Discovering a new artist, awaiting a new album release, and feeling the excitement of a tour being announced is amazing. Getting to go see your favorite artist in person, seeing someone you’re only used to hearing and seeing through a screen in real life feels almost unreal. Unfortunately, many do not get to experience this due to the increasing exclusivity of these events.
Over the past few decades, as online ticket sales have become increasingly popular, the vendors selling them have made it harder and harder to buy them, much to the disappointment of both artists and fans. Many popular online ticket platforms include websites such as Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, StubHub, and more. There are countless websites that help artists promote their shows.
Ticketmaster is arguably one of the most common. They often work with credit card providers and artists to create an exclusive pre-sale for fans, which is usually in effort to limit the amount of ticket poachers that will get access during General Admission sales. How this works is that fans will sign up for a chance to get admitted into the pre-sale. From there, there are only a limited number of tickets allowed to be bought in the pre-sale in order to ensure that there are enough for the general admission sales. If you aren’t able to buy tickets, which are normally highly priced, you have a very slim chance of getting tickets through general admission due to the rapid pace at which they sell out.
This pre-sale process was made in an effort to limit the number of ticket poachers and get the tickets in the hands of actual fans. Many fans have even made posts about this, joking that there should be a lyric quiz when buying tickets. However, this is a very real issue that leads to tickets selling out even faster. Ticket poachers will buy fairly priced tickets and resell them for astronomical prices that few can afford.
Additionally to the ticket price, most artists only tour to major cities so you have to factor in the cost of tickets on top of money for travel, hotels, food, any fun outfits you may want to wear to the concert, and the cost of merchandise at the concert if you want to buy any. With all this to factor in, it is understandable how concert-going can become financially impossible for many.
Many also have to factor in taking time off work or school to travel to these concerts, which can be stressful for many, as grind culture has become more ingrained into our society in recent years. Missing a day of work or a day of school will lead to a pileup of work for most students and adults that few can manage.
All of these factors (prices, scheduling, and location issues, and ticket competition) have made ticket buying an elitist process that is only available to those with disposable income. You must be able to afford all that comes with modern concert-going and be able to afford taking time off of school or work, a trait that is now uncommon for most. Saddest of all, much of this is not within the control of artists. Many big artists have expressed frustration with the fact that not everyone is able to join them on tour, as they work to express their art and share it with their beloved fans.
This sadness toward fan exclusion has led to many big-name artists creating concert tour documentaries, such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Beyoncé, and more. This helps their fans to feel more included and involved in the touring, but there’s only so much artists can do to prevent the ticket vendors from selling their tour tickets since they need to make money from it.
Many fans have argued that there is more that artists can do, but it is, for the most part, out of their hands. Ticket vendors have used this power that they hold to profit off of hopeful fans and exploit popular artists for their own personal gain. In doing this, it makes concerts a stressful and elitist event for many, reducing the fun that they once held. While the event is still lots of fun, it is arguable if the turmoil that it takes to get there is worth it in the end.