Concert ticket prices are skyrocketing. Tickets for the singer Adele recently cost up to 600 euros. Fans still dig deep into their pockets. What justifies these prices?
Some concert visits are now as expensive as short vacations. Fans of the singer Adele spent between 180 and 600 euros on tickets alone for the pop icon’s summer performances in Munich. There are also additional expenses for travel, meals and often also hotel costs. Since the corona pandemic, ticket prices have risen by an average of 30 percent, explains the Federal Association of the Concert and Event Industry.
An important reason: “Artists’ fees have sometimes even increased threefold in the festival sector. One reason for this is that the concerts have become the main source of income for the vast majority of artists because only a few benefit greatly from streaming,” says Johannes Everke, head of the federal association the concert and event industry. According to industry insiders, Taylor Swift is said to earn the equivalent of more than twelve million euros on a concert evening. In addition, concerts have become more complex to implement and therefore more expensive.
The demands are increasing – so are the costs
“This means that we are no longer just selling the music at concerts. It’s available for free elsewhere. We’re selling the experience, the identification and the community,” says Everke. In addition, the demands of both the audience and the artists have changed: “220 meters of LED wall, fireworks and all sorts of things, pyrotechnics with Adele – that wasn’t necessary 20 years ago.”
Personnel costs also drive up ticket prices. At the singer Adele’s concerts, 700 employees were involved in building the concert stadium in Munich, which, according to media reports, cost 140 million euros. In addition, technology has become more expensive. Increased risks, such as weather risks, have also made insurance premiums more expensive. The bottom line is that the organizers’ production costs have increased by 40 percent in the past two years.
Ticket seller with influence on Pricing
Ticket sellers also have an influence on concert prices. The largest ticket seller and organizer in the USA is the company Live Nation, which is also behind the Adele and Coldplay concerts. Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster are also active in Germany and Europe, but less strongly than in the USA. Because there is significant competition here with the ticket seller and organizer CTS Eventim.
Both Live Nation and Eventim not only sell concert tickets, they also act as organizers themselves or through subsidiaries. They also sometimes operate the locations where the concerts take place, thereby securing enormous market power. This often means higher prices for customers.
USA: Higher demand – higher prices
Apparently some companies also adjust prices to the respective demand and monitor it very closely. We’re talking about “dynamic pricing” – i.e. dynamic price adjustment of tickets depending on demand. Research shows that Live Nation in the USA uses algorithms that regularly monitor ticket sales and adjust prices accordingly. The head of Live Nation, Michael Rapino, made no secret of it himself in an interview.
But what does it look like in this country? While this system has long been common practice in Germany for air travel or rental cars, it does not yet seem to play a major role in the German music business. Upon request from des ARD magazine plusminus explains CTS Eventim: “Algorithms for dynamic pricing are currently only used in exceptional cases in Germany and not at all on eventim.de. The decision on this lies exclusively with the organizers.” The Federal Association of the Concert and Event Industry also says: “We don’t know of any ‘dynamic pricing’ in Germany.”
Platinum tickets are also partly dynamic
In addition to “dynamic pricing” with algorithms, there are also other ways to adjust prices to demand. An example are so-called platinum tickets. These are special ticket contingents, usually for popular concerts, the price of which depends on the demand for tickets. Ticketmaster explains its platinum tickets to plus minus like this: “Ticketmaster Platin enables market-driven pricing for live events.” In theory, this should make it possible to get a bargain when demand is low.
There is always criticism of Live Nation and its pricing in the USA. In May 2024, the US government filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster. The accusation: They illegally increased the prices for concert tickets.