Why concert tickets cost four times as much as 20 years ago, and why we’re happy to pay for them
- Ticket prices for concerts have almost quadrupled in the past 20 years, way ahead of inflation
- The drop in income from album sales has led to musicians relying on tours to make money
The average price of a ticket to the 100 most popular tours in North America has almost quadrupled over the past two decades, from US$25.81 in 1996 to US$91.86 through the first half of this year, according to researcher Pollstar. Along with pro sports and Broadway shows, concert prices have far outpaced inflation.
Some of that increase was out of necessity. As piracy eroded music sales, artists began to lean heavily on concerts. Stars such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift can make more in a couple of nights onstage than they can from a year of album sales.
But something else was going on, too. Ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster and AEG’s AXS began adopting technology that showed fans would pay almost any price for their favourite acts, especially stars who only come around every few years.
“We all undervalued tickets for many, many years,” said Joe Killian, who runs a media consulting firm and founded a concert series in New York’s Central Park.