My first concert was Chicago and the Beach Boys. We bought real concert tickets at the Ticketron counter at Sears. Hard tickets. They cost $8.50. 

Later, I photographed shows and wrote concert reviews for my college paper. Over the years, I saw big name artists live: Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, U2, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen. 

But now, concerts are becoming a luxury item.

A concert ticket cost $25 on average in 1994, which is $56 in 2025 with inflation. Yet Pollstar says the average concert ticket price was $134 in 2025.

Below are Ticketmaster Standard Ticket (face value) prices as of late May, for Seats to Chicago concerts this summer. 

- Tom Jones (Ravinia):  $124-$169      - Rod Stewart (Ravinia):  $297; $594 front

 - John Mellencamp (Credit Union 1 amp.):  $68-$305;  $345-$516 rows 1-10 center

- Lil Wayne (Huntington Bank Pav.):  $68-$248;  $309-$416 rows 1-12 center

- Morgan Wallen (Soldier Field): Sold out-upper; $297-$329 middle;  $329-$902 lower/floor

Surely for $300+, you can hit the soundcheck, meet the artist, take photos together, have a once in a lifetime experience? Nope. In general, you get seats closer to the stage. Sometimes you get a special lanyard, VIP area, early access to buy merchandise.

Why are concerts so expensive? The artists set ticket prices: are they being greedy?  Is it higher touring/production costs? More streaming and less album-buying? 

Well, Live Nation/Ticketmaster dominate venue management, concert promotion, primary ticketing and resale. The FTC estimates they control 80% of ticketing for major concerts.  

Ticketmaster uses Dynamic Pricing on Standard Tickets to change prices based on (supposed) demand. They also sell Verified Resale tickets. 

Bots grab tickets before fans get a chance. Secondary markets (StubHub, SeatGeek, VividSeats) resell them, at higher prices with big fees. 

Luckily, there is some good news. 

Two years ago, the DOJ aimed to break up the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly. They abruptly reached a settlement in March 2026. It’s considered a slap on the wrist, so more than 30 states (including Illinois) opted not to join the settlement. These state attorney generals are going to court to keep pushing for the monopoly to be broken up.

The FTC filed a class action lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster for illegally letting brokers harvest tickets and resell them at substantial markups.

Singers like Olivia Dean are insisting Ticketmaster only resell their tickets at face value. (Patti Smith did this when I saw her last year). States like New York and California are working to pass laws that cap resale concert ticket prices.

As a concert fan, what can you do?

If you can get in on a presale (and get through the queue), you can buy tickets at face value (assuming the Standard Ticket price is reasonable). 

If you can watch and wait, you may see Standard or secondary market ticket prices drop to a level you can afford (and are willing to pay). Even on the day of the concert. (I’ve bought seats this way).

You can speak up. Will it matter? I emailed a venue to complain. An AI reply arrived two minutes later. It said it understood live music can be “meaningful” (no one says that), and that it heard my point about “accessibility” (but I mentioned ticket prices).

Of course, you can always refuse to pay the ridiculous prices! As the Beach Boys sang, just say, "Caroline, No."

--- Sarah Klose