Ignacio Vásquez spent the last year saving money to get tickets to the Cowboy Carter of Beyoncé, which will begin next month. Vásquez, 20, full -time student in Modesto, California, was looking for tickets for one of the five concerts of the tour in the Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles, for him and his sister.
“I went to see Beyoncé on the Renissance tour and, as I knew that this was going to happen, I started saving,” Vásquez said.
On February 11, Vásquez was recorded in the Virtual Ticketmaster row for the Beyhive presale, available only for those who registered on the Beyoncé website. After waiting for their turn, it was surprised to see that the tickets cost at least $ 600 each, and many exceeded $ 1,000.
“When I came to buy, prices were exorbitant,” Vásquez described. “I thought: ‘Oh, no, this is not going to work, I’m not going to pay that’, so I just let it happen.”
In recent years, concert attendees have paid exorbitant prices to see popular artists such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Oasis on tour. However, fans of generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) are paying much more for concert tickets than previous generations when they were young adults.
According to Pollstar data, a commercial publication covered by the live music industry, in 1996 the average price of a ticket for any of the 100 most important tours was 25.81 dollars, equivalent to 52 dollars adjusted to inflation. In 2024, The average price of tickets rose to $ 135.92, which has put young adults in an economically challenging situation.
The impact of concerts on the z budget Z
For gene generation, attending concerts can destabilize your budget. A survey conducted to 1,000 participants by Merge, a marketing agency, He revealed that 86 % admitted spending more than the account on live events. The fear of missing something, known as Fomo for its acronym in English, was one of the main reasons.
Another AAA and Braad Financial survey discovered that LYoung people from the Z and Milenial generation are willing to spend more and travel further to attend live events compared to previous generations.
Last year, Chricket Cho, 25, attended seven concerts in the United States and Canada: Taylor Swift in Toronto, Bleachers in New York and Nashville, Gracie Abrams in New York, and Sabrina Carpenter, Maggie Rogers and Chappell root in Atlanta. In total, he spent $ 8,400 on tickets, promotional products and transport.
“Live music is something that makes me feel alive,” said Cho, computer audit in Suwanee, Georgia, who earns around $ 100,000 a year. “It is a time different from just listening to music on Spotify or my headdresses.”
The most expensive concert for Cho was that of Taylor Swift at the Rogers Center de Toronto. He paid $ 600 for the entrance to Ticketmaster, $ 3,000 for the flight and lodging, and $ 470 in promotional products of the artist.
Although Cho does not have an expense limit for concerts, the increase in prices has led her to rethink up to events of artists other than her “usual favorites”, such as Swift or Bleachers.
The rise in ticket prices
About 50 years ago, LBruce Springsteen’s fans paid only $ 8 (equivalent to $ 44 adjusted to inflation) for seeing it on its Born to Run tour.
“The price of an entrance to a concert increased almost 400 % between 1981 and 2012, much faster than 150 % increase in the general inflation of consumption prices,” Alan B. Krueger said in a speech in the Hall of Fame of Rock and Roll Fame in 2013, when he was president of the Council of Economic Advisors.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the concerts were mass events again, since people were looking for experiences in person. In 2023, the 100 most important tours in the world raised a record of 9.2 billion dollars, 65 % more than in 2019, according to Pollstar data.
This increase in demand, added to the limited seats, service rates and the lack of clear regulations in ticket sale, has raised ticket prices worldwide.
On the Eras Taylor Swift tour, which raised 2,000 million dollars, the average price of tickets was $ 1,088 in 2023.
Dynamic price setting systems, which adjust the cost according to demand, have also influenced the increase in prices. However, this was not what happened when Vásquez tried to buy tickets for Beyoncé’s tour.
The day after his failed attempt, Vásquez managed to buy tickets for $ 200 each through a ticketmaster presale, available only for credit card holders and Citi debit.
“In just one day, prices went down drastically and I know people who bought them the first day, so it’s crazy,” said Vásquez.
Ticketmaster clarified that concert prices in the Sofi Stadium did not change and that the tour had established the tickets between $ 105.25 and $ 4,769.52, including service charges. The cheapest seats were available when Vásquez acquired them in Citi’s presale.
Abbas Tayballi, 26, lives in Westmont, Illinois, and earns about $ 28,000 a year with two part -time jobs: one as in charge of an academic office and another as an event coordinator.
In 2024, he attended two concerts at the Chicago Theater: Laufey and Samara Joy. To see Laufey, he paid $ 300 for an entry acquired through an online revenuer.
“In retrospect, perhaps I would not have spent so much for that entry, especially for the place where I was sitting,” Tayballi acknowledged. “If I could go back in time, I would probably not bought it.”
Tayballi admitted that he has borrowed with his credit card to attend concerts, but said he would never pay more than $ 500 for a ticket.
“Going to concerts used to be accessible and a fun way to finish the night,” he concluded.