CandaceS said:

Because it is Prince who has an amazing catalog. The only reason everyone else justifies their ticket price is "the huge production" which is usually to make up for their lack of... other stuff.

Cinnie said:

AMEN!!! Prince and his bands actually PLAY live music for three hours. He doesn't need smoke and mirrors to distract the audience. If I want to see a huge production, I will go to a musical. At a concert, I want to hear amazing LIVE music and watch REAL musicians perform it. Madonna, Janet, Britney they all focus more on the production than the music and singing because musically they are very limited live performers.

bellanoche said:

yeah but he RARELY plays a full song anymore on arena tour. i'm wouldn't pay $300 dollars to hear only 30secs of each song.

sosgemini said:

@ sosgemini & LiveToTell86


The Vegas tickets were $125, which were less expensive than most shows. He may not play stadiums, but he sold out the All State Arena in Chicago for five nights the last time he was here. There was a line six blocks long to see him at First Avenune in MPLS in 2007 to see the last of his three soldout shows in one day; his Vegas run was hugely successful; he played 21 Nights at the O2 in London. But you're right, he's not a draw any more.

Some of you guys have such disdain for Prince these days that your comments are so biased that it appears you aren't even thinking about what you are typing, let alone checking facts.

However, you're right, it is all relative I guess because I have yet to buy a Prince album that only has "two good tracks" as you say. Then again, what do I know.

I don't have disdain for Prince, I just mean that the "intimate setting and caring about the fans" is not an argument, everyone charges the most they can. The O2 run was successful, but if it wasn't for the 31.21 pounds tickets, it wouldn't have been. And Prince's last proper European tour was in 2002 while Madonna toured Europe 5 times in the 2000s and it was all above 10,000 seated venues in the first half and almost completely 40-50k stadiums.

It's not like Madonna couldn't say "I want to play a tour in intimate venues", she actually said it a couple of years ago, but the tour management would never allow her that when she's selling millions of tickets on a tour. My point is, this is business in the highest order and it's not about what the most hardcore fans want.

LiveToTell86 said:

I know. I got your point. Clearly Prince is a has-been who cannot draw past his hardcore fanbase. Most likely the tickets for his next show will be BOGO.

Look, I get that Madonna has a different fanbase than Prince and that it is "business." However, I disagree with the "everyone charges as much as they can" theory. It just is not an absolute in Prince's case or many others for that matter.

On another note, I know isthisdadawn doesn't want to make this a racial issue, but race definitely factors into this equation ,in part, with regard to the artist and audience, but I will not get into that. The topic of black artists and stadium shows has been discussed on this site before. True critical analysis of this topic will uncover that deep-seated racial issues are present but as I said, I won't get into it. At the end of the day, Elvis will always be the King, the Beatles will be the greatest band of all time followed by U2, and Madonna will be selling out stadiums with $300 a pop tickets.

Touring is where it's at.Artists can't be lazy anymore,sitting around expecting their CD sales to keep them wealthy.They gotta get out there and WORK.Madonna truly understands this,she's done four tours in this decade alone.

Prince grossed $87 million from the Musicology tour and $22 million from 21 Nights. That's over $109 million from 117 shows, or almost $1 million per show.

With those numbers, had he toured like the others, he'd be way up on the list.