You may be familiar with the Taylor Swift Era’s Tour ticket debacle, but have you heard about the ticket fiascos for Morgan Wallen, Brett Young, and Beyoncé? These concert ticket sales, along with many others, have two things in common: the rate they sell out and how expensive they are.

Recently, specifically in the case of Beyoncé’s new tour, American fans have been resorting to other countries to see their favorite artists due to high ticket prices. London has been a popular choice for fans. This could be the start of issues for huge companies, like Ticketmaster, in America.

“This is just an incredible gift in America, which is this music industry, something we’ve literally given the world. And when you have one entity that is basically ticketing all the events and letting fans in the door, that gives them inordinate power,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in an interview for NBC’s Sunday Morning show.

Ticketmaster is the biggest distributor of concert tickets in America, and because of the lack of competition, they can make the prices as high as they want. Fans have been eager to see artists since the pandemic, so they will likely spend irrational amounts of money on one night. For Ticketmaster and their parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, this is great because they still earn hundreds of thousands for every concert. But for fans, this is obviously not so great. 

Why are fans choosing London if Ticketmaster is still a ticket seller in that country? The reason is competition in the ticket market. In London, concert tickets are sold by a wider variety of companies which forces the companies to lower prices. The price of ground tickets and a flight to Europe is cheaper than some nosebleed tickets in America, which is a huge factor for fans when tours are announced. Europe is a more affordable option, and traveling and seeing a concert can be more fun.

Additionally, ticket resale prices in Europe are limited, so scammers can’t buy out rows of tickets and resell them for huge amounts of money. This makes European tickets less expensive because you have to buy them directly from one of the websites, and no one will scam you. Reselling of tickets in America is a huge problem, and there are few to no restrictions on what you can sell and buy. 

Ticketmaster can’t control reselling, but they absolutely control the pricing. The company has an article on its website explaining its pricing, but they still take heat from fans for a good reason. It should not be over $400 per ticket.

“Ticket fees (which can include a service fee, order processing fee, and sometimes a delivery fee) are determined in collaboration with our clients. In exchange for the rights to sell their