[michaelt]

> Now the extra money that used to go to scalpers goes to TM instead, [...] Isnt this...not a bad thing?

The problem with setting your ticket prices too high is it stops young people joining your concert-attending fanbase, leading to your fanbase ageing. This is what happens to opera houses and similar institutions - they 'market price' the tickets to $150 then find all their customers are in their 60s.

Of course, for a band it might be less of a problem than for an institution - the band ages at the same rate the fans do, after all. And merely offering $50 tickets that get brought by scalpers and resold for $150 doesn't solve the problem.

[petercooper]

The problem with setting your ticket prices too high is it stops young people joining your concert-attending fanbase, leading to your fanbase ageing

Totally a tangent, but I've noticed this with sports cars in recent years. The companies like to portray an image of glamorous professionals driving their cars and most times I see a Ferrari or a Porsche nowadays a more typical, older person is behind the wheel. I'm not judging if that's a good or bad thing, but I find it amusing versus the branding image. Could, too, all the fans at a highly priced Taylor Swift concert end up being 50+? :-)

[bombcar]

Not all of them, but certainly a good amount.

Fans often age with the artist, and the same with cars somewhat.

Younger people (teenagers) will get to the concerts on their parent's dime, and many will go toward newer artists.