After a four-year musical hiatus, the king of modern-day pop has returned. On January 15th, Harry Styles posted the release date of his upcoming album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” A few days later, he followed it up by debuting a single and a tour announcement, sending fans across the globe into a craze. His tour, “Together, Together” spans across 30 nights in NYC, his biggest residency yet, followed by shows in Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, Melbourne, and Sydney.
Despite the excitement of his return, many fans are outraged after seeing the prices and have taken to social media to make it known. Compared to his previous tour in 2022, the face value prices of the tickets have more than doubled. “Love on Tour” (2021-2022) tickets ranged from 30 dollars to the most expensive being 200 dollars for a pit ticket. “Together, Together” has tickets ranging from 50 to 1,182.40 dollars, as listed on the official Ticketmaster site. With NYC being the only US city he is performing in, it requires an excessive amount of money on travel and accommodation for some fans coming from all over the country. Dedication, but unrealistic for most. Loving an artist should not cost a month’s rent or a month’s worth of income.
Many fans are disappointed with this situation, blaming Ticketmaster and Harry’s team. Concerts are supposed to be about people coming together who find friends, comfort, and safety within music. It’s meant to bring people together, not remind them of what they can’t afford. I know many friends who saved hundreds of dollars yet still fell short when trying to buy tickets this year. This raises the real question: who is controlling the pricing, and has a desire for profit outweighed the genuine love for live music? The main culprit often lies not with the artists, but with the systems that sell access to them. Ticketmaster, which controls over 80 percent of primary ticket sales for major US venues, holds immense power over many artists.
For some shows, they use dynamic pricing, inflating ticket prices based on demand, which is extremely unfair to fans. While Harry’s tour opted out of dynamic pricing, the prices were only released once fans entered the purchase queue, leaving many wondering if costs were being adjusted behind the scenes until the last moment. Even without dynamic pricing, Ticketmaster charges about 30 percent in fees, adding a significant burden. To put this in perspective, a ticket with a 200 dollar face value ends up costing a fan about 260 dollars. This financial barrier is increased by the overwhelming demand, as seen when a record of 11.5 million people registered for Harry’s Madison Square Garden residency alone, despite there being roughly 595,000 tickets available across all 30 nights. Given this system, fans are now questioning: do artists’ teams have the influence, or the desire, to work with these platforms to prioritize affordability for their fans? Or is this the new normal for concerts across the nation? Either way, concerts shouldn’t be about entitlement or a status symbol, but accessibility and bringing people together.