Living in Atlanta, we are surrounded by huge concert venues that host the biggest names like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and The Lumineers. Concerts allow people who might not normally interact to bond over shared interests in a song or artist. Many high school students find concerts as a way to bond with friends and see their favorite musicians. However, recently, more and more students have questioned whether concerts are worth it with the rising ticket prices.
Through social media and streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, artists have the ability to reach a wider audience. A wide reach combined with new and larger music venues creates a mass of people waiting in a Ticketmaster queue, especially for bigger artists. Today, the average concert ticket is $123, and increases to $136 for more influential tours. Around 9 years ago, the average concert ticket was $76, nearly half of what it is today. For example, in 2015, during Taylor Swift’s “1989 World Tour,” tickets were reported to range from $262 to $316 on average. During Swift’s “Eras Tour,” the average ticket was around $500. A main reason for the big jump in concert tickets is the opportunity to resell through websites such as Ticketmaster and Stubhub. Bots or “scalpers” are known for buying tickets as quickly as possible and then reselling the tickets for as much as a 400% increased price. Ticketmaster and other sites try to combat these bots by limiting the number of tickets that can be purchased at once. Artists have also moved their presales to websites such as AXS that try to prevent bots using technology to try and root out a real customer from a fake one.
Even though concert prices are almost double the price, concert attendance has increased, especially after the pandemic. Prices don’t seem to be keeping people away from the venues, especially Pace Academy students. “Concerts are a great way to hang out with friends while listening to our favorite music,” said junior Kitty Lubin. Even though concert prices keep climbing, students still enjoy seeing their favorite bands, like The Lumineers, Twenty One Pilots or Jordan Davis (all artists who came in October) in local venues such as State Farm, Mercedes-Benz and Ameris Bank Amphitheater.
