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This summer season, mega artist Harry Types will take the stage at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis for an unique 30-show residency – his solely deliberate cease within the nation and a present that is garnered intense consideration since its announcement.
Regardless of her finest efforts, Shira Elfassy will not be there.
“His tickets have been absurd,” Elfassy, 29, instructed CNBC. “It felt like an insult getting into and seeing, like, not solely can I not get in, not solely are there no tickets left, however even then, probably the most primary value level is $500 for a nose-bleed seat — and that is turning into commonplace.”
As a substitute, Elfassy mentioned she bought tickets to see different artists dwell, like Florence + the Machine and Olivia Rodrigo, at far cheaper price factors. She mentioned feeling “priced out” of some concert events is now a standard prevalence.
“It is only a bizarre dynamic now. … At this level, if I’ve to make the choice between making extra summer season plans or hanging out with my mates — and even simply [to] pay lease — or I can go to this live performance, it is a no-brainer,” she mentioned. “However it did not was once that means.”
Elfassy represents a rising cohort of shoppers who aren’t prepared to maintain up with the rising costs for dwell music, making a Ok-shaped demand curve the place higher-income shoppers are spending extra — and maintaining costs inflated — whereas lower-income shoppers are pulling again.
That dynamic has performed out throughout discretionary spending classes, like retail, eating and journey, as Individuals grapple with persistent inflation, financial uncertainty and, now, hovering fuel costs.
In dwell music, this Ok-shaped surroundings is spurring fears that the decrease finish of the market is falling out completely.
Some are calling the demand shifts “blue dot fever,” named for the blue dots on Ticketmaster seating maps that denote an unsold ticket. For some artists, it is forcing them to take a vital take a look at their performances. Publish Malone, Zayn and The Pussycat Dolls are only a few examples of artists who’ve canceled reveals or excursions in current months, with the final group overtly admitting that poor ticket gross sales was the catalyst.
Final summer season, even earlier than the latest pricing pressures, trade analysis steered larger ticket costs have been serving to to prop up the general well being of the market. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a 2025 report that demand for dwell music was anticipated to develop at a 7.2% compounded annual progress price between 2024 and 2030.
Common ticket value for a live performance in one of many prime 100 international excursions, the report discovered, was $136 in 2024, up 50% from a mean of $91 in 2019.
How inflation is altering live performance spending
A number of of the most important ticketing firms instructed CNBC they don’t seem to be seeing extra present cancellations this summer season than a mean 12 months.
“Of all of the reveals Stay Nation has on the books this 12 months, lower than 1% have been cancelled,” a spokesperson for the Ticketmaster mum or dad mentioned. “That is not ‘blue dot fever’ — it is a regular touring 12 months; in truth, 2026 is shaping as much as be a document with live performance ticket gross sales up 11% for the 12 months.”
The spokesperson added that roughly 70% of tickets offered on its platform are priced below $100.
Stay Nation and Ticketmaster have confronted scrutiny over the corporate’s ticketing practices and dominant affect within the music trade. The corporate confronted authorized challenges over alleged anticompetitive conduct and reached a settlement with the Division of Justice in March. A federal jury discovered final month that Stay Nation held an anticompetitive monopoly, although the corporate mentioned in a assertion on the time, “The jury’s verdict isn’t the final phrase on this matter.”
The Stay Nation web site organized on a laptop computer in New York, US, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
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StubHub, a ticket reseller, instructed CNBC that the corporate is seeing the Ok-shaped sample take form in dwell music, with demand diverging quick between numerous occasions.
Whereas StubHub mentioned general live performance demand is up practically 10% year-over-year, it is not throughout the board. Ticket demand for stadium-scale occasions is up considerably, whereas demand for mid-size and smaller venues is waning.
The occasions which can be struggling to promote are going through a “supply-sizing drawback,” in response to Jill Gonzalez, head of shopper communications at StubHub. The occasions incomes the strongest fan consideration, she mentioned, are stadium excursions, residencies and marquee festivals.
“What our knowledge makes clear is that fan demand for dwell music hasn’t softened, nevertheless it’s sharpened,” Gonzalez instructed CNBC. “Followers are making deliberate decisions about the place they spend, and once they determine a present is value it, the demand sign is as robust as something we have seen on our platform.”
Ticket platform SeatGeek mentioned whereas extra artists are saying excursions, the resale surroundings stays wholesome.
“When you’ve got extra artists which can be flooding the market with excursions, you are going to have the gross variety of cancellations choose up year-over-year, in order that’s anticipated,” mentioned Oliver Marvin, the corporate’s senior director of strategic finance. “However the general quantity, cancellations as a proportion of people who find themselves out on tour, isn’t an excessive amount of totally different than what we have seen in prior years.”
He added that the corporate is seeing some shoppers dive in for last-minute tickets out of hope the costs will drop for excursions that are not garnering as a lot rapid demand.
Why stadium excursions nonetheless draw huge demand
Specialists say dropping demand for some reveals could also be extra nuanced than what meets the attention.
As costs in all places rise, and shoppers start to be extra intentional about how they’re spending their cash, the blame of unsold tickets could also be extra appropriately positioned on the macroeconomic surroundings somewhat than on the artists themselves, in response to Sam Howard-Spink, the director of music enterprise at New York College.
“It is actually largely to do with the economics of dwell efficiency and touring proper now, which can be for the time being, I might say, very intently tied to financial circumstances and cost-of-living questions,” Howard-Spink mentioned.
Tighter spending amongst followers can flip a tour misstep right into a catastrophe, he steered, like if an artist plans dates at an inappropriately sizes venue or in an off-base market. Whereas nostalgia for older acts can often draw crowds, it is struggling to outweigh all different elements.
And whereas larger artists can nonetheless promote out a stadium, less-popular acts are falling quick.
“Harry Types, Unhealthy Bunny, Woman Gaga, Ariana Grande — these are acts of, ‘I am probably not going to have an excessive amount of hassle,'” he mentioned. “However if you happen to’re speaking about like … an early 2000s band that may not simply have the ability to pull in these crowds, possibly they’re overconfident within the sorts of venues that they assume that they’ll refill.”
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Howard-Spink added that the enterprise of music has lengthy been thought-about largely “recession-resistant,” even weathering the pandemic nicely. However as a result of live performance tickets are a scarce useful resource, versus music streaming, it is allowed the costs to rise quickly.
Music publicist Eric Alper famous artists could not have foreseen these macroeconomic elements at the moment at play when reserving out their excursions months prematurely. There’s additionally extra artists on tour this 12 months than previous years, he mentioned, crowding the schedule.
With costs broadly larger, followers are additionally searching for out extra experiences that give them a bang for his or her buck, he added, because the dwell music scene sees an increase in residencies, together with distinctive new venues like The Sphere in Las Vegas.
“What folks need, they need the choreography, they need the lights, they need the superior sound, they need nice sightlines,” Alper mentioned. “They are not simply going to take a seat there and spend $150 to go watch a band play with very naked bones.”
Nonetheless, Alper mentioned, he believes the diehard followers are prepared to pay up.
“If you happen to’re a fan of an artist, I do not assume you care in regards to the excessive ticket costs as a lot as folks assume that they do,” Alper mentioned. “Folks need the expertise, they usually additionally need to inform folks that they have been there.”