A Bargain In Kansas City

Garth Brooks doesn’t mean what he once did in terms of mass popularity. The guy has been pretty inactive and out of the mainstream music publicity machine for years. But he has sold A LOT of albums during the course of his career. He has a big following from a strong fan base.

This fall, Garth is playing 9 shows at Kansas City’s new Sprint Center and they all are sell-outs. But the real story here is that the top prices are $32.50 (total + fees). This is unheard of in today’s music business landscape for an artist of the caliber of Garth Brooks.

What is his motivation here? Who really knows, but Garth Brooks has created a buzz about a music event. He is offering high-end tickets at $32.50 and the remainder of the house at a whopping $25.00.

The consumer wants to be entertained. People enjoy going out to a show, grabbing some dinner and leaving the craziness of life behind them for a couple of hours. Garth is enabling this. Even mildly casual fans will be inclined to buy tickets to a show if it is reasonably priced.

This is fantastic. No $200.00 tickets, no VIP packages for an even higher price for good seats and a meaningless laminate pass that gets you nowhere in the venue all in the name of greed. The arena won’t be half empty needing creative curtaining and papering to fill out the empty seats.

The current state of the concert business is completely out of control. Heavily inflated ticket prices are ruining the business. The artist gets paid, but the consumer loses. And ultimately the artist loses. The artist loses the faith and respect of the consumer and turns away potential new fans. Someone loosely interested in an artist is not going to roll the dice and fork out $90.00+ to purchase a ticket to a show they are not sure they will dig. You can bet that there are some consumers that are not really into Garth that are going for the hell of it – and once they are blown away by the show, Garth will have brought a new fan into the fold that will be buying the albums and future concert tickets. He is creating an atmosphere to generate new fans as well as taking care of the already devoted.

Garth Brooks will have to play more shows at $32.50 per ticket to generate the same kind of high performance guarantee associated with one show priced significantly higher, but who cares? He obviously doesn’t. Certainly there are agents and managers that would say he is crazy. But, he is a music artist and respected performer. His first love should be performing, so why should it matter if he has to play a couple of more shows to earn what he could playing one show with higher ticket prices?

You couldn’t pay me $32.50 to see Garth Brooks because I have no interest in his music, but right now I respect the hell out of him. He is doing what a lot of other artists should be doing. It is time to get the public back into the arenas enjoying entertainment at a reasonable price. It is time for the concert industry executives and artists to regain the trust of the consumer and get them excited about the concert experience once again. Good for you Garth.