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Audrey Rose of Nashua could be the poster child for disgruntled concertgoers everywhere.

Each week she eyes e-mails from Ticketmaster.com advertising new concerts on tour, but she has yet to buy one ticket this year

Why?

“It’s just too damn expensive,” said Rose, a 40-year-old paralegal and part-time disc jockey, who last year spent close to $300 on concert tickets.

“They all seem to be priced higher than they’ve ever been,” she said.

Rose represents a significant number of music fans who are being priced out of the concert loop because they just aren’t willing to pay the kind of money big-name artists are asking.

The result?

A notable slowdown in ticket sales — especially at outdoor amphitheaters — is causing some promoters to cancel shows and some acts to scale back to smaller venues.

But despite the drop in individual ticket sales, a just-released report on the concert industry shows gross revenues are bigger than ever.

It’s fairly simple math, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar, a California-based weekly magazine that tracks the concert industry.

“How do you gross record revenues with fewer people buying tickets? The answer is ticket prices. As an industry, you can’t think of that as a healthy situation,” Bongiovanni told the New Hampshire Sunday News.

Sweet and sour spring

Pollstar’s mid-year business analysis, released Friday, shows things “for reasons that are still unclear,” soured in mid-April and have been sluggish since.

Although nobody’s willing to point fingers, Bongiovanni said it may be that first-quarter sales were so promising, agents were over-optimistic in setting artist guarantees — the percentage they demand, per show — as well as ticket prices and venue sizes for summer tours.

He said promoters around the country began reporting sales off anywhere from 15 to 50 percent.

The report shows that, despite a 2 percent drop in the number of tickets sold over last year, the industry’s gross revenues are still up by 11 percent.

Top acts, top money

Between January and June, the Top 50 North American touring acts grossed a record $753.5 million — that’s $75.5 million more than this time last year, said Bongiovanni.

The main reason is the hike in ticket prices, on average up nearly $7, to about $59, over last year’s average ticket. The jump in price for the previous year was only about $1.

“Our ranking is done by dollars, so it’s going to favor the artists who can charge more for tickets,” Bongiovanni said. “Younger artists tend to keep with lower ticket prices and don’t generate quite as much money.”

Topping the Top 50 grossing tour list: Prince, whose Musicology Tour has so far yielded more than $45 million.

He will be at Boston’s Fleet Center for three shows, Aug. 17-19.

A ‘Prince’-ly deal

Industry experts say Prince has used a marketing strategy that, in these uncertain times, has not only given fans more bang for their buck, but boosted his CD sales as well.

He’s incorporated the price of a CD with every ticket sold, so fans get a copy of “Musicology” at the venue door. By the time he wraps up the 90-stop tour, he is on track to gross $100 million — and without a radio hit in years.

“Acts that sell lots of concert tickets are not the ones that sell records,” Bongiovanni said. “Baby-boomer bands that seem to be the heart of the concert business — the Stones, Aerosmith — are the big-dollar acts.”

Beyond Prince, the top-five grossing acts based on Pollstar’s numbers are Madonna, Celine Dion, Bette Midler and Rod Stewart — all time-worn performers who, generally speaking, can name their price for tickets because their fan base can afford to pay it, he said.

The question emerging, however, is how much longer will they put up with the rising cost of a two-hour musical flashback?

Promoter exits stage

Mike Thurston, owner of T&K Productions in Auburn, Maine, which for 11 years booked acts in venues throughout New England, said the concert business is too risky at the moment.

As a result, he’s turned his focus from promoting acts to acting as an agent for bands.

“There’s a lack of interest from the general public. Who wants to pay $55 to $75 a ticket to get a good seat? Plus, you’ve got to take your wife or girlfriend, and now your talking $110 to $125 to stand in a line that’s a mile long,” he said.

“Ticket prices have gone through the ceiling, and so has the price of artists. It kills you (as a promoter),” he said.

In this high-dollar climate, all it would take to destroy his business would be to book one act that doesn’t sell out, he said.

Climbing ticket prices

According to one study, ticket prices have far outpaced the rate of inflation since 1996.

Alan B. Krueger is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University and editor of The Journal of Economic Perspective. He recently published a report that showed how, from 1996 to 2001, the average ticket price soared 62 percent.

In contrast, the Consumer Price Index increased just 13 percent and the price of sporting events, movies and theater rose 24 percent.

Krueger stated in a New York Times article last month that “the average price to see Billy Joel and Elton John in concert, for example, jumped from $44 when they toured in 1995 to $110 this year. The best seats rose even more: to $175 from $50. The reasons for this extraordinary growth are debatable.”

Meadowbrook losses?


Meadowbrook Farm's new food court area is part of a $500,000 improvement program which has seen additional parking added, boosting the Gilford concert venue's seating capacity to 6,000. (ROGER AMSDEN PHOTO)
Managers at Meadowbrook Musical Arts Center in Gilford say they expect to lose money on some of the 35 shows lined up for this summer.

General manager R.J. Harding wonders if Meadowbrook didn’t “saturate ourselves here with 35 shows.”

He said Meadowbrook put on 31 concerts last year and had a really strong season, so it seemed as though the market could sustain 35.

Right now there are still plenty of tickets available for a July 21 show featuring hybrid hip-hop reggae-rockers 311 with Philly rappers the Roots, as well as ’70s shock-rocker Alice Cooper on July 29 and nostalgic crooner Tony Bennett on August 14.

“We’re going to take some hits,” Harding said. “I don’t know if the hit would be less by canceling. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

Outdoor angst?

According to industry observers amphitheaters like are seeing slower sales than indoor venues, forcing many to slash ticket prices for the remainder of the season.

Pollstar, in its mid-year report, said amphitheater business is off this year by 35 percent.

“Seems like too big of a drop off,” said Bongiovanni. “Maybe all the big acts are touring later, and the early part of the season was very soft. It may be a scheduling issue. But I tend to doubt that. It may ultimately be a reaction to paying a hefty price to sit on a lawn, especially by an older crowd who would prefer a fixed seat.”

Meadowbrook promoter Joe Fletcher of Fletcher Presents has been booking the acts for Meadowbrook as well as other venues around the country and has handled headliners such as Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan, and James Brown.

Boomer priorities

Fletcher agrees that baby boomers may be less inclined to sit outside in the weather or make an hour- or two-hour drive to sit on a blanket — especially with fluctuating gas prices.

But he also suspects people are increasingly reluctant to spend money on nonessential items like concert tickets because they are nervous about the future.

“I talk to people all over the country every day, and they’re definitely down nationally,” Fletcher said. “Every day I’m seeing different tours cancel.”

He said this month alone David Bowie canceled dates and Kiss canceled out on the West Coast. In prior years, Kiss would easily draw a crowd of 15,000. At the White River Amphitheater in Seattle, they had only sold 2,400 tickets before the show was suddenly canceled a couple of weeks ago.

“Yikes!,” said Fletcher of the weak showing by Kiss fans.

Nostalgia overload

Bongiovanni points out that Kiss is a perfect example of how some nostalgic acts are suffering this year.

“Last year they toured with a Aerosmith, a band that continues to do well and is still making some new music. In fact, Aerosmith ranked nine out of the Top 10 grossing acts on our list. Could it be fans just aren’t willing to pay more for the same show they saw last year — minus Aerosmith?”

Kiss is still on for Friday at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Mass., booked along with fellow retro-rockers, Poison.

Fleetwood Mac sold 9,000 tickets for a June 22 concert at a 19,500-capacity amphitheater in California. The band has canceled some shows because of slow sales.

Keep on pushing

Harding, like many of his colleagues, suspects the concert industry has pushed prices too high while saturating the market with too many acts. As artists are jacking-up ticket prices in order to make more money, venues have had to up prices to compensate, said Harding.

“They (artists) just keep pushing the envelope to see how much fans will pay. The industry needs to snap back to reality. It’s been a long time coming,” he said.

Jason Perry, who handles sales and marketing for the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, said sales have been on track so far this year.

“Fortunately for us, knock on wood, we’ve been pretty on target with everything that has come into the building,” he said.

Cancellations haven’t been a big problem, said Perry, although the Crusty Demons Global Assault BMX stunt tour, which was supposed to come to the Verizon Wednesday, canceled out its remaining summer tour dates, including Manchester.

Divas in distress?

And MTV’s favorite newlywed Jessica Simpson, who canceled her recent Verizon stop along with a few others, citing a kidney infection, will not be rescheduling.

Insiders speculate lack of sales has been the true malady behind missed concerts by Simpson and her pop peers — Britney Spears’ scrapped U.S. tour (bum knee), Christina Aguilera’s scrapped U.S. tour (strained vocal chords) and Marc Anthony’s scrapped U.S. tour (too busy working on his new album).

Bongiovanni called the cancellation of the two-day alternative rock festival, the Lollapalooza tour, the epitome of the ticket sales slump phenomenon.

Organizers of the 2004 festival, which had booked Morrissey, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips and the String Cheese Incident and others to play this month, were refreshingly honest in citing poor ticket sales as the culprit.

In a prepared statement, Lollapalooza co-organizer Perry Farrell called the current concert climate the “most ferocious musical storm in history,” and pointed to a weak summer season, falling album sales and illegal downloading of music off the Internet.

Farrell added: “We were taking on huge financial losses. . . . Our plight is a true indication of the general health of the touring industry, and it is across musical genres.”

Ozzfest, Fleetwood Mac, and the Dead have had disappointing sales, too, according to RollingStone.com.

“Ticket sales are mixed, and in some cases they appear to be substantially off from the past,” Alex Hodges, executive vice president of House of Blues Concerts, told the magazine.

Not just rock

And it’s been reported that the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival recently had to lay off half its staff and make cutbacks after making $600,000 to $900,000 less than expected — the first time since the 1970s that expenditures exceeded revenues.

Even so, there are plenty of concert tours making money.

But because ticket prices are set by the artist, venue managers have to know their customer base well enough to predict if a particular artist will be able to fill seats.

Verizon tickets have sold for an average of about $45 since opening its doors 2½ years ago, says Perry.

“I think you are starting to see concert prices come down,” he said.

A Casino’s luck

Heather Shea, marketing director of the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, also believes fans are resisting high priced tickets.

“I know I personally wouldn’t be able to afford something over $100,” she said.

Shea said the Casino ticket sales for its 57 shows booked through the summer have been equal to last year’s sales. The most expensive tickets at the Casino are $65 on select acts.

“And that’s rare for us,” said Shea.

Tickets for the July 28 B-52s show at Hampton Beach are $36.50. A Beach Boys ticket for August 18 is cheaper yet, at $34.50. And $20 is more than enough to get you a seat for up-and-coming Aussie rock band Jet, playing tonight at the Hampton venue. She says affordable pricing may be a reason the Casino hasn’t seen any downturn in business.

“We may be just lucky, I don’t know,” Shea said.

The sell-outs

Many bands are still playing to sell-out crowds while charging prices ranging from $37 to $164 for tickets.

According to Billboard, artists Dave Matthews Band, O.A.R. (of a revolution...), Prince and Shania Twain played to sell-out crowds last month. Also sold-out was the Bonnaroo Music Festival featuring the Dead, Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio, Bob Dylan, Primus, Ween, Steve Winwood, moe., String Cheese Incident & others.

The long good-bye

On June 25, Billboard reported that Cher has added another dozen shows to the latest extension of her ongoing Farewell Tour, which has already included more than 200 concerts.

Paul Buckley, marketing director for Boston-based radio station The River 92.5 FM, said the market has collided with more shows and higher ticket prices.

“It may be that we’ve maxed out,” Buckley said. “There’s clearly more shows now than ever and that could be meeting up with the economy, just the fact that ticket prices are very high. It will right itself. Maybe it might take a year. Agents and promoters next year may not book as many shows and may reprice,” he said.

The appetite

Pollstar reported that artists making up the Top 100 tours worked more shows in 2003, stepping on stage a total of 5,574 times. That’s up from 5,113 in 2002 and 4,437 in 2001.

The magazine also reported that last year Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band did the year’s top tour with $115.9 million in sales. It was the band’s biggest tour ever, playing to more than 1.6 million fans in North America.

But they also put on more shows than ever, too.

“You’ll notice Springsteen isn’t working this year. In Bruce’s case, he’s smart enough to know if you let a little time go by, the appetite to see you again is going to be that much more intense,” Bongiovanni said.