As the seemingly age-old debate about concert ticket prices rages on, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has now offered up his two cents on the matter, as well as other facets of the music industry.
Dickinson shared his opinions in a new interview with Mexico’s ATMósferas Magazine, and he didn’t hold back when asked about the potential negative impact of gauged ticket prices. Dickinson cited one particularly high profile live series — U2’s residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas — as the extreme example.
“If you wanna go and see the U2 show, I think it was 1,200 dollars per seat in the sphere,” said Dickinson [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “I’ve got no interest in paying 1,200 dollars to go and see U2 in the sphere — none. A hundred bucks, maybe. But for me, what’s important is to try and keep, on the one hand, the right type of tickets at the right price.”
Interestingly, Dickinson suggests that the seats in front of the stage — “which everybody says should be the most expensive tickets” — should actually be “the most reasonably priced tickets, ’cause the people who are gonna go there to the front of the stage are gonna be people who are real fans, people who are kids, people who can’t afford the crazy money, but they are the people that need to be down the front; they’re the people that are gonna keep this music alive.”
“And then you get the people that they might be fans,” the metal singer continued, “but they wanna bring their wife and they don’t wanna get too hot and sweaty and all the rest of it. So, there’s some seats at the top or something else like that, what they’re gonna pick, and those get priced differently.”
It’s worth pointing out that tickets to Dickinson’s upcoming solo tour and tickets to Iron Maiden’s 2024 concerts follow the standard arena venue model of $50+ ranging to $200+, the closer to the stage the pricier.
“The promoters have somehow gotta make their money back,” concluded Dickinson. “So, it’s a delicate balance, but in general, ticket prices have gone through the roof. And some of the ticket prices that people pay, well, some of the prices people pay, for me, it’s insane. I would never pay that price, but then again, I’m probably not a fan of that particular artist. People who are, maybe they think it’s worth it. I mean, certainly with my shows, we’ve always tried to keep the ticket prices within the normal, normal boundaries. And the same with Maiden.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Dickinson discusses the state of streaming services like Spotify (“who are basically ripping off musicians by paying them next to nothing for playing their work”) and the challenges of operating as a touring band in the current music industry climate (“it’s shrunk in terms of the amount of money you get paid for your art”).
Below you can listen to the two-part interview with Dickinson discussing ticket prices and more.