This is a new thread entirely, but I don't just blame TM/LN. Think about the way music is consumed now. Nobody's buying albums anymore; we all stream through Spotify. Part of the industry tradeoff is through ticket sales.
Yeah... not wanting to go too O.T. here, but:
It's incorrect to lay all of the blame on streaming too, but that is a big part of it. Plenty of people are buying albums, especially now that they are becoming wise to how much of a scam streaming is. They're buying vinyl, they're buying physical merch, and they're rebelling against subscription models in general. But even merch prices were affected by the merch split/cut models that LiveNation pioneered, which trickled down to independent venues as well. Merch prices had to rise to ensure the artist took home a fair cut. Now, many artists are demanding that venues drop their merch cut requirements. What LiveNation often put(s) in place at the top, makes its way down and informs the industry at large.
I don't stream through Spotify. Never have, never will. The decimation of recorded music as an income stream was done long before streaming became commonplace. Spotify wasn't available in the US until 2011, a decade after Napster, etc ushered in digital music theft. Streaming is the symptom of that shift, not the cause. And it certainly isn't the cure. It just helped to normalize the model of leasing recordings for pennies on the dollar, while making the consumer think their subscription fee meaningfully benefited the artists they streamed.
It's still possible to see plenty of bigger bands in venues which have nothing to do with Ticketmaster/LiveNation, but they aren't going to be your Taylor Swifts, Chappell Roan, etc. Most of those tickets for small to mid level independent local and regional venues are generally anywhere from $50-100 per ticket, depending on the artist. That said, even the smaller/mid-level artists that I know personally who keep their ticket prices reasonable often have difficulties breaking even for a tour even when they are selling out the small venues, house concerts, etc that they play, and they have solid draws. It's often more economical for them to tour solo or duo to save on expenses to pay additional band members.
I don't think anyone expects ticket prices to still be what they were 25-30 years ago, but it's clear that the control TicketMaster/LN have had over the broader industry has inflated prices much more than they might have moved without their monopolistic influence. That includes tickets, merch, and more.
-----> back on topic now.
