The ticket prices for The Beatles 1964 tour generally ranged from 3-5 dollars, or 22-37 dollars today, which were standard ticket price levels for the top performers of the time. Given the hold that rock-n-roll had on the youth of the time, their spending ability, and the power of the Beatles music in their lives, the promoters could have probably charged double and still fill the seats. But it was all so new and the territory so unknown, that most decided not to risk it and stayed with the ticket prices proven to work up until that point. The Beatles left America with over 7 point 5 million dollars in today’s value, earned in just about one month’s time, and left behind many happy concert promoters scratching their heads and asking “what just happened, and where do we go from here?”. What happened, was an unprecedented rise in the interest in music by the new generations, which transcended entertainment and pure enjoyment, and became a way of life where music played an integral role. Where we were headed, was the new era where the acts leading the way, following the Beatles boom, would become more numerous and more diverse, and their audiences greater in number then ever before, challenging the live music industry and pushing it to the new levels, technologically, organizationally, and business wise. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Uriah Heep, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, in the decade that followed, now well aware of the power of the live shows to make or break the band, worked on their live performance and appeal with as much dedication, creativity, and care as on their recordings. They greatly widened the scope, the demands, and the reach of the live music business and technology, and the industry grew with their tours and their fans, wiser for the Beatles experience. Gone were the Beatles’ 100-watt amps, replaced by the stacks of speakers and amps packing tens of thousands of watts. Not an ideal solution sonic quality wise, but progress in the right direction nevertheless. Plus, the top acts’ managers, aware of the crucial importance of the PA system to the success of their artists, stopped entrusting the responsibility for the sound system to the promoters, and started carrying their own, designed and created for their tours, charging the promoters for it as a recoupable fee. The practice still prevalent in the live music industry at that level today. The ticket prices rose from 3-5 dollars in the 1960s, to 8-13 dollar range in the 1970s, or from the equivalent of 22-37 dollar range, to 40-65 dollars in today’s value. Remember how we said the Beatles ticket prices could have been double and the seats would still sell? Well, now they were double in value, and the tickets were indeed selling. Selling at the numbers hard to imagine just a few years earlier. While the Beatles playing and filling stadiums and arenas was a novelty and an exception in the industry at the time, in the 1970s it became the norm for all the top acts. What was the temporary peak of the attendance amplitude, became the sought after standard. The Beatles Shea Stadium attendance record was shattered by Led Zeppelin, first in 1973 and subsequently many times over by others. And while the Beatles played three American tours, which seemed a lot at the time, Led Zeppelin played 11. Alice Cooper’s 1973 all-stadium tour was attended by 820,000 fans, and grossed the band 4.3 million dollars, even at the below average, six and a half dollars, ticket prices. The Rolling Stones rocked 82,000 fans in attendance of their 1975 Cleveland show. Not to mention the festivals following Woodstock. The Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970 drew a crowd of 600,000 people. Summer Jam at Watkins Glen drew the same number in 1973. At those numbers, the top acts’ managers didn’t shy away from asking for more. The pre-Beatles standard of requesting a flat fee for a performance was replaced by the Beatles standard of the minimum guarantees plus a percentage of the ticket sales. On the other hand, at those numbers, there was much unknown and unexpected, and much still to be learned. The numbers brought about serious organizational and security problems. Hells Angels deadly show of force at the 1970 Rolling Stones Altamont show. Chicago riots that same year when Sly and the Family Stone failed to appear at their scheduled performance there. Boston Garden riot prior to Led Zeppelin show in January 1975. And most tragically, the death of 11 fans due to a festival style, first-come-first-serve seating arrangement, and the consequent crowd rush, at The Who’s 1979 show in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, the cost of those lessons was measured in blood and lives, not only in money. Many of the today’s required live event licenses and permits we will talk about later on, are a direct result of those costly lessons from 1970s. The live music industry continued to grow throughout the following decades, and is still a solid business today, regardless of the downturn in the recording industry. You can’t download being at the concert, and share it with your friends through MP3s. You have to buy a ticket and actually go to the venue. Your friends too. You can’t torrent that. And while peer-to-peer became a recording industry’s nightmare, in the live music industry, peer-to-peer networking means moving with the beat in a club or an arena, next to your peers, while the band plays on and connects you all with the magic of music. Can’t burn that. Can’t compress that. You have to experience it. And that’s why the live music industry remains stable even today. Yes, some things have changed in the industry since the 70s, of course. The sound systems got better, the technology more sophisticated, the bands bigger and more numerous, and the touring companies larger and more consolidated. Live Nation today owns over 100 venues across the nation, a ticketing company, Ticketmaster, the merchandizing for acts like the Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Springsteen, and the 360 degree deals with artists like Jay-Z, Madonna, U2, Shakira, and Nickleback. And remember how we mentioned the record-setting 1973 Alice Cooper tour that was attended by then unheard of 820,000 fans? Well, just last year, both Pink and Rihanna had over 1.5 million fans attend each of their tours, grossing almost 150 million dollars each; Taylor Swift had 1.4 million attend her tour, grossing 115 million dollars; Beyonce had 900,000 attend her tour, grossing 104 million dollars. By the way, the highest grossing tour in the history of the live music industry was the U2’s 360 degrees tour in 2009 – 2011, which was attended by over 7 million people, and brought in over 700 million dollars. Yes, I guess some things have changed in the industry since the 70s, to say the least, but the lessons we learned from the days of Vaudeville till then still loom large and irreplaceable.
