Kid Rock recently announced his plans for his summer tour with ZZ Top. All tickets will be $20 and the first 2 rows will not be for sale because, in a move originally pioneered by Jesus “the last shall be first and the first shall be last” Christ, Kid Rock wants to be able to surprise those folks of humble means in the back of the crowd with an upgrade to the best seats in the house.
The Kid said the reason for these prices is because “Athletes and musicians make astronomical amounts of money… People get paid $100 million to throw a baseball! Shouldn’t we all take less and pass some of that money onto others? Think about firefighters, teachers and policemen. We should celebrate people that are intellectually smart and trying to make this world a better place.”
First, let’s dispense with a few elephants in the room:
- Kid Rock’s music bites it.
- Kid Rock is perhaps the highest (or second highest if you count Ted Nugent) profile Republican rocker, but he is also pro-choice and supports gay rights, and in the article he comes off like a right leaning moderate. I’m sure his political views rub many people the wrong way; many of them bug me too. But let’s keep the focus of this discussion on the economics issues here, and the motivation behind them.
Kid Rock’s persona has always been of the incorrigible Budweiser-drinking, high school delinquent with a heart of gold. Is he actually putting his money where his mouth is? Or is this just a clever yet well worn business move in which he gets to use the carefully crafted brand that he has developed over the years to increase sales through volume? I think it’s probably a little of both and even if he is doing this for the most cynical reasons, the fact remains that Kid Rock fans get to see him for what I consider to be a very fair ticket price. If this works, do you think it might cause others to lower their ticket prices as well? I asked this a while ago, but who would you shell out the most to see live? Who seems like a good value at $20?
