“How much does it cost to see a live performance in Los Angeles?” asks Mike Boehm in Wednesday’s (7/6) Los Angeles Times. “Increasingly, the answer is ‘it depends.’ … Taking its cue from the airline industry, more arts groups are adopting dynamic pricing, in which the cost of a theater or concert ticket escalates for hot-selling shows, while slack demand brings bargains. The concept, which Ticketmaster will soon be using at pop concerts too, has arrived in a big way on the L.A. scene with its adoption by Center Theatre Group. … It’s not clear who first tried the concept in the nonprofit arts world, where the decision to go with dynamic pricing can be far more fraught, given the fact that the nonprofits’ mission is not to maximize earnings but to stay solvent while serving their community. Experts say Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Chicago Symphony were among the early nonprofit users during the early 2000s. … The Los Angeles Philharmonic stuck a toe in the water this season, applying dynamic pricing to ‘a handful’ of concerts, spokeswoman Sophie Jefferies said. Although ‘it’s something we’re watching and monitoring,’ she added that it’s not being adopted as a business model.” Click here to read Symphony Managing Editor Jennifer Melick’s November-December 2010 article about orchestras experimenting with new ticket pricing models.
Posted July 6, 2011
