2026, the year destined to be a culmination of the end of artist hiatuses and the time of fans’ lives, live music would be bigger and better than ever. Or so people thought. The reality is a tough pill to swallow. Music is no longer about the fans and those experiences, but instead the profits.
To kick off the new year, Harry Styles returned to music with his single “Aperture” and the announcement of his album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. Social media hype and excitement followed; fans were excited for the ability to experience Harry Styles live once again, up until the announcement of his tour, Together Together. That excitement was replaced with heartbreak and backlash at the outlandishly high ticket prices, standard seats beginning at over $1,000, and noted that such prices were set by the artist and their team.Â
But high prices for live experiences aren’t out of the ordinary, especially for high-ticket artists on long-awaited tours. Original outcry for extreme pricing began with Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, and prices have only continued to increase from there. Fans blamed monopolistic live-giant Ticketmaster, blaming them for the prices and backing their favorite artists, praising apologies, all while continuing to purchase tickets regardless of the steep price.Â
But who’s really to blame here? It’s not the fans or bots like artists want you to believe. The real villain is your favorite artist. Many artists have issued apologies for their extremely high ticket prices, either right off the gate as a justification or as a result of the high price of tickets being resold, but they are the ones to blame for this, their own greed outweighing the love for their fans. Artists, in opposition to their claims, do have some control over what goes on behind the scenes of ticket sales, selecting the prices and placing restrictions on reselling. Olivia Dean, recently, called out the giant and was able to reduce the sale price of her tickets alongside many others who have gone a step further and put limitations on resale practices such as not allowing tickets to be resold for higher than the purchase price. And there are more big-ticket artists who can be doing so the next time you’re stuck dealing with outrageous prices or social media apologies, remember they aren’t the victim– you are.