Oxford University Press could have crowned:Brain rot“the word of the year, but”dynamic pricing“ was also a top candidate.

Originally coined by economists in the late 1920s, dynamic pricing refers to “the practice of varying the price of a product or service to reflect changing market conditions. In particular, charging a higher price at times of greater demand.” the publisher said on his website.

Many people associate it with changing airline ticket prices or the best way the ride-hailing service Uber adjusts fares during peak times. However, in 2024 there was increased awareness – and controversy – surrounding this practice, particularly when it got here to buying coveted event tickets.

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“In some high-profile cases, dynamic pricing was used to set concert ticket prices, resulting in fans.” [often reluctantly] They pay very high prices to see their favorite artists. In some cases, fans stood in a virtual queue for hours before realizing how much they might should pay, raising questions on the transparency of dynamic pricing practices and value for money,” Oxford said.

Ticketmaster is under investigation within the UK over its recent use of dynamic pricing to sell Britpop band Oasis' reunion concert events next yr.

Many Oasis fans complained on social media that they ended up paying greater than double the face value of the ticket without notice. The band said it might be like this hand over training for the North American leg of his tour.

Taylor Swift reportedly refused to dynamically price her Eras Tour tickets because “she didn't want to do that to her fans,” said Jay Marciano, chairman and CEO of AEG Presents, which promoted the event HITS Daily Double in October.

Also in an interview This fall, Robert Smith, the lead singer and guitarist of The Cure, said dynamic pricing was “driven by greed” and called the practice a “fraud.”

How and when dynamic pricing is used is on the discretion of the artist or management, in line with Andrew Mall, an associate professor of music at Northeastern University – and it has often been set under the radar.

However, with so many high-profile tours recently, “dynamic pricing has certainly come to the forefront of concertgoers' attention,” he said.

“We all know that at certain times of night it's more expensive to look for Uber or Lyft. The market seems to have adapted to that,” said Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist at Berklee College of Music. “But concert tickets were usually a fixed price.”

Slowly, nevertheless, a change became apparent.

During the twenty first century^st Century, income from recordings sunk while revenue from live music events has increased. In the mid-2000s, concert events “represented a greater source of income for artists than record sales or publishing royalties,” economist Alan Krueger wrote in a single Paper on economic issues and trends within the rock'n'roll industry. According to data from, live music industry revenue increased by 25% in 2023 alone statesman.

In 2011, Ticketmaster first introduced an early version of dynamic ticket pricing, which is now the usual for selling live music tickets. In recent years, “ticket sales have gone crazy,” driven by pent-up demand after the pandemic and a surge in stadium tours featuring megastars, Bennett said.

“You can see why it’s tempting,” he said. “The live music industry constantly leaves money on the table that fans would pay. Dynamic pricing is a kind of capitalist inevitability given the forces at play, but I don't want to live in a world where it costs $1,000 for my daughter to see Taylor Swift.

Nevertheless, it is now common for ticket sales platforms to charge more per ticket depending on the demand for the event at a given time – whether consumers like it or not.

“It's not very popular, as you can imagine,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “Companies and musicians are trying to see what the market will bring, and that makes it really difficult for consumers.”

Despite complaints, consumers are proving they’ve a high tolerance for the rising prices of live events, also often called “funflation.” Younger adults, particularly Generation Z and Millennials, have shown that they might even go into debt to have a few of these experiences. Current reports show.

Nearly two in five Gen Z and Millennial travelers recently spent as much as $5,000 on tickets to live events at their destination alone Bread Financial study found.

“It’s important to know your own limits,” said Schulz. “As much as you may love your favorite musician, there should be a limit to how much debt you are willing to take on for them.”

“Consumers don't like the idea of ​​dynamic pricing, but there's a renewed 'YOLO' [you only live once] “Attitudes in recent years since the pandemic are increasingly leading to a cavalier approach when it comes to spending on discretionary experiences,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Even with tight household budgets, “you get to a degree where there are only experiences where consumers draw the road and say, 'This isn't something I would like to provide up,'” he said.

Ticket sellers are also aware of this mentality.

“Our research consistently shows us that concerts are a top priority for discretionary spending and are one of the last experiences fans will miss out on,” Live Nation said in a statement quarterly earnings release in 2023.

However, as consumers continue to spare no expense to see their favorite artist or group, this means dynamic pricing is here to stay, at least for now.

“The live music industry has been leaning toward this mindset for a long time,” said Mall of Northeastern University.