Why do concert tickets now cost as much as a games console?

The past clip Oasis played Wembley Stadium, successful 2009, a lasting summons outgo precisely £44.04.

For their instrumentality adjacent summer, the aforesaid summons was priced astatine £150. Vastly much than the aged summons terms which, erstwhile adjusted for inflation, would outgo £68.

Not lone that, but immoderate fans were charged hundreds of pounds much than the look value, aft alleged “dynamic pricing” boosted the cost successful effect to precocious demand.

But Oasis aren’t alone. If you’ve logged onto Ticketmaster implicit the past mates of years, you’ll cognize the outgo of unrecorded euphony has soared.

Ticket prices shot up by 23% past year, having already risen 19% since the pandemic. Going to a gig tin outgo the aforesaid magnitude arsenic taking a holiday, and prices are lone rising.

At the astir utmost extremity of the scale, Madonna charged £1,306.75 for VIP passes to her Celebration tour; and Beyoncé offered fans the accidental to beryllium connected the signifier of her Renaissance concerts for the bargain terms of £2,400.

Overall, the mean summons terms for the apical 100 tours astir the satellite was £101 past year, up from £82 successful 2022, according to Pollstar, a commercialized work that tracks the performance industry.

In the UK, 51% of radical accidental precocious prices person stopped them going to gigs astatine slightest erstwhile successful the past 5 years. Among 16 to 34-year-olds, two-thirds of concert-goers accidental they’ve reduced the fig of shows they attend. But contempt this, tours with high-priced tickets support selling retired - but lone for the biggest-name artists.

Abbi Glover, 33, from New Holland, Lincolnshire, said the outgo of tickets “creates a divide” betwixt those who tin spend them and those who are “priced out”.

“I enactment hard and gain a decent wage. What bash I person to bash to beryllium capable to conscionable bask these things erstwhile I'm doing everything I perchance can?”

UK prices are inactive beneath those successful the US but, arsenic ticketing adept Reg Walker told the BBC, “what happens determination happens present 5 to 10 years later”.

So wherefore person costs skyrocketed?

If your archetypal thought was “greed”, well, that’s decidedly portion of it.

“It’s not speculation to deliberation that immoderate artists privation to marque arsenic overmuch wealth arsenic they can,” says Gideon Gottfried, Pollstar’s European editor.

One instrumentalist who’s been bullish astir the terms hikes is Bruce Springsteen.

Fans were alarmed erstwhile immoderate seats for his 2023 US circuit were priced arsenic precocious arsenic $5,000 (£3,874), acknowledgment to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Springsteen argued that astir of the tickets were successful an “affordable range”, but helium was fed up with touts making wealth disconnected his back, truthful helium chose to lucifer their prices.

“I’m going, ‘Hey, wherefore shouldn’t that wealth spell to the guys that are going to beryllium up determination sweating 3 hours a nighttime for it?’” helium said.

Kiss prima Gene Simmons besides defended the system.

“Whatever the pricing is, it’s each academic,” he told Forbes. “Somebody sits successful a country and tries to fig retired however acold the rubber set tin stretch. And if you’re not selling tickets, conjecture what happens? The terms goes down. Capitalism!

“Vote with [your] money,” helium concluded. “You don’t similar the summons pricing? Don’t bargain a ticket.”

Springsteen and Simmons are successful bully company. Other artists who’ve embraced dynamic pricing see Coldplay, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift (although she ditched it for the Eras circuit aft important instrumentality backlash).

Following the Oasis debacle, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to get a “grip” connected the concern and “make definite that tickets are disposable astatine a terms that radical tin really afford”.

But it mightiness not beryllium truthful simple…

Aside from the lure of a large payday, determination are galore reasons wherefore artists are charging more.

Some are trying to combat the interaction of streaming - the bulk of musicians make conscionable 5% of their income from streaming, a crisp diminution from the years erstwhile vinyl and CD were king.

Others are disquieted astir their longevity, successful an epoch erstwhile full careers tin beryllium measured successful the span of a TikTok trend.

“Nobody truly knows what the heck is going on, and however the system volition make and what the adjacent situation is going to be,” says Gottfried, “so immoderate artists are trying to beverage the cattle arsenic overmuch arsenic possible, portion it’s inactive possible.”

Not everyone thinks that way. Punk-pop prima Yungblud organised his ain festival successful Milton Keynes this August, mounting prices astatine a market-beating £49.50.

He was compelled to instrumentality enactment aft noticing unsold seats connected his US arena circuit past year.

“Five 100 seats would beryllium wholly bare due to the fact that they were $200 a ticket,” he told Music Week. “I’d person 1,000 kids extracurricular the venue who couldn’t spend to travel successful and I was like, ‘Something’s got to alteration here.’”

But the festival didn’t spell wholly to plan. Heightened information aft a stabbing successful Milton Keynes the erstwhile play led to delays of up to 3 hours for fans waiting to get into the venue. As temperatures soared supra 30 degrees Celsius, immoderate passed retired successful the queue. Others gave up and went home.

Higher-priced tickets could person paid for other information unit and eased those pressures - illustrating the delicate equilibrium that has to beryllium struck erstwhile mounting prices.

Still, Yungblud isn’t the lone 1 trying to get a just woody for concert-goers.

Paul Heaton capped prices for his upcoming circuit astatine £35. Pop prima Caity Baser acceptable her 2023 concerts astatine conscionable £11 - oregon “two repast deals”, arsenic she enactment it – to assistance cash-strapped fans.

But these artists don’t necessitate large productions afloat of pyrotechnics and jumbotron video screens.

For acts who do, the outgo of touring has spiralled since the pandemic. Here are conscionable a fewer examples:

• Transport Whether you’re successful a minivan oregon a backstage jet, it costs much to question these days. Fuel prices person risen by 20% since 2019 and a shortage of drivers post-Brexit means experienced unit tin complaint a premium.

• Freight costs A circuit isn’t conscionable astir moving bodies - for large arena and stadium shows, the signifier besides has to beryllium transported. According to the popular prima Lorde, the outgo of shipping her signifier astir the satellite increased by up to 300% aft Covid. And logistics institution Freightwaves says the outgo of insuring 1 motortruck can beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic $5m (£3.8m). For context, Taylor Swift’s Eras circuit requires up to 50 trucks.

• Catering We’ve each seen our nutrient bills increase, and touring artists are nary exception. When you person hundreds of mouths to feed, the costs adhd up.

• Stage equipment From dependable systems to lighting rigs, rental costs for circuit cogwheel person risen by 15-20%. And with much tours connected the road, instrumentality is overbooked - which tin propulsion prices adjacent higher.

• Accommodation Hotels and accommodation are a large cost. Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, for example, had much than 300 radical connected the road astatine immoderate 1 time. With hotel prices doubling successful the past 5 years, this adds different strain connected circuit finances.

“We've seen projects wherever the outgo of overheads person accrued by up to 35 to 40%,” says Stuart Galbraith, CEO of performance promoters Kilimanjaro Live, “and the lone signifier of income that comes successful to screen each of that is summons money”.

Even erstwhile prices spell up, the nett margins are minimal, according to Stephan Thanscheidt, CEO of FKP Scorpio, which organises much than 20 European festivals, arsenic good arsenic tours by Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones and Foo Fighters.

“The costs associated with our productions person doubled oregon tripled [but] we cannot and volition not compensate for this by tripling the summons prices,” he told Pollstar past year.

The compression is peculiarly choky connected UK festivals, which person besides been deed by a prohibition connected “red diesel”, a substance tinted with reddish dye, which they antecedently utilized to powerfulness the generators and dense vehicles needed to conception festival sites.

The determination is portion of the UK’s committedness to trim greenhouse gases, and meant immoderate organisers abruptly had to wage a higher complaint of substance work from April 2022 – a large summation of 46 pence per litre.

Since then, the mean outgo of a UK festival summons has changeable up by 22%. Combined with different rising costs, much than 50 festivals went connected hiatus oregon closed wholly this summer.

Small venues are nether pressure, too. Their prices mightiness mean betwixt £7 and £10, but they’re struggling to merchantability shows – partially due to the fact that fans person already spent their wealth connected stadium tickets that outgo the aforesaid arsenic a games console.

Toni Coe-Brooker from the Music Venues Trust said this is down to “a civilization successful which radical deliberation that grassroots gigs should beryllium free”.

In the past, that didn’t substance due to the fact that owners made plentifulness of wealth down the bar. But Gen Z are progressively turning their backs connected alcohol. One survey says 26% of 16-to-25-year-olds are teetotal, and that leaves yet different spread successful venues’ finances.

Combined with different pressures including higher rent and energy bills, 125 euphony venues closed oregon stopped hosting unrecorded euphony successful 2023.

In those that remain, costs are truthful choky that “a batch of venue operators aren't adjacent paying themselves, which is truly worrying,” says Coe-Brooker.

The Music Venue Trust wants bigger performance halls to adhd a £1 interest to their tickets, with the wealth funnelled to the grassroots country and the adjacent procreation of artists.

That would propulsion prices up again, but here’s the fascinating thing: If the creator is the close one, fans volition inactive pay.

Live Nation is the world’s biggest performance promoter and it shifted a grounds 118 cardinal tickets successful the archetypal six months of 2024.

According to its latest net report, income for arenas, amphitheatres, theatre and nine shows are each up treble digits.

“People’s enthusiasm to spell retired has not been arsenic curbed arsenic we expected successful the existent economy,” says Gottfried.

“VIP summons income person decidedly picked up. Every azygous promoter I've spoken to crossed the idiosyncratic European markets, has seen an uptake successful astir each case. And £1,000 pounds for a VIP bundle is not astatine each unheard of.”

However, the aforesaid rules don’t use to everyone.

The biggest names mightiness get distant with charging hundreds of pounds per show, but “the weaker tours are coming nether much pressure,” says Galbraith.

In different words, with an ongoing compression connected their disposable incomes, fans are cutting backmost connected experiences that don't look unsocial oregon essential.

“We're competing successful a marketplace that isn't conscionable gig to gig,” says Galbraith. “It's also, are we worth for wealth versus a restaurant? Are we worth for wealth versus a mini break? So each circuit has to beryllium arsenic outgo effectual arsenic they perchance can.”

There are immoderate signs that we’ve reached a peak. Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys some scrapped caller US arena tours, aft fans baulked astatine mean prices of astir $150 (£116). And the astir costly tickets for Billie Eilish’s 2025 UK circuit (£398, of which £151 goes to section charities) are inactive available, months aft going connected sale.

It’s hard to accidental whether this volition change. But Leah Rafferty, 27, from Sheffield, is an illustration of a instrumentality who volition wage immoderate is asked. She lives with her parents, which allows her to walk her disposable income connected concerts – thing she says she feels "extremely lucky" to do.

A devoted Swiftie, she has seen The Eras Tour six times: Once successful Edinburgh, doubly successful Liverpool and 3 times successful London, astatine a outgo of £1,192.57.

“As agelong arsenic it doesn't bankrupt me, I'm blessed to walk immoderate it costs.”

That’s precisely what promoters are relying on, says Gottfried.

“One of the reasons you haven't seen notable dips [in sales], contempt radical struggling economically, is that seeing their favourite creator means truthful overmuch to them that they marque irrational decisions.

“Any marketplace volition beryllium distorted by radical making irrational decisions. It mightiness beryllium a beauteous determination for them but it’s besides an irrational one, due to the fact that their emotions and their fandom volition marque them wage outrageous money.”

Lead image: Getty