Live music events are back in full force after years of frequent cancellations, making tickets a desirable item.
It's not uncommon for tickets to be completely sold out before many fans have even had a chance to react. Popular resale sites like StubHub, Seatgeek, and Vivid Seats are a wonderful backup strategy for obtaining concert tickets for frustrated music fans.
While a busy resale market normally favors sellers trying to make a profit, concertgoers can exploit a certain ticket site's supply and demand to identify potential savings. Buyers can take advantage of price changes by purchasing when prices are lowest.
But, does it pay to be proactive and buy ahead of time, or should buyers wait for the greatest deal?
FinanceBuzz evaluated resale market data for recent concerts of some of the top performers presently touring, as well as large multi-day festival passes, to determine the ideal time to acquire resale concert tickets. We were able to evaluate thousands of ticket purchases using data from seatdata.io to determine when demand for tickets is strongest, when music fans spent the most and least for tickets, and more.
Important discoveries
- It is advantageous to postpone purchasing musical tickets. Concertgoers spent 33% less than the average on tickets on the day of the show, and 27% less than the average the day before.
- The ideal time to acquire festival passes was just under two weeks before the event - prices were 30% lower 13 days before the event and 24% lower 12 days out.
- On the resale market, 24% of concert tickets and 25% of festival tickets are purchased in the week preceding the event.
When is the best time to get concert tickets?
So, when is the best time to acquire concert tickets on the resale market?
According to our findings, patience is a virtue.
We discovered that, despite the fact that more than a quarter of concert tickets are acquired three months or more before a show, those early buyers are really losing money by purchasing their tickets so far in advance.
Tickets purchased that long in advance cost roughly 14% more than the average secondary market ticket price. On the other hand, we discovered that purchasing tickets the same day as a concert costs 33% less than the average. Tickets purchased the day before a performance were likewise an excellent buy, costing 27% less than the average.
Music enthusiasts who want to see their favorite musicians for the best price should be patient and wait until the last minute to purchase their tickets.
Interestingly, the data reveals that a sizable part of music enthusiasts have already figured this out, as nearly one-quarter (24%) of secondary-market concert ticket sales occurred in the week preceding an event. Seven percent of all sales occurred on the day of a concert, with an extra 5% occurring the day before. That implies approximately 12% of all musical ticket sales on the site occurred within one day of the event.
The Lumineers concert on May 17, 2022, in Jacksonville, Florida, is one of the shows featured in this study. We graphed variations in ticket prices for that concert over time and compared them to our overall results to demonstrate how well these broad trends can correspond to specific events.
When we compare patterns across all events, we see a similar overall shape, with Lumineers ticket prices hitting certain peaks and drops slightly earlier than concerts as a whole.
Lumineers tickets deviated significantly from overall trends due to a huge price rise six days before the show, when prices soared to $284.20. Prices rapidly returned to normal, with average ticket prices dropping by roughly $125 the next day to $160.45.
Prices then dropped to under $100 for each of the four days coming up to the show. Lumineers fans received the greatest deal two days before the event, paying an average of $71.65 for tickets.
When is the best time to get music festival tickets?
Individual concerts, of course, aren't the only way to experience live music. Fans can see several acts over the course of several days at music festivals. We collected pricing and sales data for multi-day passes to popular music festivals in the same way we did for concerts.
We discovered that many music enthusiasts wait until the last minute to buy, with approximately 15% of all festival pass sales occurring in the four days preceding a festival. Interestingly, our research suggests that people looking for the best value should buy passes sooner rather than later.
While it is true that waiting until the last minute and purchasing passes on the day of the festival can result in significant savings (to the tune of 17% less than average), clever music fans can save even more by purchasing passes less than two weeks before the event.
Passes purchased 13 days before a festival cost 30% less than the average, while those purchased 12 days before the festival cost 24% less.
These are the two days with substantial sample sizes where pass costs were lowest in our analysis, and these are primary reasons why passes purchased the week before a festival (8-14 days before the event) were actually cheaper on average than those purchased the same week as the festival.
Even better for festival goers looking for a deal, despite the significant savings available, only 3% of all ticket sales occurred on those two days, implying that those looking for a deal on future festival passes won't face too much competition on the days when our analysis shows prices tend to be lowest.
BottleRock Napa, which took place in Napa, California from May 27-29 and featured performers such as Metallica, Pink, and 21 Pilots, was one of the festivals we looked into. Similarly to our concert study, we graphed variations in festival pass costs over time and compared them to our overall results.
Once again, we can observe how pass prices for one particular event usually reflect the overall trend across all festivals studied, with a number of price hikes and cuts occurring at around the same time in both data sets.
One significant exception for BottleRock occurs 65 days before the festival, when the average price paid for passes skyrockets to more than $1,400. That is more than double the average price paid at that time period across all festivals, which is $635.08. In comparison, the most affordable BottleRock passes were acquired 14 days before the festival, for an average price of $297.66.
Saving Money While Rocking Out
Regardless of your musical inclinations, seeing your favorite performers play live may be costly. However, there are ways to assist offset some of those expenditures, including the following five tips:
Earn benefits and incentives for purchasing tickets. Some credit card reward schemes provide benefits for purchases of entertainment items such as concert tickets. Using one of the best credit cards for concert tickets is an excellent way to optimize your benefits each time you see your favorite performers play.
When shopping online, look for rebates and cash back. Saving money while buying online is now easier than ever thanks to technological advancements. Honey, for example, can trawl the internet for discount coupons on thousands of websites (including ticket resale sites). Rakuten, on the other hand, may let you earn cash back almost every time you make an online purchase.
Before you check out, be sure you're getting the greatest bargain possible. There are so many companies online that sell the same things that it can be difficult to determine if you are getting the best value. Capital One Shopping will analyze pricing against thousands of other sites while also finding coupon codes that could save you money on all kinds of purchases, giving you peace of mind at the digital checkout line.
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