The live entertainment industry in 2025 is defined by its contradictions. Concerts seem to be more popular than ever, yet for every successful run, there’s a growing number of tours being canceled for financial reasons. Post-Covid inflation has driven up prices everywhere, including the cost of putting on a great tour, leading to higher ticket prices.
Speaking last week at CNBC and Boardroom’s “Game Plan” conference, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino took a rosier outlook, insisting that the demand for live entertainment has never been higher, and tickets are “underpriced.”
“Music has been underappreciated,” Rapino said, especially compared to sports. “In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honor to spend 70 grand for a Knicks courtside [seat]. They beat me up if we charge $800 for Beyoncé.”
He added, “We have a lot of runway left. So when you read about ticket prices going up, the average concert price is still $72. Try going to a Laker game for that, and there’s 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”
But many fans may not feel like Rapino’s assessment of the situation matches their experience as concertgoers and ticket buyers.
Considering all the different types of concerts that take place, calculating the average ticket price is somewhat difficult. Pollastar — the live entertainment trade publication — said in its 2024 year-end report that the average cost of a ticket to the top 100 worldwide tours was $135.92, while the average cost of a ticket to a top 100 tour in North America was $136.45.
In the same report, Pollstar said the average ticket price for a stadium show was $128.64, for an arena $98.78, an amphitheater $70.72, a theater $75.09, and a club $43.95. Take the average of those figures, and you get a price of about $83, which is closer to Rapino’s $72 estimate.
Even if Rapino did argue that concerts are still “underpriced,” he did acknowledge that prices are rising. Much of that is due to the type of production many of the world’s biggest artists aim for. He noted that Beyoncé had “62 transport trucks” on her recent tour: “That’s a Super Bowl she’s putting on every night,” he said. “Ten years ago, there might’ve been 10 trucks.”
He added that “the cost has gone up” alongside the “investment in the experience.” And also argued that many artists — despite needing to rely on touring for a significant portion of their income — are “forfeiting margin for the experience… You hear about these $100 million grosses, that artist, depending on the show, he might only take home 30 percent of that, spending 70 on the show.”
Artists aiming to put on a great, elaborate show, while also making a living and paying a fair wage to their crews, certainly contribute to the cost of rising ticket prices. But those factors also exist alongside others, like sky-high fees, dynamic pricing (where prices fluctuate based on demand), and ongoing issues with scalpers. The significant power Live Nation and Ticketmaster have accumulated since their 2010 merger has ultimately left artists and fans with few other options but to accept the terms they set for the live entertainment industry.
It’s possible that the landscape could shift soon. Last year, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Live Nation, accusing the company of operating as a monopoly. (Live Nation has denied the allegations, and the suit remains ongoing.)
And just last week — one day after Rapino spoke at the Game Plan conference — the Federal Trade Commission filed its own suit, accusing Ticketmaster of hiding fees from customers until checkout; allowing scalpers to “exceed” ticket-purchase limits; and then letting those same scalpers resell those tickets at significant markups on Ticketmaster’s own resale platform. (Live Nation-Ticketmaster has yet to respond to the suit.)
But for now, there is something revealing about the status quo. When fans purchase tickets marked up by dynamic pricing, or when scalped tickets sell on secondary platforms for hundreds more than face value, that ultimately shows exactly how much people are willing to spend on concert tickets. Or at least how much some people are willing to spend, if they can afford it. And in the U.S., there are still a lot of people who can afford it, at least for now, as wealth inequality grows and the economy feels increasingly unstable.
While Rapino celebrated the continued demand for live events — “No matter what you bring to that table that day, you unite around that one shared experience,” he said — Pollstar’s 2024 year-end report contained some possible warning signs. The report noted that there were “more festival and tour cancellations” in 2024 than at any time since the Covid-19 shutdown and the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009.
It also flagged several declines in the North American live music scene. The overall gross for the top 100 touring artists fell from $6.63 billion in 2023 to $6.18 billion in 2024, a 6.79 percent decline. The average gross per concert fell 8.78 percent, from $2.04 million in 2023 to $1.86 million last year. And the average number of tickets sold for the top 100 touring artists in 2024 was 13,634, down from 15,008 in 2023 — a 9.16 percent drop. But that didn’t stop ticket prices from rising, even just a bit, from $135.88 to $136.45.
