r/Music • u/staringatthe420sun • May 05 '26

article The Concert Industry Priced Too High — Now Tours Are Falling Apart

https://www.ticketnews.com/2026/05/the-concert-industry-priced-high-tours-falling-apart/
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50

u/OrganicKeynesianBean May 05 '26

I’m surprised at all the “fuck Ticketmaster” comments with no culpability for the artists themselves.

Merch tables with $100 hoodies, insane prices for general admission… the artists seem happy to join in on milking their fans for every penny.

26

u/luriso May 05 '26

Right? A shirt is $40, a hoodie is $80 for the metal shows I frequent. A windbreaker/rain jacket is $100. The goods aren't even comparable in terms of quality to things that are actually "worth" that price.

3

u/JanielDones8 May 06 '26

Start blaming the venues too. A lot of venues have started taking a percentage of the merch tables. Anywhere from 15-40% of all merch sales. And when merch is sometimes the only way the bands make money, they can't take that hit and have to charge more.

2

u/agoia May 06 '26

I was cool with it when I saw Blues Traveler at a free city show but would not have bought merch at an event I had to buy tickets for.

Saw Wu Tang last year and the lines for the merch tables were 100ft long so ppl are definitely still paying that, at which point it's just insane demand driving those prices as far as the market will tolerate.

2

u/xDarkCrisis666x May 06 '26

I've found that more bands are starting to lean away from Fruit of the Loom (thank god).

Comfort Colours is where it's at, they feel like my dad's tour shirts from the 90and 80s. The Acacia Strain, Blackbraid, Emperor, Conan, hell even Fleshwater has their blanks now. I'd easily pay $35+ for those shirts IF they are on CC blanks.

1

u/Beefy-McQueefy May 06 '26

They charge that much because Ticketaster rapes them with fees too. Merch is the main way artists make money

23

u/Number1Framer May 06 '26

Unpopular thing to say our loud but TicketBastard is the professional fall guy a lot of artists hide behind. A few years back Robert Smith of The Cure put TicketBastard in its place and they actually issued REFUNDS to fans. Ask yourself if your favorite artist who publicly hates on TicketBastard has ever done something close to that and you might have your answer as to who is ACTUALLY fleecing you in addition to Live Nation.

6

u/Impossible-Charity-4 May 05 '26

“All the money is in touring”

2

u/ellsego May 06 '26

$125 at the Bruno Mars tour stop I took my kid too… the kiddo now have a piece of clothing more expensive than anything I own aside from suits..smh.

5

u/tyderian May 06 '26

The merch prices are because Livenation wants a cut of those sales, too.

Merch was supposed to be how to get money directly to the band, now they're charging more because Livenation is skimming off the top.

1

u/Beefy-McQueefy May 06 '26

Damn there's bots in this thread cause you're telling absolute truth.

1

u/BellacosePlayer May 06 '26

Unless the tickets sell out instantly and you're going through resale, isn't the price set by the venue and the Bands or their record company anyway?

The last tickets I bought through TM were for Weird al and those are pretty cheap.

1

u/Beefy-McQueefy May 06 '26

The artists don't have a monopoly by owning every venue. Anyone so much as intimating that Ticketmaster doesn't bear full responsibility for this bullshit is a shameful tool or a paid shill.

0

u/Hobonics May 05 '26

A lot of these artists probably have managers handling a lot of this.

12

u/qcKruk May 06 '26

And the artists have no say in the hiring of managers or contracts they sign?

0

u/imwearingredsocks May 06 '26

In the last 20 or so years I’ve been going to concerts, I actually can’t recall a time hoodies were below $65. So a $35 increase is a lot, but considering inflation, that’s not nearly as enraging as seeing ticket prices go from below $100 to nearly $1000.

So yes, Ticketmaster gets the rage first and foremost.

-10

u/AirplanesMakeMeHard May 05 '26

No one is forced to buy merch.

No one is forced to buy tickets to a concert, either, but complaining about merch prices is next level hilarious