The ticket prices for The Beatles 1964 tour generally ranged from 3-5 dollars, or 22-37
dollars today, which were standard ticket price levels for the top performers of the
time. Given the hold that rock-n-roll had on the youth of the time, their spending ability,
and the power of the Beatles music in their lives, the promoters could have probably charged
double and still fill the seats. But it was all so new and the territory so unknown, that
most decided not to risk it and stayed with the ticket prices proven to work up until
that point. The Beatles left America with over 7 point 5 million dollars in today’s
value, earned in just about one month’s time, and left behind many happy concert promoters
scratching their heads and asking “what just happened, and where do we go from here?”.
What happened, was an unprecedented rise in the interest in music by the new generations,
which transcended entertainment and pure enjoyment, and became a way of life where music played
an integral role. Where we were headed, was the new era where the acts leading the way,
following the Beatles boom, would become more numerous and more diverse, and their audiences
greater in number then ever before, challenging the live music industry and pushing it to
the new levels, technologically, organizationally, and business wise.
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Uriah Heep,
Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, in the decade that followed, now well aware of
the power of the live shows to make or break the band, worked on their live performance
and appeal with as much dedication, creativity, and care as on their recordings. They greatly
widened the scope, the demands, and the reach of the live music business and technology,
and the industry grew with their tours and their fans, wiser for the Beatles experience.
Gone were the Beatles’ 100-watt amps, replaced by the stacks of speakers and amps packing
tens of thousands of watts. Not an ideal solution sonic quality wise, but progress in the right
direction nevertheless.
Plus, the top acts’ managers, aware of the crucial importance of the PA system to the
success of their artists, stopped entrusting the responsibility for the sound system to
the promoters, and started carrying their own, designed and created for their tours,
charging the promoters for it as a recoupable fee. The practice still prevalent in the live
music industry at that level today.
The ticket prices rose from 3-5 dollars in the 1960s, to 8-13 dollar range in the 1970s,