There’s no question that concert tickets are more expensive than ever, with prices rising faster over the past three years than at any other time. Most major players in the concert industry recognize the rapid double-digit price increases since the pandemic ended, but few agree on what’s causing the spike or whether that increase represents a real problem.
“It’s like going to Disneyland on a crowded day and wondering, ‘How can so many people afford this place now?'” said Jed Weitzmana fare expert specializing in the concert business. “Some people wonder how a family of four can afford to go there, but there’s clearly no shortage of people willing to pay to get in.”
This year, the median ticket price to see one of the 40 highest-grossing tours of 2024 — arenas and stadiums — will be $151, according to data compiled by Billboard Boxscore. Three years from now, in 2027, the average cost of a ticket for such a tour is expected to reach $200, driven by steady year-over-year demand growth from popular top acts such as U2, The Weeknd, Sabrina Carpenter and Billy Joel.
Before the pandemic, ticket prices for Top 40 concerts were rising 3% to 4% annually, according to Billboard Boxscore. After touring resumed, that number more than doubled, averaging 9.9% annually. A recent study comes from Thorston SloakApollo Global Management’s chief economist concluded that ticket sales are growing at about 11% annually.
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The reasons for rising prices are not that simple. Live Nation, the world’s largest concert organizer, attributes this upgrade mainly to inflation in global business costs in 2024. And underestimated.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed the historic antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, said the problem with that argument is that it ignores the structural advantages the giant promoter enjoys over nearly all of its rivals. The government claims the price increases are because Live Nation can outcompete competitors by paying exorbitant prices for touring talent and make up for losses in its concert promotion arm through its ancillary businesses (venue ownership, Ticketmaster and sponsorships).
The government believes Live Nation pays too much for talent and passes the increased costs on to consumers through higher prices. The problem with this theory, many concert experts say, is that it oversimplifies the economics of touring and lets the government off the hook for failing to enforce the Better Online Ticketing Act, which was signed into law in 2016 , designed to stop scalpers using bots to buy tickets on a large scale.
These experts believe that a failure to curb the illegal use of software and hacking tools, which results in massive markups in the secondary market, has created a pricing crisis that makes it nearly impossible to buy popular travel tickets at face price. In an article about StubHub’s delayed IPO earlier this year, longtime music analyst Chris Castle claims that the large-scale use of bots to acquire and sell concert tickets is “not a theoretical antitrust case” but rather “addresses real-time massive consumer fraud” that is “perpetuated and funded by public financial markets.”
WME Agency Kirk SummerHe, whose artist clients include Bruno Mars, The Killers, Adele and Hozier, said he understands how much other artists charge for tickets, but that fans tend to evaluate concerts on a case-by-case basis and are less concerned about pricing trends.
“I never focus on setting a price for a tour that will satisfy the artist’s fans,” Sommer explains. “Our goal has always been to create opportunities that fans of all income levels can purchase. It’s important that there’s something for everyone.
