There is no more euphoric feeling than losing yourself in the energy of live music. Sounds reverberate through your spirit, while the amplified crowd of fans surrounds you with an intoxicating aura of joy. I will spare almost no expense to experience the rush of a concert.
According to a New York Times article I read recently, Millennials and Gen Z are more likely than any generation before to break the bank for concert tickets and other live events. With ticket prices soaring to unprecedented highs, this can spell trouble for college students.
If I have so much as one friend willing to go to a concert with me, I will not miss it. I have an arbitrary scale of how much I am willing to pay for tickets based on how well I know the artist and their popularity.
A long, long time ago, in a land where it was still acceptable to like Drake, I spent over $1,000 on two tickets for 100-level seats to the “It’s All A Blur” Tour. Drake canceled the show three times (my Drake beef walked so Kendrick Lamar could run), but I would not have regretted spending to see one of my former all-time favorite artists step out with 21 Savage or J. Cole.
Over the years, I have learned a few sneaky ways to get my hands on concert tickets, so I never fear missing out on the concert of a lifetime – and we all know how severe FOMO can be. As shocking as this may seem, none of them include buying on credit. Friends, allow me to take you on a tour of my ways.
1. Save your nickels and dimes
A crash course in budgeting is a topic for another article, but I have scored some incredible tickets by making a point to save extra cash every month. I have a savings account designated for “experiences,” which basically covers any big purchase that doesn’t include emergencies. Naturally, concerts fall into that bucket.
I usually split my money after expenses into spending and saving. I then divide my savings money into four accounts, one of which is “experiences.” That deposit usually ends up being between $70 and $300, depending on how generous my tex-mex tippers are that month.
After Travis Scott dropped “UTOPIA,” I made it my mission to see him live with one of my best friends. I ended up spending way too much on really bad tickets and having an overall bad time at that show, but I would probably have regretted missing out on “TELEKINESIS” live if I skipped because of a lack of cash. And I didn’t blow my entire month of spending money on a bad show, thanks to my knack for saving. Save now, sweat later.
2. Find the big spenders in your life
I am sure not everyone is graced with one person who is a little trigger-happy with their spending, but I figure a few of you might be. My person happens to be my mother. I used to resist being spoiled by her, but one day I had a good long talk with the woman in the mirror and realized it probably makes my mom just as happy to blow money on me as it does for me to see concerts with her.
My mom has funded three life-changing concerts for me. She paid for my first concert (Jennifer Lopez’s “It’s My Party” Tour in 2019), paid for my seats to see The Weeknd in 2021 and bought tickets to see 6LACK with me on a mother-daughter date. That concert was unbelievably cathartic and brought tears of joy to my eyes. I was lucky to spend it with my mom.
Now, I do not mean to assume that everyone has #MommysMoney to rely on, but I am suggesting that next time your one friend whose love language is gift-giving suggests they pay for concert tickets, you say yes, buy the gas and snacks and tell them “thank you” until they beg you to hush.
3. Take advantage of holidays and birthdays
Happy birthday to you! Skip out on the material things and ask your aunties and uncles for some concert money.
College students naturally go through a “GoFundMe” phase at some point. We age out of asking for toys and gadgets and learn that the finer things in life are the ones that yield lasting memories alongside our favorite people. Concerts never fail to fulfill that purpose.
My grandma used to be very much a material gift-giver until she hung up her routine to offer the grandchildren money for adventures. I put this year’s adventure money towards funding my tickets to Charlotte, N.C., to see Kendrick Lamar and SZA in May.
Take your birthday money and holiday cash and set it aside for when that concert you can’t miss gets announced. You will break the piggy bank and not regret it for a moment.
4. Buy on drop…or wait until the day of
The two best moments to buy tickets are usually the second they release and minutes before the show starts. Fresh tickets do not suffer the unforgiving price hikes of resellers, and last-minute tickets see a price drop when resellers lose hope of making a profit.
To get tickets while they’re hot off the presses, look out for presale opportunities. Spotify will send emails to loyal fans giving them discount codes and early access tickets. I nailed four club-level seats to The Weeknd’s upcoming “After Hours Til Dawn” concert at Los Angeles’s So-Fi Stadium for under $1,000 by sitting through a presale line on Ticketmaster.
Conversely, my sister and I spontaneously snatched G-Eazy tickets a day or two before the show for $30 cheaper than they were the week before. A friend of mine stood outside of Ball Arena on the day of Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS World Tour” show and wound up with $100 floor seats just by missing the first two or three songs — a tour I missed out on because nosebleeds were sitting at $500 for months prior.
5. Get to know resale apps
Each resale app comes with its own set of triumphs and pitfalls. By getting to know each one, you can bargain hunt more effectively.
Ticketmaster typically has the lowest taxes and fees, in my experience. Vivid Seats has a “buy 10 tickets, get the 11th free” deal for its loyal customers. SeatGeek offers SeatGeek Swaps, where you can return your tickets for 100% store credit if a better deal comes up (P.S. SeatGeek has incredible customer support if anything ever goes wrong). On TickPick, users can gamble a bit with Price Freeze, a way for fans to secure tickets while they monitor other prices.
When Drake canceled his Denver show, SeatGeek issued me a 110% refund promo code that I was allowed to use twice since the tickets cost so much. My could-have-been Drake tickets bought me 100-level Nuggets versus Suns seats and a spot at Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Trust You” Tour five rows off the floor. Win-win, to be honest.
Graphic by Olivia Davis.