Eagles’ China Ticket Prices Ask Fans to Take It to the Limit
The Eagles Perform In Austin
Gary Miller/Getty Images
From left to right: Musicians Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh of The Eagles perform in concert during day 3 of the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on on Oct. 10, 2010.
From left to right: Musicians Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh of The Eagles perform in concert during day 3 of the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on on Oct. 10, 2010. Photographer: Gary Miller/Getty Images
Wang Jianhua, who serenades passengers with "Hotel California" and "Desperado" as he drives his taxi through Beijing, proclaims himself one of China’s biggest Eagles fans. That’s the closest he’ll get to the band when they play their first gigs in the country this week.
“I’d love to go to the concert, but I don’t have enough money,” said the 42-year-old taxi driver, who counts “Take it to the Limit” as one of his favorite hits.
As Western acts add China to their itineraries, companies such as Eagles promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (LYV) are finding it a challenge to fill seats and still charge U.S.-style ticket prices. Even with adjustments to reflect local spending power, a mid-range ticket for the Eagles’ two shows in China is priced at 1,080 yuan ($164), the equivalent of about three weeks' pay for the average city dweller.
“This is a high-end artist, with high ticket prices globally for a high-end show for high-end clientele,” said Luke Hede, vice president of international booking in Asia for Live Nation. “We try to make it as accessible as we can, but realistically in China, the average person is not yet interested.”
The Eagles, whose best hits collection ranks as the top- selling U.S. album, arrive 25 years after Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in China in 1986. Composer Jean- Michel Jarre in 1981 was the first western musician to play in China since the Mao Zedong-led Communist revolution in 1949.
Since then, a growing number of pop-and-rock acts have played China, the world’s second-biggest economy, including the Rolling Stones in 2006, Eric Clapton and Roger Waters in 2007, and Avril Lavigne in 2008. Three days after the Eagles play their opening night at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena tonight, Usher will perform there. The band plays in Beijing March 12.
Ticket Prices
Eagles tickets in China range from 350 yuan to 2,580 yuan. Seats were still available for both shows as of today, according to the website of Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter.
Tickets are selling well and were “tracking where we had hoped to be a week out from the show,” Hede said in a March 6 phone interview from Melbourne, where he’s based. More than a quarter of the tickets were offered at the two lowest prices, 350 yuan and 580 yuan, to reflect local spending power, he said.
Average annual per-capita urban incomes in China have risen 25-fold to 19,109 yuan last year, from about 739 yuan when Wham! played, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Local Talent
Some Chinese artists, including Faye Wong, charge prices comparable with the Eagles, Hede said. Tickets for Wong’s Shanghai concerts in November cost as much as 2,500 yuan, while the cheapest seats were 300 yuan and 500 yuan, according to the Shanghai Cultural Information website.
That some consumers can pay such prices is partly a reflection of China’s wealth gap. China’s Gini coefficient, an income-distribution gauge used by economists, has climbed to almost 0.5 from less than 0.3 a quarter century ago, according to Li Shi, a School of Economics and Business professor at Beijing Normal University. The measure ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 meaning total equality.
Reversing the widening income gap is one of China’s top economic priorities, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said in a state- of-the-nation speech this week.
‘Crap Shoot’
Whether a China show makes money for a Western act is a “crap shoot,” because prices make it hard to fill venues, said Archie Hamilton, managing director of Split Works, a Beijing-and Shanghai-based concert promotion company.
“It’s almost impossible to graft a Western model onto the Chinese economy,” Hamilton said. “The figures don’t add up for big artists because most want more money than the market can bear.”
Performances in China by top Western acts are still rare. For some acts, the motivation is “wrenching open the Bamboo Curtain,” said Jon Campbell. His Toronto-based company YGTwo Productions promotes concerts in China.
“Trips to China are often more about the story of having been to China, or, in the case of someone like the Stones, who were trying to get to China since the ‘70s, or Eagles, planting the flag in the rare spot where none has been planted before,’’ said Campbell, who lived in China for 10 years.
Worth the Money
Larry Solters, a spokesman for the Eagles, declined to comment. Hede at Live Nation said the first tour is a ‘‘stepping stone’’ for the band to build its China audience.
In addition to ticket-price economics, there are cultural issues in China, where more than 90 percent of adults haven’t been to a live performance of popular music, Hamilton said. Even those who can afford tickets need to be convinced it’s worth the money, he said.
‘‘Getting kids into live venues is the first step, because that’s not part of the cultural marketplace,” Hamilton said.
That may explain why Wang’s inability to afford tickets doesn’t diminish his love for the band.
“I never thought they’d come to China, so I never really hoped I’d have a chance to see them in person,” Wang said. “Anyway, I can watch them at home on DVD.”
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net; Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page