For some fans, the resale price of Taylor Swift tickets has become casually cruel.
The average secondary market price of a ticket to the North American leg of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour was $3,801 as of July 10, Pitchfork reported, using data from ticket analytics firm TicketIQ. That's a 2,321% increase from her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, for which the average resale price in North America was $157.
It's also a steep increase from the face value of the tour's tickets, which averaged $253.56, Pollstar, a company that provides data on the global concert industry, reported in June. Regular tickets for the US leg of Swift's tour, which kicked off in March, were priced between $49 and $449, with VIP packages ranging from $199 to $899.
It's not just Swift fans who are paying more for tickets: Resale prices are up across the board, with Beyoncé and Harry Styles tickets costing an average of $1,096 and $1,061, respectively, for the North American runs of their most recent tours. Those figures are up from $245 and $553 during both artists' previous tours, which took place in 2016 and 2017, Pitchfork reported.
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This increase can be blamed on a number of things: Pent up demand from fans who couldn't see their favorite artists during the pandemic, bots that can by face-value tickets faster than humans can, and a host of "junk fees" consumers face at the end of their ticketing transactions, hiking up prices in general.
One 31-year-old Swiftie paid $5,500 for Eras tickets on the secondary market. She told Insider that while waiting for more than three hours in the digital queue in November 2022, she checked StubHub to see if any tickets were being resold. At the time, she said prices on the secondary market ranged from $5,000 to $30,000.
A fan in California purchased a ticket for $1,400 on the secondary market, only for the ticket to not exist.
Last year, Ticketmaster drew the ire of Swifties, after a disastrous ticket launch that prompted the company to address the backlash in a blog post, which attributed the chaotic ticket-buying process to a "staggering number of bot attacks" and unprecedented demand.
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Swifties filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster in December 2022, citing "fraud, price-fixing, and antitrust violations."
US lawmakers are also attempting to intervene.
In January, the Senate Judiciary Committee hed a hearing that aimed to investigate the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, and whether or not the companies have engaged in anti-competitive behavior.
In mid-June, after a meeting at the White House, Live Nation announced it would display the total costs of its tickets — including fees — to users upfront, rather then at the end of a transaction.
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Ticketmaster and StubHub did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Even in the event of a better ticketing experience, resale markets will continue to be something fans will have to contend with. It's a classic problem of supply and demand.
"Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows" or a "stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years" to meet demand for the Eras Tour, Ticketmaster noted.
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