The other day, as I was cleaning out my home office, I found a pile of ticket stubs from concerts I attended as a teenager from the late 1980s and early 1990s. This says more about my age and the state of my home office than I would like. But it also says a lot about the live music business.

Looking at the ticket stub brought back memories. The first concert I saw was in the spring of 1986 at Rush on the Power Windows tour. brendan byrne arena. (Imagine a time when venues were named after public figures instead of shady crypto companies!) Two years later, at my first Grateful Dead show at the same venue, my friend was ecstatic about how amazing it was to be able to see live music under the stars even though we were indoors. A month and a half later, Bruce Springsteen played his first of many shows at Madison Square Garden. A month and a half later, my first concert took place at the beginning of Bob Dylan’s Never Ending tour.

Then sticker shock happened. Rush cost $15.50. Then by 1993 I went to see the Dead about 12 times, $17.50. Springsteen, who was at the height of his popularity at the time, cost $22.50. Tickets for the Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels Tour in 1989 cost $30. It was a lot of money for me, who was a college student at the time. — and caused by soaring prices. rolling stone ask magazine The subheading reads, “How much money do the Rolling Stones need?” Oh, my sweet summer child…

There is no difference very As tough as it looks. These Rush and Springsteen tickets currently cost about $45. take into account inflation — Stones tickets are $77. Still, still. As far as I could tell, the cheapest ticket for Rush’s 2026 tour was $175, but prices went up from there. Ticket prices for Springsteen’s upcoming tour have not yet been announced, but reports say they will range from $75 to $400. Another big difference is that in 1988, as a high school senior, I had a chance to get a good seat by waiting in line. These days, concerts are priced similarly to flights, with different prices for different types of status based on demand calculations. And this assumes you can see your favorite artists without paying for transportation to Las Vegas, Munich, or New York.

These changes in the concert business have been great for promoters and performers. But as I started thinking when I talked about the concert business on the Vox podcast;Today’s explanation“They’re trying to turn concerts from regular entertainment for young people to occasional luxuries for superfans and the wealthy. People are obsessed with the fairness of this, which is a bit ridiculous. Fans wouldn’t pay prices like this if they felt they weren’t worth it, and sadly health… There are a lot of things that not everyone can afford, such as health care. But it’s worth asking how concert prices are rising, both in general and the luxury goods associated with some shows in particular.”

My old ticket stub shows what was missing. The concert was special, so I saved some money on the ticket, but it was still affordable enough for me to attend with the money I earned from various jobs as a teenager. (Including working as a coconut clerk.) In 1989, as a college student, I was able to see Elvis Costello, Dylan, at least two Grateful Dead shows, Tom Petty, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, and at least six other shows that I didn’t save on tickets for. I paid for all the expenses myself, but my parents helped cover other expenses as well. Today that would be impossible. Going to one big festival or show can be more expensive than seeing all the shows combined.

This is just another example of how big stars are dominating the live entertainment market. It’s up to the fans whether they want to spend their money on one big show rather than 12 smaller ones. Also, going to a concert is becoming a rare treat, rather than something as routine as live theater. Of course, behavior is constantly evolving. Once upon a time, people always watched movies in theaters, but now it’s usually only once in a while. But ultimately I think this will make it harder for acts and some venues who aren’t at the peak of their careers to tour (though it certainly doesn’t show up in the numbers right now).

The biggest risk is that people will fall out of the habit of going to concerts, just as they stopped going to movie theaters a few generations ago. The amount of money being spent may continue to rise, but a larger share will go to a relatively small number of superstars. Maybe they deserve it. But it can be more difficult for emerging artists to build enthusiastic audiences and make money on tour. Even superstars can have a hard time growing past their commercial peak.

Now I would like to provide some kind of solution to this, but I don’t have one. It’s naive to expect the biggest stars to lower their rates for the sake of some nebulous benefit for the business as a whole. (That said, I think it’s worth encouraging artists to keep some tickets cheap so fans can at least get into the arena.) But the idea of ​​teenagers going to concerts with money from summer jobs is relatively new, and may not last long. And it could change the entire music business.