Anvil’s Steve ”Lips” Kudlow recently had a conversation with Metal Voice Podcast, where he talked about the overpriced tickets to the concerts, especially to bands like AC/DC or Metallica.
During the interview, Anvil’s mastermind explained:
”It’s all about the merchandise. It’s all about t-shirts. I could give a rat’s a*s whether the record company is giving me money or not, I make all my money from merchandising and playing live.
”That’s how you do it. It’s the only way to do it. It’s the way all the bands do it including the biggest bands in the world.
”Why do you think Metallica have pop-up shops before they go play? And what’s a pop-up shop? That’s so that they can sell their merchandise before the show because at the show, it’s double the price because they have to split all the take to the promoter.”
Steve ”Lips” continued:
“Now, let’s say they’re hiring Metallica for the night, it costs the promoter a million bucks. Well, it cost Metallica a million dollars to put the show on because they’ve got like 180 f**king roadies and 18 18-wheeler trucks, and it takes 24 hours to set up a f**king stage. So yeah, no kidding, it costs a lot of money. That’s the way it works.”
“Or with AC/DC, they manufacture the horns, and they sell them for 15-20 bucks, and they cost 50 cents (to manufacture). And that’s how AC/DC…pretty much anybody who walks into that show buys a pair of those horns, and they make all the money from the merchandise.
”That’s their own pocket money. They still walk out with a few hundred thousand dollars each.”