[Viewpoint] Forty artists are calling for a cap on concert ticket prices

November 2025 Editorial

Artists' revolt against live concert ticket prices

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT-Audio Italy
Published: November, 2025

In recent times, we've witnessed a veritable explosion in live concert ticket prices, driven by a phenomenon known as secondary ticketing. Platforms like Viagogo and Stubhub purchase large quantities of tickets in bulk and resell them at inflated prices. A recent case in point is the sale of tickets for the Oasis reunion at Wembley on Stubhub for UKP3,500 (about €4,000) and on Viagogo for UKP4,500 (about €5,000). The artists, who obviously don't earn a cent from these markups, have signed an appeal to the British government to put an end to the excessive power of secondary ticketing platforms by controlling prices.

Among the forty signatories are such notable names as Iron Maiden, Radiohead, Dua Lipa, Mark Knopfler, Robert Smith of The Cure, PJ Harvey, Sam Fender, and New Order. In agreement with several consumer associations, the artists intend to restore social equity in a sector in which the “secondary ticket market favours the interests of touts, whose exploitative practices prevent true fans from accessing concerts, theatrical performances, and sporting events.”

Pricing caps for ticket re-sales won't solve the problem, argues the multinational platform Viagogo, because capping prices has often caused greater harm to consumers, pushing fans to purchase tickets on social media and shady websites, where fraud is rife.

The solution, for Viagogo, is the so-called open ticketing, a real-time connection between the primary sales platforms (i.e., ticket issuers) and resale platforms, similar to what happens with airline fares or hotel prices. Competition from different market players would lead to lower prices.

On this point, I personally express my doubts, because too often, under the guise of competition and lower prices - in all sectors - we have witnessed actual cartel agreements, such as the price plans of telephone companies or energy providers. Are we sure that the free market is truly free?

According to Viagogo, this open ticketing would reduce the influence (or rather, monopoly) of the two largest ticketing companies, namely Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, in the sense that - even without secondary ticketing - concert prices have skyrocketed for a few years, partly due to the fact that artists now earn more from live performances than from record sales, strangled as they are by the paltry remuneration of streaming services.

The good news is that the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is soon expected to officially announce that:

Ticket resale above face value will be illegal. Tickets can only be sold for their face value plus unavoidable fees including service charges
Service charges added by resale platforms will be capped, to prevent the new price limit being undermined
Resale platforms will have a legal duty to monitor and enforce compliance with the new price cap
Individuals will be banned from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial ticket sale. For example, if consumers were limited to purchasing four tickets each, only four can be resold.

This is a first step; let's see if other governments in the rest of the world will follow suit.

Did you enjoy this article? You can support our free, advertising-free magazine with a small Paypal donation using the button below. Thank you!

DISCLAIMER. TNT-Audio is neither a shop, nor a HiFi company or a repair laboratory for HiFi components. We don't sell anything. It is a 100% independent magazine that neither accepts advertising from companies nor requires readers to register or pay for subscriptions. If you wish, you can support our independent reviews via a PayPal donation. After publication of reviews, the authors do not retain samples other than on long-term loan for further evaluation or comparison with later-received gear. Hence, all contents are written free of any “editorial” or “advertising” influence, and all reviews in this publication, positive or negative, reflect the independent opinions of their respective authors. TNT-Audio will publish all manufacturer responses, subject to the reviewer's right to reply in turn.