What influences fans to buy concert tickets?

Concerts are considered by many to be the premier event of following a musical artist. The experience of seeing and hearing your favourite singer or band live, along with the atmosphere of being surrounded by hundreds to thousands of like-minded people, is often an unparalleled experience. But a performance can be extremely different depending on the popularity of the artist, which has a fundamental influence on the concert experience; the size of the venue, the budget of the performance, and the length of the show are what makes a concert.

 Irrefutably, the biggest music tour of this year was Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. According to the Grammy Awards website, this broke attendance records at multiple stadiums and led to the creation of the highest grossing concert film of all time, as well as significantly boosting the economy of every country it visited. Having attended the tour in London, I can confidently say that it was unlike any other concert experience; this was in part due to the sheer length of the show (over three hours, as well as two opening acts) and the amazing production, including incredible lighting, pyrotechnics, and visual effects. Added to this was the atmosphere of 89,000 people attending in elaborate outfits referencing Swift’s discography, all trading hundreds of friendship bracelets. However, this once-in-a-lifetime experience comes with a significant price tag: ticket prices ranged from approximately £60 to £200 for regular tickets and up to £800 for VIP and hospitality packages. Due to the high demand for the chance to attend, with Wembley Stadium selling out within minutes, resellers were advertising tickets for prices as high as £6,000.

Prices like this have made concerts a huge expense for some people, and have severely limited concertgoers, with some unable to attend their favourite singers due to astronomical ticket costs.

Tours for other large artists, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour and Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Sweat tour, have seen similar rates of well over £100 for a single ticket. Prices like this have made concerts a huge expense for some people, and have severely limited concertgoers, with some unable to attend the concerts of their favourite singers due to astronomical ticket costs. These high prices have also led to high expectations; for example, attendees of the over 3-hour long Eras Tour have later been disappointed at concerts with similar price points yet half the runtime. People have often been faced with the decision of spending hundreds on a ticket for one of these large-scale concerts, in a huge venue with an extremely high production value, or saving their funds for a smaller concert experience. This forced choice has made it so many fans are passing up the opportunity to see less popular musicians in order to afford one of these large concerts.

The more intimate experience of seeing a smaller-scale artist in a lower capacity venue typically comes with far lower ticket prices. To see an artist such as Vampire Weekend or Cage the Elephant at the O2 Academy Brixton, each ticket will cost you around £40, a far lower price than the likes of Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter. These concerts will obviously involve a lower production value, with none of the grand visual effects and choreography of these huge events at Wembley, but being in a venue a fraction of the size comes with the advantage of being much closer to the artist. Many people prefer this experience to a large-scale concert because they have the opportunity to see their favourite singer up close; the sheer size of many huge venues means the singer is barely visible from the majority of seats. This physical proximity fosters a closer and more authentic connection between an artist and their fans, also because these artists are more likely to meet fans after the show.

You should go to a concert because you enjoy the music and you want to see it live, not just to display it on social media or to tell others you went.

Concert venues of all sizes, from a tiny underground bar to the biggest stadium in the country, have their differences and advantages. Some people prefer the spectacle of bigger and more expensive concerts, with their elaborate production and enormous atmosphere, while others favour the more intimate experience of small events where they have the opportunity to see the artist up close and maybe even meet and interact with them. I would argue that, whatever the size of the venue, the most important concerts you can ever attend are those of your most beloved artists. Those you listen to every day and know every lyric to every single song. You should go to a concert because you enjoy the music and you want to see it live, not just to display it on social media or to tell others you went. A live concert never fails to be an exciting and memorable event, and if you are lucky enough to have the chance and the means to see your favourite artist, you should take that opportunity without hesitation.