July 19, 2010

By By Glenn Peoples

While some pop and rock concerts have disappointed in 2010, the general opinion is that country concerts are having a great year. ?There's not a single country artist out there that's not doing well," said manager Clarence Spalding (Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn) told the Tennessean.

The average ticket price for some of country?s biggest stars are actually quite low. The average ticket prices of Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw, according to the article, are $61 and $49, respectively. In contrast, the Jonas Brothers? average ticket price at Nashville?s Bridgestone Arena was $91. The concert sold only 3,500 tickets (for an 11,000 concert configuration) before being canceled, according to an arena official.

This sentiment was heard from many executives at last month?s Billboard Country Music Summit in Nashville. "I think the country music business is as strong as it's even been," said Brian O'Connell, President, Live Nation Country Music. "Right now, in 2010, I couldn't be any happier with the way things are going."

All other things being equal, a lower-priced ticket will sell better than a higher-priced ticket. And given the current economic climate, rising ticket prices are not helping the concert industry. Live Nation, for one, says it plans to remedy this problem. In its presentation to investors and analysts last week, company executives went to great lengths to stress that ticket prices will come down in the near future. Investors appear not to have complete confidence the company will be able to restrain artist costs and ticket prices. Live Nation?s stock dropped 21% over Thursday and Friday and was down nearly 3% in early Monday trading.

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