This is the Friends Vistory Debating Society. I am John Bachelors. The price of entertainment

after the pandemic, live entertainment. Jeff Bliss is specific watch. He is also the director of

Photography for Cali Magazine and introducing us to the unusual price hikes in live performance,

especially of musicians, famous musicians, touring musicians, and why? Why are these prices so

steep? I've read a few of them from Madison Square Garden, but that's the big town. What about

California? Jeff, a very good evening to LA and San Francisco. We can agree that those are big

towns. Everything in between is paradise. You're in California. Why the high price of tickets?

Was this there before the pandemic? Was it like this in 2019? Good evening to you.

You need new John. There was always this feeling that prices were creeping up, but it seemed slow.

Then the pandemic hit and we were all locked away. Musical acts and their crews and their

companies had to sit. They were iced for a while. When we came out of the lockdowns, there was

this pen-up demand, like crazy. People couldn't get enough. You saw a lot of concerts being sold out

that perhaps would have been sold out before the pandemic began. On top of that, you have a lot of

people that, as I said, this business of making music and producing music had this pen-up

need to get out there and make some money. It was two things wanting the same thing and meeting

in the middle. We're looking at it. It's probably 30 to 40 percent more expensive today than it

was pre-pandemic. Some of it as reflect the rising costs of gas and fuel, the increased costs of

musical equipment and other items that take bands to hit the road. You're seeing this across the

board and people are really shocked at how much it costs. For some shows, there's always this

common refrain. I'm going to need a second or third mortgage to go to that show or see my favorite

artist. You actually have a big chunk of the live music industry that are getting older and saying,

hey, look, I don't know how many more tours I'll be able to do. I'm going to jack it up, make

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