Why Concert Tickets Are So Expensive
Over the past decade, the average ticket price for the top 100 North American tours has increased 55% to $94.83
Concert tickets are more expensive than ever and fans seem more than willing to pay the price.
The Rolling Stones had the highest-grossing tour across North America this year, raking in $177.8 million, according to trade magazine Pollstar. Though the British rock band played just 16 dates, a hefty price tag—tickets averaged $226.61 a pop—helped the group top the list.
Nine of the 10 highest-grossing concert tours this year had average ticket prices above $100, Pollstar reported. Over the past decade, the average ticket price for the top 100 North American tours has increased 55% to $94.83. The average gross per show more than doubled over the decade to $958,000.
The run-up comes as artists are relying more on touring for income, promoters have smartened up about pricing, and as ticketing companies are offering new technology to squeeze out scalpers and make more money the first time a ticket is sold. The high prices have caught the attention of the U.S. government, which has investigated concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc. over its market power.
The boom in the live-events business fills a gap in many artists’ revenue streams. As piracy decimated recorded music sales starting in the early 2000s, artists began to rely on touring, ever more so in the past decade. Live shows account for some 75% of musicians’ income, compared with around 30% in the 1980s and 1990s, according to analysis by Alan Krueger, a Princeton University economist who died this year.
Among other things, artists and promoters are now more apt to sell their best seats for what the market will bear, something they avoided in the past either for fear of being perceived as taking advantage of loyal fans or because they didn’t know how much the public would be willing to pay.
“You have some artists who want to get the price for the ticket that consumers are willing to pay,” said David Goldberg, a former ticketing executive and now senior adviser to the growth-investing arm of private-equity firm TPG.
The shift in music consumption from physical and digital download sales to streaming has fueled the trend. Streaming—which now accounts for 80% of recorded-music consumption in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music—is helping artists reach more fans faster in markets around the world.
As artists have become more reliant on their live business, focus has turned to maximizing the income from concerts. Ticketing companies have introduced new technology to prevent scalpers from snapping up swaths of tickets and reselling them for a markup on sites like eBay Inc. ’s StubHub, which recently was sold to Geneva-based Viagogo Entertainment Inc. for $4.05 billion. Such measures have helped artists capture some of the value that traditionally has flowed into the $10 billion resale market.
Airline-style dynamic pricing, offered by Live Nation subsidiary Ticketmaster and others, makes it possible to change the list prices at any time or automatically adjust them up or down based on demand.
Promoters, meanwhile, have been pricing seats higher—particularly the most desirable ones, such as those at the front of the house—and collecting more on VIP packages like meet-and-greets and merchandise that get tacked onto tickets. Taking another page from airlines’ playbooks, Live Nation has begun charging more for aisle seats at some shows—labeling them “premium aisle seats” and collecting as much as $30 more a piece.
The concert giant ended 2018 with $10.79 billion in revenue, up 11% from the prior year. Its Ticketmaster subsidiary holds an estimated 80% of the ticketing market, according to people in the concert industry.
On a subsequent analyst call, Mr. Rapino said concert tickets are still “very affordable.”
“We believe the ticket is completely still underpriced,” he said, pointing to the still-robust secondary market. “We’ll make progress with the artists to keep pricing it better.”
The Justice Department last week reached an agreement with Live Nation following allegations the company sought to strong-arm concert venues into using Ticketmaster. Live Nation denied the allegations, according to a court filing, but agreed to conditions requested by the Justice Department.
The department believes Live Nation’s conduct has violated the terms under which the government allowed the top concert promoter to merge with the dominant ticket seller in 2010. That agreement, known as a consent decree, forbid Live Nation from forcing venues that want to book the concert promoter’s tours to use Ticketmaster for those shows, and from retaliating when venues choose to use a ticketing competitor instead—conditions designed to keep consumer prices in check by preserving competition in the live-event market.
As ticket prices have risen, critics have questioned whether the settlement has worked as intended.
The new agreement will extend those conditions through 2025, and make it easier for the government to investigate and punish Live Nation for violations.
Corrections & Amplifications
The average gross per show more than doubled over the past decade to $958,000. An earlier version of the story incorrectly put the figure at $958 million. (Dec. 26, 2019)