Everything’s more expensive!! Pet care!! Concert tickets!! (Two Indicators)

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

People in the U.S. are feeling the financial squeeze, in part because of rising inflation, higher consumer prices and slowing job growth. The Indicator from Planet Money is tackling a special series on the rising cost of living. Today, two stories from that series.

First, what’s making ticket prices go up? We look at the economics behind the ticket market and how “reseller bots” are wreaking all sorts of havoc. The industry is not a fan, and yet they do serve an economic function.

And… why pet care costs have surged. It comes down to unique skills, people’s love for their pets and something called the “Baumol effect.”

Related episodes:
- The Vet Clinic Chow Down
- What Do Private Equity Firms Actually Do?
- Kid Rock vs. The Scalpers
- Ticket scalpers: The real ticket masters

Subscribe to Planet Money+

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

This episode is hosted by Darian Woods, Adrian Ma, and Wailin Wong. These episodes of The Indicator were originally produced by Angel Carreras. Cooper Katz McKim produced this episode. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is The Indicator’s editor. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:05.8	Malia Bombsuin is a composer slash bassist slash singer-songwriter.
0:10.3	She plays different genres from jazz to rock.
0:12.7	She actually just performed two shows with cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
0:16.0	And Molly says that a few years ago,
0:18.1	she remembers ticket prices for other bands going up to $150.
0:22.9	And I was like, wow, I'll never charge more than that. I remember saying that to myself.
0:28.1	Like, that's insane. Like, I still want to be able to reach people who actually can't afford a $150
0:33.2	ticket, you know? And I think it's important to be able to choose your audience that way and not
0:38.5	just, like, have your own success curate an audience that is of a specific income bracket.
0:44.9	Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, though, has a much different view on ticket pricing.
0:50.8	Live Nation is the parent company of Ticketmaster, and Michael Rapino said last month that concert tickets are underpriced and have been for a long time.
1:00.0	That comment was tough for a lot of music fans to swallow.
1:04.0	I mean, take Bruno Mars.
1:06.0	He is playing two shows in Las Vegas in December.
1:12.4	I went on Ticketmaster yesterday, and the cheapest seat I could find was $850.
1:18.6	Ticket price is going to Mars.
1:20.7	Maybe that example is on the higher end, but the price of concert tickets has gone up faster than overall inflation.
1:27.4	And the ticket market is this economic puzzle that can be... But the price of concert tickets has gone up faster than overall inflation.
1:35.8	And the ticket market is this economic puzzle that continues to be deviled fans, venue owners, and artists.
1:39.3	Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Darym Woods. And I'm Waylon Wong. We're hosts a Planet Money's daily podcast, The Indicator,
1:45.2	with rising inflation,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.