Back within the Nineties, Pearl Jam famously sued Ticketmaster in an unsuccessful effort to rein within the runaway prices of attending a live performance. These days, many are elevating the identical considerations — like Doc McGhee, Kiss’ longtime supervisor. In the late Seventies, when he was a younger man on the rock scene, prime concert tickets price $10 to $11 (or about $50 to $55 in right this moment’s {dollars}). Last yr, in line with Pollstar, the trade commerce that displays touring, the typical ticket worth had soared to round $132. That’s a rise of 38 p.c simply since 2019, after they price a relatively inexpensive $96.17. “It’s up to us,” McGhee says. “Until people say, ‘We’re not going,’ the prices are going up.”
This summer season, that seems to be true. Entry to one in all Harry Styles’ 30 dates at Madison Square Garden might price you as a lot as $1,000; Alan Jackson’s sold-out touring finale at a Nashville stadium is prompting scalper costs of greater than $5,000.
Industry veterans say that sky-high ticket costs are because of three key components: provide and demand, as mirrored within the controversial apply of dynamic pricing; rampant scalping; and one dominant firm, Live Nation, controlling each income, together with beer, meals, parking, and Ticketmaster service charges, at its 61 amphitheaters and greater than 200 different venues in North America. Many hoped the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2024 antitrust lawsuit would break up the world’s greatest promoter, however a March 9 settlement suggests that’s unlikely to occur.
(In court docket, Live Nation disputed almost each criticism made by sources on this story. “There is no evidence in the record that Live Nation or Ticketmaster drives higher ticket prices or that breaking up the company would lower them,” Dan Wall, the corporate’s government vp of company and regulatory affairs, says in a press release to RS. “If the DOJ or states had credible evidence, they would have presented it. They haven’t. After years of investigation and access to extensive data, there is still nothing tying our structure to higher prices.”)
The Justice Department settlement, which requires Live Nation to divest from 13 amphitheaters with which it has unique reserving agreements, amongst different issues, “isn’t even significant enough to call it a slap on the wrist,” says Stephen Parker, government director of the National Independent Venue Association. Because the settlement is “virtually nothing” and “has no teeth,” provides a prime promoter, costs and charges are nearly sure to maintain rising.
Even the largest stars are sometimes powerless to vary this method, as Taylor Swift found on the Eras Tour. What’s extra, Live Nation ticketing staff appeared dismissive of consumers after they joked in inside messages about followers who’re “so stupid” that the corporate was “robbing them blind baby,” in reference to excessive parking and VIP-package prices. (In court docket, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino known as these messages “disgusting” and “not the way we operate.”)
John Scher, a New York promoter who has competed with the corporate for a long time, claims that Live Nation strategically raises presents to artists for taking part in its personal summer season amphitheaters, somewhat than arenas the place competing promoters can e book exhibits. “If they play indoors, they have a choice of [second-biggest promoter] AEG, or an independent like me,” Scher says. “But Live Nation will say to acts, ‘If you wait and start the tour in April, we’ll pay you $350,000’ — and many of them say, ‘Fine.’”
‘Legalized exploitation of fans’
In a separate lawsuit, filed by the Federal Trade Commission in opposition to Live Nation and Ticketmaster final September, a central difficulty was “illegal ticket-resale tactics,” by which Live Nation reportedly invited scalpers to make use of bots to crowd followers out of on-sale queues.
“The price will not change until we stop this legalized exploitation of fans,” says Randy Nichols, a board member for the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), which represents brokers and managers for greater than 5,000 acts. “Fans will pay less money when bots stop buying all the tickets and marking up the price.”
Bills presently pending in New York, California, and different states might cap resale costs, doubtlessly permitting artists to set their very own face-value costs and guaranteeing followers don’t should pay rather more than that — one thing that hasn’t been true since StubHub revolutionized the scalping enterprise within the early 2000s. (For years, Ticketmaster itself has additionally resold tickets to its personal exhibits on-line.) “New York has been at this for a long time, and California just introduced a price cap,” says Nathaniel Marro, NITO’s government director. “There’s really hope here.”
Fielding Logan, head of touring for administration firm Q Prime South, which represents artists like Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, and the Brothers Osborne, disagrees with the prediction of upper charges because of Live Nation’s company dominance. “I can unequivocally say that is not going to make a whit of difference to ticket prices,” he says. “What makes a difference to ticket prices is there are more people who want to attend said show than there are tickets available at those prices.”
But John Kwoka, a Northeastern University economics professor who makes a speciality of antitrust, thinks that provide and demand aren’t sufficient to clarify what’s taking place. “I’m one of the economists who’ve argued you need to break up some companies,” he says. “[Live Nation] is one of the companies that proves that.”
