had

much of an impact on the industry, the promoters still have jobs and the companies will

work on different practices. Generally speaking everyone within the industry turns a blind

eye to other's dirty business practices in order to keep their own heads. it had to come to an

independent source to expose the situation.


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Appendix 2: Questionnaire Data

Questions:

Q1. What Is Your Age?

Q2. Name one of your favourite bands/artists

Q3. How much would you be willing to pay to see them live? (nearest pound)

Q4. In what type of venue would you rather see them in?

-Pub/Small venue

-Club/Medium venue

-Large venue

-Stadium

Q5. How far would be willing to travel to see them?

-0-5 miles

-6-30 miles

-31-59 miles

-60+ miles

Q6. If the band were to play one of their albums in full, would you pay more? If so,

how much in total would you pay? (nearest pound)


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Questionnaire response data:

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6

19 tera melos 20 pub/small venue 60+ 20

27 tori amos 100 pub/small venue 60+ 150

17

the red hot chili

peppers 70 stadium 60+ 100

23

a cat born in an oven

isnt a cake 6 pub/small venue 60+ 12

18

does it offend you

yeah? 25 pub/small venue

31-

59 30

20 machine head 20 large venue 60+ 20

20 joss stone 30 pub/small venue 60+ 40

17 foo fighters 30 large venue

6-

30 40

23 as cities burn 25 club/medium venue 60+ 60

22 jellyfish 50 pub/small venue 60+ 100

24 tubelord 20 pub/small venue 60+ 30

17 beyonce 100 club/medium venue 31-59 100

20 jack white 150 club/medium venue 60+ 150

19 parkway drive 25 club/medium venue 60+ 30

22 gojira 45 club/medium venue 60+ 5522 coheed and cambria 15 club/medium venue 6-30 15

20 brand new 25 club/medium venue 6-30 30

22 modern life is war 45 club/medium venue 31-59 45

18 arcade fire 40 large venue 6-30 50

22 scissor sisters 25 club/medium venue 60+ 25

30 blur 30 club/medium venue 31-59 30

27 childish gambino 25 club/medium venue 6-30 25

21 motley crue 70 stadium 6-30 70

20 mogwai 100 pub/small venue 31-59 130

22 lamb of god 20 club/medium venue 6-30 2020 everytime i die 20 pub/small venue 31-59 25


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22 glassjaw 75 club/medium venue 60+ 100

21 deaf havana 10 club/medium venue 0-5 10

20 opeth 40 large venue 60+ 50

18 the flashbulb 35 large venue 31-59 35

18 basement 15 pub/small venue 6-30 20

21 Meet Me In St. Louis 10 pub/small venue 6-30 15

21 nine inch nails 30 large venue 31-59 40

17 30 seconds to mars 60 pub/small venue 31-59 60

20 letlive 10 pub/small venue 6-30 12

20 rolo tomassi 15 pub/small venue 6-30 20

19 bruce springsteen 60 pub/small venue 60+ 80

26 weezer 40 pub/small venue 60+ 40

18 basement 10 pub/small venue 6-30 10

17 bombay bicycle club 15 club/medium venue 6-30 15

23

if these trees could

talk 15 club/medium venue 60+ 20

24 refused 35 club/medium venue 31-59 35

19 beck 50 club/medium venue 6-30 50

19 mastadon 25 stadium 60+ 25

24 the weakerthans 25 club/medium venue 60+ 30

30 built to spill 30 pub/small venue 60+ 30

22 new found glory 40 pub/small venue 60+ 40

20 they might be giants 35 club/medium venue 31-59 35

22 veil of maya 15 club/medium venue 31-59 15

18 expire 15 club/medium venue 60+ 15

22 the mars volta 30 club/medium venue 6-30 50

22 kings of leon 30 club/medium venue 31-59 30

23 innerpartysystem 15 club/medium venue 0-5 15

17 wolf gang 25 pub/small venue 31-59 25

20 boards of canada 30 large venue 6-30 35

21 letlive 20 pub/small venue 6-30 25

22 brand new 50 club/medium venue 31-59 55

26 oasis 300 pub/small venue 60+ 320

23 broken bells 50 club/medium venue 31-59 50

20 iron and wine 20 pub/small venue 31-59 20

23 descendents 30 pub/small venue 60+ 45

35 oxbow 20 pub/small venue 60+ 20

24 less than jake 16 club/medium venue 31-59 25

24 regina spektor 20 club/medium venue 6-30 20

20 opeth 30 club/medium venue 6-30 40

19 the early november 40 club/medium venue 60+ 50

22 local natives 25 large venue 6-30 30

19 karnivool 10 large venue 6-30 15

19 angels and airwaves 50 club/medium venue 31-59 70

20 maps and atlases 12 club/medium venue 6-30 12

20 d'angelo 60 large venue 6-30 90


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20 everytime i die 20 club/medium venue 31-59 20

17 devandra banhart 40 club/medium venue 60+ 40

21 mamas gun 20 club/medium venue 60+ 25

20 incubus 30 club/medium venue 60+ 30

16 frank turner 15 pub/small venue 6-30 15

22 bats 10 pub/small venue 0-5 10

20 green day 40 club/medium venue 60+ 60

19 the lost prophets 20 large venue 31-59 25

22 biffy clyro 30 pub/small venue 60+ 40

21 mastadon 50 club/medium venue 60+ 100

20 slipknot 40 club/medium venue 31-59 60

20 finntroll 20 club/medium venue 31-59 20

21The Robert GlasperExperiment 100 pub/small venue 60+ 200

19 circa survive 30 large venue 31-59 30

22 gary numan 40 club/medium venue 31-59 4021 set your goals 12 club/medium venue 60+ 20

19 the police 80 club/medium venue 60+ 80

21 chimaria 20 club/medium venue 60+ 25

21 the roots 50 club/medium venue 31-59 50

24 cypress hill 30 large venue 60+ 30

20 radiohead 80 stadium 60+ 80

17 brand new 30 club/medium venue 60+ 30

22 incubus 30 large venue 31-59 30

17 tigers jaw 10 club/medium venue 6-30 13

25 faith no more 15 club/medium venue 0-5 15

20 black stone cherry 30 club/medium venue 31-59 35

20 romantic idols 10 pub/small venue 0-5 15

20 manchester orchestra 50 pub/small venue 60+ 70

20 pixies 40 large venue 60+ 50


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Appendix 3: Supporting Graphs

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Willing to pay

Willing to pay with album set-list

Pub/small venue

31%

Club/medium

venue

50%

Large venue

15%

Stadium

4%Q4. What size venue?

Q3 + Q6 comparison


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25

28

42

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0-5 6-30 31-59 60+

Q5. How far they would travel

Miles

how much is someone wiling to pay to see their favourite act live.docx

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