Concert tickets in Canada are too expensive

It’s exciting for fans when a musician announces a concert in their city, but the excitement quickly fades when ticket prices can skyrocket.

Last month, Edmonton resident Mike Tighe tried to buy Zach Bryant tickets for his son’s birthday, only to find that third-party agencies were buying fans for the resold tickets.

“(We) go to Ticketmaster, (and it’s) pretty much sold out, except for the nosebleeds … Then you go to the next logical thing, StubHub. We see ‘Resale’ — well, resale is funny,” Tighe said.

“The cheapest (seats) in the nosebleed were $800 to $900. For the lower (seats), you’d get almost two thousand for a ticket for the three of us.”

Tighe told CTV News Edmonton on Friday that he was figuring out how to get the family out of the country to see Zach Bryan.

He said it’s cheaper to book a five-day trip to Phoenix, Arizona, including airfare, hotels and seats to an NBA game, than it is to go to a concert in Edmonton.

“I believe that the government should take some measures,” he said. “There is a monopoly of artists.

“I understand, this is a business and they need to make money. But they go from the artist to Live Nation, which actually owns all the concert venues. They then move to Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation.

“So there’s a whole middle ground there that they’re just overpricing.”

One music industry expert said ticket prices are driven by the ever-changing way we consume music and artists’ loss of album sales.

“Music streaming services like Spotify and YouTube, while they give us worldwide access to all the music we have at our fingertips, they pay a very, very low royalty rate compared to, say, a vinyl record or a CD at the time “said Eric Alper.

“Artists have realized that … and seeing their show tickets go for $5,000 or $10,000 … I think a lot of artists are stepping up and saying, ‘We’re going to start charging market value instead of leaving any money on the table.’ , – he added.

Alper noted that other factors contributing to increased ticket sales include the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar, longer travel days for bands and artists when touring Canada, and taxes on concert equipment and souvenirs when traveling to Canada.

CTV News Edmonton contacted the provincial government about whether Alberta was considering any regulations to limit the sale of resold tickets.

“The Government of Alberta is not currently considering any new ticketing regulations, including resale price caps,” said Brandon Abulteif, spokesperson for the Alberta government, in an email.

Aboultaif said in the same email that Albertans are protected by the Act on the Protection of Consumer Rights When Buying Concert Tickets.

These guards include:

• Prohibiting the use of bots so that buyers do not have to compete with computer software when tickets go on sale;
• Refunds from secondary sellers, so buyers can be compensated if, under certain circumstances, the ticket doesn’t get them to the event; and
• A “right to sue” for ticket sellers and ticket buyers to protect their interests against potential damages resulting from the use of bots.

Tye said he made the right choice in going to Phoenix.

“The trip still cost me a lot of money, but it’s a vacation, not a one-night stay in Edmonton.”