“Sold out” is a sign you see about the dates of many shows. But is the message real, or just a way to sell the image of the performance, in order to charge more for attending festivals?
The topic is explored in Spain by the daily “El País”, which explains that, in certain cases, registered in Spain, tickets “sell out” before even a number of tickets close to maximum capacity are sold of the rooms in question. But why?
Sold out venues are, in theory, the greatest quantifiable sign of success for an artist or musical group. Now, Selling out the “X, Y, Z” rooms spread across the country appears as one of the main criteria used by those who define a festival’s lineup. Even when the performance in question actually results in losses.
Any concert has an associated list of expenses. According to the research findings, Many “sold out” shows yield an almost marginal profit or even result in a lossas the volume of tickets sold is below the maximum.
The objective is very clear: selling the image of the artist or band, in order to, on the one hand, get a place in the programming of one or more festivalsamong the many that take place from north to south of the country, especially in the summer months. On the other hand, the objective is to get better feesas the value is defined at the beginning, regardless of the final results of the festival.
Centralism and inflation
This way of working has perverse consequences for the industry. On the one hand, raises the values demanded by artistsmuch faster than tickets sold increase.
The fact is that festivals are, in many cases, the result of larger investments, sometimes with large companies behind them (this is the case of the main telecommunications operators, for example). There are still others that are carried out through public financing from Municipal Councils or Parish Councils, for example.
That said, those who organize them (especially in privately financed events) are forced to do increase the prices of tickets and, possibly, of consumable products at the venue (entry to which can only happen with a ticket).
As a result of this, smaller festivals find themselves crushed by larger ones. This is because there is a lack ability to respond to the aggressive increase in the amounts demanded by artists and groups, under penalty of losing the ability to remain financially sustainable.
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