Lana del Rey’s toned down her media presentation lately. She’s preparing to release Ultraviolence this year, so she may be back. Otherwise, she’s been coming down off her “Young and Beautiful” high. This time last year, she was in Cannes for The Great Gatsby. Now she’s preparing to perform at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding for a six-figure sum. Kim loves “Young and Beautiful,” and Lana “couldn’t say no” to Kanye’s request. I do hope Lana tweaks the lyrics to read, “Young, Kat-Faced, and Beautiful.” Is that mean? I think the change would add a nice, personalized touch to the wedding.

Lana’s also making headlines for her outrageous ticket prices. These actually aren’t “her” prices. These are the sums that people will pay on the second market at places like StubHub. I’m not suggesting that anyone buy tickets from StubHub. I don’t know if that site is safe, but I checked prices for Katy Perry’s tour (the daughter begged) and found they were wayyy too pricey. No way. I wouldn’t ever buy Lana’s even more expensive tickets, but other people are doing it. This article is long, so I cut out a lot of the financial data about other artists like Katy and Gaga:

Pop music’s new power ranking are in and, at least as far as ticket prices are concerned, Lana Del Rey is making a serious charge to the top. According to TiqIQ, the average price for Lana Del Rey tickets on the secondary market are $269.68 for her current tour, making Lana Del Rey the second most expensive female performer in music at the moment — trailing only Beyonce, who is arguably the biggest female star in music today.

However, the current comparison to Beyonce may not be entirely fair, as Beyonce will be co-headlining her upcoming “On the Run” tour with husband Jay-Z, making Jay-Z and Beyonce tickets the most expensive of the current crop of female performers at an average price of $306.22. Perhaps a more accurate comparison would be Beyonce’s “Mrs. Carter Show” solo world tour from last year, when Beyonce tickets were priced at $294.01 on average. This would still keep Lana Del Rey in second position, but there is no denying that she is gaining fast.

In fact, it might be surprising to learn that Lana Del Rey tickets are now priced higher than those of more established female pop powerhouses including Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus. Part of this can be attributed to the relatively rare number of live shows that Lana Del Rey has booked, compared with the long-running massive global tours of her pop diva contemporaries. Lana Del Rey has just eight North American dates remaining on her current tour, followed by five European festival gigs.

The biggest difference between Lana Del Rey and the other artists above is the size of the venue for these concerts. While the big names in pop are touring massive arenas, Lana Del Rey is performing in smaller venues with a smaller quantity of available tickets. The limited availability of tickets is a reason for the increased price of tickets, but compared to artists playing similar venues the demand for Lana Del Rey tickets is clear.

[From Forbes]

This is a smart move on Lana’s part. She plays smaller venues, perhaps out of necessity or perhaps on purpose. She’s created a higher demand for her live performances, which will help convince promoters that she can fill larger venues next time. Lana’s not getting any extra money from secondary market sales, but she’ll gain a lot of benefit from this image manipulation. Isn’t that what pop music is all about?

Photos courtesy of WENN