You log into Ticketmaster half an hour before the queue opens, anxiously waiting for the chance to support your favorite artist. You plan whether you will spring for the upper or lower bowl. The queue finally loads in, and you are 1000 in line out of 30,000. You smile, ready to take your pick, but when it’s finally your turn, everything is sold out.
If you’ve tried to buy concert tickets, chances are you have experienced this let-down. Ticketmaster controls nearly 80% of the live venue market , and fans have struggled more than ever to obtain tickets during presales and general sales. Tickets are becoming outrageously expensive because of monopolies, dynamic pricing and resellers, and fans are stuck paying the price.
“I’ve tried to get them on Ticketmaster before and had trouble,” said Julia Keane, an elementary education major. “There have been issues where I’ve been sold tickets that weren’t actually real. I’ve been scammed from StubHub and other sites like that.”
In recent years, Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have been sued for letting ticket scalpers — bots or people who buy tickets in bulk just to resell at marked up prices — thrive on their page, exploiting fans. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour revealed the messiness in the system through website crashes, presale code failure and failure to secure tickets.
Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour sale in September 2025 was no different. Her first tour in seven years drew huge demand, yet tickets disappeared instantly and resale prices skyrocketed.
“I just wanted you to know that my team and I see it…I care very much and we will do and are doing everything we can,” Grande said on an Instagram story addressing the issues.
But the problem with resale is clear; it largely limits its reach from everyday fans. Grande’s ticket prices originally ranged from $73.90-$799 according to Ticketmaster, but the prices swiftly rose upon resale to even as high as $1.3 million on platforms like SeatGeek.
“It’s not like [resellers are] buying them because they appreciate the artists or they want to see them,” said Maya Hare, a freshman international business major. “They just want to make more profit off of it when the profit should actually be going toward the artist, and people should be able to see the artists that they like without having to pay exorbitant amounts of money.”
Until monopolies are held accountable, fans can try a few things:
- Be patient. Prices often drop closer to the show date because of the time constraint.
- Join fan club presales if they are available. Staying alert on any relevant information for your favorite artists can make all the difference!
- Have multiple devices and accounts ready on sale day. Ticketmaster does not recommend opening multiple devices on one account to get into one event, but using multiple different accounts across devices improves your odds without having to risk getting kicked out of the line.
Live music is meant to bring people together from different walks of life, bonding and sharing a love for art within a community. Until the industry reflects this, people will have to keep finding creative ways to make sure live music stays within reach.