“The End of an Era: Springsteen Fan Magazine Closes After Ticket Flap”
NEW YORK (AP) — A magazine and website that has served Bruce Springsteen fans for 43 years is shutting down, and its editor is writing that he is disillusioned with the debate over ticket prices for their hero’s current tour.
Backstreets had been an unusually solid publication, placing journalistic rigor on its writing and photography while leaving no doubt about its fan worship.
But complaints of high ticket prices have left people there “disheartened, dejected and yes, disillusioned,” wrote publisher Christopher Phillips late last week in a post announcing the closure.
“Disappointment is a common emotion among hardcore fans in the Backstreets community,” he wrote. Phillips did not immediately respond with a request for comment.
Springsteen manager Jon Landau said: “We are very saddened to hear the news of Backstreet’s closure and would like to thank Chris Phillips for his 30 years of service on behalf of all Springsteen fans. “
When tickets first went on sale last summer, there was an uproar among some Springsteen fans, particularly over Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which has seen tickets skyrocket to $5,000 or more when demand is high. At a congressional hearing last month after the fiasco over Ticketmaster’s handling of Taylor Swift tour tickets, US Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana suggested that big artists like Springsteen and Swift should demand fee caps.
Springsteen’s team defended the prices as in line with what many of his peers are charging today. Like many artists, he gets annoyed when unscrupulous ticket brokers – not the musicians – profit from high surcharges.
Ticketmaster has said that the vast majority of fans were able to purchase tickets at face value, which averaged $202. The tour kicked off February 1 in Tampa, Florida.
Many Springsteen fans have followed him for decades, appreciating his working-class New Jersey roots and remembering when you could get a ticket to a four-hour, high-energy show on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour in 1978 for $7.50.
This is no longer the reality. Springsteen has not backed down, telling Rolling Stone magazine that fans who are unhappy with the price after watching the show can get their money back.
“They certainly don’t like being the poster child for high ticket prices,” he told the magazine, but said you have to make your own decisions and do your best.”
Phillips wrote that many Backstreets readers have lost interest because they cannot afford to go to the show.
He said he has not given up being a fan of Springsteen’s music, and neither should others.
“We just knew we couldn’t cover this tour with the panache and determination we’ve worked with uninterruptedly since 1980,” he wrote. “That determination came with an accelerating sense that we were reaching the end of an era.”
David Bauder, The Associated Press
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