Hot Take: Artists Aren’t Fighting Hard Enough Against Ticket Prices
- Rebecca McDevitt
- Jan 4
- 2 min read
Article Contributed by Rebecca McDevitt
Hot take: Live music has never been cheap. But it has also never felt this inaccessible.
Ticket prices are climbing. Dynamic pricing is quietly inflating face value. Resellers scoop up inventory in seconds. And fans are left refreshing screens, watching tickets triple before checkout, even loads.
The frustration is loud. The response from the industry is not.
Hot Take: Fans Are Paying the Price for a Broken System
Dynamic pricing is sold as neutral. Supply and demand. Market value. The cost of popularity.
But what it really does is shift blame.
Instead of questioning the system, fans are told this is just what live music costs now. If you really care, you will find a way to pay. If you do not, you were never that committed to begin with.
That narrative hurts the people who have been showing up all along.
Fans are funding the industry through ticket sales more than streaming ever could. Touring is where the money is. Everyone knows it. And yet the cost of entry keeps rising, while accountability disappears into contracts and corporate language.
Silence Still Benefits the System
This is not about calling artists greedy. It is about acknowledging leverage.
Not every artist has control. Smaller acts are often locked into systems they did not design. But at higher levels, choices exist. Contracts are negotiated. Clauses are discussed. Opt-outs are possible.
And fans notice who speaks up.
Saying nothing still protects the system that is pricing people out. Silence allows dynamic pricing to become normal. Silence turns frustration into resignation.
At some point, “we cannot control it” stops feeling true when no one is publicly trying.
If Artists Can Buy Back Tickets, They Can Fight Upstream
Some artists have already proven that intervention is possible.
Bands have bought tickets back from resellers and put them back on sale at face value. They have canceled scalped tickets. They have implemented fan-to-fan exchanges. They have capped prices. They have chosen not to use dynamic pricing at all.
Those actions matter.
They show fans that someone is paying attention. That access still matters. That community is not just a talking point when it is convenient.
If tickets can be reclaimed after the damage is done, the conversation can also happen before it starts.
Live Music Should Not Be a Luxury Experience
Live music was built on shared rooms, not exclusive price points.
Fans are being priced out of the very spaces they helped grow. Younger fans. Longtime fans. Fans are choosing between rent, groceries, and a night that used to feel attainable.
Supporting your favorite artist should not come with financial guilt.
Loving music should not feel like a credit check.
Fans Are Not Asking for Free. They Are Asking for Fair
This is not a demand for impossible prices or unrealistic expectations.
It is a call for transparency. For advocacy. For artists to acknowledge the reality fans are living in and use whatever leverage they have to push back.
Because fans see the disconnect, and they remember who shows up for them when it matters.
Live music survives because of people who show up. They deserve to be fought for, too.
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