Arts writer Derek McArthur looks at Bruce Springsteen's decision to sign off on exorbitant ticket prices and why the practice of premium seats is damaging to an already damaged corporate live music industry.

If there’s a hill I’m willing to die on, to the sounds of a few smears and jeers, surprisingly, it’s that live music is a complete and utter rip-off.

I’m not talking about the small gigs that have had to up their entry price from £5 to £10. Those performances are put on for the love of the game in a declining economy. I’m talking about going to see acts where you pay out the nose for the privilege of seemingly knowing their name.

Everyone who is anyone is in on this apparently acceptable grift where £100+ tickets have become the norm. We’re so used to weird post-modern terms like Live Nation and Ticketmaster that we don’t even question how obsequious and controlling they are in what we get to see, experience, and, to get closer to the why of it all, pay.

Because the troubling truth is, they can charge whatever the hell they want. Ticketmaster alone is used by 60% of ticket buyers in the UK and controls more than 70% of the US market. Dynamic pricing, now a standard practice, makes it so ticket prices increase based on demand. It is a complete inversion of what we learned about capitalism at school (though I was also told that communism was when everyone had the same shoes, so maybe it’s a problem with Scottish education).

Why does every live act think they can fill up the Glasgow Hydro?

If you want to see any somewhat popular act, as most people would, then prepare to give up pieces of your livelihood for the honour. Taylor Swift is coming to town. We simply have to remortgage the house. I joke, and yet some wouldn’t see anything wrong with doing that.

When the UK Government set out to tackle this issue of exorbitant ticket prices, they gave the rip-off merchants the softest beating. Dynamic pricing is totally okay, but they need to be more upfront about it. So, in essence, it’s fine to rip me off if I’m told clearly enough to get pissed off about it. That’s some solution.

All this cements the idea that live music is now a luxury for the well-off, a middle-class evening activity to replace the falling interest in theatre, opera, and classical music. There is now a clientele of people with plenty of disposable income ready to drop whatever they need for the hottest seat in the house. And Live Nation, Ticketmaster, the 360 deal record labels, and most shamefully, the artist, are happy to roll around in all the money.

So, imagine my shock when even Bruce Springsteen got in on the grift. The blue-collared man of the people, and someone who surely has enough wealth to fund many generations under his name, signed off on selling the hottest seats in the house, with top ticket prices for his 2026 US tour hitting an insane $2,957.

The eyewatering top price might just be for the corporate spenders, you say, the ones looking to woo a potential client with stage-side seats for The Boss, all put on the company tab and forgotten about. It’s not intended for the common fan, so it is fine to offer it to those with the means to buy it.

But when was live music for or about this yuppie nonsense? Springsteen catering to such a crowd is off-putting as someone who has put so much struggle and heartache into songs that relate to what the everyday person endures. It besmirches his previous proud reputation of being the legacy act reasonable with what they charge, so there must be something funny in the water. Perhaps he’s been hanging around Barack Obama and discussing liberal economics too much.

Bruce Springsteen and former president Barack Obama recording their Spotify podcast together (Image: Spotify)

The facade of being the earnest and relatable artist crumbles as soon as money is on the table. Just look at the supposed paragon of virtue J. Cole, a rapper whose new tour sees top ticket prices reach up to a grand, for a non-legacy act example.

There seems to be few of any integrity at the top when it comes to live music price-gouging, when it’s the top artists who are the ones with any leverage to push back. It doesn’t matter what genre or status. If they can get away with it, they will charge it. Humble demeanour or not. And yet if Taylor Swift announced that ticket prices for her next tour would be significantly capped with no resale option, it would change the way the game’s played entirely.

Take the small gig pill, reject the gouging regime of Live Nation and the Hydro

In the meantime, there’s plenty of live music out there, and it has nothing to do with this corporate circus. There are still musicians out there with something to express, regardless of how many people are in the crowd or how much money is made from the night. People who would likely still be doing it without any of the typical milestones of mainstream success, and they get on the stage not because it’s what’s in their Live Nation contract or Mastercard sponsorship.

© Herald Scotland