I am looking at the Red Hot Chili Peppers Tokyo show and it is listed as 18,500 as the starting price for tickets. This is before the public sales have even begun so it is definitely not a reseller price. Is this the norm for international artists?
I know arena shows can be pricey in the states but I feel like 7,000-10,000 would be the norm for starting, not 18,500. These feel like reseller prices and I don’t think I can justify 37,000 plus whatever other expenses for an hour of entertainment for my girlfriend and myself.
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Supply and demand, I think. I balked at Paul McCartney tickets a few years back, and took some time to ponder if I would pay that – about 25,000 I think, for the shittiest ones.
A few days later, I realised – of course I fucking would, probably my last change to see him too.
Return to website: Tickets sold out.
Yes, even smaller venue shows are expensive. I’ve been to plenty of rock/metal shows from international artists that would have been like $30-40 tickets in North America that were 8000-10000 yen here at a club venue like O-East or WWW.
Domestic artists can get away with cheaper tickets as they don’t have the added travel costs, but it’s still relatively pricey for what it is. Local band shows can still be easily over 3000 yen at a live house.
I think the smarter artists realized they could avoid scalpers by simply increasing prices…
Until a few years ago, I would regularly go to the “Blue Note” here in Nagoya. Lots of good music there. But the tickets became just way too expensive, so we stopped going. Now the Blue Note has shut down. I wonder if the prices were the reason.
Well duh, it’s not cheap to bring an entire show to Japan, especially with the yen being so shitty right now.
Domestic artists are around 6000 and up for arena shows.
It seems normal, especially for a big Western act playing at an arena venue.
It’s incredibly expensive to bring over a foreign act. There are venue rental costs (roughly 22M JPY for Dome), transport costs (staff, plus ones and equipment), accommodation (bigger acts would probably want better hotels), performers fee, visa costs, dining expenses and whatever other stuff is on the artist’s rider. Then you also have costs for the Japan side, like concert staff at the venue (lighting, sound, staff at merch, staff who guide you in the venue etc.), and costs for the promoter, because they also want to make a profit.
Also, the promoters have a general idea of what people are willing to pay for a ticket, and it seems like Japanese people in general are willing to shell out more for a concert and merch.
Yes the prices are insane.