Many artists like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Harry Styles have all have had amazing musical careers especially in recent years. With the rise in popularity, however, also came the astonishing rise in concert or tour ticket prices.
Musicians make right around a penny every time you listen to their music because of the inflation we faced from COVID in 2019 up until now, so to compensate many haveincreased their ticket prices.The fluctuation of how revenue is generated in the music industry over the last 5 years has left the price of tickets for big concerts comparable to a month’s mortgage payment. And many fans are struggling to keep up.
An example of this would be Ed Sheeran’s ticket pricing in 2018 and his ticket pricing in 2023. In 2018, his Divide Tour tickets ranged from $11.91 to $96.31, however in 2023 his ticket prices ranged from $27 all the way to $939. This drastic change in prices isn’t even the worst.
In 2018, Taylor Swift’s concert tickets ranged from around $40 to $400. In 2023 her tickets were sold for hundreds of dollars, some resell tickets even being over $1,000. With prices as high as that, Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour became the 2nd most expensive concert in 2023. Adele holding the #1 spot for most expensive concert tickets in 2023 with her ongoing Weekends with Adele, $1,011 per ticket not including resell prices.
Though not all concert tickets have as drastically changed in the past few years. Take Beyonce for example, in 2018 her tour with Jay-Z cost anywhere from $189-$449, while her concert last year, 2023, cost anywhere from $139 to $375. So her ticket prices have generally stayed in the same range, however her last concert, October 1, 2023, was invite-only and no-phone policy so not many could attend.
The reason behind this is most likely who determined the ticket prices. Promoters are the ones setting the ticket prices so in other words they are the connection between the act and the venue. If the concert tickets don’t sell well enough to give the artist what they were promised then the Promoters have to compensate for the missing amount. Promoters most likely figured Beyonce had been out of tour for a while so putting a bunch of money on tickets they weren’t sure were going to sell wasn’t a good idea.
The rising prices for concerts don’t only revolve around the ticket itself though. The food and drinks you buy, and any T-shirt or merch the artist is selling before, during, and after the concert. The average food cost for concerts is anywhere from $20-$100. Merchandise such as T-shirts cost on average $33-$42.
Experts say inflation will drop below 2.5% this year. This could greatly improve concert prices as well as everything that is sold at said events. However, it is all a simple matter of supply and demand. As long as the arenas and stadiums and stages demand more supply chains that cover food or clothes must supply it to them. Inflation may drop but will it really fix the supply and demand or will it just cause a crash in multiple industries.
Going off on the point that prices are rising rapidly, another issue would be the rise in concert goers even if the price to go has gone up. In 2023, concert attendance went up by almost 25%, from the most crowded concert in 2020 being 74,000 people to the most crowded concert in 2023 being over 300,000 people. In 2020, North America alone lost $30 billion dollars in the concert industry due to lower attendance rates.
Of course, while all this information is somewhat interesting it doesn’t explain why people have gone to more concerts while they cost more than they did when they were cheaper. Was it just because everyone was finally out and about? Was it because they couldn’t go to concerts for a while that now all they wanted to do was get out and do any and everything?
One anonymous student at NAI says,“I feel like when the pandemic ended I wasn’t eager to go out, but this summer I went to a bunch of concerts. The cost wasn’t that surprising because of how much everything had gone up. I kinda expected it, ya’know, I was used to it.” They go one further to express that it wasn’t that the price was super high and they were hesitant to go, rather that they had been in their house and separated at school and at public places for so long that being around that many people at once put them off.
What are your thoughts on inflation in concert tickets? How many concerts have you gone to since the pandemic ended and were you reluctant to go? Regardless of the prices of any ticket, concert performers are doing better than ever, with many more concerts on the way in 2024.
