In my opinion, a top ten experience is attending a concert by your favorite artist. Being surrounded by people who share the same love for an artist as you as you all sing your hearts out to your favorite songs is quite an experience. Whether you’re up close or in the nosebleeds, being in the atmosphere of music, fans, drinks, and fun makes for a great night.Â
Unfortunately, concert tickets have become increasingly high in recent years, leaving many fans contemplating whether or not they can even afford to see their favorite artist. A recent trend I have seen across my social media sites is fans being outraged over ridiculous concert ticket prices, calling out various celebrities like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Sabrina Carpenter for extremely high ticket prices.Â
According to Live Music Trade Publication Pollstar, concert tickets saw a 34.3% increase from 2019 to 2024. The reason for the increase varies from inflation to high demands for artists. Â
When Taylor Swift announced her Eras Tour, fans flocked to ticket-selling sites to get seats to see her. But fans were disappointed when they realized that to even attempt to get good seats, they would have to break the bank. When scrolling Reddit I saw fans say that they have spent anywhere from $400 to $1,000 on tickets.Â
I have had experiences in my personal life where I have avoided buying concert tickets because I did not want to pay a ridiculous amount for tickets. One concert in particular was Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. BeyoncĂ© is one of my favorite artists in the world and seeing her in concert is definitely on my bucket list, so I was excited when she was going on tour. But when I saw the prices for the seats that I wanted were around $300-$400, I was skeptical. As a college student with little income, could I really afford to spend this much on tickets?Â
On the other hand, when I saw Nicki Minaj in concert in October, I only spent $150 on seats that had a pretty good view. If only I could spend $150 on all concerts for whoever I want, I would always be at a concert because under $200 for me is totally reasonable.Â
One way fans have coped with high ticket prices is by using planned payment apps like Affirm and Afterpay, which allow fans to buy now and pay later over a course of time. One fan posted to TikTok that it took her six months to pay off her Eras Tour tickets.Â
Although tickets have gotten so expensive, I believe the artists are not the ones to blame. I believe the real villains in the concert world are the ticket resellers. These are the people that buy a bunch of tickets at a time and then sell them at twice or even quadruple the price. This leaves devoted fans with having to pay really high prices for their favorite artist.Â
The problem with this is that most concertgoers are either teens, college students, or middle-class people who cannot just spend hundreds of dollars on concert tickets — especially the young students who have little to no income. I believe that these young concertgoers are essential to the vibe of a concert because they are the ones who create a high-energy and fun atmosphere. They are also the ones that will be longtime customers of these artists.Â
So, with the prices of concert tickets going up, both fans and the music industry must find ways to keep ticket prices at a reasonable cost in order to make the concert experience accessible for all. Because in my opinion, this is an experience everyone must experience at least once in their lifetime!Â