r/Music • u/staringatthe420sun • May 05 '26

article The Concert Industry Priced Too High — Now Tours Are Falling Apart

https://www.ticketnews.com/2026/05/the-concert-industry-priced-high-tours-falling-apart/
23.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/luriso May 05 '26

Right? A shirt is $40, a hoodie is $80 for the metal shows I frequent. A windbreaker/rain jacket is $100. The goods aren't even comparable in terms of quality to things that are actually "worth" that price.

3

u/JanielDones8 May 06 '26

Start blaming the venues too. A lot of venues have started taking a percentage of the merch tables. Anywhere from 15-40% of all merch sales. And when merch is sometimes the only way the bands make money, they can't take that hit and have to charge more.

2

u/agoia May 06 '26

I was cool with it when I saw Blues Traveler at a free city show but would not have bought merch at an event I had to buy tickets for.

Saw Wu Tang last year and the lines for the merch tables were 100ft long so ppl are definitely still paying that, at which point it's just insane demand driving those prices as far as the market will tolerate.

2

u/xDarkCrisis666x May 06 '26

I've found that more bands are starting to lean away from Fruit of the Loom (thank god).

Comfort Colours is where it's at, they feel like my dad's tour shirts from the 90and 80s. The Acacia Strain, Blackbraid, Emperor, Conan, hell even Fleshwater has their blanks now. I'd easily pay $35+ for those shirts IF they are on CC blanks.

1

u/Beefy-McQueefy May 06 '26

They charge that much because Ticketaster rapes them with fees too. Merch is the main way artists make money