The 21st century may be a time of human estrangement, but the pleasures of watching our favourite band or singer play live surely unite millions of us. There is something about the whole ritual that crystallises what popular music fundamentally is: a profoundly democratic artform that will always soundtrack the lives of just about everybody.
But perhaps all that is on its way out. When it comes to big names, gig-going is becoming absurdly expensive. The ticket market is now both byzantine and hierarchical, often carving up audiences into no end of tiers. Thanks to the exploitative absurdity of “dynamic pricing” and resale websites, it also charges people much more than even the original face-value ticket prices. To track what’s going on in terms of average price rises can therefore be very difficult. But in the face of an ongoing cost of living crisis, the eye-watering upward trend is crystal-clear, and driven by those artists in the commercial super league of music. That may suit them and the industry players who take a cut, but it is starting to look like very bad news for everything music is supposed to represent.
