There’s nothing better in this world than experiencing live music.
Seeing your favorite artists live is exhilarating, and it’s one of the best ways that I spend my time, too. However, scoring concert tickets has become increasingly difficult.
If you thought that getting tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour back in 2022 was a feat, then you should know that it’s even harder to get tickets to see your favorite artists now. Let me share the story of my attempt at landing Harry Styles Together, Together Tour tickets this year.
It started with an Instagram post: an announcement that on his upcoming tour, Styles would play 30 nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Now, 30 nights seems like it would provide plenty of opportunities to land tickets to one of the shows, but these Madison Square Garden shows are currently Styles’ only tour dates in the US. This meant that his entire US fanbase would want to try to get these tickets. I signed up for artist presale tickets for five nights, and each of my three sisters selected five nights for presale as well. These shows didn’t require a code when it was your turn to purchase tickets.
Allegedly, this practice prevents bots from buying up all of the tickets.
To prevent a Ticketmaster crash, ticket sales were staggered across different dates and times. I attempted to buy tickets for so many different shows, and for every presale, I entered the queue with over 10,000 people in front of me. General sale was even worse, with close to 100,000 people in front of me to purchase tickets.
If I had the chance to successfully move through the queue, I’d then face sky-high ticket prices. The cheapest available tickets were $900, and they weren’t even good seats. It’s safe to say that I won’t be seeing Harry Styles in 2026.
Why is an artist as popular as Styles, with 62 million monthly listeners on Spotify, playing a venue with just a maximum capacity of 19,000? And why is Styles charging absurdly high prices when his net worth is already in the hundreds of millions of dollars?
Ticketing sites themselves are also a major reason why most people can’t get concert tickets.
I purchase from Ticketmaster fairly frequently, but when I recently tried to purchase Noah Kahan tickets, there were 50,000 people ahead of me in the queue. I’m a frequent purchaser, so why am I behind so many people? It shouldn’t be this difficult for fans to score tickets to see their favorite artists.
Fans online have called for ticketing websites to start syncing Spotify accounts or other streaming platforms to the ticketing account so that “true” fans can have priority in the queue. Getting tickets is such an impossible feat that artist presales simply aren’t enough anymore. We shouldn’t give in to artists’ incredibly high ticket prices, and we shouldn’t hand ticketing companies our money when they don’t have our best interests in mind. Until the government establishes stricter regulations around concert sales, we’re better off saving our money.
Featured Photo by Valentin Lacoste on Unsplash.
This really resonates—sometimes the stress of chasing concert tickets takes away from the joy of the experience itself. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush and forget why you wanted to go in the first place. Honestly, it kind of feels like playing Agar io—constantly chasing and competing, when sometimes it’s better to slow down and enjoy the moment.
Sometimes stepping back from the constant chase for concert tickets is the healthiest move for our time, money, and peace of mind. There’s something refreshing about not letting scarcity or hype dictate our choices. Instead of stressing over every drop, it’s worth focusing on experiences that actually feel meaningful and accessible https://www.nysapphire.com/