Stage Fright: The 3 Biggest Issues With Contemporary Concert Culture

*Article from Lexington Line’s Spring/Summer 2023 Issue, pages 22-25

Check out the full issue here

When was the last time you went to a concert? The last six months? A year? And how was it? Was purchasing the tickets, dealing with crowds, and hearing an artist for less than two hours worth the stress and anxiety?

When venues reopened and artists embarked on international tours, most music fans felt a spark. Then it was time to deal with everything and everyone else.

Concerts I’ve attended and seen posted online have confirmed there are three very specific issues with contemporary concert culture: ticket availability, safety, and crowd etiquette.

Tickets

There’s ample discourse on social media about upcoming concerts and the cost of tickets. The demand for concert tickets inflates prices, and you pay for more than the event itself. There are service fees, ordering processing fees, resale service fees, delivery fees, facility fees, and everyone’s favorite—taxes.

The real problem lies within the corporations that profit from live music. Ticketmaster and Live Nation are the top two offenders. In 2010, they merged to form Live Nation Entertainment, a global entertainment company that promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live shows locally and internationally.

The Justice Department began investigating Live Nation Entertainment last year after a 33-page lawsuit was filed by Taylor Swift fans—“Swifties”—for the careless handling of a presale for Swift’s “Eras” tour. They are accusing the company of price fixing, fraud, and antitrust violations, which falls under two categories: agreement to restrain competition and efforts to acquire a monopoly.

In late January, Live Nation President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend the company from accusations that Live Nation has been using its market dominance to charge high fees and blackball venues who don’t want Ticketmaster for their events.

During the hearing, singer-songwriter Clyde Lawrence broke down exactly how Ticketmaster’s monopoly power exploits artists.

“Most of the issues we face stem from the fact that Live Nation/Ticketmaster often acts as three things at the same time: the promoter, the venue, and ticketing company,” he stated. “Let’s imagine we just played a sold out show at a venue Live Nation owns and operates. When an artist plays these venues, they’re required to use Live Nation as the promoter.”

As a promoter, Live Nation pays upfront costs like renting and staffing a venue and finalizing a deal with the performer.

“We should be true partners, aligned in our incentives—keep costs low while ensuring the best fan experience,” he revealed.

But according to Lawrence, Live Nation complicates these incentives by acting not only as the promoter, but the owner and/or operator of the venue.

“At the end of the show, costs will have eaten into most of the money made that evening,” he said. “Due to Live Nation’s control across the industry, we have practically no leverage in negotiating with them. If they want to take 10% of the revenue and call it a ‘facility fee,’ they can. And have.”

Robyn Busan, a student at LIM College, has attended roughly 30 shows in the last year. She has also been a witness to the drastic rise in entertainment expenses.

“Over the past few years, I’ve seen a significant raise in ticket prices,” she says. Face value rates are up, “but when they are purchased and sold as resale tickets, that’s when the ticket price rises dramatically.”

Resale tickets for Swift’s tour currently range from $550-$9000, while Beyoncé's “Renaissance” Tour is breaking the bank at $200-$1200.

It's ridiculous. No person should be spending over 12 grand for a concert, I know reseller should be pricing tickets at that rate.

In early February, a federal appeals court rejected the Swifties’ antitrust lawsuit, ruling that the concertgoers forfeited their right to sue when they bought their tickets.

Even though this is an unfortunate ruling, a similar lawsuit against Live Nation is still pending in a lower federal court, and the Department of Justice is actively investigating them for antitrust violations, so the fight is far from over.

Safety

After emptying your pockets for tickets, the next problem safety and security. At venues, there have been many accounts of unconsciousness, dehydration, overheating, and sadly, casualties.

Ten people died from compression asphyxia following a crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in November 2021, reigniting discussions around concert safety. But just last month, three people were killed after a violent stampede at a GloRilla concert in New York.

“I’ve has a few experiences where I felt completely unsafe, and others where I felt like my safety was everyone’s top priority,” Robyn says. “It is always nice to be at a show where I feel like I have protection no matter the situation.”

Event Safety Alliance (ESA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting "Life Safety First' throughout all phases of event production and execution, and its Vice President, Steven A. Adelman, says he's devoted to making change.

"The ESA's express goal is to change the culture among event professionals from 'the show must go on' to 'life safety first," he states. "It's as simple as that. Culture change.”

Understaffed and overcrowded venues are ESA's primary concerns. Staffing is a global problem, according to Adelman, because many event production and security jobs are at the lower end of the wage scale.

"There is no magic answer," he says."It is, however, important to stick by what one believes to be proper staffing levels rather than to justify what the market bears and say it's good enough.”

Overcrowding, he says, is never acceptable.

"For indoor venues, occupancy limits are set by the fire marshal; for outdoor areas, density may vary substantially from one part of a site to another," Adelman reveals. "The key is to monitor the crowd's movements and activity level and deploy security and guest services staff to help manage them.”

Public criticism online is varied, aimed at both those who organize and secure the events and those who attend and perform at them. With so many components and mixed discourse, the question becomes: who is most responsible for crowd safety?

“Everyone, to varying degrees,” Adelman says. “Most directly, the security and guest services professionals have eves and hands on the crowd. But they should work closely with the event producer and public safety officials. Larger events will have remote video access to help. Responsibility is a legal issue, and in a crowd-related lawsuit, everyone with money gets sued."

“Change the culture among event professionals from ‘the show must go on’ to ‘life safety first.’ It’s as simple as that.”

Suing has been a popular response to concert tragedies. After Astroworld, nearly 5,000 claims were filed against Live Nation, Travis Scott, and other festival organizers. A year and a half later, many are still in litigation.

To prevent tragedies, many venues and performers have taken precautions and kept a close eye, monitoring crowds and prioritizing safety and accessibility. But movements like these are known for becoming trendy quickly and then vanishing from public view at the same speed. For companies like ESA, this is nothing new.

"The people I know took crowd safety seriously before Astroworld, and they may be even more sensitive now," Adelman claims. "I don't know anyone for whom safety is merely performative—the stakes are too high, and the public reaction is strongly against people perceived to have cut corners or acted maliciously.”

One of the biggest problems is that promoters often see crowd safety as a line item on a budget that reduces profit when it ought to be considered as vital as quality audio and lighting.

"We spend a lot of time explaining why even small safety measures can make a big difference so the people in charge of spending money don't feel that they have to buy every safety measure all at once to have successful events," he says. "It is a worthy goal to do better than the day before.”

Etiquette

Social etiquette is the final problem with contemporary concert culture. Whether you're attending a formal dinner or a football game, every public setting calls for different behavior. At live concerts, it's always best to remain collected and kind. Unfortunately, anticipation and a competitive spirit can unleash the worst in some people.

Busan says that "common decency" has evolved for the better since she started attending concerts but acknowledges there is still work to be done.

"What I think happens is that people forget to have decency because we are at a show,” she shares. "I know most people go to concerts to see an artist they like and escape reality for a few hours, but in some situations, I notice that people forget how to treat others with respect.”

conscientious concertgoing

Help others. If you are aware of any medical issues afflicting a fellow concertgoer, offer some assistance or make security aware of the situation.

Don’t shove. It's a concert, so there will always be individuals pushing to get to the front, but restrain yourself from being rude about it or pushing further than is reasonable.

Make sure you are physically well. Eat well and hydrate yourself before a concert to keep your energy up.

Don’t yell weird things. It makes the performer and crowd uncomfortable, and now you’ve ruined the vibe.

Don’t record everything: Live in the moment and have fun. Dance! The performer will feed off your energy and create a more lively experience.