Millennial Paid $45 Total To See 9 Concerts In 2013 & Now The Average Ticket Price Is Over $130
Zamrznuti tonovi | Shutterstock Over the last few weeks, big artists like Post Malone and Meghan Trainor have canceled multiple shows and even entire tours, citing reasons as varied as health problems and wanting to spend time with family.
If you’ve thought that the cancellations seem a little strange, and possibly connected, you’re definitely not alone. It’s all caused a bigger conversation about the price of concert tickets in an economy where essentials already feel too expensive. One millennial contributed to the discussion with a look at what they paid for a summer concert series 13 years ago.
They were able to score tickets to nine concerts for a combined total of $45, which wouldn’t come close to even covering the cost of one ticket these days.
They shared their nostalgic, but also slightly infuriating, experience in the r/Millennials forum on Reddit. In 2013, they had the chance to attend a summer concert series with nine different shows. Each ticket was just $5, meaning they saw acts like The National, MGMT, Kid Cudi, and Ludacris for a total of $45. “I miss paying less than $50 for gigs,” they remarked.
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You would certainly be hard pressed to find a concert you could attend for $50 or less nowadays. In 2025, data showed that the average concert ticket cost $132.62. In a world where many people are struggling to pay for things like gas and groceries, the thought of spending that much money on a single ticket is almost insulting.
Music management executive Michael Kaminsky explained that he’s seen a lot change over his 20 years in the business, and it’s causing problems for fans and artists alike. “For a lot of artists, it’s increasingly difficult to tour and have a healthy business,” he said.
Touring is different for artists, too, who are feeling more pressure than ever before.
As Kaminsky pointed out, artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé will never have a problem selling tickets, but things aren’t so simple for other acts. Popularity on social media or the charts doesn’t always translate into sold-out shows.
Ashlynne Sorensen | Pexels
Artists are also not immune to financial troubles, although we often think they are. According to Kaminsky, the cost of things as basic as renting a tour bus has increased substantially, which makes it easier for acts to play multiple shows in one city. “The traditional way of thinking about touring is changing or has already changed,” he added.
The best example of this shift might be Harry Styles’ “Together, Together” tour. Fans were quick to express their displeasure with the exorbitantly high prices for the shows, and the format of the tour just added insult to injury. For example, instead of stopping at cities across the U.S., Styles is playing a 30-show residency at Madison Square Garden, leaving many to wonder how they’re supposed to afford a pricey ticket along with transportation and lodging.
The changing concert industry seems to be hitting Gen Z the hardest.
Kaminsky noted that going to concerts regularly used to be a “rite of passage” for young people, but that changed during the pandemic. “Now, for a lot of people, they’ll go to one or two big events a year, it’s like going on vacation for them,” he stated.
A Gen Zer named Louie addressed this problem on TikTok. He argued that concerts being canceled is not a sign that fans just don’t care anymore, but is actually indicative of his generation’s reality at large. “Why is there always some think piece about, ‘Why doesn’t Gen Z want to do this?’ ‘Why is Gen Z killing this industry?’” he said. “People wanna have lives, they just can’t, ‘cause they don’t have any [expletive] money!”
Just like young people are struggling to save for a house and start a family, they simply don’t have the means to pay to go to concerts all the time when even the cheapest tickets are still super expensive. It’s creating a vicious cycle that is hurting the music industry, but nothing is going to change as long as people are stuck in survival mode.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
