The first concert I ever went to was Meat Loaf! I love asking people this question. Not only is it fun to hear about their first concert (which usually comes with a story), but then you get the evolution of their entire musical journey. What’s my own taste in music? Well, since you asked…. I truly like a mix of everything from pop to classic rock, with a love of EDM and Phish mixed in. Talk about high energy to chill vibes, right?
And my love for music is something I’m really proud, and privileged, to share with my kids. I’m super into the experience economy at the moment. Getting out of the house. Trying new things. Making memories. And, of course, seeing live music. I would much rather spend money doing something with my kids that they will remember than buying them another thing that will inevitably end up shoved in a drawer or forgotten in a closet.
I was having a conversation today with friends who were visiting B-Works (our NYC office). Shout-outs to Neel, Tammy and Ali!! Anyway, we started talking about Harry Styles, who is currently holding court (pun intended) at Madison Square Garden. Thirty shows! I thought, “Cool! I can definitely snag a few tickets.” But when I went looking and saw the price tag, I went from sticker shock to anger. $700 for some of the cheapest tickets I was finding? No thanks. I’m not that big of a fan. But still, I was annoyed. So what is the best thing to do when one is angry? Talk about it, of course. (And then write about it if you happen to have the medium to do so.)
So unless I can snag last-minute seats on Craigslist at a decent price, or a vendor happens to read this who has a box at the Garden and wants to put those seats to good use…. we won’t be attending Harry Styles this time around. (Friends with the hook up…you know where to find me. I’m not above a shameless plug.)
Ok Julie, we feel you. Live concert tickets are becoming unaffordable, and we agree. But what’s your point?
Concerts are not the only experiences that are becoming unaffordable. An article this week in the New York Post talked about Americans traveling to France to go to Disneyland Paris because it can actually be more affordable to fly across the Atlantic, stay abroad and visit Disney there than to take a family vacation to Disney World in Orlando. And being that I was just at Disney World in August, I can’t entirely blame these people. (And yes, I wrote about my Disney food experience if you missed it.) Anyway, the article estimated a family Disney World vacation at around $7,000, while a comparable Paris trip, including flights, lodging and park passes, could come in under $6,700. And next time you see Jimmy Frischling, you can ask him about his experience going to see Taylor Swift in England because that was more affordable than here in the states. We have officially reached a moment where someone can say, “You know what might save us some money? Flying the entire family to Paris.” Let that sink in.
And this is why the experience economy was my POV this week. Because we keep talking about how consumers, especially younger consumers, value experiences over things. We want the concert. The vacation. The dinner. The game. The theme park. The memory. We want to be together, in real life, experiencing something we can’t get from sitting on our couch scrolling through someone else’s experience. But what happens when the experience economy gets so expensive that a huge portion of the population can no longer afford to participate in it?!?!?
Concert admission prices aren’t just feeling more expensive. Admission prices for movies, theaters and concerts in the U.S. have increased more than 40 percent since 2016, and one recent analysis put the average concert ticket at around $133, with average prices up 36 percent just since 2019. And that’s before you park the car, buy the T-shirt your kid absolutely NEEDS, order two waters and a beer.
Now, from a hospitality perspective, I understand rising costs. Food costs more. Labor costs more. Rent costs more. Insurance costs more. Production costs more. Putting on a massive concert is not inexpensive. Neither is operating a theme park, restaurant, hotel or entertainment venue. And businesses need to make money. Full stop. But there’s another side to this. Ticket prices are also being shaped by enormous demand, limited supply, dynamic pricing, premium packages and a resale market that can turn access into a bidding war. When tens of thousands of people want 20,000 seats, the market says those seats are worth whatever people are willing to pay. Economically, I get it. Culturally, I’m not sure I love it.
Hospitality, at its core, is about making people feel welcome. And the experience economy should be about giving people access to moments that bring them together. Restaurants do this. Hotels do this. Concerts do this. Theme parks do this. Sports do this. We are all selling different versions of the same thing: how someone feels while they are with us, and what they remember when they leave. But if the cost of entry keeps climbing, at what point does “experiential” become “exclusive”? When does a family concert become a luxury purchase? When does taking your kids to Disney become a financial decision? And perhaps most importantly, are we comfortable creating a generation of kids who can watch musical culture unfold on TikTok but can’t afford to actually be in the room where it happens?
I don’t have the answer. I understand supply and demand. I understand rising costs. I understand that Harry Styles can sell out Madison Square Garden over and over and over again, and if people are willing to pay the price, someone will happily charge it. But I also think those of us in the business of creating experiences should be asking ourselves who actually gets to experience them. Because the best experiences aren’t always the fanciest ones, the most exclusive ones or the ones with the highest ticket price. They’re the ones you remember.
Which brings me back to Meat Loaf. I couldn’t tell you what my parents paid for that ticket. I couldn’t tell you where we sat. I probably couldn’t even tell you half the songs he played. But decades later, I can still tell you that Meat Loaf was my first concert. That experience became part of my story, and it started a lifelong love of live music that I now get to share with my own kids.
And I’d do anything for that.
But I won’t pay $700 for that.
