TED Radio Hour

We live in a society full of people who are obsessed with making sure that prices are right and supply meets demand. And then there's the live-music business. Concert tickets are often too cheap, and the supply is too limited. Scalpers are the proof: If tickets were more expensive to begin with, or if venues were bigger, scalpers wouldn't be able to charge more than face value. On today's show, we talk to Kid Rock about how he's trying to cut scalpers out of the business — and still sell cheap tickets to his shows. For More: See Adam Davidson's New York Times Magazine column, How Much Is Michael Bolton Worth to You? Read Josh Baron and Dean Budnick's book: Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped and economist Pascal Courty's many papers on the topic.