If buying concert tickets has always been a nerve-wracking race, in 2025 it’s also become a test of financial endurance. This February, fans of some of music’s biggest acts – from Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar to rock legends Black Sabbath – were left reeling at the prices flashing on their screens. As tickets for major UK shows went on sale, many experienced sticker shock at levels previously unthinkable. How high have prices climbed? In a word: stratospheric.

Take Beyoncé. The global superstar’s newly announced Cowboy Carter & the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit tour – her first since the record-breaking 2023 Renaissance tour – saw unprecedented demand and, to fans’ dismay, unprecedented prices. During presales for her six London stadium shows, standing tickets were spotted at £224 – steep in itself – but some seated tickets soared to £700 each. That’s face value, not resale. Screenshots shared on social media showed Ticketmaster’s prices literally rising in real time, with one aghast member of the Beyhive noting prices had tripled between an exclusive fan presale and a later presale for mobile customers. “£700 to sit in a stadium? This is actually criminal,” fumed one fan.

In practical terms, seeing Beyoncé up close now carries a four-figure price tag. Even entry-level London tickets, once fees are added, are expected to start around £72, with top-tier VIP experiences exceeding £950. For comparison, a fan recalled paying £199 + fees for a seat on the last tour – the same seat now would set them back over £800, or relegate them to a behind-the-stage view if they stuck to the £200 range. The price inflation is stark.

Hip-hop fans fared no better. Tickets for the much-hyped Kendrick Lamar and SZA co-headlining Grand National tour (scheduled for UK dates later in 2025) also went on sale this month – and quickly sparked their own uproar. Official prices for the UK shows ranged widely, from roughly £75 for the cheapest nosebleed seats to about £571 for the priciest options. And those were primary market prices, not reseller markups. Over in the US, where the tour was first announced late last year, fans faced similar astonishment: some nosebleed seats – the rafters of a stadium – were going for around $350 each. Online, people shared horror stories of “dynamic” presale prices that shot up before their eyes: one fan reported seeing a $75 ticket balloon to $200 as they attempted to checkout. Others calculated an average price of around $175–$200 per ticket for this double-headliner tour – steep, even for two chart-topping artists, and in many cases higher than what fans paid to see solo tours by Beyoncé or even Taylor Swift in recent years. “These Kendrick ticket prices are crazy, scary, spooky AND hilarious,” tweeted one would-be attendee, capturing a mix of shock and bitter humour. Another quipped that for $350 in the nosebleeds, they might as well “squabble in their living room” and watch a live stream.

And then there’s Black Sabbath – a band who, more than 50 years after pioneering heavy metal, likely never imagined their concert tickets would approach the cost of a second-hand car. When the original Sabbath lineup announced a one-off farewell show in Birmingham (billed as Ozzy Osbourne’s final UK performance, with an all-star supporting bill) fans anticipated high demand. But few anticipated just how high prices would be. At 9am on the day presales opened, those in the Ticketmaster online queue were greeted with an eyebrow-raising message: “Tickets have been priced in advance by the tour ranging from £197.50 to £834 (including fees)…” Yes, you read that right – the cheapest face value was nearly £200, and standard seats went up to £834 each, according to that official notice. And that did not include VIP packages, which were even more exorbitant. For fans who clicked through out of curiosity (or masochism), the VIP offerings included a Silver Package at £445, Gold at £595, and Platinum at £795. But those proved almost quaint once the ultimate VIP option came into view: an Ultimate Side of Stage Experience in the exclusive Gold Circle area. One fan shared a screenshot of that coveted item in their basket – at a price of £2,932.50 for one ticket. “I’d expect to be rocking out on stage with Black Sabbath for that price,” they commented wryly.

Granted, the Sabbath gig is a special case: it’s an all-day festival-style event with Metallica, Slayer, Alice in Chains, and more on the bill, and the promoters have stressed that all profits go to charity. But even the charitable angle did little to soften the blow for lifelong fans who felt priced out of their heroes’ final bow. When even a cheap seat is £200 (plus fees) and standing on the pitch is over £260, the distinction between a regular ticket and a VIP one starts to blur – they’re all luxuries now.

It’s not just these three tours – across the board, big-ticket concerts have been getting pricier. Industry data shows the trend has been building: in 2019, the average ticket for a top 100 tour worldwide was around $90; by 2024 it had shot up to roughly $123 (about £100), and one global analysis put the 2024 average at $135.92 (£110) – nearly double what it was in 2015. Even accounting for inflation, that’s a massive rise. But statistics only tell part of the story. The visceral outrage of fans seeing three-figure sums (or even four figures) for a single seat is something new – a tipping point where the cultural conversation has shifted from “Tickets are hard to get” to “Tickets are becoming unaffordable for normal people.”

Unsurprisingly, the reaction from fans has been furious. Within minutes of these tours going on sale, social media was flooded with frustration, as people shared screenshots of absurdly high prices, vented about long online queues that led to nothing, and joked about needing to remortgage their house just to see their favourite artists.

Beyoncé’s #CowboyCarterTour quickly trended for all the wrong reasons. “The Cowboy Carter ticket prices… that s*** is completely asinine and nothing more than pure greed,” one fan posted, tagging Ticketmaster, Beyoncé, and her management. “Beyoncé, I love you, but you might have to catch me at Act 3,” wrote another, referencing the singer’s ongoing multi-album project. Fans weren’t just annoyed at the prices—they were furious at the way they were being sold. Long-time members of the Beyhive, those who had signed up for early access presales, found themselves priced out in real time by Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, a system that adjusts ticket prices based on demand, often pushing them hundreds of pounds higher within minutes. “£700 for a seat? And they had the audacity to do this during the BeyHive presale?”

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s fans had a similar experience. The Grand National tour, expected to be one of 2025’s biggest hip-hop events, saw instant backlash when fans in the UK found even upper-tier seats priced at £300+. American fans had already been through it, with reports of nosebleed seats shooting from $75 to $350. Social media reactions ranged from disbelief to outright rage. “I love Kendrick, but I’d rather buy a PS5 and watch his old concerts on YouTube at this point,” joked one user. Another simply posted a screenshot of a £420 seat with the caption: “Not in this economy.”

Black Sabbath fans, meanwhile, were caught between nostalgia and despair. As the price list for their final UK show spread online, fans of the metal pioneers found themselves unable to justify the cost. “I get that it’s for charity, but £2,900 for VIP? At those prices, I better be playing guitar onstage with Tony Iommi.” Some were resigned, with one user tweeting, “Well, it was a good run. I’ll watch from the car park.”

It’s not just these tours—outrage over ticket prices has become a recurring theme for live music in recent years. Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Bruce Springsteen, and even Oasis’ long-rumoured reunion tour have all seen prices balloon beyond what many fans can afford. It’s led to broader concerns about whether live music, once an experience accessible to all, is now a luxury product aimed only at the wealthiest.

As fans rage against ever-rising ticket prices, the live music industry has been working to defend itself. Promoters, ticketing companies, and even some artists argue that these price hikes aren’t simply about profit—they’re about survival in a touring landscape that’s become significantly more expensive.

One of the most common explanations is rising production costs. Touring in 2025, the argument goes, is far more expensive than it was even five years ago. The cost of fuel, freight, venue rental, security, lighting, and sound equipment has skyrocketed. A major stadium tour now involves dozens of trucks, full-time staff working around the clock, and elaborate set designs that cost millions. Some insiders estimate that big tours cost between 25% to 40% more to stage than they did in 2019, and that’s before factoring in inflation.

Another argument is demand. More people are attending concerts than ever before, and stadium shows routinely sell out in minutes. Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, reported record-breaking attendance figures in 2024, with over 150 million tickets sold worldwide. In a market where demand drastically exceeds supply, ticket prices rise naturally. The company insists that it’s simply setting prices at what people are willing to pay—if thousands of fans are willing to drop £600 for a good seat, then why shouldn’t they price accordingly?

Ticketmaster has also defended its controversial dynamic pricing system, arguing that it prevents scalpers from profiting off resale markups. Their reasoning is that if fans are willing to pay £300 for a ticket on the resale market, then that money should go to the artist and promoters, not to touts. Ticketmaster UK’s managing director, Andrew Parsons, has insisted that they do not arbitrarily hike prices. Instead, promoters and artists set multiple pricing tiers in advance, and when lower-priced tickets sell out, only the higher tiers remain available. “There’s not a computer or a bot behind it,” he stated in a recent parliamentary hearing.

Some artists have also defended higher prices. Bruce Springsteen’s team, for instance, responded to backlash over $1,000+ tickets on his last tour by saying that they were simply following the industry trend. “We looked carefully at what our peers have been doing,” Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, said at the time. “We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others.”

But fans argue that just because an artist can charge these prices, it doesn’t mean they should. Many have accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of exploiting their near-monopoly over the industry to push prices up as far as possible. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber recently called dynamic pricing “a racket,” likening it to corporate scalping.

While stadium tours are raking in record profits, the small venue circuit is in crisis. Grassroots venues, the kinds of places where emerging artists build their careers, are struggling to survive.

In stark contrast to the triple-digit prices of arena concerts, the average grassroots gig ticket costs just £11.48. Many small venues charge under £15 per ticket—about the same as a stadium show’s booking fee alone. Yet, despite keeping prices low, grassroots venues are closing at an alarming rate. Over the past two years, more than 100 independent venues across the UK have shut down, citing unsustainable running costs and declining audiences.

The financial pressures on grassroots venues are immense. While major tours can absorb rising costs by increasing ticket prices, small venues don’t have that option. Rent, staffing, and energy bills have soared, yet they can’t simply double ticket prices without scaring off their audience. Many are running at a loss, desperately trying to stay afloat.

The divide between major and grassroots venues is widening. Fans are now spending hundreds on one big show rather than attending multiple smaller gigs, funnelling money toward the biggest tours while independent music spaces struggle to survive. The knock-on effect is significant: if small venues continue to close, fewer new artists will have the opportunity to build a following. Today’s grassroots acts are tomorrow’s stadium headliners—but only if they have places to play.

With frustration at an all-time high, calls for change are growing louder. Fans, politicians, and even some artists are pushing for solutions to make live music more affordable and sustainable.

One proposal gaining traction is a £1 levy on all arena and stadium concert tickets, with the money going toward supporting grassroots venues. The idea, backed by the Music Venue Trust and some MPs, would mean that every major concert ticket sold contributes directly to smaller music spaces. While an extra pound might not make a difference to someone already paying £200 for a ticket, across thousands of shows, it could generate millions to keep independent venues afloat. The government has encouraged the live music industry to introduce this levy voluntarily, but if they don’t, legislation may be on the horizon.

The UK government is also considering price caps on resale tickets to prevent scalpers from reselling tickets at extortionate prices. A proposed law would limit resale prices to no more than 30% above face value, making it harder for touts to exploit demand. There’s also a growing push for greater transparency in pricing, with some politicians calling for all-in pricing that includes service fees upfront, rather than springing extra charges on fans at checkout.

Meanwhile, some artists are taking matters into their own hands. The Cure made headlines in 2023 when Robert Smith personally forced Ticketmaster to refund excessive service fees for fans. Other artists, including Coldplay and Fatboy Slim, have publicly supported efforts like face value resale service Twickets to curb markups. Oasis, after facing backlash over UK ticket prices, announced that they would not use dynamic pricing for their North American shows.

There’s no simple fix, but one thing is clear: the current situation is pushing live music toward a tipping point. Fans are being asked to pay ever-increasing amounts, while grassroots venues face extinction. If artists, promoters, and policymakers don’t find a better balance soon, they may discover that even the most dedicated fans have their limits.

For now, though, as long as people are willing to pay, the prices will stay high. Fans may complain, but as Ticketmaster and the major promoters see it, if stadiums are still selling out, there’s no reason to change the system. Until, perhaps, one day they don’t.