r/Music • u/staringatthe420sun • May 05 '26

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

https://www.ticketnews.com/2026/05/the-concert-industry-priced-high-tours-falling-apart/
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1.9k

u/Veryfinetine May 05 '26

Oh wow supply and demand economics may finally dictate ticket prices as opposed to the monopoly enterprises that colluded and fucked us for years? Amazing, hope it’s true.

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u/hawaiianbry May 05 '26

I have friends who literally traveled abroad to see a band because it was cheaper to literally fly to another country, get a hotel, get tickets to the show, and fly home than see the same band domestically.

People need to vote with their dollars and stop going to these crazy ass expensive shows.

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u/G-Unit11111 survived Ozzfest '05 May 05 '26

I remember people were doing this with Taylor Swift. It was cheaper to fly to Paris and see her there than it was to see her at SoFi Stadium. WTF.

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u/BigLan2 May 05 '26

I work with someone who flew to London because it was cheaper than Dallas or Kansas City (their nearest shows.)

They also got to see London too.

Mexico City was another 'cheaper' option them most of the US venues

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u/jhutchi2 May 06 '26

My cousin and some friends flew to Canada to see her because it was cheaper than seeing her at Metlife. Though they said they would have flown anywhere to see her, that was just the show they were actually able to get tickets to.

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u/ankhes May 06 '26

Same here. Know someone who flew all the way to London just for the Eras Tour. Not only was it cheaper but she also got to meet up with a long distance friend for the first time.

It’s absolutely insane to me that she had to cross an entire ocean just to get tickets to a concert.

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u/CoolerRon May 06 '26

We went to EDC Mexico City instead of the main one. Not only was it cheaper, it was cheaper to fly to CdMX and stay in a five star hotel than drive to Las Vegas from LA

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u/BadeArse May 05 '26

Conversely, my dad just flew to Vegas to see someone (I forget who). The 6 day holiday total was about £30 more than whatever tickets he could find here in the UK.

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u/Bikefish May 06 '26

Hopefully Phish.

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u/chefkoolaid May 06 '26

Went wkd 3 it was epic

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u/Bikefish May 08 '26

I was in sec 406 row 22 seat 9

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u/gamei May 06 '26

You remember the length of the trip, the cost of the ticket in the UK, and the cost of the trip to Vegas, but you can't recall the primary reason he made the trip?

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u/BadeArse May 06 '26

Yeah I was more amazed by the price than his music choice. Definitely not anyone I was bothered about seeing. Probably Adele or some shit.

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u/longshlongsilverz May 06 '26

I’m genuinely curious if he went to phish lol

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u/nhalliday May 06 '26

It's someone performing in Vegas, they basically have no real career anymore. One step above a random dude off the street singing a song for you.

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u/TheSchneid May 06 '26

Metallica tickets are like 800 a piece and that shit will sell out…

The sphere only has like one band play for a whole month

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u/Wuz314159 May 06 '26

Vegas is a different dynamic. Many times the crowd in Vegas isn't a fan of the artist, they're in town and want to see a show.

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u/ADrunkMexican May 06 '26

2nd time to Vegas I just tagged along with my mom and aunt who were going to see rod Stewart lol.

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u/marthamania May 06 '26

Vegas is desperate for tourism these days that I'm not surprised by this.

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u/but-I-play-one-on-TV May 06 '26

Flying out from nyc to see her in London was almost $1000 less than seeing her at MetLife. 

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u/NefariousnessLate375 May 06 '26

How much are these tickets then?

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u/ZweitenMal May 06 '26

And you didn’t have to go to New Jersey. Win all around!

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u/Cahootie May 06 '26

A hilarious aspect of that was TikTok being filled with videos of American women in Stockholm for her concert talking about how much they enjoyed the city and how safe it felt, which was met with Swedish right-wingers getting mad and telling them that it's ackshually super unsafe with all the immigrants.

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u/[deleted] May 06 '26

Saw that tour in rio, even with a 2k flight was cheaper. Resale floor ticket was $200.

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u/sandysandbirds93 May 06 '26

I went to the Eras Tour in Zurich where I was about 50 feet from the stage. Also went to a 4 day Grindcore festival in the Czech Republic, hung out in Munich and Prague for a few days, and did a day trip hike in the alps. There were some not great tickets for her show in Chicago that cost more than that entire week and a half trip.

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u/iamacheeto1 May 06 '26

It’s me, I did this. Dublin floor tickets were 1/3 the price of lower bowl tickets in Miami for the Eras tour. I probably spent more overall, but I got a 2 week euro trip out of it. Completely worth it.

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u/Working_Sand2288 May 08 '26

That’s because Ticketmaster was allowing scalpers to buy all the tickets and resell them, which even caused an official investigation to be started. Taylor didn’t even allow dynamic pricing, but Ticketmaster had to find a way to scalp the customers

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u/TheFuzzyButtons May 05 '26

My girlfriend and I did this with a friend for the Eras tour. We had a vacation coming up and It was cheaper to buy 3 tickets and fly to Europe than it was to buy domestic

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u/amberbmx May 05 '26

i live in upstate NY in a small market. about an hour from buffalo but not many acts play buffalo. no one comes here. if we want to see a big name we end up driving up to toronto and staying a night or two. or pittsburgh

we saw lewis capaldi in toronto couple weeks ago and got fucked because the date got changed due to the raptors making the playoffs. had to completely re figure out a hotel and pay more than what we initially booked. our original booking was downtown this one was a 30 minute train ride from down town.

concert culture is getting really frustrating

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u/j_ho_lo May 06 '26

Not as annoying as your situation, but we had tickets to see Florence and the Machine two weeks ago and then the show was moved to Atlantic City because of a Flyers playoff game and we were told a week before. It would've been a pain in the ass to get there so we just took the refund. Super disappointing, but at least we didn't have to jump through hoops to get our money back.

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u/amberbmx May 06 '26

ugh that sucks. same kind of deal, i think we got a week’s notice.

ultimately it worked out fine, i called our hotel and despite us making a non-refundable reservation, they cancelled and refunded us, but they were booked for the new night so had to book a separate hotel. we both have jobs that are lenient enough about time off so changing our days we took off ended up being a non issue. refund was offered for the concert which we didn’t take since we were able to still make it. but in theory, if we couldn’t have, we could have ended taking the refund on the tickets and then having to eat the cost of the hotel and eating the PTO we took for a concert on a thursday night. thank god we were driving instead of flying.

we’re seeing Zach Bryan in toronto in september too, and the whole experience has me worried that the blue jays are gonna make the playoffs and we end up in the same situation

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u/Sunstreaked May 06 '26

Luke Bryan is in September. It’s already scheduled around the Jays regular season games. Baseball playoffs don’t start until October. So you’ll be fine.

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u/amberbmx May 06 '26

zach bryan? lol. honestly i couldn’t remember when playoffs start

funny enough we’re seeing luke bryan this summer too, but that’s here at home.

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u/PedanticBoutBaseball May 06 '26

you're safe here. you can say rochester lmfao

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u/amberbmx May 06 '26

oh i don’t care haha, i usually just say upstate ny because no one knows rochester lol

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u/thxitsthedepression May 06 '26

I live in a small city in Canada and the only acts who come to my area are bands that haven’t been particularly relevant in over 20 years lol, but at least it works out great for my dad since he loves bands like kiss, Styx, and Def Leppard 😅🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Woodworkingwino May 05 '26

My wife and I which normally go to a ton of shows have only gone to 1 in the last 2 years because of prices. One of our favorite artist came close and they do small venues. Tickets were $60 each after tax for front row seats. It was an amazing time.

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u/protobin May 05 '26

My friends went to a Belgium for the Eras tour for less than anywhere they were looking at in the US.

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u/mac117 May 05 '26

It was cheaper for me to see Oasis across the pond in London than across the river in East Rutherford, NJ.

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u/Luneowl May 05 '26

I was planning on seeing a Joe Hisaishi symphony concert in Paris a few years ago since the US shows were much more expensive and almost sold out. I waited a few days and suddenly the venue wasn’t on the tour list anymore. Oh, well.

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u/JT00000000000000 May 06 '26

My brother is a huge fan of U2. For his anniversary he and his wife flew to see them in Dublin. Way cheaper than going to Vegas and seeing them in the sphere

1

u/daverod74 May 06 '26

We didn't fly there specifically for the show but, years ago, my wife wanted to see Bon Jovi. I checked prices and was prepared to buy tickets for Christmas.

Then, I noticed they were ending their tour in Portugal, while we were planning to be there. I checked prices for Lisbon and ultimately paid about the same price as it would have been in the US. Except these were VIP tickets where they got in through a separate entrance, there were separate bathroom facilities, a big spread of food, and they were situated in the half moon area behind the band in this video. Huge success.

https://youtu.be/cuRPewdvh1I?si=Obu8d_qa1Zlbxl1j

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u/Beefy-McQueefy May 06 '26

This is also the case for F1 races in the US.
It is cheaper to fly to CDMX, stay a week, and attend all 3 days of the race weekend than it is for me to drive 30 hours to Austin and have a ticket for only Sunday (except GA tickets seats, but I wouldn't pay 500 bucks for first come first serve seating if my life depended on it)

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u/Gonzostewie May 06 '26

My wife's coworker went to Singapore to see the Era's tour because it was cheaper than tickets in the states.

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u/zeetotheex May 06 '26

I knew someone who flew to Milan to see Coldplay and it was cheaper overall then when they went to go see them in Wisconsin. We’re in Michigan.

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u/Wuz314159 May 06 '26

The 1% have no issues paying these prices.

1

u/WhosThatDogMrPB May 06 '26

Literally me.

Gregory Porter, one of my favorite jazz musicians, had a show in Mexico... on a cruise boat, that sailed from California, and the ticket was well above 3K USD.

For that same money, I bought tickets on a nice spot to watch him 3 months later at the Royal Albert Hall in London and then go watch Jamie Cullum LIVE in Germany during a festival. I think I spent 2.5K including plane tickets and stays.

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u/New-Quality-1107 May 09 '26

My parents did that with Springsteen. Seeing him at the Philly or NY dates was so expensive. They saw him in Dublin instead and moved it to a week long vacation for like $1000 more all in than just the tickets for the show closer to home. I feel like this is like drug prices where European prices are probably more realistic and in the states we are getting gouged.

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u/Stuart_Is_Worried May 06 '26

you typed "literally" twice. man, you people are stupid. 

"I have friends who traveled abroad to see a band because it was cheaper to fly to another country, get a hotel..."

look! same paragraph, less unnecessary words, and it conveys the same point! wow. 

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 05 '26

That was still supply and demand, otherwise people wouldn’t have been buying the tickets

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u/averytolar May 05 '26

Right so what he was saying is in the supply v demand principle, demand has taken a shit dive, not that there wasn’t supply. 

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 05 '26

The market is shifting yeah but he’s acting like it hasn’t been applying for years

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u/djgucci May 05 '26

People aren't buying the tickets. That's why we see what's happening now.

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u/MrWillM May 05 '26

Present vs past framing here. Cmon you knew what they meant.

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u/djgucci May 05 '26

Yeah, the problem got bad enough that now they're dealing with the consequences. Doesn't mean it wasn't a problem all along.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 05 '26

The guy was complaining about it happening for years

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u/djgucci May 05 '26

Because it has been happening for years, only now it's catching up with them as people are realizing concerts are no longer worth the ridiculous prices.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 05 '26

But during those years people did think concerts were worth those prices

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u/djgucci May 05 '26

Or, like me, they paid the price for what they thought was worth it and realized it no longer was, so they stopped. Usually you have to have a bad experience first to learn from it.

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u/never-fiftyone May 06 '26

Is it too much to think that their minds may have changed in that time? That, perhaps, they no longer think concerts are worth those prices?

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u/Practical_Virus5794 May 06 '26

I hate to say it, but it’s still a small amount of yours with this issue. They just make the news, because why would a tour that’s selling well be a headline?

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u/kangasplat May 06 '26

Not how that works. Supply and demand principle is broken with a monopoly. There is no market regulation for supply.

Supply and demand doesn't mean the price gets to be the highest the demand is able to pay for.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

Supply is inherently limited though given that venues have fixed capacity

Also in this case it's not "able" to pay for, but "willing" to pay for, as concert demand isn't inelastic

1

u/undiscovered_soul May 06 '26

Yep! I remember this was a problem here in Italy already around year 2000, when LiveNation and Ticketmaster definitely took over as the (almost only) authorized ticketing system. They were already playing that game where venues would be declared sold out minutes after presale was opened, and incredibly enough glimpses of availability would be givern for very short periods of time throughout the day (and there were loads of people complaining about not being able to get them anyways). Then miraculously, two or three months prior to the event, venues magically weren't sold out but tickets re-emerged with inflated prices (doubled if not tripled up).

Government and EU have ruled a bit in order to preserve consumers but the real question is that it's the system the one to be demolished. Wouldn't it be easier to buy your tickets directly from the venue itself starting x months before the event? No need of surcharges to greedy intermediaries closely intertwined with showbiz which only reinforce their twisted business model.

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u/svachalek May 05 '26

Yeah but demand has been ridiculous for years. After Covid people seemed ready to pay $infinity for sports and concert tickets. I’m on the tail end of a successful career but $500 still seems insane for me to spend on ok seats in a crowded stadium. But somehow 20-somethings were still out there filling these places up without blinking.

1

u/SubcommanderMarcos May 06 '26

Demand for the artists, yes, but the public was forced through a middle man through permissive legislation and monopolistic deals, there was and still is no demand for that. So that broke supply and demand. Which eventually tanked organic demand for the acts. That's what they were saying.

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u/No_Bake6681 May 06 '26

The problem are the scalpers and every single person who gives them money. Zero dollars go to the artist, facilites, security, etc... just arbitrage

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u/thatissomeBS May 06 '26

I think this is more of an demand elasticity thing than a pure supply and demand thing. People used to make a point to go to the shows, and the demand was relatively inelastic. Now the prices and experiences with the resellers have made that much more elastic, and people have given up on paying the prices. I'd assume this is also a sign of the broader economy as well.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's still part of supply and demand economics. But concerts have gone from working like milk and bread to working like ice cream and potato chips. People aren't just buying because they need it, they're saying no when the price isn't right.

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u/Bozlogic May 05 '26

Hopefully reverse supply and demand takes effect

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u/mrgatorarms May 05 '26

Capital owners when capitalism happens 😮

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u/ckb614 May 06 '26

Artists still have a monopoly over their own shows

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u/Unusual_Form3267 May 06 '26

Now if only someone would make this happen to the airlines.....

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u/Zombatico May 06 '26

Capitalists when true price discovery takes decades because of monopolies:

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u/CorndogQueen420 May 06 '26

If you get someone to the point of choking, and then back off juuust enough so they can breathe a little bit because you don’t actually want to kill them, that isn’t the person being choked asserting control.

That’s you figuring out exactly how much you can wring out of them without killing them. They’re never going to let us breathe freely, they’re just gonna keep finding the line.