Concerts have always been a pastime for people who enjoy music and those who want to do something productive with their friends. But lately, concert prices have gone up exponentially by Ticketmaster, the main source of buying tickets for concerts. According to the live music trade publication Pollstar, the average ticket price of the top 100 music tours last year was $122.84. The average American makes about $5,200 (according to the ConsumerShield), and spends about $150 a month on entertainment, which takes up approximately 3% of monthly household income. In 2000 the average concert ticket could cost you about 40 dollars to see some of the top selling artists but compared to 2025, Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour tickets could cost you from the range of 500-3,000 dollars. On just one of those dates, in Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) the highest priced tickets costed up to $3,071.
But the raise in prices are not solely Ticketmaster’s fault. Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster, controls ticket pricing and fees. Live Nation has built a monopoly on owning as much of the live music industry as they can, making it almost impossible to get reasonably priced on-sale or resale tickets. Ticketmaster has always been a powerhouse in ticketing, and artists have tried to combat them before, such as Pearl Jam, a grunge band from the 90’s.
Contrary to popular belief and misinformation, the artists mostly do not have full control over their ticket prices. In a perfect world we would have affordable alternatives but sadly, that will not happen very soon.
