For many teenagers, going to a live music concert is one of the biggest highlights of their lives.
They are often their first opportunity to see one of their favorite artists and/or celebrities in person. There is nothing quite like the experience of thousands of people crowded together singing and dancing together in a joyous celebration.
According to an article by The Guardian, Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, reported its biggest year ever in 2023, in terms of both attendance and ticket sales. In its end-of-year report, the company said concert attendance was up by 20% compared to 2022, with more than 145 million fans attending more than 50,000 events.
While attendance at live concerts is up, so are complaints about the process of obtaining tickets and their rapidly rising costs. People’s views on how bad the problems are depend on how easy and expensive the tickets are.
Because of this many people have complained about ticket websites crashing or problems once potential ticket buyers make it to the payment section. The website often won’t accept their payment, causing them to have to settle for worse seats. But that’s not all. Some online scalpers use bots to buy many tickets and resell them for a much higher price than they were originally. Some ticket buyers will pay exorbitant prices because they don’t want to miss out on seeing their favorite artists live, leading them to spend much more money.
To combat these problems, U.S. senators introduced a federal bill in December called The Fan First Act. It is designed to address complaints about high fees, out-of-control prices, and deceptive selling practices. The bill would require sellers to disclose the full price of a ticket, including all fees; indicate what seat or section, and say whether the ticket being offered is original or “primary.” This bill would also help out by banning the computer bots that help online scalpers buy large numbers of tickets at once to resell later.
Ticketmaster is one of the biggest companies for purchasing tickets for concerts but even though it has been in business for more than 40 years, it still has many flaws. A lot of people struggle so much with Ticketmaster whether it’s from overpriced tickets or trying to get tickets.
Ticketmaster also likes to make “special” seats for events called “platinum tickets.” These tickets are just regular tickets with a higher price and no benefits. A lot of the time the seats in the same section or row as those platinum tickets are cheaper. This really gives no reason for those Platinum Tickets to be sold.
Ticketmaster also decided to join in doing dynamic pricing, meaning if an artist is in high demand, prices can go up and down in real time depending on the demand and the number of seats available. This means that tickets can originally be $50 but could go up without a limit depending on if a lot of people are trying to go to that same area in the concert venue.
Not everyone has a bad experience with attending concerts, according to an online survey by The Eagle’s Eye.
Respondents to the survey, which included both students and staff, wrote that they did not have a bad experience with getting tickets or ticket prices. One of the lowest ticket prices a student said they obtained was $15 to see User Unauthorized. They wrote that they had a great experience at the concert.
Some other students said they paid $30-$80 for a ticket and also had a great experience. One of the students paid $65 for the ticket which was General Admission, and they were able to get in the front row. However, some of the respondents indicated that they did not pay for the tickets themselves or they were either invited to attend with someone else.
Some students said they bought two tickets to see Tomorrow X Together at the Act: Sweet Mirage Tour for the San Antonio the Day 2 stop and paid $269 per ticket. The tickets were the original price and the seats were on the third floor. They wrote that when they got to the venue and got to their seats they were able to see the whole stage but the screens were a line they were not able to see nothing on the screens they got curious and decided to look on Ticketmaster and see if they could find some cheaper tickets or at least closer down and they found some tickets closer to first floor for $298 each and they were able to get them, they had a great view of the stage and were much closer than they thought.
They also just recently bought tickets for the same group in Houston and they said they struggled to get tickets. Not only were the tickets hard to obtain but were really pricey. They said that floor tickets close to the stage which were “VIP 1” were $600 but they saw that for other people in other ticket spots ranged from $600-$800 for VIP 1 and some stops were not seated. Some seated were around $1,000 some were even around $1,300 per ticket.
