Lately it seems that everything Miley Cyrus does is a calculated move to shed her child star status and be taken seriously as an adult pop artist. As she prepares to embark on her 2014 tour, sales for Miley Cyrus tickets suggests that actual demand is struggling to keep pace with her media coverage. That’s not to say that Bangerz won’t be a big money-maker–it will, but based on prices and available inventory on the primary and secondary market, it’s unlikely she’ll sell out as many as half of her shows shows.
As Miley has matured into an adult performer, her per-concert gross sales have climbed steadily. Her first tour in 2007, Best of Both Worlds, grossed $54 million over 70 stops, or a little over $771,000 per show. In 2009, her Wonder World Tour had 56 stops and grossed $67.1 million, or $1.2 million per show. In 2011, the Gypsy Heart Tour–which was primarily an international tour– grossed over $26 million on her 21 stops, for an average of over $1.24m per stop. With 60 stops on Miley’s upcoming Bangerz tour and tickets ranging from $76 to $107 dollars face, Bangerz has been set up to gross over $100 million.
While not quite One Direction status, $100 million is a significant threshold for any artist, as it means you’re filling 20,000-person venues across the country. In order for Miley to actually fill all the seats, however, there are a lot of tickets still to sell in the primary market. This is in part the result of overly aggressive pricing for her upper-level seats. As a point of comparison, 300-level Lady Gaga tickets at the Verizon Center are priced at $68 on the primary market while the same seats for Miley Cyrus tickets are priced at $86. A look at this Verizon Center seating chart provides a good overview of the different levels and what’s available. The primary pricing discrepancy is common at nearly every stop on their respective tours, and as a result there are a lot more unsold tickets available for Miley. While the Verizon show is still three months away, there is a lot of work to be done if they’re going to fill all those seats via the primary market, and come close to hitting the $100 million mark.
The secondary market will make that an even harder battle as there are currently over 150,000 tickets available for the tour. The tour has an average price of $201 per show on the secondary market and on most nights you can get in for under $50, which means that tickets in the upper levels are selling for under face price. There are an average of 4,378 tickets for each show, which is a large percentage for a 20,000 person venue. For Gaga, there are 86,000 Lady Gaga tickets available on the secondary market for her upcoming tour ARTPOP Ball Tour, and each show has an average of 2,391 tickets for sale. The average secondary price for those tickets is $269, which is in part boosted by her seven-night run at Roseland Ballroom. For Miley, the glut of secondary market inventory will make it even harder for primary tickets to sell out. Brokers also clearly thought that her media ubiquity would translate to easy profits, but instead, in some cities they’ll be hoping just to get their money back. Given that Miley’s fans have been raised on the secondary market, they may not even come across Ticketmaster when they’re looking for tickets, even in markets where
With so many tickets available in both the primary and secondary market for Miley Cyrus, prices on the secondary market should decline in the coming days and weeks as the tour gets underway. Gaga and Miley are an interesting comparison, as one is an established adult performer with legions of fans so loyal they even have their own name: Little Monsters. Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, is still getting her sea legs as an adult entertainer. However, in the music business, you have to strike while the iron is hot, and there’s no one getting more media attention these days than Miley. Of course, her promoters are keenly aware of this and when they were setting prices for the tour, their goal was to be as aggressive as possible in maximizing revenue to make sure no money is left on the table. In addition to regular tickets, Miley Cyrus VIP tickets are also amongst the most expensive of any of the current tours, going for almost $1,000. Lady Gaga’s pricing, on the other hand, seems to be taking a longer-term view and is focused on providing access to as many of her fans as possible as opposed to wringing out every last dollar on the current tour.
While it may seem that there’s no middle ground between these two approaches, Katy Perry offers an interesting example. Like Cyrus, Perry launched her career under a different name in 2001 as Katy Hudson. Her first album was a collection of gospel songs that flopped. She then floundered for several years before the release of her very un-gospel “I Kissed A Girl” in 2007. She’s since gone on receive 11 Grammy nominations and was named Billboard’s woman of the year last year. For her latest Prismatic World Tour, which will start in May, Katy Perry tickets will be deliberately affordable. While she may not be pricing as low as Kid Rock did last summer when he set ticket prices at $20, Perry’s stated goal is to ‘sell out every show’. Despite the attention she’s garnering, that’s something that Miley Cyrus may not do on the biggest tour of her post-Hannah Montana career.
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