Going to a concert used to feel like something almost anyone could save enough money for. Many would wait for their favorite artists and singers to announce tour dates, and hope that they could grab some tickets before they sold out. Today, buying concert tickets feels more stressful and feels like you’re fighting for them. The cost of tickets for major singers and artists concerts in the past couple years have skyrocketed.
One major reason why tickets are far more expensive now is demand. According to contactmusic.com, Drake sold out an entire stadium of 135,000 tickets in minutes, showing how many people fight for the same seats. When demand gets this high, ticket prices go up a lot drastically. According to Forbes, the average ticket price for one of Taylor Swift’s tours was around $239 in 2023, and some tickets were being resold for over $1,000. These numbers show how much prices can jump when so many fans want the same tickets.
“I tried to buy a couple tickets to a Bruno Mars concert for my friends and I but they were being resold for way too much,” said freshman Bill Sui.
Production and staffing costs are another major factor. Popular concerts today include top of the line venues, bright flashing lights, fireworks, and smoke cannons. Although they look great and make the show much better, they are very expensive to operate. For example, a major Taylor Swift concert can cost over $2 million to produce. Unlike in the past, artists now have larger crews and more advanced equipment to manage, including travel, staff, security, and high tech systems. All of these costs get added into the ticket price so the event can still be profitable.
Since live music events and concerts are so profitable and bring in so much money, ticket prices are kept high. Major and popular tours can make up to a couple hundred million dollars in total revenue. Stadiums, ticket companies, and promotion brands also take a cut of the profits earned from the event. According to Hypebot, ticketing fees now account for about 28% of the ticket’s price, 30% goes to staging costs. The remaining money is divided between the artist, who usually gets 85%, and the promoter or venue, which takes 15%. After the artists pay their expenses, they are left with only a small profit from each ticket sold.
One huge problem in the live music event space is reselling tickets. According to Forbes, many tickets are bought by resellers, who use bots to quickly buy thousands of tickets the moment they release before people can get any. Ticket platforms typically monitor for suspicious activity and can cancel orders or ban accounts if bots are detected. If caught botting, you can face fines or other penalties. Enforcement like this is often difficult, so the problem continues. These tickets are resold online for double or even triple the amount of the original ticket price. This makes it extremely hard for fans to afford seats, without paying insane prices. When the tickets you want are being sold for extreme prices, it makes concerts feel out of reach for a lot of people.
