$4,000 concert tickets in this economy? How ‘dynamic pricing’ could hit Springsteen’s KC show

If $4,000 concert tickets sound wild to you, you’re not alone. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recently opened up ticket sales for some dates in other cities around the country, and tickets priced over a thousand dollars have had fans raising their eyebrows.

Ticket sales don’t open for the February Kansas City tour date until Wednesday morning at 10 a.m., but tickets for cities like Dallas and Austin are currently on sale. In Austin, ticket prices start at $216, and front row tickets cost upwards of $4,600.

The hefty pricing is due to Ticketmaster’s market-based pricing model called “dynamic pricing,” which may affect the price of Kansas City ticket sales as well.

Prices for the Kansas City date have not yet been announced, but the Ticketmaster site where you can purchase them has this warning at the top: “Ticket prices may fluctuate, based on demand, at any time.”

What is ‘dynamic pricing’?

In some special instances, Ticketmaster will adjust ticket prices based on consumer demand. That means, if a lot of people want to purchase a limited amount of tickets, Ticketmaster will increase the price of those tickets because the site deems that they’re worth more. It’s based on supply and demand, and the costs go up and down over time depending on how many tickets are left and how many people want them.

On its website, concert ticket sales giant compared the practice to how airlines and hotel rooms price services.

These market-based prices that go up when demand goes up are for original tickets, not resale tickets.

Instances where tickets are determined by market value include Ticketmaster’s “Platinum” tickets. According to Ticketmaster, these special tickets are for seats made available by the artists or client hosting the event and give fans “fair and safe access to the best tickets,” the website reads. The Springsteen show in Kansas City includes Platinum tickets.

This kind of market value approach is what allowed for front row Springsteen tickets to go up to $5,000 on the first day of sales in some cities, according to Variety.

Will it cost $4,000 to see Bruce Springsteen in Kansas City?

Tickets for the upcoming Bruce Springsteen tour are not on sale yet. Check here after sales open up on Wednesday morning to see what the tickets are going to cost.

Based on tickets sold so far in other cities, many tickets to this concert will be under $300. The average ticket price of tickets sold so far for shows on this tour has been $262, Variety reported.

Are prices for resale tickets going up as well?

With some artists back on the road for the first time since the start of the pandemic, an increased demand has definitely pushed ticket prices up in general, according to Live Nation Entertainment, a concert production company that is merged with Ticketmaster. For Live Nation’s events alone, the average resale ticket price has also gone up 20%, according to the report.

Inflation has also driven up the prices of ticket sales. Across the board, the average resale ticket price has gone up by nearly 45%, according to CNBC.

This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.