Are people being completely priced out of arena and stadium gigs?

By Keisha Myers

With the rise in dynamic ticket pricing and the reduction of Ticketmaster competitors, it is becoming known that £60 tickets to see the world’s biggest artists is a thing of the past. No more can poor kids save up their pocket money to see their favourite artists, they’d be saving for a long time to pay the £100+ it will cost them to see pop megastars like Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift. The Eras Tour was a global hit, the highest-grossing tour in history and the first tour ever to surpass $1 billion in revenue.

Megastars like Taylor Swift have been charging upwards of £100 for years now, the tickets are Christmas gifts, dreams come true and are extremely hard to get. However, it could be said that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour 3-hour extravaganza is worth every penny, with 18 years of experience under her belt, Swift can certainly put on a show. 

Here comes the issue, artists like Sabrina Carpenter, who actually opened for Taylor Swift during the North and South America dates for the tour, is selling tickets to UK arenas for anywhere between £60 and £220, and of course, it is much easier to get your hands on the £220 ones with the presale systems that are in place. New acts that are generating sensation online are now able to charge these prices as concert tickets are getting more and more sought after as many fans are still complaining of being unable to get a ticket.

Presales are no new sensation, often when a tour is announced, you can purchase an album to gain special presale access to tickets. However, it seems a lot of artists are having large amounts of presales set up from signing up to various schemes, leaving people without access in the lurch. It seems that presales and pricing mean the same people are attending every single prestigious concert, and those that don’t have the £200 to spend on a ticket or something just as trivial as having their phone provided by a company other than O2, are going to continue missing out until a better system is put into place.

It must be said, that all of these presales are set up as a way of making sure the tickets get into the hands of actual fans so that websites don’t crash on general sale days and are accessible for those that want the tickets the most. If this is the purpose of presales, these need to influence the setting up of them a lot more! Ticketmaster, streaming services and artist management need to look into making ‘verified fan’ schemes better, to make sure that those who are avid listeners can get their hands on tickets, without breaking the bank.

However one thing can be said, it is pushing people more in the direction of smaller, local bands. Why spend £200 to see the latest pop star, when you can see a brilliant band in your local music venue? TikTok can make these megastars, but it is also pushing up the success of bands that have been trying to get their names out there for years.

So next time you're thinking of sitting in a presale queue for an hour, know that the next best thing could be playing in a pub near you this weekend and you could miss it!