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Economics in our thoughts
We are economic beings, and much of our own economics happens between our ears
Picture your favourite artist or band, performing your favourite song, live on stage. Now, how much more would you be prepared to pay for actually being there, rather than watching a video of the concert? If you are like most people, market prices will tell us the answer. Almost everyone will pay a lot more for a ticket to see a live performance, than to buy (let alone see) a recording — often ten or even twentyfold. Nothing unusual about this. But would you also be prepared to pay more to see the live concert, projected onto a cinema screen than for a movie of the concert?
That is a different affair. Livestreaming of performances is a now a thing. Concerts and shows are beamed to cinemas all over the world, so tens of thousands more can join in with the fun. And while tickets for such events tend to sell for a small fraction of what you’d pay on average for the real thing, they are typically 50% to 100% more expensive than an ordinary film screening.
Live is better
Now, as veteran DJ Annie Nightingale (she has been a presenter on Radio 1, the BBC’s pop and rock station, for more than 49 years) said on the subject earlier this week, you cannot replicate the experience of your clothes…
