Has your favorite band or artist ever toured in the area? Maybe with some other musicians or at a festival? Did you try to purchase tickets, only to realize that the price would burn a hole straight through your wallet? Even tickets in the nosebleeds cost a fortune. But you buy them anyway.

Nowadays, some stadiums are so large and so sold out that the only view of your favorite artists you can get feels like miles away, even if you’re paying a hundred dollars. In 2025, the average ticket price for the top hundred tours was around $130. That’s insane. There are many factors that actually determine the cost of tickets, like dynamic pricing, the relativity of the artist, and the venue. In my own experience, trying to see Taking Back Sunday, the cheapest tickets were still 60 dollars. As soon as the tour was announced, my friend urged me to buy them and go with him. He said buying them early would mean we wouldn’t have to pay resellers triple the price later. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of what people and companies do. They capitalize on the demand to see artists onstage and buy up all the tickets, reselling them for even more outrageous prices. Additionally, when these people buy tickets for resale, regular tickets shoot up in price because they’re selling like hotcakes. Therefore, it’s a lose-lose either way you buy a ticket.

Artist relevance also has a huge impact on prices. Objectively, certain artists are more popular and relevant than others. For example, A Flock of Seagulls, an 80’s band, sold tickets for a show in Houston on March 28th of this year for under 50 dollars. Contrarily, Olivia Dean, who’s playing at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, has tickets for an average price of 450 dollars–with premium seating prices going into the thousands. With these prices, lawsuits and other legal battles have come out against Ticketmaster, StubHub, and the likes of other ticket resale monopolies. This is good news for the average concert-goer; tickets may be back down to an affordable price sooner than we think.

While ticket prices will most likely still be affected by relevancy and how fast they sell, the recent regulations and legal actions against these ticket resale companies could greatly impact prices in the future. It’s beginning to look more possible that seeing your favorite artists in the future will be much more affordable than before.