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May 1, 2007 9:15 PM

Do concerts generally sell out?

This question has been buzzing in my head lately and I can't even begin to find an answer to it.

I'm talking about concerts for rock bands, rap artists, pop stars, etc ... do their tours normally sell out?

Websites for artists always seem so excited when the tour sells out, it made me think maybe that isn't the norm.

Any one in the know? Can give me a place to look? Tell me I will never know the answer to this question? All responses welcome.

posted by Julnyes to media & arts (8 comments total)

It really, really just depends on the band and where they're playing. Generally speaking, band management
(and venue booking agents) will try to book shows that will fill a certain venue. So, where I live for example, we've got a couple sports arenas, a large outdoor concert theater, a couple medium size indoor places (around a thousand capacity or so), and a bunch of tiny little hole in the wall places that'll hold 299 people (it's a building code thing). I've been going to concerts here long enough that I've seen bands climb the ladder from one place to the next as they became more popular. For example, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club started out playing at the Casbah, a 299 place. Then they started selling that out and moved to Brick by Brick, but were still booked there by the Casbah, which happens quite often. Brick holds a few more people than the Casbah. Now BRMC plays the local House of Blues, which is really the best indoor venue we've got.

Anyway, some bands never climb that ladder and just play Casbah-type places all the time. I saw Luna on their last tour at the Casbah, and they were around *forever* and actually fairly well known, so it's odd that they never really moved up. Eventually, if you keep your ear to the ground in the music scene, you'll get a feel for which shows will sell out and which won't. My Casbah-sellout radar is quite well-tuned, if I do say so myself. But it really only works for certain types of bands. I still get surprised sometimes.
posted by LionIndex at 9:30 PM on May 1, 2007

Quite often big stadium events don't sell out.
Last time the Rolling Stones teetered through here there were face value $150 tickets on sale on ebay 2 for $20 on the days before the show.
Also, you will notice some artists announce more shows after the first sell out. This is to fill the venue as full as possible.
Better to play 6 full shows than eight 80% full shows (as the fixed costs for the venue, staffing etc. are high).
Promotoers always aim to sell out, and it is their error for booking too big a venue if they don't.
posted by bystander at 9:55 PM on May 1, 2007

I go to quite a few concerts. Some of them are sold out way in advance, some sell out only just before, some are selling tickets at the door but almost full, and some are nowhere near sold out. There are a lot of random elements; it has to do with how much the buzz is building in the city you're playing in, and that is a difficult thing to sustain over an entire tour, criss-crossing the country over a period of several months. Selling out an entire tour means a lot of people want to see you over a sustained period of time. If you consider how many bands are touring (a lot), I would think this is not the norm, not even close.
posted by PercussivePaul at 11:20 PM on May 1, 2007

A large proportion of my close friends work in ticketing for our cutural district. They are asked to take comp tickets often because the management wants to give the illusion of a full house, even when the show hasn't "sold" out. For the majority of shows with multiple performances, my friends are pretty much guaranteed at least two free seats per employee. Given the large variety of shows this includes (comedians, plays/musicals, pop, jazz, etc...) I'd say yes, it's rare for a show to sell every seat in the house.
posted by librarianamy at 5:06 AM on May 2, 2007

For recent stadium-sized pop/rock/country/hip-hop/etc shows during the Houston Rodeo, a couple of shows sold out almost immediately when tickets went on sale. Most others never sold out. The fastest-selling and most popular, btw, was "Hannah Montana" -- those little girls wield huge influence on their parents!
posted by Robert Angelo at 5:34 AM on May 2, 2007

The 930 Club in DC, widely considered a benchmark for that sized venue, sells out less than half the time (no official stats to back that up, but I've been watching their site for years unrigorously).
posted by phrontist at 7:32 AM on May 2, 2007

No, concerts generally do not sell out.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:36 AM on May 2, 2007

Very interesting stuff -- thanks for the responses.
posted by Julnyes at 8:44 PM on May 4, 2007