A lot of people have been surprised, even disappointed in the high prices tickets for the NIN/JA tour have been going for. Eric Avery made a post on his blog over the weekend addressing it, referencing a post Trent Reznor made on the official NIN message board.
we in janes have made several phone calls, both individually and collectively, trying to find out why nin/ja ticket prices have wound up so much higher than the agreed upon price. it has been confusing and frustrating trying to get a straight, consistent and clear answer. a few weeks ago, trent told me about a ticket reselling phenomena that i hadnt understood before. i didnt understand at the time just how insidious this system is until ive had to watch it play out in real time. he wrote a really good concise and understandable explanation here. its a good read. have coffee first.
You can read my thoughts on this situation after the jump…
It is quite unfortunate that the ticket industry has gotten this out of hand. Trent Reznor makes some very accurate and valid points. Study any amount of economics, and you will understand the concept of “willingness to pay”. Some people are willing to pay a lot more for tickets to an event than others. To be perfectly honest, because NIN and JA are two of my favorite bands, I am personally willing to pay a lot more to see their concert than I would a lot of other bands that I love. However, I also understand that not everyone can do this, especially with the state of the job market and the large number of people getting laid off.
Willingness to pay (and the ability to pay that amount) ties directly into your financial and economic situation, and not the type of fan you are. So I applaud the efforts of NIN and JA to try and address this, to make their concerts reasonably accessible. Obviously the end result is far from perfect, and even Trent admits that the venue choices play into the problem. The upside is that it seems there will be a wide range of ticket prices across each venue, so going to the show should be feasible for most, but unfortunately you will have to pay a lot to get up close.