Concert ticket prices in Australia: From Usher to Lady Gaga, the cost of seeing music is getting insane | Opinion

OPINION — I don’t care who you are, charging over $600 for nosebleed concert tickets is not only outrageous, it’s attempted robbery.

I have been the designated ticket-purchaser in my family and friend group since I was 16.

You used to be able to purchase A Reserve seats for about $250, and that seat was on the floor and as close to the stage as possible.

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Now, an A Reserve ticket gets you a seat at the back of the arena – and it still costs you over $250.

In the case of Lady Gaga’s upcoming The MAYHEM Ball’ Tour, a nosebleed seat at the back of Accor Stadium will set you back $622. (Yes, really!)

This is in the same stadium that was selling G Reserve Taylor Swift tickets in the back of the stadium for $80.

They know what those nosebleed seats are worth – they just don’t care.

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A Reserve tickets released for Usher’s Past, Present and Future tour, released yesterday, were listed between $280 and $330, with more than half in the upper sections of the arena.

The more affordable (but still expensive) B Reserve, C Reserve, and D Reserve tickets were so limited, you couldn’t even see their allocated sections on the arena map. 

For both the Usher and Lady Gaga shows, “Premium”, “Ultimate” and “VIP” tickets are being sold for well over $500.

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What the heck is an Ultimate seat, you ask? It’s what an A-reserve ticket was in 2010, but 10 times the price.

Usher’s VIP packages are going for more than $900, while Lady Gaga’s are going for more than $970, which include a premium seat in the A Reserve graveyard and a tour lanyard.

I sat in this so-called premium section in Qudos Bank Arena at a One Direction concert in 2012 for $50 a ticket (back then, they were considered A Reserve seats). 

My entire family went to the show for $200. Now, the same four seats would cost us at least $2,400.

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Gone are the days of parents buying kids concert tickets for their birthday, because now decent tickets to any major artist will set you back two weeks’ worth of pay.

Or, you can fork out $600 to watch from so far away that the artist looks like a dancing ant.

Seriously, it’s insane.

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