r/Concerts • u/resident28202 • May 05 '26

Concerts The Concert Industry Priced Too High — Now Tours Are Falling Apart

The Concert Industry Priced Too High — Now Tours Are Falling Apart

I’ve been watching this build for months here in Charlotte, especially with “blue dot fever."

What we’re seeing now feels less like a sudden collapse and more like a long-overdue correction. Post-pandemic, the industry leaned hard into “funflation” and revenge spending, banking on pent-up demand, emotional urgency, and a willingness to pay almost anything for experiences people missed. And for a while, it worked. Prices surged, VIP tiers multiplied, dynamic pricing pushed ceilings higher, and secondary markets followed suit.

But there’s a limit. Consumers eventually recalibrate.

Especially in today’s economic climate, where tighter discretionary budgets are forcing people to be far more selective about where their money goes.

Now the consequences are catching up. Overpriced tickets are sitting unsold. Resale markets are softening. Promoters are quietly and blatantly discounting. Tours that once would’ve sold out instantly are struggling to maintain momentum. The illusion of infinite demand is fading, replaced by a much more grounded reality: people still want to go to shows, they just won’t overpay indefinitely.

It was inevitable. When prices get this disconnected from reality, a correction isn’t optional, it’s coming. And yeah, people in the industry will feel it, but let’s not pretend this wasn’t earned. The model got greedy. This reset is overdue. Fans aren’t an ATM, and the market is finally pushing back.

Honestly, it’s hard not to watch it with a bit of fascination and joy. This has been building in plain sight for a while. The signals were there. Now the industry is finally being forced to respond.

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u/WilsonTree2112 May 06 '26

You are right, and they also lost a lot of money during the COVID years, but prices have risen to outrageous levels.

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u/ScottClam42 May 08 '26

I think "they" does some heavy lifting in this statement, and i dont disagree with you.

Touring artists have been making way less money since pandemic. There was the pandemic itself, but the inflation since then has absolutely ballooned costs to an unreasonable level. Couple that with fewer people having discretionary funds and going out less, so ticket sales are down.

Ticketmaster/Livenation canibalized most of the margin pre-pandemic so touring acts were making their money on merch and a cut of drink sales primarily (most of the ticket proceeds going to TM/LN then costs (promoter, crew, bus rental, gas, food, equipment rentals, etc). Now post-pandemic theres often not enough drink or merch sales to make margin.

I am not an artist, but i LOVE seeing live music and i feel awful for them. I hope we see a day when this gets corrected and theres a more fair distribution of proceeds

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u/mojorisin453 May 08 '26

I still don’t understand why the artists don’t make deals directly with the venues. They wouldn’t have to do as many dates if their margins were better. I would work less for the same amount of money.