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From Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter to Kendrick Lamar and SZA, 2025 promises to be another big year for live music events. That may also mean concertgoers will be shelling out more for their favorite shows. After rising steadily post-pandemic, admission to movies, theaters and concerts jumped 20% since 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index data. And yet, consumers have demonstrated a high tolerance for the increasing price tag, also known as “funflation.”
Concertgoers attended an average of seven shows in 2024, and most plan to see more in 2025, according to a recent report by CouponCabin. The survey of more than 1,000 music fans in December found that nearly 36% said they will spend $100 to $499 on concert tickets in 2025, while more than 17% plan to spend up to $1,000.
Chalk it up to ‘funflation’
After testing new limits in 2024, Americans proved a willingness to splurge — even travel abroad — to catch shows like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, bringing so-called passion tourism into the spotlight, some experts say. Younger adults, particularly Generation Z and millennials, have even said they would go into debt to pursue some of these experiences, other recent reports show. Nearly two out of five Gen Z and millennial travelers have spent up to $5,000 on tickets alone for destination live events, one recent study from Bread Financial found.
Why concert tickets got so expensive
How ticket pricing evolved
Throughout the 21st century, revenue from recorded music has gone down while revenue from live music events has gone up. By the mid-2000s, concerts “provided a larger source of income for performers than record sales or publishing royalties,” economist Alan Krueger wrote in a paper on the economic issues and trends in the rock and roll industry. Live music industry revenue jumped 25% in 2023 alone, according to data from Statista. Ticketmaster in 2011 first introduced an early version of dynamic ticket pricing, which is now the standard for live music ticketing sales.
In more recent years, “ticket sales went crazy” driven by post-pandemic pent-up demand and a surge in megastar stadium tours, Bennett said. “You can see why it’s tempting,” he said. “The live music industry is constantly leaving money on the table that fans would pay. Dynamic pricing is sort of a capitalist inevitability given the forces at play, but I don’t want to live in a world where it costs $1,000 for my daughter to see Taylor Swift.” Still, it’s now common for ticket-selling platforms to charge more per ticket depending on demand for the event at any given time — whether consumers like it or not, according to Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief credit analyst. “It’s not very popular, as you might imagine,” Schulz said. “Businesses and musicians are trying to see what the market will bear, and it makes things really difficult for the consumer.”
Why pricey tickets are here to stay