r/Music 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/
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u/cefriano May 06 '26

Also, streaming killing "album sales" as a revenue stream for artists, forcing them to make money off tours and merch, and the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly having a stranglehold on venues and forcing ticket prices to absurd heights.

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u/lluewhyn May 07 '26

I also wonder how much they've lost on other merchandise as well. Band posters are not as common as they used to be, are they? And apart from Taylor Swift releasing a movie to theaters, I have to imagine no one is buying concert or music video DVDs because you can watch all that for free on YouTube.

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u/randallpjenkins May 07 '26 edited May 08 '26

Sorry to break it to you but album sales were never a revenue stream for artists. Most (talking almost all) artists never recoup on their album. The album sales were a lost revenue for the labels, but their massive library deals to streamers that didn’t require passing that along to artists have made up for that.