Why have concerts become so expensive?

Controversy over the exorbitant prices of concert tickets is now an everyday occurrence. The latest involves Lady Gaga, who will perform in Italy at the Forum in Assago, near Milan, on October 19 and 20, 2025. The tickets, officially on sale from 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 3 (with a presale the day before for Mastercard holders only), sold out within minutes. By 12:08 p.m., both dates were already sold out, but judging by fans' comments on social media, what happened is far from being considered a clear-cut success. The general discontent is precisely due to the excessively high ticket prices. To give an idea, a standard standing parterre ticket cost €190.90 – plus fees.

Ticket prices – divided into as many as eighteen categories – for the Italian stops of Lady Gaga's tour ranged from a minimum of €64.40 for the worst seat (6th numbered section), to a maximum of €711.15 for the VIP Hospitality Package, essentially the capitalist equivalent of Willy Wonka's golden ticket, which, in addition to entry, offers various "special services" (such as access to a pre-show lounge area and various types of merchandise). The base prices were already much higher than the average at the Forum: for comparison, a standing parterre ticket for Nick Cave in October 2024 cost €60 plus fees, while here it's more than triple that amount. But that’s not all: what really caused outrage was the introduction of so-called “platinum” tickets, sold “based on their market value,” meaning double the price of standard tickets. To clarify, if a ticket for the 1st numbered section cost €231, a platinum ticket for the same section cost €460. These are not VIP tickets, but tickets identical in every way to the standard ones: simply put, once the “regular” tickets sell out, those willing to pay more can buy the remaining ones at a marked-up price. If you're thinking this sounds like a legalized scam, you're not far from the truth.

What is dynamic pricing

A few months ago, dynamic pricing enraged millions of Oasis fans ahead of their scheduled reunion in the UK this summer. In that case too, the starting ticket prices were clearly too high: according to the BBC, the last time Oasis played Wembley Stadium in 2009, a parterre ticket cost £44.04. For their return, however, the same ticket was sold for £150, a much higher figure than what would be considered a fair inflation-adjusted price. The application of dynamic pricing then further worsened the situation, sparking a major controversy. Essentially, it's a mechanism for recalculating ticket prices based on demand, similar to the system used for plane tickets or hotel rates during peak season. The more in demand a ticket is, the higher its price. This meant that those who queued up to buy Oasis tickets found themselves, after waiting, facing a price that had tripled compared to the initial one. Lady Gaga's platinum ticket system isn’t conceptually very different from this – except that instead of being recalculated in real-time based on actual queue numbers, the “increased market price” was set in advance, considering the huge mismatch between available seats and her number of fans.

Believe it or not, the official reason behind the introduction of these systems is precisely to combat the uncontrolled rise in ticket prices, which are often resold today for thousands of euros through so-called secondary ticketing – or online scalping. The twisted logic of this system is simple: to prevent prices from rising exorbitantly on the secondary market, they increase them exorbitantly at the official source. As we know, market self-regulation – much like Goya’s sleep of reason – sometimes produces monsters. Proof of this is the fact that in the United States, thanks to dynamic pricing, tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s concerts have been sold for as much as $5,000 through official channels. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the artist explained that most tickets were in an “affordable price range,” but he was tired of scalpers profiting off of him, so he chose to match their prices. Other artists like Robert Smith and, more recently, Neil Young have firmly opposed these kinds of mechanisms. Regardless of dynamic pricing, platinum tickets, and secondary ticketing, the unanimous opinion is that concerts are too expensive nowadays. Is it true? Unfortunately, for certain types of concerts, yes.

What the statistics tell us

Before the so-called Lady Gaga Gate, there were similar controversies over Madonna's 2023 Italian tour, where the starting prices were even higher (almost €300 for a parterre). After all, there has always been a difference between the major international pop stars and "everyone else." Speaking of Madonna, one famous moment was Kurt Cobain’s stunned reaction during a 1993 interview when he was told that tickets to see the singer could cost between $50 and $75, while for the Nirvana, who were already the most important rock band in the world at the time, tickets were only $17. According to data collected by Pollstar – a publication specialized in live music – in 1996, the average ticket price for the top 100 world tours was $25.81, which is around $52 today when adjusted for inflation. In 2024, the average price has soared to $135.92. The biggest increases occurred especially after the Covid-19 pandemic: according to Pollstar’s data, ticket prices rose by 23% in 2023, after already increasing by 19% between the pandemic and 2022. Ultimately, going to a concert today can cost as much as a short vacation, and prices keep rising. According to a study conducted in the United Kingdom, two-thirds of concertgoers aged 16 to 34 say they’ve reduced the number of shows they attend precisely because of high ticket prices. 

But what’s driving these exorbitant prices?

On one hand, there are objective and justified economic reasons; on the other, there are more opaque and speculative ones hiding behind the former. Certainly, large-scale tours are now much more expensive than in the past. According to Matt Grimes, lecturer in music and radio industry at Birmingham City University, one of the main causes of these increases is the long tail of the 2020 lockdown: «When Covid shut down tours, many industry professionals were forced to find new jobs, and not all returned when lockdowns were lifted,» the expert explains. «This led to a staffing shortage in the touring sector, with those remaining able to charge more for their services.» Moreover, many industry experts point out that the rising cost of energy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has heavily impacted overall tour expenses.

In addition to these so-called “legitimate” causes, there’s the delicate issue of the specific oligopoly situation and conflicts of interest involving the concert organizers and ticket resellers. In Italy, the live event industry is dominated by two major international groups: Live Nation and Eventim. These two massive multinationals not only organize concerts and manage various world-famous artists, but they also own the two main ticketing platforms. In 2007, Eventim acquired TicketOne, while in 2010, Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster. As a result, these two giants set the rules, leaving little room for independent competitors. Finally, there’s an issue related to the artists’ revenue streams, as today they are forced to increase concert and merchandise prices to compensate for the natural decline in album sales in the streaming era. Members of so-called Gen Z are not used to paying to “own” music at home, as music has always been available online, free or nearly so, for their entire lives. They are, however, mentally more inclined to pay for a concert, especially if it’s an exclusive event. This is also why high-priced tours still manage to sell out. Concert pricing could not remain this high without adequate demand. This is partly due to the so-called “stan” culture – diehard fans willing to pay any amount just to see their idols live.

The very concept of fandom has changed: fans have always existed, but social media has amplified some toxic elements. Swearing loyalty to your favorite artist is now visible to everyone, which is why it's almost more important to show you had the experience than to simply have lived it. This only fuels consumerism and the race for the best concert spots to extreme levels: the best tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, for example, on resale sites reached prices of up to $200,000 – enough to pay college tuition or buy a house. If people are really willing to pay those amounts, it’s clear that without more regulations, the big concert market is becoming a rich people’s game. Unsurprisingly, some artists – including Swift herself – have started filming their stadium tours and releasing them in cinemas, so that fans with smaller budgets can still enjoy the experience, or at least a version of it. Of course, it's worth noting that this entire discussion mainly concerns the so-called big names, but there are still many concerts by great artists, maybe less trendy, sold at affordable prices. The British platform Dice, for instance, has been promoting since 2014 concerts by critically acclaimed but less mainstream artists at ultra-competitive prices, usually ranging from 15 to 20 or at most 30 euros. They’re generally not sold out because they don’t generate as much hype, but they offer a more intimate experience and literally a “closer” connection to the artist.