this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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The world we live in isn't just dystopic, it isn't just stupid, trying to describe all the ways it sucks just makes for a really boring story.
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There's is a simple solution to this: stop buying concert tickets. I know, I know - who wouldn't want to get together with thousands of other people in a tiny space and listen to the same music together, feel the same beats, breathe the same air, share the same pathogens... Sounds great.
But this is how price exploration works (which in a monopoly looks a lot like price gouging). You have a product and want to make more money, so you double (often less, this is a simplification) your prices thinking if it's too much people will stop buying and you'll have a sale or drop prices back to what they were. But people keep buying your product, so of course you're going to keep the price the same even if you get a couple of dirty looks. So after a bit you reason if people are willing to pay 2x for it, maybe they'll pay 2.5x or 3x, so you try it, and it works... Rinse and repeat.
The only way to break the cycle is legislation (not likely, but more consumer protections would of course be welcome) or to stop buying.
I keep saying things like this on lemmy and catching hate.
"Video games companies are fucking us!"
"Have you considered not buying their games?"
"FUCK YOOOUUUU!"
If I have a non-essential product, I'm selling it for every penny I can wrench out of the public (idiots). Hell, even with food you got options. I'm on the edge of a little redneck suburb and have 7 grocery stores within 10-miles. I vote with my wallet at the rundown places that are half the price of Publix. I won't begrudge Publix's ludicrous pricing, I just won't go.
Hey guys: If you are paying for this shit, you are the problem, not the system.
I think the delivery might be the problem more than the message, based on this anyway. But you're not really wrong. Food, clothing, shelter - these are all things you have to obtain, or die. Not so much the case with concert tickets or video games.
Also, that avidamoeba person you replied to wasn't saying concert tickets are a fundamental right, they're saying that prices would go up even if people stop buying, because it's a monopoly and monopolies usually require a government to break up.
I was going to say that stopping buying tickets obviously won't prevent them from going up even if it does temporarily but then you said it yourself in the last paragraph. You can't take away monopoly power without government action.
So in this case you're saying concert tickets are a right that the government must enforce?
Wut
these kind of boycotts have never really worked to impact lasting change.
They don't work because concert tickets are still under valued. If an artist can sell out a 9,000 person venue at $20 a seat, and then they find out they can still sell out the same venue charging $200 a seat - just to a different crowd, then they are going to go with the $200 option.
I love going to concerts and now that I'm older I mostly avoid General Admission tickets, so I'm already paying more. This year I've gone to 6 concerts and on average I've paid around $120 per ticket. While expensive, I've never felt like what I paid wasn't worth it. But, when it comes to beer/water/food I always feel that it's over priced and not worth the cost. Don't get me started on the employee asking for a 20% tip on a $20 beer.
Watch the video. Neither the artist nor the venue have any real say on the matter.
Artists absolutely do have a say on the matter, they can say no. They can not tour. They can only do small venues that don't use Live Nation. They can use other ticketing services - although the most expensive concert I went to this year was Rolling Stones and they didn't use Ticketmaster.
Artists choose to go with Live Nation because it makes them money, provides a better ticketing experience for their fans, and gives the artist a boogeyman to blame for high ticket costs. Pearl Jam tried to fight this fight in the 90s and realized that there isn't a better alternative if they wanted to tour and make money. They chose to keep touring and went back to using Ticketmaster.
No. You're wrong. Watch the video.
It's not a boycott. Boycotts don't work because they appeal to and are based in emotion. I'm appealing to your wallet. If you can't afford concert tickets, don't buy them. Don't go without something you need to make it work, don't use credit. Just don't buy, like you don't buy a new car every few years or how you don't buy a gold-plated snickerdoodle or whatever.
Otherwise, the company is right and people will pay a lot more for the product, so they'd think themselves crazy not to raise the price.
People who can't afford it are already not going. That's why their CEOs are comparing concerts to luxury handbags.
You're still appealing to emotion of those who can afford it.
Then the company is right and those tickets are worth the extra money they're charging 🤷♀️ What's your point here?
And this is why boycott like his don't do shit. Capitalist brainworms man, I'll tell ya...