Ignacio Vasquez spent the last year saving money for tickets to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, which will kick off next month. Vasquez, 20, a full-time student from Modesto, was on the lookout for tickets to one of the tour’s five shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for him and his sister.

“I went to go see Beyoncé on the Renaissance tour, and since I knew this was coming up, I knew I had to be saving,” Vasquez said.

On Feb. 11, Vasquez got on Ticketmaster’s online queue for the BeyHive presale, offered exclusively to those who signed up on Beyoncé’s website. After waiting his turn, Vasquez was surprised to see tickets listed at a minimum of $600 each and many at more than $1,000.

“The prices were just outrageous by the time I got in there,” Vasquez said. “I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is not going to work — I’m not going to do that,’ so I just quit it.”

In recent years, concertgoers have paid eye-popping prices for tickets to see popular artists such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Oasis on tour. But Generation Z fans — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are paying much more for concert tickets than previous generations did when they were young adults. In 1996, the average ticket price for the top 100 tours was $25.81, or about $52 adjusted for inflation, according to data compiled by Pollstar, a trade publication that covers the live music industry. By 2024, average ticket prices had risen to $135.92. The live music industry has put today’s young adults in an impossibly expensive position.

For Gen Z, spending on concerts can be budget busters. In a survey of 1,000 Gen Z respondents published last year by Merge, a marketing agency, 86% admitted to overspending on live events. Fear of missing out, or FOMO, was cited as a top reason. Another survey by AAA, the automobile owners group, and Bread Financial, a financial services company, found that Gen Z and millennials were willing to spend more and travel farther to attend live events than older generations are.

Last year, Chricket Cho, 25, attended seven concerts in the United States and Canada: Swift in Toronto, Bleachers in New York City and Nashville, Tennessee, Gracie Abrams in New York City, and Sabrina Carpenter, Maggie Rogers and Chappell Roan in Atlanta. She spent $8,400 on tickets, merchandise and travel for the shows.

“I just feel like live music is something that makes me feel alive,” said Cho, an information technology auditor who lives in Suwanee, Georgia, and earns about $100,000 annually. “It’s a moment in time that is different than just listening to music on Spotify or on my record player.”

The most money Cho spent for a single show was to see Swift at the Rogers Center in Toronto. She purchased her ticket on Ticketmaster for $600, paid $3,000 for travel and accommodations, and spent $470 on merchandise.

Cho said she didn’t have a price cap for buying concert tickets. But she said soaring ticket prices had made her reconsider going to concerts if the artists weren’t her “all-time favorites” like Swift or Bleachers, the rock band fronted by Jack Antonoff.

Skyrocketing concert ticket prices

About 50 years ago, fans of Bruce Springsteen paid as little as $8, or $44 adjusted for inflation, to see him perform on his Born to Run tour. Costs rapidly rose over the next few decades.

“The price of the average concert ticket increased by nearly 400% from 1981 to 2012, much faster than the 150% rise in overall consumer price inflation,” Alan B. Krueger said in an address at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, when he was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

After people were cooped up inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance at concerts and other large gatherings resurged as audiences craved more in-person experiences. In 2023, the top 100 tours around the world brought in a record-breaking $9.2 billion, up 65% from 2019, according to data from Pollstar.

This increased demand, mixed with limited seats, high service fees and loose regulations (and an ongoing antitrust lawsuit) over how tickets are bought and sold, has resulted in a global surge in concert ticket prices.

On Swift’s popular Eras Tour, which grossed a record $2 billion, the average ticket price was $1,088 in 2023.

Demand-driven dynamic pricing systems put into place by ticket sellers have also resulted in higher prices. But this did not come into play when Vasquez tried to buy tickets for Beyoncé’s tour.

The day after Vasquez’s failed purchase attempt, he was able to buy tickets for $200 each through a Ticketmaster presale that was available only to Citi credit and debit card holders.

“Within just one day, the prices dropped drastically, and I know people who bought them on the first day, so it’s crazy,” Vasquez said.

According to Ticketmaster, prices for the shows at SoFi Stadium did not change. The tour had set ticket prices between $105.25 and $4,769.52, including service fees, and the cheaper seats were available when Vasquez bought them through the Citi presale.

Abbas Tayebali lives in Westmont, Illinois, and makes about $28,000 a year working two part-time jobs, one as a clerical worker in an academic office and the other as an events coordinator for a photo booth rental company.

In 2024, Tayebali saw two concerts at the Chicago Theater, Laufey and Samara Joy. For Laufey, he paid $300 for one ticket through an online reseller charging more than face value.

“Looking back, I probably would have been OK not spending that much for the ticket, especially for where I was seated,” said Tayebali, 26. “If I had to go back and shake myself and be like ‘Don’t purchase these tickets,’ I would probably do that.”

Tayebali said he had gone into credit card debt from buying concert tickets but would never pay more than $500 for one ticket.

“Concert-going used to be accessible and a fun way to end the evening,” he said.