Concert ticket prices double in four years

By Ilana Kroub

Contributing

Writer

“I was anticipating this concert forever, but as soon as I logged in to the online queue for tickets, I realized how high the prices were and how hard it would be to get tickets,” said Sarah Kezra, a freshman. She was talking, of course, about her experience trying to get tickets for Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated Eras tour. But Taylor Swift is hardly the only tour that is priced beyond the reach of many fans.

Kezra is just one of the thousands of fans to learn that finding tickets is only part of the problem. If it feels like concert tickets are much more expensive than they were just a few years ago, that’s because they are. According to The Wall Street

Journal, the average concert ticket has doubled in price just in the past four years!

On popular ticket reseller Seat Geek, the average price of a concert ticket in 2019 was $125; today, the average is $252. For top-tier artists like Swift, Beyonce, and Bruce Springsteen, the average prices are significantly higher—often hundreds of dollars more.

There are many factors in the steep rise in prices. Pent-up demand during Covid shutdowns has led to more sold-out shows across all musical genres all over the country. Inflation has contributed as well. But the biggest factor has been the practices of major ticket sell- ers like Seat Geek, StubHub, and Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster is under investigation by the Department of Justice, accused of creating a monopoly. And all online ticket sellers add on significant fees to the purchase price of all tickets. But perhaps the biggest factor is the relatively new practice of dynamic pricing.

Dynamic pricing is when ticket sellers change the prices of tickets in real time based on demand, much like the way Uber prices go up in busier times and locations. As demand for a particular concert increases and tickets get rarer and rarer, algorithms instantly raise the prices, often exponentially. A normal lower bowl ticket for an upcoming concert might start at, say, $250, but as more and more tickets are sold, the tickets start to deplete. If buyers keep appearing while tickets keep disappearing, prices rise, and the price of that lower bowl ticket might now be $450. It’s not just the best seats that are affected: a normal “nosebleed” ticket, which is the farthest seat away from the stage, might have started off at $100, but is now the same price where that lower bowl ticket started. This is exactly how tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour started at $49–$450 but quickly jumped up into the thousands. When Kezra got into the queue, she was appalled to see prices over $1,000 for some of the worst seats in the building.

Camila. The book and show allow the audience to root for both of them, instead of tearing either character down.

The other members of the band are drummer Warren Rojas, bassist Eddie Roundtree, guitarist Graham Dunne, and keyboardist Karen Sirko. They each have their own personal issues and deserve the spotlight that Billy and Daisy usually hog. Some critics say that the TV show focuses too much on the love triangle, which leads to the underdevelopment of the other characters’ stories.

The costume and set design of the series is faithful to the book and recreated stunningly. Whether performing to a sold-out crowd, on Saturday Night Live, or just partying, the characters are dressed how the book describes them. The characters capture what ’70s fashion really was in their own ways. Designer Denise Wingate explained how Daisy specifically had signature looks explained in the book, her bangles, borrowed menswear, and they “couldn’t not do that” in the series. She wanted to capture that ’70s carefree look because she thought that “Daisy was a person who just wore whatever she wants.” The series also includes Billy’s denim on denim look and gives each character their own unique style catered to their personalities.

The TV show is mostly accurate, besides the fact that it completely leaves out a member of the band who is mentioned in the book. Many viewers are also unhappy with the sound of the songs, as they believe that it doesn’t really capture the essence of ’70s rock and, rather, it sounds more country. Besides this, the TV show captures each specific story of the band members excellently. Both the book and TV show are highly recommended; no matter which you decide to start with, it truly doesn’t matter because both are outstanding.

The next time you want to hear your favorite artist sing live, make sure you have some money saved up!