CONCERT HAULS
Ticket prices double, at minimum, as industry rakes in record amounts
The concert industry is bigger than it’s ever been — and for the top stars’ concerts, ticket prices are, too.
If you want to see folk-pop sensation Noah Kahan at Alpine Valley Music Theatre July 13, you’ll have to pay $359.50 for a ticket, or more than $300 for a resale seat through StubHub for lawn access in the back of the outdoor East Troy venue.
In February 2023, when Kahan headlined the Miller High Life Theatre in Milwaukee, tickets only cost $32.50 for general-admission seating. And at Summerfest last June, you could have seen him with a $26 Summerfest general-admission ticket — or for free if you took advantage of a promo deal.
Zach Bryan also played Summerfest last year, at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater.
Tickets, which included festival admission July 7, ranged from $68.17 to $476.70. But the starting prices for remaining tickets for Bryan’s Fiserv Forum concert just eight months later, on March 20, start at $330.
And then there’s Olivia Rodrigo.
For the 21-year-old’s “Guts” tour stop at Fiserv Forum Saturday, access codes were required to purchase tickets. Those who weren’t randomly selected to get the codes either had to skip the show or buy them through resale sites — where they start at $201 for an obstructed-view seat through reseller Vivid Seats, and $781 for pit access.
When Rodrigo played the Eagles Ballroom at the Rave in 2022, resale tickets for the general-admission show started at around $189.
“If there’s a limited supply, people have a fear of missing out and want to buy those tickets,” said Ga
ILUSTRATION BY RICK KONOPKA/USA TODAY NETWORK; AND GETTY IMAGES
ry Witt, CEO of Milwaukee venue operator and events promoter Pabst Theater Group. “People have shown they will spend a significant amount of money on artists they want to see.”
And many of the most popular artists, capitalizing on that demand and to cover their own rising costs, are becoming increasingly comfortable with charging a premium.
Concert industry broke records
The concert industry had a record box-office haul in 2023. The top 100 tours worldwide made $9.17 billion, according to concert trade magazine Pollstar, a 46% increase from 2022. Ticket sales for the top 100 tours were up 18.4% according to Pollstar, and the average number of tickets sold for the biggest shows increased 24.25%.
“Live experiences already held a big value with our patrons and artists and fans. Coming out of the pandemic, it’s even more so now,” said Charlie Goldstone, co-president of Madison-based, Live Nation-backed promoter FPC Live, which is behind Rodrigo’s show in Milwaukee.
Average ticket prices are higher, too, up 23.3%, from $106.07 to $130.81, Pollstar reported.
As a result, concert ticketing has come under more scrutiny.
The backlash was so harsh over ticket price increases for Bruce Springsteen’s 2023 tour that long-running Springsteen tribute magazine Backstreets shut down in protest. And the ticket-buying process for the first dates of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” last year was such a fiasco that it triggered a congressional hearing.
But Springsteen and Swift are veteran artists with deep, treasured discographies. Sky-high prices and unprecedented demand weren’t all that surprising, especially coming out of the concert-crushing pandemic.
What’s happening with Kahan, Bryan and Rodrigo is more unexpected. All three are newer artists who have all been on multiple tours, and have played other Milwaukee concerts since 2020.
That tickets are so hard to come by, and for prices to rise so steeply, is a staggering development.
“Artists are creating new fans every month and new superstars are created every year,” Goldstone said. “Fans will go to a show, have an amazing time, and want to go to more shows.”
Rodrigo and Bryan helped fuel that demand with new albums ahead of their returns to Milwaukee. Both of their albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and generated No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kahan is still touring in support of his 2022 album “Stick Season,” but since his Summerfest show he’s released two expanded versions of the album, and collaborative songs with Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, Hozier and even Bryan. His Summerfest show was one of the most packed performances ever on a grounds stage at the festival — with many of those fans, and those who missed out, behind heavy sales for the Alpine concert.
“If you don’t get tickets to a Bucks playoff game, you can watch at home or a sports bar and be with other big fans,” said FPC Live co-president Scott Leslie. “People have a different kind of relationship with artists than other entertainers. Whether it’s the lyrical connection or whatever else, it’s individual for everybody, and where the demand comes from is being in the room with them for those two hours. That is not something that is able to be replaced, and that is why demand is so much crazier.”
Spending habits, rising costs
In addition to pandemic concert deprivation fueling demand, Witt suspects spending habits are shifting, too.
“The average home buyer age is 49 vs. the average age of a buyer being 31 in 2008,” Witt noted. “Quite a few people of those age groups in the past that used to save are not saving those dollars. … Concerts are very much a place where people are putting some money they used to save to buy their first home.
“The high demand creates a surge and, of course, there’s a limited supply.”
And ticket demand has become so great for the Swifts and Springsteens of the world — and even the Rodrigos and Bryans and Kahans — that satisfying it is difficult.
“Touring is hard physically, touring is hard logistically, it’s hard mentally,” Goldstone said. “Taylor Swift could have done 10 times as many shows and they’d sell out, but people have limits of what can be physically done, and that creates scarcity and, with that, the price increases.”
“No artist can work seven days a week,” Leslie echoed. “Everyone needs nights off, and there are costs associated by the tour that accrue on nights off.”
The costs that go into a show are higher, too, Witt said.
“It costs more to lease a bus now, it costs more to put artists on the road, hotel prices are more — in addition to a greater amount of technology on the road, more than ever before,” he said.
Artists have a hand in higher ticket prices
But tickets for many top-tier concerts are also going up because artists want them to go up, said Dave Brooks, senior director of live and touring for Billboard.
“Tours are finding out that they can charge more,” he said. “Fans are willing to pay more for high-demand shows. They are willing to pay more for the artists that they like and want to see, and they really value that experience.”
“In a lot of cases, if (the artists) don’t charge what the market will bear, it just creates an opportunity for scalpers,” he continued. “Any artist that can outsell demand is going to push prices.”
That was Springsteen’s justification when he was asked about ticket price increases by Rolling Stone magazine last year.
“The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money,” Springsteen suggested if he continued pricing tickets “under market value” as he had in the past. “I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’”
Affordable concert options
Brooks predicted that there’ll be an elite tier of artists — perhaps as many as 30 — for whom high demand will continue to push up ticket prices.
But he also predicted “a much larger middle tier that will be more in tune with people’s sensitivities with pricing.”
“Most of the shows don’t sell out,” Goldstone said. “Most of the shows that happen are not in the biggest venues in town. Most are at smaller venues where ticket prices are more affordable.”
To emphasize that point, the Pabst Theater Group last year started promoting shows on a special “Tickets Under $30” webpage. Veteran local concert promoter and Shank Hall owner Peter Jest makes sure there are options for two tickets to sell for $100, fees included, for theater shows he’s promoting.
And then sometimes music fans can get lucky and save money on a big concert. When tickets initially went on sale for Travis Scott’s Fiserv Forum show in January, tickets started at $56.50. But sales were sluggish, and prices for those cheapest seats dropped $20 by the morning of the show. One resale ticket was priced as low as $18.
The best tickets for “a class of artists will be expensive and, unfortunately, not everybody as a fan will afford that …” Goldstone said. “Ultimately, we all want to get the most amount of people in a room. The ultimate goal is making sure tickets are priced so that happens.”
What goes into the price?
Why does a concert ticket for a major artist cost what it costs anyway?
Contrary to some beliefs, ticket sellers like oft-maligned Ticketmaster don’t set the price, FPC Live’s Goldstone said. The artists’ teams do, although Billboard’s Brooks said Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers can use algorithmic pricing tools, like dynamic pricing, “to incentivize artists to charge more.”
“The lion’s share of the money (from a sold ticket) goes to the artist, but it doesn’t all go to the artist’s bank account … ,” FPC Live’s Leslie said. “They have expenses, too, from semi-truck rentals to bus rentals to drivers to crew members.”
Artist payments make up the base for the ticket price. But often there are fees — increasingly figured into a ticket’s price upfront — that generally amount to a 20% to 30% surcharge, Brooks said. The ticket seller collects a small part of that surcharge, but most of it goes to the venue and the promoter to cover the physical cost of the concert.
But who gets what from a concert isn’t always clear cut, Brooks said. That’s especially the case when the players might include Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter and venue operator; Live Nation-supported, independently operated promoters, like FPC Live; and Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticket seller, which Live Nation owns.
In a lot of cases, Brooks said, promoters might get rebates from concert venue fees to incentivize more bookings. And “from the money that goes to the artist, the artist might pay 5% to 10% to the promoter for certain services,” Brooks said. “And the venue has its hand in the artist’s money by charging artists to sell their merch.”
“So everybody’s got their hands in each other’s pockets, and that drives the ticket price up,” Brooks said.
With Live Nation coming under increased scrutiny, Brooks believes a primary objective for the company now is to “clean that up.”