Why your gig tickets will get even more expensive
The Story
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4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From dynamic pricing and VIP packages to ‘priority entry’, there seem to be more ways than ever to squeeze money out of music fans - and that’s not even to mention the sky-rocketing cost of a basic standing ticket. The Times' Jonathan Dean has been investigating why the cost of seeing some of our favourite artists has gone stratospheric, and whether the company Live Nation is to blame.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
Guest: Jonathan Dean
Host: Luke Jones
Producer: Hannah Varrall
Further reading: How did Beyoncé tour tickets go from a small fortune to $25 each?
Johnny Depp: ‘I was a crash test dummy for MeToo'
Further listening: The making of Beyoncé – by friends, family and Team Bey insiders
Music:
Bad Guy by Billie Eilish (written by Finneas O’Connell, Billie Eilish O’Connell, published by Darkroom/Interscope Records, Kobalt Music Publishing)
Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses (written by Duff McKagan, Jeffrey Isbell, Saul Hudson, Steven Adler, W. Axl Rose, published by Guns N Roses P&D)
505 by The Arctic Monkeys (written by Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys, published by Domino Recording Co)
Clips: Sky News, This Morning (ITV), BBC News, Channel 4 News, Adam Webb from FanFair Alliance, Reg Walker, ABC News, CBS News, The Cure (YouTube), BBC Music (YouTube)
Photo: Getty Images
Get in touch: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED. |
| 0:05.3 | This episode is brought to you by FreshWorks. |
| 0:08.0 | FreshWorks believes the complexity is the enemy of efficiency. |
| 0:11.2 | So stop wrestling with bloated expensive service software that takes forever to implement an update, |
| 0:16.4 | where ROI is someday, not today. |
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| 0:35.2 | Learn more at freshworks.com. |
| 0:44.5 | Thank you. Work Uncomplicated. Learn more at freshworks.com. From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:53.0 | My interest in this was what we peaked I think it was around Billy Eilish. |
| 0:56.0 | A standing ticket for her gig three years ago at the O2 cost on average about £76. |
| 1:02.0 | And it was a great show. |
| 1:04.0 | She's doing the same venue this year, so only three years on. |
| 1:08.0 | And so I was thinking, oh, it's interesting. Let's see how much they are. |
| 1:16.3 | The average prize for a standing ticket this year at the O2 in London was about £245. |
| 1:20.0 | I should also rather all of these figures are before fees. |
| 1:21.5 | I can't do the maths. |
| 1:23.1 | Big increase. |
| 1:23.8 | It's a big increase. |
| 1:29.0 | That's what sort of started this whole thing off. |
... |
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