We all dream of seeing our favourite artists live. According to Billboard, the top charting artist at the end of February was Bad Bunny, and if you were to see him live in concert, you would have to spend way more than what most people are comfortable with. His world tour has starting prices for the nights in London from £120, with premium and VIP packages reaching up to £9990.
Now let’s take it back 10 years, how much would you have had to pay to see the top artists? In 2016, Justin Bieber did his Purpose World Tour while he was Billboard’s top charting artist. To see him, fans had to pay between £56.95 and £135.70, not including VIP packages.
Has attending concerts become a luxury purchase rather than a fun night out?
The Post-COVID Boom
The global shutdown of 2020 put an abrupt stop to live concerts, the expectation was that as soon as the doors opened again, people would be rushing to buy concert tickets. However, fans were met by limited tour dates at venues with limited capacity and higher production costs, which meant that the average price of a ticket skyrocketed. In 2023, ticket sales rose about 18% despite the average ticket prices increasing by roughly 23%. This showed that even though concerts became more expensive, people were still willing to pay.
Breaking Down The Price
Even if these prices seem absurd, they’re not random; they reflect the enormous costs behind arranging such large-scale tours, with production being one of the biggest ones. Major artists have complex stage designs that include massive screens, custom lighting systems, sound equipment, and effects like pyrotechnics. Touring also means that these stages need to be transported from city to city and be rebuilt every single night, which requires a lot of staff. This creates another major expense. A global tour can employ hundreds of people, ranging from sound engineers and stage technicians to dancers, security staff, lighting designers, drivers, and tour managers. All of these professionals are essential to making the show run smoothly, and they must be paid for every single tour date.
Of course, travel and logistics also make up a big part of the price since world tours mean that artists travel around continents, forcing them to transport everything, usually by fleets of trucks or in cargo planes. Adding on to that, the recent spike in fuel prices and transportation costs makes touring much more expensive. Finally, there are promotional and marketing costs, including advertising, ticket services, and partnerships with companies such as Ticketmaster, which manage ticket sales.
Speaking about Ticketmaster, they are also behind the drastic increase in prices. They use a sales strategy called dynamic pricing. This principle is similar to the systems used when buying airplane tickets, where instead of a fixed price, the ticket price is automatically increased when demand spikes. So if thousands of fans try to buy a ticket at once, the algorithm will raise the price in real time. This results in the official ticket prices changing dramatically within minutes of sales opening, pushing prices to unreasonable levels, making these concerts inaccessible.
The Comeback of Old Artists
When famous bands return after years apart, demand from fans often skyrockets. These events are not just ordinary concerts; they become marketed as rare, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Take Oasis, for example. When they last played at Wembley in 2009, a standing ticket cost £44.04. Last summer, during their live ’25 tour, the same ticket in London was priced around £150. Even if we adjust the 2009 price for inflation, it only brings it to £68, which is nowhere near the new prices.
In this case, nostalgia plays a major role as both long-time and newer fans are eager to see a band they never expected to reunite. At the same time, the number of shows is usually limited, while demand from fans around the world is extremely high.
The digitalisation of music
The streaming industry is also to blame for the higher prices. Today, streaming companies such as Spotify dominate music consumption. However, per-stream payout is small for artists in contrast to the past, where artists earned most of their income through album sales. Today, streaming represents only 5% of their revenue. Artists now have to rely heavily on touring for revenue, turning concerts into the primary financial engine of the music industry; this pushes artist promoters and news to maximise ticket prices where it is possible.
What Does the Future Hold for Live Concerts?
Even if there is a certain number of people who are still spending large portions of their paychecks to go to live events, most people deem these prices unreasonable, including me. Back in 2023, I bought tickets to Harry Styles’ Love on Tour at Slane Castle for around 110€. Even then, I thought it was expensive, but in hindsight, I was also very close to the stage. Today, with the release of Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, I was once again excited for the prospect of seeing him live again. However, I was very disappointed when the Together Together tour was only held in Amsterdam and London (in Europe), and the cheapest tickets went for 125€. Even if I am lucky to be able to be housed freely in these two cities thanks to friends, the price of the concert is absolutely absurd, and something I can’t spend, especially as a student. So the question remains, will people stop going to concerts, or do we have to compromise and accept the absurd pricing?
