Live concerts are one of life's greatest joys. There is nothing quite like the anticipation leading up to the day coupled with the joy of finally seeing your favorite artist on stage.
Live concerts are a fundamental experience in the present day and provide many benefits to concertgoers. However, getting there is the hardest part.
The process of buying tickets online has become a dreaded part of concert-going. The stress of online shopping, waiting in a virtual line, error pages and inevitably turning to resellers have plagued the experience.
Though some fans find the process exhilarating and thrive on the adrenaline rush of concerts, others find sites like Ticketmaster incredibly frustrating. Articles such as “Tips for surviving the stressful process of buying concert tickets online” and “How to Dominate Ticketmaster - Tips and Tricks for Buying Tickets” are frequently created and visited by concertgoers.
This past week, the Oasis Reunion Tour was announced, bringing back the English rock band for the first time in 15 years. Days after the announcement, one million tickets went on sale and millions of fans, new and old, hoped to get a seat. Prices began at around $100 and quickly rose to over $600. Screenshots of error pages and outrage over ticket prices flooded social media. Many fans waited hours in an online queue to be met with suspended sessions or a crashed website.
Once again, Ticketmaster was at the center of it all. The website’s dynamic pricing system, which sets prices based on demand, began in 2022. As a result, tickets typically increase in price due to website traffic or inconspicuous fees charged by Ticketmaster at checkout.
The company has been under fire for this system since it was implemented. Numerous celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, have expressed distaste for how Ticketmaster operates. However, Ticketmaster has yet to make a notable change.
The stress of buying tickets online negatively affects the purely stress-relieving and endorphin-pumping experience of attending a live concert. Fans face severe disappointment when tickets are sold out or exceed the number in their bank account by thousands.
In an online poll by Variety, 38% of people stated that concert ticket prices “prevented (them) from going to more live music shows (they) would have wanted to attend.” Even when fans are successful, tickets are an investment and put financial stress on concertgoers who hope to see their favorite band.
Still, fans continue to rush and buy tickets because their brains thrive on human experience. Concerts are driven by sensory stimulation, social bonding and storytelling, all of which contribute to making physical impacts on human brains and nervous systems.
In fact, attending live concerts is proven to reduce stress and release waves of dopamine into our system. Many fans find a sense of community at concerts when they are surrounded by thousands in one space, and they find joy in having the same unique experience as other fans.
Some concertgoers say the experience can be addicting. As Caroline Ssemanda writes on Medium, “I leave the concert still buzzing from the performance I had witnessed, my phone full of videos and pictures I will share on social media and I know that the next day the high will be gone. But it won’t be the last.”
Although buying tickets may be the cause of a few days' stress, people enjoying a concert will drastically outweigh the negative experience. There is no denying that Ticketmaster and other ticket selling sites need to change. However, live concerts will continue to be a large part of human culture and experience no matter how annoying the ticket buying process becomes.
