And the East Coast hasnt been faring much better.
Live Nation, however, have pushed back at the suggestion that Beyonce is having trouble selling tickets.
Let me preface everything and start by saying this: I like Beyonce.
I am not a Beyonce hater.
She’s one of the biggest artists of all time.
Point in case- let’s rewind to the Grammy Awards two years ago, in 2024.
And low and behold, wouldn’t you know it, it won “Album of The Year”?
She beat out Chris Stapleton for crying out loud.
The entire music industry business model is and has been broken for a while now.
And it gets way worse.
How the fuck is this possible?
When ticket sales for her previous tours were met with frenzied demand, whats changed now?
Its not that Beyonces popularity has waned; its that the ticket market itself is fundamentally broken.
And people are bullshit.
That frustration is palpable.
And its not just isolated to Beyonces tour.
This has become a common thread running through the industry.
Looking at you Ticketmaster.
What weve seen since the merger is an aggressive push for dynamic pricing (i.e.
surge pricing, aka price gouging) that inflates ticket prices to ludicrous levels.
It’s fucking bonkers.
The complete opposite of how it should be set up.
You are essentiallypenalizedfor being a diehard fan, and committing your money early to the show.
In the case of BeyoncesCowboy CarterTour, we saw this play out in real-time.
Fans are the lifeblood of the industry, and yet, theyre treated like disposable commodities.
These inflated prices arent just hurting the wallets of fanstheyre completely distorting the entire concert-going experience.
We already know that ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster charge ridiculous fees.
For some, this makes the cost of attending a show skyrocket.
The transparency is non-existent, and the customer service is borderline nonexistent.
It’s a fucking joke.
Whats left is a bunch of frustrated fans who feel like the system is rigged.
And they’re not wrong.
Theyre stuck with overpriced tickets, bad seats, and no real options for redress.
The artists aren’t to blame here.
Artists see dick for “selling” their music nowadays.
Thanks to streaming mostly.
Enter “the 360 deal”.
Which entitles the label to a piece of everything their “artist” does to generate revenue.
Usually in exchange for a nice fat “advance”.
Not a huge piece, but a piece.
That means everything involved with touring- where all the money is nowadays.
The reality is that the industry’s current trajectory is unsustainable.
Fans will eventually tire of paying extortionate prices for subpar experiences, and theyll start looking for alternatives.
That time might finally be here.
Its time to rethink the way we do concerts.
- my favorite 3 Beyonce records -
