Concert Ticket Prices Are Insane, and It Will Likely Stay That Way
Concert ticket prices are too damn high, and they’re only getting higher. Is there a ceiling? Or an end in sight?
This recent piece from Consequence does an excellent job of laying out where we are, how we got here, and where we go from here. Author Wren Graves starts by giving a few eye-opening examples of the effect inflation has on ticket prices in contrast to the reality of the current market. In 1965, a ticket to see the The Beatles stateside ran you about $3.50. That’s $31 in today’s dollars. Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumors Tour in ’77? 9 bucks then, about $45 today.
Stevie Nicks is touring with Billy Joel this summer. The pair are co-headlining Gillette Stadium in September. I just looked, and a single ticket in the Stadium nosebleeds is running around $350. That’s substantially more than $45.
What exactly is going on here? There are myriad factors, of course, but the first to consider is Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on the market. This is nothing new, mind you: Pearl Jam recognized this problem almost 30 years ago and attempted to do something about it. And Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model has been the subject of much discussion as of late, with artists like Bruce Springsteen embracing it and catching hell from his fans on one side, and artists like Rage Against The Machine and The Cure fighting for their fans on the other side.
And then there’s COVID-19. Consumers are being told to give the market time to adjust to pre-pandemic levels. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. On the contrary, everything from concert tickets to eggs has gotten more expensive and stayed more expensive, while the cost to produce these items has not. Corporations have a built-in excuse to keep consumer goods expensive, and consumers aren’t doing enough to push back.
Concert Ticket Prices Are Insane, and It Will Likely Stay That Way
So if we can’t get a consensus from consumers or even the artists themselves on how to solve this problem of skyrocketing concert ticket prices, what’s the average concertgoer to do?
Two things come to mind, and while they’re not direct fixes, they are ways we can take some of the power back. First, take full advantage of freebees. I can speak from experience as the Program Director of ROCK 92.9: I’m doing everything I can to get as many free concert tickets as possible to give away to listeners. I know you want to see shows, and I know they’re too damn expensive. So take advantage of us. Enter to win tickets–all the tickets–every chance you get.
Then, start to reassess your relationship with live music. It is really worth your while to blow your entire annual concert budget on Springsteen tickets? Or would you get more bang for your buck by choosing a show a month at a local venue to check out? When choose that path, everyone wins. Your bank account wins. The local venue–who is likely still struggling post-pandemic–wins. The artist wins. And you win, because your dollar not only has more impact, but you get the bonus of a new favorite artist.
It sucks that big concerts cost big money nowadays, more than ever. But I’d argue our dollars have more power than they ever have before. Don’t forget that.