The Affordability of Live Music
Introduction
In a post-lockdown world, live music has allowed people the opportunity to reconnect with their communities, and year-by-year attendance is steadily rising. Concert attendance rose by 20 percent compared to 2022, with total revenue rising by 36 percent overall according to Live Nation.[1] However, an increase in live music event attendance has been accompanied by a major increase in concert ticket prices, leaving them inaccessible to thousands.
There are many theories as to why the cost of concert tickets has significantly increased, the most well-known being Ticketmaster. With Ticketmaster acting as a main ticketing vendor worldwide, many people hold generally antagonistic views towards the entertainment giant for their business practices. They feel certain that a single company is to blame for concert tickets becoming largely unaffordable for the average person.
According to Pollstar, concert tickets have seen an overall 27.38% increase in cost since 2019.[2] This data also showcases a worldwide increase in concert ticket pricing, with the average ticket costs ranging from $40.80 at club venues, to $124.47 at stadiums.
Figure 1: Concert Ticket Costs from 2019 to 2023
Most notably, stadiums have the highest increase in cost, showing a 35% increase in tickets from 2019-2023, which can be attributed to an overwhelming post-lockdown demand for live music events. This demand was driven by artists such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who held record-breaking stadium tours in 2023; Beyoncé’s tour generated $4.5 billion for the economy, while Swift’s tour helped to increase hotel revenue across the United States.[3]
There are a number of contributing factors that have led to increased concert tickets prices and a lack of accessibility. This article will examine where people are attending concerts, how much the average person has to work to afford a concert ticket, and what factors have contributed to concert tickets becoming increasingly expensive.
Overview
Concert ticket pricing is at an all-time high, but so is concert attendance. Live Nation cited attendance for their events rose 4% from 2023 to 2024, with a total of 151 million people attending Live Nation events in 2024.[4] According to Pollstar, the top 10 tours of 2023 brought in a total of $2.7 billion in profit.[5] Here’s a quick breakdown of the tours:
Figure 2 – Top 10 North American Gross Income (2023)
The artists included in 2023’s top 10 tours are from the pop, hip-hop, country, rock, and Latin sectors. However, 2023 was completely dominated by two artists: Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour accounted for nearly half of all gross profit from the top 10 tours combined. Collectively, all 10 tours had 335 shows across North America, and despite the fact that the Eras Tour and Renaissance Tour combined only made up 26% of those, they managed to generate almost half of the gross income of these tours.The revenue generated was purely the buying power of both artists.
To What Lengths Are People Willing to Go for Live Music?
After COVID lockdowns ended, people wanted live music. However, the sheer demand for tickets created a competitive landscape for obtaining them and made many people question how much they were able and willing to pay to see their favorite artists in concert.
Fans appear to be willing to splurge when it comes to concerts. When Innerbody surveyed 850 people across three generations, they found that on average, most people were willing to spend $1,028.33 on floor seats to see their favorite artist live.[6]Additionally, 42.8% of respondents said they would be willing to travel up to 500 miles to see their favorite artist live. If a fan lives in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, this could mean traveling as far as Montreal, Canada, or just outside Atlanta for a concert.
Figure 3 – Concert Distance Map
Traveling for concerts isn’t an uncommon practice. In a study of 31 tours in the United States, Upgraded Points found that the top 10 most popular cities for concerts host 40.5% of all shows in the U.S.[7] That’s 413 shows per year at some of America’s most popular tour stops.
Figure 4 – Top Cities for Concerts in the United States
New York City sees the most live music performances, hosting 89 shows from the most popular 2023 to mid 2024 tours.[8] On the West Coast, Los Angeles isn’t far behind, with 70 shows per year, followed by Chicago (43 shows per year) and Atlanta (39 shows per year). One of the factors that can change ticket pricing is location, which varies in the United States depending on what city a fan resides in.
Figure 5 – Average Concert Ticket Price in Top Ten Cities
New York has the most expensive average ticket price at $231.06. The city that never sleeps also gets the most concerts per year and has the largest metropolitan population in the United States. Nationwide, however, people should be prepared to dish out an average of around $150 per ticket for a live event.
If a fan lives in a concert hotspot, convenience comes at the sacrifice of ticket cost. Using these top ten cities as a guideline, this article will dissect what exactly it takes for the average American to attend a concert and what factors have contributed.
How Much Labor Goes Into Buying a Concert Ticket?
According to a study by USA Today, the average American spends about 260 days a year working.[9] This means just under a quarter of a year (23.74%) is spent working to earn a salary. Each hour is worth something different depending on where someone lives, and this ultimately determines how much work is required to afford a live music event.
Figure 6 – Pay Per One Day of Labor
According to Census Reporter data, this graph demonstrates how much money is made from one day of labor in America’s top ten touring cities.[10] The average American works 8 hours daily, resulting in a total of about 2080 hours a year. But not all eight hours are created equal—eight hours of labor in Seattle, WA is worth over double the same amount of labor in Phoenix, AZ. When graphing both Census Reporter data and Upgraded Points data, the disparity in the average ticket cost versus the average pay for one day of labor is made evident.
Figure 7 – Pay for One Day of Labor vs. Average Ticket Cost
The rows in which the yellow line exceeds the blue indicate cities where a concert ticket costs more than one day of labor. While income has remained rather stagnant due to inflation rates, the cost of concerts has continued to rise.
Figure 8 – Days of Labor Required to Purchase Average Concert Ticket
The average amount of labor required to purchase a ticket varies city to city. In both New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA, the average fan needs to work 9.44 hours. In Chicago, IL and Dallas, TX, people need to work a total of 8.56 hours. In Miami, FL the minimum is 7.04 hours; in Boston, MA it is 6.24 hours; in Atlanta, GA the minimum is 5.84 hours; in Denver, CO it is 5.52 hours; in Phoenix, AZ it is 5.44 hours and Seattle, WA is the lowest of the 10 cities, with a minimum of 5.28 hours.
The average amount of labor required is about 7.12 hours, meaning it takes almost one full day of labor to attend shows in America’s most populated cities. In 4 out of 10 touring cities, more than one day of work is required to purchase a concert ticket. With most concerts lasting anywhere between 1 to 3 hours, this number represents a disproportionate relationship between the cost of live music and the income of the average American.
Additional Costs
When attending a concert, very rarely is a concert ticket the only cost for a consumer. There are an assortment of costs accrued, especially when traveling for a show. According to Upgraded Points data, the five common associated costs are as follows:[11]
Food & Beverage: The most common secondary cost when it comes to live music events, with almost 3/4 of people (70.9%) saying they accrue expenses on venue food and drinks when attending a concert.
Travel: 48.2% of people reported being willing to travel between 100 and 500 miles to see their favorite artist live, with 48.9% of people saying travel is a common secondary expense when attending live music events.
Accommodation: Going hand in hand with travel expenses, about half (48.5%) of respondents said accommodation expenses were also accrued when attending live music events.
Merchandise: Around a third (32.0%) of respondents said they purchase memorabilia when attending a concert. T-shirts, sweatshirts, posters, bags, keychains—the possibilities are endless!
Transportation: Transportation to and from venues is a cost that around a third (30.6%) of people accumulate when attending live music events. Fans often use rideshares such as Uber and Lyft, and for those who do drive, parking costs can hike up to around $80 USD, depending on location.[12]
Figure 9 – Total Cost of Attending a Concert in Top Touring Cities
This chart displays the total accumulated costs of traveling to attend a concert in America’s top touring cities. Notably, in all top ten cities, accommodation is around 40% of total expenses.
Music Industry Insights
Clayton Durant, Adjunct Professor of Music Business at NYU, and Chelsea De Jesus, Booking Coordinator at Live Nation, offered their insights on what factors have contributed to the cost of live music skyrocketing. Both experts helped to raise attention to some of the contributing factors that have flown largely under the radar.
According to both experts, the three main factors that have played into the increase of ticket costs were inflation, supply and demand, and most notably, streaming.
When asked about what touring costs might go undervalued by the general public, De Jesus says that it can be easy for fans to underestimate the sheer costs of holding a tour for a performing artist, stating, “We’re all just busy bees trying to make one big thing come to fruition. Obviously, the impetus is the artists or their deal. But you’re paying for everything down to the person picking up the trash at the venue,” [13]
Both professionals cited the cost of touring combined with post-lockdown inflation to be the first reason for the increased cost of live music. Inflation rose 23.3% from 2019 to 2024, whereas the average cost of a concert ticket in North America rose 43.89%, almost double the inflation rate.[14]
Figure 10 – Cost of An Average Ticket from 2019 to 2024
While inflation has largely contributed to rising ticket prices, touring is inherently expensive, and as a result, there are many additional costs that have increased due to inflation. Costs that the average consumer may be unaware of include gas, transportation, physical labor, and the cost of equipment. De Jesus noted that, in addition, artists traveling internationally or even across state lines are faced with both state taxes and visa expenses that increase touring costs.[15] Simple costs like these can create a bottom-up effect that ultimately increases the price of tickets.
According to De Jesus, a largely underestimated cost of touring is the pure physical labor required to put on a stadium-sized production.[16] From the lighting riggers to the tour bus drivers, bigger productions require ample amounts of manpower. Each of the people working these jobs also requires health insurance and accident insurance, in addition to accommodation and food costs. As a Booking Coordinator, De Jesus has observed that the post-lockdown demand for tours has become higher than ever, allowing workers to simply charge more, and this has created a domino-like effect that ultimately reaches consumers.
The second cited factor that has significantly contributed to the rise in ticket costs is the supply and demand in the post-lockdown live music landscape. In November 2022, Ticketmaster hosted a presale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and anticipated around 1.5 million fans would attempt to purchase tickets.[17] Instead, they faced the demand of around 14 million fans, causing the website to crash.
After facing potential legal trouble when Taylor Swift fans threatened to sue for the November ticketing catastrophe,[18] parent company Live Nation issued a company apology explaining that the increase in ticket costs isn’t completely on them—there simply aren’t enough tickets to go around.[19] To fulfill this demand, Taylor Swift would have had to perform 900 stadium shows, making the demand 536.9% more than the available tickets for the tour.[20] Consequently, this kind of demand creates a profitable resale market, because people are willing to pay increasingly lofty prices for tickets on the secondary market to see their favorite artists live.
When asked about why the demand has soared, De Jesus noted, “I do think that with the age of the internet and this concept of ‘experiential posting’, attending a concert to say that you were there… it became this new vast demand where it became almost an exclusive experience to be able to go to the shows that would normally be accessible to the day to day fan.”[21]
Streaming: The Silent Killer
The third and most consequential factor the professors listed as a killer of affordable live music was the streaming era. The fact of the matter is, the streaming era has been a blessing for consumers but a curse for the business. Streaming royalties make artists considerably less amounts of money than physical sales, and is the primary form of music consumption today.[22]
From cassette tapes to CDs and vinyl, purchasing physical music for consumption has been uncommon since platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music entered the scene. The subscription model has enabled one of the best consumer deals in the world, shared Durant.[23] In the present day, one person pays $9.99 a month for access to more music than they could ever listen to within that time, which he cites as “a much better economic deal for recorded music.”[24]
However, this has caused the value of recorded music to plummet. Purchasing a song on iTunes used to cost around $0.99 per track, and in the present day, the average stream generates about $0.004 in profit according to Ditto Music. [25] While the payout for the average stream can vary and is dependent on multiple factors, it is clear that streaming has not been as profitable as physical sales. This has resulted in many artists seeking to make up for the loss in profit on the touring side.
While the rising cost of concert tickets can be attributed to a number of factors, Durant believes that, ultimately, live music has become unaffordable because of the streaming era.[26]
Naturally, the everyday consumer may not be concerned with the profitability of the songs they listen to, though many are aware that artists make mere pennies from a handful of streams. Music streaming services have seemingly created convenience for the consumer, but yet another hurdle for the music business to overcome—and the answer, for many, lies within live music.
Conclusion
Since as early as 2010, people have openly expressed antagonistic views of Ticketmaster; simply put, the company’s service fees and ticketing algorithm have been widely disliked by concertgoers throughout the years.[27]Many people have a less-than-favorable opinion of the ticketing platform, which has maintained control over around 80% of the ticketing industry for almost 30 years.[28] Since their merger with Live Nation in 2010, Ticketmaster has made it difficult for new companies to emerge as potential competitors.[29] As a result, both companies have been accused of utilizing monopolistic practices behind the scenes, which many consumers believe is the root cause of increasing ticket prices.[30] However, the truth is that the ever-rising cost of concert tickets can also be caused by a perfect storm of external factors.
“[People] want music, but they look at music as a utility and not as a consumer product,” said Durant, emphasizing the devaluing of music as a product throughout the digital age. He implies that many believe they have the right to consume music at no personal cost to them, but provides the reminder that artists and their teams are also people trying to make a living.
“Consumers can’t have the best economic deal in the history of recorded music on the streaming and the music consumption side, but then also get cheap tickets. It just can’t go both ways.” [31] With this quote, Durant leaves consumers with an important question to reflect on: Is the public willing to revert to the era of $30 albums and eradicate the convenience of streaming for the sake of affordable live music? Or are they willing to make do with the current state of live music to balance out the changes that have come with the streaming era?
[1] Caitlin Huston, “Live Nation Says Concert Attendance Rose 20 Percent Year-over-Year as Revenue Soars,” The Hollywood Reporter, February 22, 2024, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/live-nation-concert-attendance-revenue-soars-1235833051/.
[2] Pollstar Staff, “2023 Year-End Business Analysis: The Great Return Becomes Historic Golden Age,” Pollstar News, December 31, 2023, https://news.pollstar.com/2023/12/16/the-great-return-becomes-a-golden-age-2023s-top-tours-see-massive-historic-growth/.
[3] TodayShow, “Beyoncé, Taylor Swift Tours Have Helped to Boost the Economy. See How Much They Made,” TODAY.com, April 16, 2024, https://www.today.com/popculture/music/beyonce-taylor-swift-renaissance-eras-tour-earnings-rcna118276.
[4] Steven J. Horowitz, “Live Nation Posts $23 Billion Total Revenue in Mixed 2024 Earnings Report,” Variety, February 21, 2025, https://variety.com/2025/music/news/live-nation-2024-earnings-report-1236314734/.
[5] Pollstar Staff, “2023 Year-End Business Analysis: The Great Return Becomes Historic Golden Age”
[6] Heather Schmidt, “Concert Attendance and Enthusiasm: A Survey,” Innerbody, September 5, 2023, https://www.innerbody.com/concert-attendance-and-enthusiasm.
[7] Alex Miller, “Cost of Concert Travel in America’s Largest Cities [2024 Data Study],” UpgradedPoints, July 17, 2024, https://upgradedpoints.com/news/cost-of-us-concert-vacations-2024/.
[8] Alex Miller, “Cost of Concert Travel in America’s Largest Cities [2024 Data Study]”
[9] Clare Mulroy, “How Many Work Hours in a Year?,” USA Today, September 9, 2024, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/10/13/how-many-working-hours-are-in-a-year/70902897007/.
[10] “Census Reporter,” Census Reporter: Making Census Data Easy to Use, accessed February 24, 2025, https://censusreporter.org/.
[11] Alex Miller, “Cost of Concert Travel in America’s Largest Cities [2024 Data Study]”
[12] Ibid.
[13] Chelsea De Jesus, interview by author, December 6, 2024.
[14] “Current US Inflation Rates: 2000-2025,” US Inflation Calculator, February 12, 2025, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/.
[15] Chelsea De Jesus, interview by author
[16] Ibid.
[17] Britney Nguyen, “Ticketmaster Expected 1.5 Million ‘verified’ Taylor Swift Fans on the Site but 14 Million People Were Trying to Get Tickets,” Business Insider, accessed February 24, 2025, https://www.businessinsider.com/ticketmaster-14-million-people-tried-buy-taylor-swift-presale-tickets-2022-11.
[18] Daniela Avila, “Taylor Swift Fans Planning to Sue Ticketmaster after Eras Tour Ticketing Controversy: Report,” People.com, December 5, 2022, https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-fans-plan-to-sue-ticketmaster/.
[19] Juliana Kaplan, “Live Nation President Apologizes to Taylor Swift and Her Fans for Ticketing Fiasco and Says the Industry Is Still Competitive,” Business Insider, accessed February 24, 2025, https://www.businessinsider.com/live-nation-president-apologizes-taylor-swift-fans-shirks-monopoly-claims-2023-1
[20] Britney Nguyen, “Ticketmaster Expected 1.5 Million ‘verified’ Taylor Swift Fans on the Site but 14 Million People Were Trying to Get Tickets”.
[21] Chelsea De Jesus, interview by author
[22] Clayton Durant, interview by author, December 3, 2024.
[23] Clayton Durant, interview by author
[24] Ibid.
[25] “How Much Does Spotify Pay per Stream in 2025,” Ditto Music, accessed February 25, 2025, https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream.
[26] Clayton Durant, interview by author
[27] Timothy Noah, “Everybody Hates Ticketmaster,” The New Republic, May 24, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/article/181916/everybody-hates-ticketmaster-live-nation-lawsuit-justice-dept.
[28] “Did Ticketmaster’s Market Dominance Fuel the Chaos for Swifties?,” Yale Insights, November 23, 2022, https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/did-ticketmasters-market-dominance-fuel-the-chaos-for-swifties.
[29] 1. “The Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger Review and Consent Decree in Perspective,” Antitrust Division | The TicketMaster/Live Nation Merger Review And Consent Decree In Perspective | United States Department of Justice, June 25, 2015, https://www.justice.gov/atr/speech/ticketmasterlive-nation-merger-review-and-consent-decree-perspective.
[30] 1. Juliana Kaplan, “Live Nation President Apologizes to Taylor Swift and Her Fans for Ticketing Fiasco and Says the Industry Is Still Competitive”
[31] Clayton Durant, interview by author
