Turns out most of it goes to the talent. Of the average $55.65 price tag for concert tickets for Live Nation shows in North America, $34-47 dollars goes to the artist. That's an average of 74%. For international shows, both the ticket prices (average price $54.30) and talent cut (average of 55%) go down a little.
Take a gander at the Digital Music News posting for the complete anatomy of Live Nation concert tickets. Artists making money is a great thing, but with Live Nation shows we're only talking about really big name acts. It's hard not to see this as a rich-getting-richer scenario. As for LiveNation, they're only taking in $3-10 profit per tickets it's hard to imagine that they can be profitable, especially at the grand scale at which they operate.
The Digital Music News piece also presents data on total attendance for 2009 and estimations for 2010. As one can expect from all the canceled summer tours, the projected numbers for 2010 are considerably lower than those of the previous year.
Concerned about the struggles their core business is facing of late, the LA Times music blog reported that a “kinder, gentler LiveNation" plans to adjust ticket pricing schemes in an effort to offer more affordable options fro concert goers.
Frankly, that sounds more desperate than it does kind and gentle.
