Concert ticket prices are an ongoing source of debate not just for the average concert goer, but for the Atlanta area music scene.
In the past 30 years, the music industry has seen a major rise in concert ticket prices. The two major reasons are the cost of living and inflation. They directly affect how an artist earns money, how a concert venue profits and keeps its business running, and how fans interact with their favorite bands and artists.
Director of Event Programming at Rival Entertainment for CenterStage in Atlanta, Madeline Jackson, explained how costs affect her business relationships with artists and their fans.
“The cost of everything has gone up,” Jackson said. “It costs more to run a venue, to staff a venue, to keep the lights on and the power going, and then because of these rising costs, it also costs more to book an artist.”
According to Jackson, there is a roundabout price that most venues charge, as in, the average ticket price that will then determine how much an artist will be paid.
Depending on what kind of deal and offer the venue provides an artist, that agreement determines the musician’s pay which comes directly from ticket sales, after other expenses.
Changes in fuel and food prices for musicians impact how much profit they walk away with each night. In return, the cost of booking an artist and operating a venue then affects how much money it earns after each concert.
“It has affected probably how many tickets we sell, to an extent, not so much just because concert tickets are expensive, but because everything’s expensive,” Jackson said.
Contrary to public perception, Ticketmaster doesn’t actually set ticket prices. It is a service company. The public’s anger with Ticketmaster is more for the fees it put in place to use its service. This is equivalent to how most venues need to charge artists a fee as ‘collateral’ to make sure they are still getting paid if nobody shows up or the show falls through.
“Live Nation kind of has this monopoly and is a huge billion-dollar company,” Jackson said. “If you are going to be selective about where you purchase your concert tickets, just support independents.”
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. owns Ticketmaster. In 2010, the two companies merged.
Anger with Live Nation Entertainment may be valid among fans and artists.
A federal lawsuit filed on March 18, 2025, accuses Live Nation Entertainment, Inc of illegally concealing “the full price of tickets until online checkout,” according to Class Action.org in violation of several state consumer laws.
The lawsuit states Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. “lure consumers with low initial ticket prices only to demand ‘exorbitant’ fees during the final stage of the purchasing process, making the total cost of tickets significantly higher than anticipated.”
In an earlier lawsuit from March 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice Department accused Live Nation Entertainment Inc. of acting as a monopoly harming fans, artists and venues. Pricing models impact musicians, fans and promoters.
Former Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated, “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services.”
Both fans and artists share this frustration due to the negative effect fees have on consumer concert spending and ultimately, the financial profits for the bands.
Concert venues must hit a certain number of attendees to cover the overhead expenses that go into operations, hosting a show, and of course, paying the artist what they’re worth.
“As these expenses go up, and as the cost of living goes up, obviously artists also have to make more money,” Jackson said.
It’s a partnership that can always run into difficulties from either side, both with the artists and the venue, despite the struggles that became apparent with Live Nation-Ticketmaster. At the end of the day, it’s about keeping the customers, the fans, happy.
Pollstar’s 2024 Year End Analysis provides an in-depth look at how prices changed dramatically for the average ticket price in the past few years. In April 2025 USA Today expanded on this by comparing data as far back as 1996 when tickets were just above $20. Now, using 2024 data, the average ticket price is upwards of $130.
The average prices do not include resell prices, and Ticketmaster’s fees.
Data provided from Pollstar 2024 Year End Analysis and 2025 USA Today concert ticket analysis. It shows ticket prices dating back 25 years to 2000. Prices are in dollars in the left column. (Joslyn Weber/Fresh Take Georgia)
Increased ticket prices are obstacles artists must overcome to cater to their fans with entertaining shows. Many fans now struggle to support their favorite artists and have that unique musical experience with rising of concert ticket prices impacting personal budgets.
As a young high-school student who has a job and wants to go out and have fun with her friends at concerts, 17-year-old Hayden Grove shares frustrations that many her age can relate to.
“Coming from a full-time student who also works a job, I don’t get paid enough nor do I have enough time to work and get enough hours or money to buy the tickets anymore because $400 is insane,” Grove said.
What girl doesn’t want to go see a big-name artist like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, or Kendrick Lamar with her friends?
The biggest downside, the tickets are just too expensive.
The face value of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour varied between $50 and $500. But resellerscharged upwards of $11,000.
An avid Atlanta local concert goer, 23-year-old Bella Prudente, finds that even the local scene in Atlanta has become too saturated with expensive gigs.
“I literally started going to North Carolina and South Carolina for local shows because they just felt so much more convenient and oddly affordable,” Prudente said.
“I feel like this definitely affects college kids more than anything,” Prudente said.
From the perspective of a small local artist, there are still plenty of ways to make money and continue to focus on exposure and community.
Ryan McMeans of The Outfield Clovers, a member of a local emo band in Atlanta, performs at well-known venues like Smith’s Olde Bar and The Masquerade.
“When it comes to the local bands, even if they made the same amount of money off of $20 tickets than $10, they’d rather sell it for $10 and have more people there,” McMeans said.
There is a much larger emphasis on community and exposure in the local Atlanta music scene, which leads to a draw towards more DIY venues like Smith’s Olde Bar, Boggs Social, The Earl, The Drunken Unicorn, and so much more.
“It sucks at this level because you’re trying to convince your friends to buy tickets more than your fans,” McMeans said. “Most of our tickets are walk-ups so you never really know.”
Most venues have a production fee they charge bands. This production fee, on top of the other fees that artists pay in order to play, means they have to sell a certain amount of tickets before they can profit.
For example, McMeans described a time in which his band played at Centerstage. They had to sell 70 tickets before earning money. Even with selling more than 100 tickets, with four bands that night, each band only walked away with $100.
“With the rise of tickets, the production fee got higher too,” McMeans said. “[Then], there’s a rise of the cutoff point where we start making money, which makes sense because the venue needs some type of collateral if people aren’t there.”
“If we don’t sell enough tickets to make the production fee, we have to pay the venue,” McMeans said.
The bigger venues, like The Masquerade and Centerstage, are more prone to using Ticketmaster as their ticket service because of the kinds of artists they book and the volume of customers they seat. These larger venues become more expensive to play at and to visit.
But for DIY places like Eddie’s Attic, Mom Said It’s Fine, Market Hugz, 529, and so many more, their costs tend to remain flat.
“At the end of the day, they’re just trying to build a community more than to make money,” McMeans said.
This is what makes smaller venues more enticing for people, especially college-age students looking to thrive and build community within Atlanta’s local music scene.
“I love going to other people’s shows and supporting people,” McMeans said. “I’m eventually going to get the $10 back because they’re going to come see me, so I don’t really think about ‘I’m losing money’ when I go see my friends.”
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