Longtime concertgoers know that the price of seeing their faves perform has been on an upsetting trajectory for too long (and the older you are, the more likely you’ll remember grunge legends Pearl Jam spearheading one of the first charges against Ticketmaster (LYV) back in 1994).
Unfortunately, the problems are far from solved. The majority of high-profile performers still use Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster to sell tickets to their concerts, and while it makes sense to pay a higher price to see an artist like Lady Gaga versus a small indie band that’s lesser known, the cost of even a single ticket is enough to send even a financially well-off fan into a panic.
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For example, in a Reddit discussion about Taylor Swift’s Eras tour that took place from 2023 to 2024, some users confessed to paying as much as $10,000 for a pair of seats. While others went for more affordable nosebleeds for a few hundred bucks, the message was loud and clear: seeing these artists from a decent seat in the house might cost more than your mortgage.
Some fans are upset over Lady Gaga’s ticket prices.
Alex Wong/Getty
Why Lady Gaga’s ‘Little Monsters’ are so upset
Knowing all this, it’s no surprise that when presale tickets for Lady Gaga’s The MAYHEM Ball tour went on sale on March 31, the prices caused some upset among her fandom (who go by the nickname “Little Monsters”). Thanks to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system, which adjusts ticket prices in real time based on demand, some single seats cost as much as $5,000.
In a post on Reddit, a fan called out Lady Gaga for not choosing to turn off the dynamic pricing option, which artists are able to opt out of when working with Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
Artists such as Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, and Oasis have all opted out in the past.
Related: Ticketmaster’s monopoly explained by a legal expert
“There’s no excuse. Other artists have shown you can apply pressure on Ticketmaster and get this feature turned off,” user Daltire wrote. “I’m extremely disappointed in Gaga that there are face-value tickets in my home venue (Toronto Scotiabank theatre) going for like $5,000 and nosebleeds for $500-600.
You shouldn’t need to be rich to attend a show. So many of her fans (LGBTQ+ people, transgender people, sex workers, working class young people), cannot afford that. It wasn’t like this before. Gaga should have done something to prevent this, period. I love her still but I’m so disappointed.”
The ongoing fight against Ticketmaster
While fans have continued to rail against Ticketmaster, going as far as to organize Take Down Ticketmaster and file three individual lawsuits, the issue rose to a larger scale when the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster in May 2024, citing monopolization and unlawful conduct.
That suit is ongoing, although a recent ruling by US. District Judge Arun Subramanian squashed Ticketmaster’s request to throw out the claim stating that Live Nation seduces artists into using its services to gain access to its large system of performance venues.
President Donald Trump also signed an executive order on April 1 that addresses the issue, directing the Federal Trade Commission to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”
The order also directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to see that scalpers reselling tickets at a higher cost comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules.
Related: Could Ticketmaster And Live Nation Actually Get Broken Up?
