When Bruce Springsteen announced his plans for a huge 2023 tour, fans of the singer/songwriter went nuts. Now, with 2023 only a few weeks old and the tour just beginning, fans are revolting over the revolting cost of tickets. Springsteen spent his career connecting with the blue-collar working man with albums like “The River”, and “Born in the USA”. Now, at 73 years old, it appears Bruce has decided to wash his hands of the unwashed masses and try to fill that bank account up before he crosses the rainbow bridge. Considering he sold his catalog for a reported $500 million, you’d think that bank account should be full. Now his fans are striking back at the ticket prices. Check this out.
Backstreets, the fanzine that started 43 years ago to cover all things Springsteen, is closing up shop.
This wasn’t some flimsy, fly-by-night operation. Deadline describes the publication as “a go-to resource for insider information on The Boss and his plans. It had an international circulation and was fan-run.”
Publisher and editor-in-chief Christopher Phillips shared the reasons for the ‘zine’s termination in a personal op-ed to longtime readers. He couldn’t sugar coat reality.
“There’s no denying that the new ticket price range has in and of itself been a determining factor in our outlook as the 2023 tour approached — certainly in terms of the experience that hardcore fans have been accustomed to for, as Springsteen noted, 49 years. Six months after the on-sales, we still faced this three-part predicament: These are concerts that we can hardly afford; that many of our readers cannot afford; and that a good portion of our readership has lost interest in as a result.”
Every major band should take note. Even your most loyal fans have a limit to how much they would pay to see you.
— Philip Papaelias (@PhilipPapaelias) February 6, 2023
Fans have had enough, and are showing The Boss who the actual boss is. Granted, Springsteen has a reputation for playing three to four hour shows and always puts on a good stage show, but is a 73-year-old rocker worth $5 thousand dollars as some seats go for under Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” scam? Considering his fan base was cultivated by lamenting the downtrodden and identifying with middle America, Springsteen has eschewed and excluded the very people he built his legend on. It would be easy to blame Ticketmaster, as they are as evil a corporation as there is in existence, until you read what Springsteen said to Rolling Stone Magazine in an interview before the tour.
What I do is a very simple thing. I tell my guys, “Go out and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a little less.” That’s generally the directions. They go out and set it up. For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans.
This time I told them, “Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.” So that’s what happened. That’s what they did [laughs].
But ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also. And the bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, “Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?”
It created an opportunity for that to occur. And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans. But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.
Springsteen’s take is clear, someone is going to get the money from scalped tickets, might as well be him. As for “affordable” tickets, in most of these large arenas there are only rumors of a concert where those affordable seats are. The dynamic pricing scam is excluding real fans from an up close experience in exchange for rich people, or corporate giveaways. Why would any artist want the seats down front to be full of people that don’t know the deep cuts? Oh yea, money. There are alternatives to aquiescing to the evil Ticketmaster and dynamic pricing, but Bruce decided to follow the money and blame it on his peers. Considering how Springsteen spent four years blasting Donald Trump and aligning himself with coastal elites, it’s surprising he has a fan base left. After this tour he may not.
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