Tickets for Tom Petty’s Halifax show went on sale this morning, but I won’t be buying any because they’re overpriced (PDF document). Tickets behind the stage are $103 and half-decent seats in the stands start at $183.50. That’s a lot of money for one concert by one band – 200 bucks is VIP seating territory or a reasonable price for a festival with several bands, not just a two-hour set. It’s quite disappointing, really. I have the jangling guitar of “Listen to her Heart” looping in my head as I type this. I’m sure it’ll be a good show.
So why am I posting this diatribe online? I think there’s a business lesson to be learned here.
Some businesses are fortunate enough to grow to a point where they have fans – not just repeat customers but real fans, people who talk about them to all their friends, the kind of people who have Apple stickers on their car or won’t drink anything but Starbucks. Very few companies ever get to that point – like a band, you have to win them over with consistently great songs (er… products or service) year after year, and you need a strong brand. Like Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers, who deserve more recognition!) you may get to the top of that pyramid where everyone knows who you are and nobody speaks ill of you.
If people like you so much that they put you on that pedestal, don’t piss them off. You don’t operate in a vacuum. If it weren’t for his fans, Tom would probably still be playing his local bar on weekends. I’m sure his first few concert tickets were a lot less than $200, and even accounting for the extra road crew and smoke machines that price seems extortionate. We saw Rush crank out a 27-song, three-hour set a few years ago for less than $80 apiece (in seats equivalent to those that are $183.50 for Petty in Halifax) and I’m sure the latter’s tour doesn’t have much more overhead, especially factoring in the cost of Neil Peart’s drum kit. If fans have stuck by you for all these years, don’t gouge them just because you can. Not only are you alienating your customers, it’s just the wrong thing to do.