The feeling of seeing your favorite artist live in person is an unforgettable experience for many music fans. However, you may have noticed it is extremely difficult to find concert tickets for a reasonable price in the past few years. With big companies like Ticketmaster and ticket resellers taking over the industry, prices have quickly spiraled out of control. High prices have made concerts inaccessible for a lot of people; this could lead to a major pushback for concerts. No longer will fans be able to spend a night seeing their favorite artist live.
One of the first big times we saw this problem with pricing was with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour starting in 2023. Due to the extremely high demand, fans were paying hundreds to thousands of dollars on tickets as ticket resellers overtook the original ticket prices. It was very disappointing to see fans paying hundreds of dollars just for one concert despite the extraordinary demand. So how did tickets get this out of control?
A main cause of this problem is dynamic pricing, a type of pricing where the prices of tickets can increase or decrease in real time based on the number of people waiting in the queue. This has caused prices to soar out of control for concerts with high demand; like The Eras Tour. With the growth of streaming services in replace for physical music, many artists have lost a significant amount of their income and concerts have become their main source of income. Although dynamic pricing can be negotiated and turned off, many artists rely on that income.
There has been growing controversy on whether artists should turn off this dynamic pricing or not. Recently, there has been discourse online when Harry Styles opted to keep dynamic pricing, and fans were forced to pay thousands of dollars on tickets. On the other hand, other artists such as Olivia Dean and Noah Khan have fought to make sure dynamic pricing is turned off and tickets are only sold at their face value. Although it’s understandable that artists need to sell tickets for more to make up for their revenue loss, it’s still unfair for the fans who then must pay extra. It’s difficult to see a way for both parties to win in this situation.
To put into perspective, research shows that since 1990, ticket prices have increased by 450%. In 1964, the average price of a Beatles ticket was around $2 to $6. If you account for inflation, this would be $19 to $60 today. Then, if we compare this to the eras tour which had a similar popularity, average ticket prices were up to $250. It’s undoubtable that there has been a jump in prices.
Additionally, with the growth of social media, concerts have become more of a luxury experience. Seeing celebrities and influencers posting pictures and videos of concerts they are able to go to makes viewers feel more inclined to want to go to these same concerts. This fear of missing out can be very damaging for the future of concerts, turning the once magical experience into an opportunity for a good Instagram post. Theres also the problem of concert attendees being consumed by getting the perfect videos instead of really enjoying the music. Social media has really taken away the true meaning of concerts: to build community and appreciate music.
Overall, concerts were made to build a fun community and bring appreciation towards live music. However, it seems recently concerts have lost this meaning and feel more like a cash grab. With high ticket pricing and social media continuing to grow it feels the death of going to concerts in indefinite. It seems currently there are no great solutions for both artists and fans to win in this situation. Hopefully soon there will be a solution to make concerts an accessible experience for everyone.
