Before COVID, I hadn’t spent more than £45 on a general admission ticket for a concert. Fast-forward a few years and shows finally returned after the pandemic, but the prices of tickets shot up astronomically. It has become more apparent recently that students are being priced out of concerts.

The answer isn’t superficial; so many factors go into touring – from transport to catering and so on – and when you consider inflation, things get expensive. Artists are beginning to speak about the high costs of touring and the risks they must take to their music on the road. Alternative-pop artist Caroline Polachek told Vulture ‘Full disclosure: I’m taking my European tour at a loss…I’ve always leaned to the slightly riskier side of reinvestment back into the project than maybe would be wise.’ So, how much do artists need to charge for a ticket to make a profit?

So, how much do artists need to charge for a ticket to make a profit?

Taylor Swift’s infamous Eras Tour had a crew of over two hundred people, including truck drivers, dancers, bands and roadies. With fuel costing £12.50 more per litre than in 2019, hotel prices increasing by 9.6% each year, and freight costs being three times what they were pre-pandemic, it’s easy to see why touring is so expensive nowadays, especially with large crews on board. Front-standing tickets for Swift cost around £170, whilst seated tickets went up to an eye-watering £200. 

The Eras Tour UK leg stopped in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff, and London, so those who didn’t live nearby also had to pay insanely high accommodation and transport costs; prices for hotels in Liverpool shot up by a whopping 459% during Swift’s visit, further making the shows inaccessible for young people. 

It is not only big-budget stadium tours like Swift’s that have experienced a price increase. Simon Eaton, head of live music at Troxy (a 3,000-person capacity venue in London), says that their energy bill in 2022 was twelve times the original price, telling Cosmopolitan, ‘‘It does mean we have to raise costs for tickets and alcohol, but it’s about finding a balance to stop people being priced out.’ These are the types of venues students are most likely to visit frequently, yet they are progressively more challenging to access financially. In my experience, I saw pop-rock band Waterparks right before COVID in 2020 for £14, but seeing them on their latest tour at the same venue set me back more than double the pre-pandemic price, at £30 a ticket. 

The tool hikes up the prices of in-demand tickets to bring them closer to ‘market value’.

Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing function has recently become a focus point in the live music world. The tool hikes up the prices of in-demand tickets to bring them closer to ‘market value’. Launched in 2022, this feature isn’t new, but with the recent sale of Oasis tickets, which implemented dynamic pricing, fans are questioning the ethics of this system. Ticket prices for the Gallagher brothers went up to £350 per ticket. They even made waves in parliament. Lib Dem MP Jamie Stone responded, ‘ The Oasis ticket fiasco must be a watershed moment and lead to an official investigation, either by the watchdog or a parliamentary body.’

Concerts are becoming more and more of an expensive luxury

Students should be going to concerts and experiencing live music, but with the current state of the touring scene, this is a costly night out. Concerts are becoming more and more of an expensive luxury, and students are being priced out of seeing their favourite artists live. Dynamic pricing, alongside artists trying to make a profit and venues keeping their lights on, means that touring is more expensive than ever, and it is clear that live music needs support and funding.

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