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You log into Instagram and see that your favorite singer, Oliva Rodrigo, just announced her biggest tour yet. An amazing setlist and great openers, an experience you can’t miss out on. So you rush over to TicketMaster and sign up for the presale. You’re promptly told to wait 5-7 business days for your presale email, giving you a code to enter the long line of ticket buyers or turning you down. Checking your email every day, you are pleasantly surprised that you received a code. Logging on to TicketMaster, you click on the closest seats available: $250 without fees. As an avid concert goer, these prices may not surprise you, but they definitely disappoint. But you justify this purchase by thinking ‘‘if you never got a code you would be spending three times as much’’.
The price inflicts the frustrating question of, is it really worth it? Is the experience you’re going to get worth the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars? As a music lover, my answer is thatit depends on your personal interests. For instance, I would never consider spending more than $20 on a Lions football ticket, but I know people who would spend hundreds, just like a concert I have been dying to go to. As a musician and a music lover, for me, it is worth it. Do I think it’s insane that artists are charging hundreds? Yes, but I know when I am going to a concert I am going to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth. But for a lot of people, going to a concert is an event to be seen at and not experienced. It’s something to post on your Instagram showing that you have a glamorous life of late nights and a constant stream of fun events. And let me tell you, as a person who goes to concerts for the love of the musician, it is extremely easy to tell when you’re there just for the photos.
Everyone knows that tickets sell. Just 4 years ago, the average concert ticket was $152, while today the average ticket will run you $225 according to SeatGeek. The average American yearly salary is $59,500 and has roughly $3,000 dollars to spend on any form of entertainment throughout the year, according to Forbes. With many concert tickets being in the thousands, this is just not sustainable for the average American household.
I have had the extremely privileged position of attending some of the best shows on the market, including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, The Rolling Stones, The Cure, Tyler the Creator and more. When buying an expensive concert ticket, I know that there are ways to avoid making a pricey night into an even more costly event. By not buying the artist’s merchandise, not purchasing concessions, and not buying expensive outfits to attend the show are all contributors to making the cost of the night a *little* less. I keep all this in mind when buying a ticket. And while I would not want to give up the experience of seeing Phoebe Bridigers in the pit in a small venue, I do want to cut my costs. I do believe that we need to lower ticket prices. Whether that means TicketMaster themselves not adding fees, or the artist not charging as much personally, it needs to happen. This is not a sustainable way of viewing art.
