It Should Not Cost This Much To Go To a Concert

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Music | May 30, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Music | May 30, 2024 |

The Black Keys recently quietly announced that they would be canceling their planned North American tour. They followed up that revelation with news of their plans to ‘make some changes’ to the tour ‘that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly.’ What that means is that they’re downsizing because their ticket sales were low. While the Black Keys are a known entity and have a decent-sized fanbase, it wasn’t enough to justify a full arena tour. As folks on Twitter showed, they were left with vast swaths of empty seats before pulling the plug. Starting tickets in the nosebleeds were about $100. One wonders how the band and their management tried to justify that given that their biggest album came out in 2011. Certainly, even their core demographics seemed hesitant to put that kind of money down for the privilege of seeing them live.

It’s not just the Black Keys, of course. Going to concerts has become a prohibitively expensive hobby, one where even the cheapest options would have been seen as the luxury option only a few years ago. Taylor Swift tickets for the European leg of her Eras tour are averaging around $340 a go according to Billboard, and that’s about 87% cheaper than American costs, with people reporting paying upwards of $2,000 for one ticket. Bruce Springsteen’s most recent tour had fans furious thanks to Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic pricing’ pushing numbers up to $5k. Beyoncé came under fire for selling $157 ‘listening only’ tickets to the Renaissance tour that offered no view of the actual stage.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a handful of world tours become major cultural touchstones: Beyonce’s Renaissance, Taylor Swift’s Eras, and Madonna’s Celebration. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown, there was a sense of celebration with these big acts returning to the stage, bigger and better than ever. The first two performers, in particular, were such big deals that they made grand impacts on the world economy. These events were such necessities to many that money didn’t matter. It became all too common to see fans on social media showing off how they paid more than someone else for their ticket. Call me a cynic but I don’t think this should be the norm. Being a fan isn’t something one should be able to be priced out of.

I especially resent the ways in which certain fans act as though being priced out of participation is a symbol of their idol’s power. It’s really rather tragic to see people online talk about how tickets are the same price as a couple of months’ rent and then be met with replies shaming them for being poor. Obscene greed is not a bragging point for yourself or for the musicians whose management thinks you’re unworthy of respect.

The system has drastically changed over the past decade. Streaming has decimated the musical middle class and shredded the entire economic model that laid the foundations for decades of performers. As noted by Cosmopolitan, ‘streaming services such as Spotify pay artists an estimated £0.0031 per stream, meaning they would need roughly 3,000 streams on a track just to make one hour of minimum wage.’ Tours were designed largely to promote the new album. Now, it feels as though the tours are the biggest money maker, so they have to pull out all the stops. The worst seats in the house are three figures. The merch is pricier than ever. Ticketmaster’s fees are near-parodic. And none of that takes into consideration the basic logistics, like parking or booking a hotel.

Live Nation’s stranglehold has seen costs increase exponentially thanks to their transparent bullsh*tting and dodgy practices. In 2019, they admitted to keeping tens of thousands of tickets for a Metallica tour from being sold at face value by putting them directly on resale sites. Ticketmaster’s supposed attempts to quash the power of scalpers with their resale system are just the same exploitation with a new lick of paint. The scalping market has grown far more sophisticated than even Live Nation can keep up with.

Ticketmaster may finally face repercussions for its long-documented history of price gouging and monopolistic cruelty over the entire industry. The US Department of Justice is suing them and seeking a break-up of the monopoly. Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, said, ‘Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators.’

The damage, however, is done, and not just for fans either. Post-lockdown, touring costs have spiralled for even established acts, and any musician or band that isn’t a record-breaking mega-act has had to seriously tighten their belts. Swift might be pulling in $1bn in revenue from those exorbitant ticket prices, but musicians playing smaller venues without the safety net of money or record company support are barely making a living. According to a recent piece in the Guardian, ‘playing life is becoming financially unsustainable for many artists.’ Lily Fontaine, lead singer of the acclaimed indie band English Teacher, admitted that ‘it’s normal for all of these achievements’ like being on TV and getting five-star reviews, ‘to coexist alongside being on Universal Credit, living at home or sofa surfing.’

So, we have the vast majority of musicians, including many bands you love, left in the red after even a successful tour. It’s pushing out working-class performers on top of everything else. Brexit has also massively impacted British performers’ ability to tour in Europe, which cuts off a vast portion of their revenue. The conundrum is evident: you’re not big enough to charge prices that help you make a living but you also don’t want to exclude your fans; you need to tour to live but the industry has no desire to bolster you or create a sustainable system that will maintain acts like you in the long-term. Either you’re the Eras Tour or you’re sleeping on your friend’s couch to save a few quid to pay for the 300-person hall.

Fixing this system will require far more than the breakup of Ticketmaster (although we heartily welcome that because f*ck Ticketmaster.) More effective legislation against scalpers needs to be passed. There also needs to be more financial support for the culture sectors at large, with greater investment in venues and performers so that being a musician is a payable lifestyle open to more than the mega-rich. Frankly, we also need calls for change from those megastars who play the role of wide-eyed ignorance when their tickets sell for eye-watering prices and they act as though their involvement in this problem is minimal. If The Cure can force Ticketmaster to play it fair, so can the current chart toppers.

Live music is a joy that everyone should have access to, whether it’s your local band at the dive bar or the icon in the stadium. Being a fan is not dependent on the depth of your pockets.