Jack Antonoff and Hayley Williams are sounding off about the economics of touring.
In a conversation for Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians series, Antonoff spoke on what he sees as the root problem behind skyrocketing concert prices but believes the easy solution “is never going to happen.”
Around the 17-minute mark in the video linked above, the Grammy-winning producer and Bleachers singer told the Paramore front woman that he believes the live music scene is thriving at its core but that the system is broken.
“There’s just a couple of fucking people at tops have to be like, ‘Nope,’” he said, mimicking executives greedily hoarding profits. “And you just fucking are left with what you’re left with.”
From there, Antonoff and Williams lamented how often artists are forced to take accountability for things they can’t control, such as inflated prices, hidden fees, and exploitative VIP packages.
Williams added that she regularly feels guilt over what fans are paying just to attend a concert, saying, “I'm just, like, sorry you had to pay this much to come and see us.”
Antonoff responded with what he framed as the ideal scenario: a fair, consistent ticket price that reflects the reality of fans’ financial situations.
“When they enter that room, they’re supposed to be the same person,” he explained. He said instead, the reality is a confusing mess of markups, scalping, and price fluctuations that turn the venue into “a free market.”
“Just set a price and let people go in,” he urged.
The two artists also criticized how venues and ticketing companies take massive cuts from merch sales and touring income.
“I was just talking about this the other day,” Williams said. “Like, how I lost like a large chunk of my innocence the first time I realized like we had made enough money to get gas to go to the next show, but we had to give like half of it to the venue. And I was like, ‘What?’ My dad was like, ‘This is America.’”
Antonoff echoed that frustration, pointing out that even small, struggling bands can’t turn a profit, while corporations that “own all these rooms and monopolize the whole fucking thing” post billion-dollar earnings.
He then pointed a finger at the “sports lobby,” which he claims has a major influence on the current ticketing landscape.
“I think we just gotta keep talking about it so no one thinks it's normal. It's so simple to me, and there's one answer, but it's never going to happen. Which is, they have to make a little less money,” he said while pointing upward.
“That's it, because they can chuck it all around and do this, do that, and make it up to you at the festival, whatever it is ... I mean, that's what the scene was all about and that's how I feel about my shows. That's how you feel about your shows. I want everyone in that room to feel like a fucking human being from beginning to end.”
Last month, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino spoke at the CNBC Sport and Boardroom’s Game Plan conference where he dismissed criticism over rising ticket prices, arguing that concerts remain affordable compared to sports.
“The artist is going to make 98% of their money from the show,” Rapino said, per CNBC. “We just did Beyoncé’s tour. She’s got 62 transport trucks outside. That’s a Super Bowl she’s putting on every night.”
He continued, “In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honor to spend [$70,000] for Knicks courtside,” Rapino said. “When you read about the ticket prices going up, it’s still an average concert price [of] $72. Try going to a Laker game for that, and there’s 80 of them [in a season].”