Electronic music is big business. According to a report by the International Music Summit, in 2021, the electronic music sector was valued at $6 billion dollars and that sector is poised for significant further growth. That $6 billion dollar figure marks a 71% increase from the industry’s valuation in 2020, which was understandably much smaller due to the effects of the pandemic. While revenue is down from where it was in 2019, barring further massive disruptions, the industry is on pace in 2022 to surpass its pre-pandemic heights.
This should be great news for artists and music lovers alike, but there is a caveat. As electronic music continues to flourish, access to festivals and concerts — the heart of the electronic music scene — has become increasingly exclusive. The price of concert tickets is up across the board throughout the entire music industry. Earlier this year, a furor was sparked when tickets to see Bruce Springsteen, an artist with a committed following among working-class people, went on sale for astronomical prices. The high prices were blamed on algorithms used by ticket-selling platforms, but this wasn’t an isolated incident.
Take Tomorrowland, one of the biggest electronic music festivals. In 2022, a general admission ticket to the festival cost about $280. These tickets get sold out very fast, leaving only the more expensive packages, which can cost several thousands of dollars. And that base price doesn’t take into account travel, food and all of the other expenses that go into attending one of these events. The total cost of going to one of these events can be anywhere from $1,500 to $50,000. That is simply not something that the vast majority of people can afford.
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