Priced Out: Getting Concert Tickets is Impossible
The Renaissance World Tour is a huge event for the Beyhive, but some of her biggest fans won’t be able to attend unless they pay hundreds to thousands of dollars.
(Nainoa Shizuru via Unsplash)
Every so often, I find myself watching a tiny blue line on my computer screen creep forward while Ticketmaster tells me that I have thousands of people ahead of me in line. Unfortunately, this event doesn’t usually end up with me securing concert tickets. It’s pretty disappointing to wait on the queue screen for an hour just to arrive at the seat selection with essentially none left.
This happens over and over again when big name artists go on tour: Taylor Swift, BTS, SZA. Thousands of fans experienced this fate.
Beyoncé fans are just the most recent victims. The Renaissance World Tour, scheduled to begin in May, is a huge event for the Beyhive, as her last tour was in 2016. But because of the ticket buying process, some of her biggest fans won’t be able to attend unless they pay hundreds to thousands of dollars.
In recent years, buying tickets to large concerts has become extremely difficult. Ticketmaster has taken almost complete monopoly over the ticket selling industry, and it's not very accessible. Tickets that were expensive to begin with are sold out within seconds, and then resold on the website for outrageous prices. On top of that, presales are often at 10 a.m., which makes it difficult for people who work or go to school during those hours.
It’s also important to consider that many artists depend on live shows for their income. Since streaming services dominate the music industry and notoriously underpay artists, concerts can make it or break it.
In my experience, buying tickets for smaller artists is a lot easier, and I can usually get a reasonable price. If tickets are accessible from the venue’s website or a smaller ticket-selling platform, it’s a much less grueling process.
For now, there isn’t really a solution. If you want any chance of acquiring big name tickets, it really is necessary to be ready at the Ticketmaster waiting room 15 minutes before the first presale.
Because of how tough it is lately, I only queue up for arena or stadium tickets if they’re for one of my absolute favorite artists. And attending smaller shows is great because I’ll actually be able to get a ticket and support a smaller artist. For me, it really isn’t worth it to pay $500 for stadium nosebleeds.