Thousands of Taylor Swift fans will be keeping a close eye on their phones Monday night, waiting to see if they've been selected by Ticketmaster's verified fan system to buy tickets for the pop star and singer-songwriter's upcoming stadium tour. When those tickets go on sale later in the week, it will probably take a few minutes for them all to sell out.
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| Why Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen Tickets Are More Expensive and Harder to Get |
Live music roared back in the US as the pandemic eased, and the chorus of high demand and low ticket inventory has now become a common theme for music fans, who have seen announcements of a 2023 tour from Blink-182 in recent weeks Huh. and Paramore to Bruce Springsteen and Chris Stapleton resulting in tickets selling out almost immediately when they become available.
This pent-up demand comes because fans are spending more money than going to a concert, two things that Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster's parent company, recently indicated might be declining anytime soon. Not likely.
The company said that ticket sales for concerts during the third quarter of 2022 were up 37% compared to 2019, and that ticket sales for concerts played in 2023 are up in double digits from last year. Fans spent an average of 20% more at the venue than in 2019.
"This is a structural level of spending that we're seeing from consumers right now," Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Live Nation, said during the third-quarter analyst meeting on Nov.
“The more VIPs, the more platinum tickets, the more getting that money to the artist. And we’re seeing a relatively strong disqualification in demand for those best tickets,” he said. “People go to something higher quality in terms of some alcohol. Some of our product offerings are more deals for people to pick up higher-priced products.
"We consider all of these trends to be a continuation of the trends we have seen in recent years and there is no reason to expect it to be any different in the future," he added.
Last summer's stadium shows by acts such as Coldplay and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were the most sought-after, with several tours selling over 500,000 tickets, giving Live Nation its highest quarterly attendance ever - over 44 million worldwide fans. World 11,000 events.
Berchtold said the prospects for Live Nation's next year's stadium tour – boosted by Swift – would be "the biggest stadium we'll ever have."
But with high-profile acts like Swift and Springsteen already booked for stadiums this spring and summer and tours for other acts like Beyoncé and Rihanna likely as well, it looks to push other acts over the next few years. likely to increase. This means there is probably no end in sight to the high demand for tickets.
"The good news is '22 is probably going to be a record year, but there are only so many Fridays and Saturdays and artists are very smart about how they plan their tours and how they see the world and find your right position," Live Nation CEO Michael Rapinoe told analysts. "You're never going to do a ton of tours in a single weekend, so that meant we had more inventory to stretch through '22, '23, and we're talking about '24 now. So I would say we're behind what still needs to be processed by the system into '22, '23, which will be incredibly strong years.
Criticism of the cost of tickets
As more people want to buy tickets to their favourite musician’s tour, criticism of the price of tickets and the associated costs has also increased.
Last month, US President Joe Biden said that as part of his plan to cut costs for US citizens he was chasing “hidden junk fees”, one of which he said was linked to concert tickets.
“I know hidden clutter costs — like concert ticket processing fees — are annoying. They’re unfair, deceptive and add up,” Biden said. tweeted.
Live Nation issued a press release in response to Biden's comments, saying it "advocates fee transparency in every industry, including live event ticketing," adding that it is part of an FTC mandate. which will require nominal prices and charges. Advances, as required in other parts of the world.
However, Ticketmaster has received other complaints about rising ticket prices, as well as the inclusion of premium seats for concerts in the "Official Platinum" feature, which has variable prices depending on demand. Tickets in those categories have skyrocketed in price in high-demand situations, such as reports that some seats for Springsteen's upcoming tour cost as much as $5,000 on the first day of sale.
While Ticketmaster stated that only 11.2% of seats at that event were covered and that the average ticket sold for that tour cost $262, in the U.S., and distribution of tickets for live events.
Pascrell wrote, "The verified pre-sale of tickets every morning has caused a lot of stress and frustration among our voters as they see tickets disappear from the primary market website as if they had been purchased, only again at higher prices." appear to be."
Ticketmaster distanced itself from ticket pricing in its own statement, noting that "promoters and artist representatives determine the pricing strategy and price range parameters for all tickets, including fixed and market-based price points.
“As the resale ticket market has grown into a $10 billion industry in recent years, artists and teams have lost revenue to resellers who invest in any of the people working behind the scenes to keep the event running smoothly. To bring the event to life, event organizers are looking at market-based pricing to recoup that lost revenue,” the company said.
“We continue to return to normal – we saw double-digit growth in the live entertainment sector throughout the year. We expect this to continue in terms of both pricing and global volume as supply and demand increase around the world. continues,” Rapinoe told analysts.