Why is it so hard to see a concert? A critique of the ticket selling industry in Canada

By Laura Beldor, March 10 2025—

Everyone dreams of seeing their favourite music artist live. But for Canadians, going to a concert has become less of a fun way to spend a night and more of a competition between thousands of individuals in a digital queue, where “winning” means hundreds to thousands of dollars spent on tickets, plane fare and hotel reservations. Why has enjoying live music devolved into the expensive and frustrating ordeal that it is currently?

The frustration begins when tickets are first purchased. Today, concert tickets are primarily sold online on websites such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, infamous for their ticket queues. Fans often find themselves stuck in virtual waiting rooms for hours, depending on the popularity of the artist. While buying tickets online may seem more convenient than waiting in long lines at box offices, a downside is that technical issues and site crashes frequently occur during ticket sales. This can result in individuals losing their place in the queue.

Because of the dynamic pricing implemented by these ticket-selling websites, ticket prices can rise after sales start, depending on demand. Many Oasis fans were shocked that ticket prices for the band’s 2025 tour had increased from what was originally advertised while waiting in the ticket queues. There is also the issue of scalpers using bots to buy tickets before fans can and reselling them at a significantly marked-up price. Though this is a widely known problem, ticket-selling platforms cannot stop ticket gouging, a fact that Swifties, unfortunately, had to learn when tickets for the Toronto and Vancouver Eras Tour shows were being resold for hundreds or thousands of dollars more than their original price.

Attending the concert can come with its own excess cost. It is very common for Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver to be the only Canadian cities where artists perform when they are on tour. Fans in other parts of the country must pay for travel fares and accommodations, which are extra costs in addition to the price of the tickets themselves. A big part of concert culture is that fans are encouraged to dress on the show’s theme. Sometimes, this encouragement comes from the artists, like Beyoncé telling fans to dress in silver during her Renaissance tour. Though it might be a fun way to engage with their fans, it also puts pressure on the fans themselves to go out and buy a new outfit for the concert, creating another expense for fans.

But must fans simply accept these conditions—paying outrageous ticket prices, battling bots, and being left without options? Maybe not. Government officials have begun to recognize the problems with the ticket-selling industry. In April 2024, over 250 artists signed a letter addressed to US Senate members in support of the Fans First Act, a bill created to protect US ticket buyers from the predatory practices of ticket sellers and resellers. Though this legislation applies to ticket sales in the US, it can be assumed that if the bill is passed, Canada’s federal and provincial governments could follow suit with their own legislation. In November 2024, the Quebec Provincial government fined the website Billets.com for reselling tickets at higher prices than advertised by official vendors, a sign that the Canadian government is beginning to acknowledge the problem with these systems.

There are also things that individuals can do to improve their own concert experience. These include signing petitions and voicing your support for lawmakers trying to pass bills to protect buyers from predatory ticket-selling practices. Individuals also must acknowledge that because of supply and demand, ticket prices will be higher for bigger artists. Supporting lesser-known local performers and going to their concerts instead could mean saving money and avoiding the stress of ticket queues. Changes in the concert industry will happen once people start looking for alternatives to the status quo.

This article is a part of our Opinions section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.