Tuesday, September 14, 2004
 
In Touch with Middle America

In this month's Playboy, in between alternate Bush-bashing and baring, a round table entitled "Rip. Burn. Die." gathers music industry insiders to discuss the problems and challenges within the industry. While discussing exhorbitant concert prices, two known figures offer nuggets of insight into the little man's mind set:
  • John Mayer:
    We charge around $40 for a ticket, which isn't a lot of money. Twenty-three year old kids have $40 to spend on a concert. They may say they don't, but they do.

    (John Mayer doesn't point out that $40 represents almost seven hours' of labor at minimum wage. Factor in the convenience fee applied to a ticket, and you're looking at a full day's work. Now, imagine you're taking a date; that's Monday and Tuesday of your work week, which isn't a big deal to John Mayer. Now, say you've got a family, and you need parking for the minivan, and suddenly you're not buying any souvenirs or food, and the concert's not that much of a good entertainment value, but who am I to complain? I've already been to one whole concert this year.)

  • Sharon Osbourne:
    We could charge more, but with what's going on with unemployment in this country, we want to keep ticket prices down.

    (Ms. Osbourne doesn't mention that unemployment is still at a relative historical low, which means that if she had her druthers, the marked increase in ticket prices would be even more if she weren't afraid to lose more concertgoers, so she'll get in a little dig at the current president if she doesn't have anything else to say.)

Thanks for your insight, celebrities and those whose work provides them with a better-than-middle-class living which apparently has divorced them from fiscal realities here outside the stratosphere.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:50 PM
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