LAUREN LINGLE
Staff Reporter
Over the past decade, eager fans have seen concert tickets reach an all-time high. To be in the action, fans have paid numbers as high as $1,000 per ticket to see music artists live.
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” lasted for 632 days and consisted of 149 shows in over 50 cities across five continents. Proving to be the most popular tour worldwide in 2024, this set of shows grossed over $1.04 billion in revenue.
“The Eras Tour” tickets sold for an average of $1,243.96. However, the most costly venue was the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where tickets cost an average of $3,071.
Rebecca Ludkiewicz, a professor of music industries at the university, discussed the factors contributing to the rising costs of concert tickets in recent years.
“First and foremost, dynamic pricing, which has been more recently adopted when it comes to event ticket sales, but we’re pretty used to it by now, seeing ticket prices go up if something is in high demand, but it has really taken off within the last decade,” Ludkiewicz said.
Dynamic pricing is a strategy that adjusts concert ticket prices based on demand. When demand is high, prices increase to capture more revenue, and when demand is low, prices decrease to attract more buyers.
“Folks really want to be in a place at a specific time to have a specific experience and not miss out on that, so they are really willing to pay sometimes exorbitant amounts, hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, even a thousand dollars, to go to, for instance, Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ because of that fear of missing out,” Ludkiewicz said.
Secondary resale markets, such as StubHub and Ticketmaster, are capitalizing on the high demand for concert tickets by reselling them at outrageous prices.
Philip Gentry, a professor of music history at the university, delved into the music industry and the secondary ticket market.
“I think the music industry is really at a crisis point,” Gentry said. “It’s really terrible to be a recording artist right now if you’re not in the top 10 artists because it’s very difficult to make money, as the economics are simply not there. The industry could absolutely figure out a better way to deal with the secondary market.”
In 2023, the New York City Council passed a bill that forces ticket vendors to show the full prices of tickets for live entertainment before buyers proceed to the checkout. Furthermore, sellers have to disclose the full price of a ticket, including all taxes and fees along with the specific location of the ticket. Sellers must also indicate whether the ticket is being sold by its original seller, as opposed to a reseller.
“I’m a huge fan of Luke Combs and wanted the once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing him live in the pit so I paid over $500 to live out my dream a couple of summers ago,” Audrey Lyons, a junior sports management student at the university, said.
Inflation for admissions to concerts has increased 19.8% since 2021.
Looking at the next five to 10 years, anticipations of what concert tickets may look like are unknown. As fans hope to see a drastic decline in prices, there is not an exact answer thus far.
“I believe that access to live arts experiences is really important,” Ludkiewicz said. “People need it and we need it in our lives.”
