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- Concert fans buying resale tickets could be paying more than double what prices were five years ago.
- To cover costs, some people told WSJ they are picking up second jobs, and cutting down on expenses.
- Fans and musicians alike are facing high costs in the music industry around tours.
To finance expensive concert tickets, some music fans are cutting back on other purchases and picking up second jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported.
For fans who snag tickets on resale sites, they could be paying more than double what prices were five years ago, per the Journal. That means the average price of a concert ticket resold on SeatGeek has climbed from $125 in 2019 to $252 in 2023, the company confirmed to Insider.
But for some big-name artists, the resale prices can climb far above that. For resold Taylor Swift tickets, the average price is $1,311, per SeatGeek. For resold Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen tickets, average prices have soared to $480 and $469, according to the company.
To cover these higher costs, some people are picking up second jobs, eliminating dining-out expenses, or cutting down on concert purchases in general, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When Swift's Eras Tour tickets went on sale in November of last year, exorbitant demand had many fans forking over much more than they expected. When the Ticketmaster site selling the tickets crashed, and the general ticket sale was canceled, fans scrambled to resale sites where ticket prices climbed into the thousands.
After the initial sticker shock wears off, some fans have even experienced buyer's remorse. One 31-year-old fan bought two resale Swift tickets for $5,500, Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported, which she said she later regretted. That was still lower than the rate other resold tickets were going for. The cost of some resale tickets for the tour soared to $13,000.
Concert goers aren't the only ones struggling with concert expenses. The Ticketmaster debacle prompted many singers, especially those not as pervasive as Swift, to speak out about industry practices that make it difficult for fans to buy tickets and artists to earn money, Insider reported.
For some musicians, including the Animal Collective, the high cost of touring prompted them to cancel shows. Larger artists have also spoken out, including indie-pop singer Lorde who wrote, "for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt."