Ticketing guru Tim Chambers oversaw a session exploring the process of pricing tour tickets, and touched upon a number of sensitive topics with his panellist guests, who emphasised the rude health of the live music sector in 2025.

Getting back to basics, agent Jules de Lattre from UTA noted that the ticket pricing method varies from artist to artist.

“We will look at historic pricing as a benchmark of where going to price the face value tickets,” he said. “We’ll look at factors including how much heat there is around the artist; the various venue capacities; and also the conversations we have with promoters on demand in their territories.”

He added, “It’s important not to arbitrarily set prices across tours – we don’t just look at the face value, but we also look at final consumer price, and that is increasingly entering into a lot of conversations we are having.”

As Chambers detailed the various service fees, venue restoration fees and other add-ons that inflate ticket pricing, Live Nation promoter Phil Bowdery noted that everyone in the value chain has to make a profit. And he countered that the ticketing service fees are necessary given their ongoing battle to prevent bots from vacuuming up ticket allocations.

“The ticketing platform is constantly updating and fighting [the bots] and there is a lot of research and development going on and they are spending hundreds of millions,” stated Bowdery. “We have to realise that they are fighting a war.”

“The artist is saying, ‘That’s my value.’ And if they are selling out, good on them, the price was right”

On the thorny subject of secondary ticketing, Bowdery told delegates that during a meeting with UK culture minister Chris Bryant earlier in the day, he had hinted that the government will announce legislation to place a cap on ticket resale.

“We have been advocating for a maximum of 10%,” said Bowdery, “the minister was very receptive and suggested that there might be an announcement in the King’s Speech later this year.”

Eventim Norway executive Marcia Titley noted that in her territory such issues are not a consideration. “I’m privileged to live in a market where we do not have same challenges of uncapped resale,” she said.

However, when talking about such controversial elements as dynamic pricing, she noted, “Pricing is subjective – as a fan you might think the cost is too high, while the artist and manager think it’s too low because of all the costs they are facing to go on tour.”

Bowdery also rejected the characterisation that ticket prices have risen beyond the rate of inflation, year-on-year.

“Costs are going up, therefore so are the ticket prices,” he said, but pointed out that the industry is currently in rude health with even the highest priced tours selling out. “The artist is saying, ‘That’s my value.’ And if they are selling out, good on them, the price was right,” added Bowdery.

And answering a question from Chambers on whether onsales such as Beyoncé were taking consumer spend out of the market, he responded: “Sure, you have to be aware, but at the moment we are in a very buoyant place – people want to go to concerts.”

“You are not selling same experience to every person. Some want to sit in the VIP section, some just want to be in the building”

AEG Presents exec Kelly Stelbasky revealed that dynamic pricing is a more accepted practice in the United States, where she uses the system often. She told delegates, “For fans, you are not selling same experience to every person. Some want to sit in the VIP section, some just want to be in the building no matter where they sit, and we need to consider all those needs to make our best guess on ticket prices.”

Nonetheless, De Lattre suggested that the industry does have a degree of responsibility toward the paying public.

“One complex point is trying to protect fans against their willingness to buy a ticket at any cost,” he said. “We need to look at the experience of that fan and was it worth the £375 ticket? There needs to be some protection there.”

Indeed, Stelbasky agreed, noting that Californian laws require all-in ticket pricing, which is proving an effective way to protect consumers.

“As we try to take better care of fans, sell more tickets and have less pressure on ourselves from social media feedback, then all-in pricing has been a good way to achieve that,” she added.

The session ended with one delegate pleading for the UK industry to work together to put pressure on the government to reconsider taxation on tickets.

“[The government] in the UK is the biggest earner from a concert ticket – they get 20% in VAT,” said the delegate. “I would ask that we all work together, with a collective voice, to argue for a better VAT rate.”

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Dynamic ticketing took centre stage during ILMC’s Ticketing: At What Price? panel, as leading executives debated whether the growth of market-based pricing in the US will be replicated in other major international markets.

Chaired by Kilimanjaro Live promoter Steve Tilley, the session brought together Eventim Norway and Sweden’s Marcia Titley, Ticketmaster UK’s Sarah Slater, AXS’ Chris Lipscomb and Arnaud Meersseman of AEG Presents.

Recalling going to see Bruce Springsteen at New York City’s Madison Square Garden last year, Tilley admitted he was prepared to pay “whatever it costs” to get into the show. However, Meersseman pointed out the practice was less established in territories like France, which made it harder to compete when booking top acts.

“We’re being pushed more and more by artists to incorporate dynamic pricing,” he said. “To them, it doesn’t make sense on a financial level to tour Europe compared to the US, where dynamic pricing is widely common.”

Meersseman speculated there would be “massive pushback” against the practice across France. “It’s also a question of accessibility, and fans are likely to end up wondering whether gigs will only be reserved for the rich in the not-too-distant future,” he warned.

Lipscomb added that dynamic pricing is already happening in several European markets, including the UK, and predicted it will increase in prominence sooner than most think.

“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing. In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40%”

“Ten percent of all UK shows may already be sold under dynamic pricing,” he said. “In a couple of years, I’d expect that number will increase by 30%-40% and maybe even rise higher to 70%-80%.”

The discussion segued into the secondary market, with Titley noting that while countries like Norway and Denmark put laws in place to prevent resales above face value, dynamic pricing was necessary to “drive higher revenue”.

“Ultimately, it’s all about protecting the fans, and I believe in combining tech and legislation to eradicate those excessive profit margins,” she said.

Ticketmaster has successfully introduced its own fan-to-fan resale service in the UK, and Slater said: “There are plenty of safe, face-value resale sites to sell your tickets to in the UK. We’ve heavily pushed the fact that tickets are transferable, but we always encourage customers to only buy from authorised sites.”

Sam Shemtob, director of Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), made a brief cameo to explain the role that the EU Digital Service Act will play in combating illegal ticket listings.

“If the ticket is being sold by a trader, that needs to be listed right at the front in a clearly accessible manner, and ticket resale sites will now be banned from using design tricks that manipulate consumers into decisions, such as “pop-ups” or giving prominence to specific choices,” explained Shemtob.

“Nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important”

Shemtob, who is collaborating with the European Commission on how to streamline a complaints mechanism for fans and promoters, launched ‘Make Tickets Fair’ last year — a campaign to educate and empower fans to avoid being ripped off by ticket touts.

“The platforms will also be required to make it clear throughout the buying process that the tickets listed are provided by a third party,” he said. “If a platform fails to do this and fans are led to believe that the tickets are provided by the platform itself, the platform can be held responsible for any tickets listed in contravention of national laws.

“All of these sites need to have a clear and simple complaint mechanism.”

Another major talking point was the perception that tickets must be bought as soon as they go on sale.

“Obviously, nailing the on-sale is absolutely critical, but marketing the shows via a long-term campaign with the artists up until the actual event is just as important,” Slater said, citing the concert industry’s shift towards post-sale engagement, which includes events integrations in collaborations with Spotify and TikTok, as well as creative marketing strategies to keep fans engaged.

“Most people think that if they can’t get tickets within the first hour, they’ll end up being scammed when attempting to purchase them at a later time,” added Meersseman. “It all ties to what we discussed earlier about properly educating customers on the ticket sale process.”

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