The next couple months will be jam packed with music festivals such as Lollapalooza, Riot Fest and Sueños. Artists like The Weeknd, Beyonce and Tyler, the Creator will headline venues around Chicago this summer.
Anticipation is tempered by ludicrous pricing for many of these events, which make them unaffordable to many fans. In recent years the cost of music festivals has skyrocketed. While artists may not be to blame, things need to desperately change for live performances to be attainable for fans.
Like many festivals, Lollapalooza began as a multi-city tour of bands with the first iteration in 1991 being a farewell tour for the band Jane’s Addiction. In 2005, the organizers were looking for a place to settle down after the hectic nature of a touring festival and decided on Chicago. It has been the go-to music festival in Chicago ever since. But just in the last 10 years, prices have skyrocketed even for single day passes. In 2013, a single day general admission was only $95, but for this year it is an eye-watering $189 for a single general admission ticket. Not GA+, not VIP, just general admission. If you were looking to attend all four days of general admission, you would be looking at $756 burned off of your bank account, adjusted for inflation that would be a little over $550 for four days of attendance in 2013.
Pricey ticketing has followed other Chicago staples such as Riot Fest, which is celebrating 20 years this upcoming September. Even newer festivals such as Sueños, Chicago’s annual Latin and reggaeton festival founded in 2022, will set you back $199 for a single day ticket.
Despite this, music festivals all over the country continuously sell out with little to no struggle. This year, Lollapalooza began selling tickets at 10 A.M.and just one hour later, the four day passes were completely gone.
As for individual artist concerts this summer, the same depressing story rings true. The Weeknd coming fresh off his new album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is taking his “After Hours til Dawn” tour to Soldier Field at the end of May. Pre-sale tickets went live Feb. 5, and I sat on a Facetime call with three of my childhood friends ready to punch our way to what is our most anticipated show of the year. When the sale began we could not believe our eyes that the single cheapest ticket available was well over $100 and for beyond nosebleed seats. It is safe to say that I am still recovering from that purchase. Other artists like Blackpink, AC/DC and Kendrick Lamar with Sza will all be performing at some point during the summer here in Chicago, with many of their shows already having been sold out.
One of the biggest issues that may be driving ticket prices higher are the meager revenues artists make from streaming. According to some experts, one stream equates between $0.0033 and $0.0054. Using those metrics in the current day, Bruno Mars, the artist with the most monthly listeners on Spotify with 133 million, made roughly $8 million from “Just the Way You Are,” a song with 2.6 billion streams. In the decade before the streaming era began, around 2012, physical album sales made up roughly 70-85% of the total music industry revenue, while digital album sales, especially after 2006 made up 10-20%. Fast forward to 2019, and that number of combined physical and digital album sales dropped to 30%, while streaming is sitting at nearly 60%. This practice has forced artists to raise live performance tickets all around.
But there is an additional force behind this uptick in pricing. Live Nation, a leader in live entertainment, owns more than 300 venues worldwide and Ticketmaster, possibly the biggest online ticket seller on the planet. Ticketmaster has faced controversy in the past but, more importantly, legal action has begun to take shape against the parent company. In May of last year, the Justice Department accompanied by over 30 attorneys accused Live Nation and Ticketmaster of having a monopoly in a civil antitrust lawsuit that claims their practices are “deprived of ticketing innovation and forced to use outdated technology while paying more for tickets than fans in other countries.”
The lawsuit is still ongoing.
Despite there being an ongoing investigation, fans continue to clamor for tickets. I wanted to point out my own hypocrisy as well, as I have also continuously gotten tickets for ridiculous prices. Regardless, that should not diminish the idea that this sends a clear but chilling message to these companies.
Instead, we music fans should remember the heartbeat of artists still exists among our basements, backyards and dive bars all across Chicago. Amazing local talent is present all around us, including our amazing Columbia students who continue to raise the bar for local talent. If we really want to push back on the unlawful practices in the music industry that continue draining our funds and watering down our experiences, it starts with showing up for the little guy. You can do this by supporting local venues that foster up and coming bands such as Beat Kitchen, Cole’s Bar, Schubas, Lincoln Hall and Subterranean. Who knows, you might find your next favorite artist playing somewhere nearby with no outrageous price, no hidden fees, just the raw power of creativity. That to me, is something truly worth investing in.
Copy edited by Matt Brady
Resumen en Español:
La escena musical de verano en Chicago está llena de festivales y conciertos con grandes artistas, pero los precios altísimos hacen que muchos no puedan asistir. Eventos como Lollapalooza casi han duplicado su costo en la última década, y hasta los asientos más alejados para conciertos importantes superan los $100.
El aumento de precios se debe a los bajos pagos por streaming y a monopolios como Live Nation y su filial Ticketmaster, que enfrentan demandas por prácticas anticompetitivas. Aun así, los fans siguen comprando, reforzando el problema. Es mejor apoyar a artistas locales y a espacios pequeños como una alternativa más accesible y significativa.
Resumen escrito por Manuel Nocera
Resumen editado por Doreen Abril Albuerne Rodriguez
