Coachella 2025 & the Slow Death of Live Music
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VOICE OVER: Phoebe de Jeu
WRITTEN BY: Tyler Allen
From skyrocketing ticket prices to chaotic crowds, live music is facing serious challenges. Join us as we explore the decline of concert culture, examining Coachella's transformation into the "influencer Olympics" and the return of Fyre Festival. Is the authentic concert experience becoming a thing of the past? We dive into Ticketmaster's monopoly, $600 nosebleed seats, artists canceling tours last-minute, and the post-COVID chaos of entitled fan behavior. From Mitski's frustrations to Bebe Rexha being pegged by flying objects, we're examining how influencers have transformed what was once about musical connection into something entirely different.
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Welcome to— Welcome to MsMojo and— Ahem, WELCOME— See, this is why we NEED to have a conversation about concert etiquette! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re talking about the slow death of live music. Between raucous crowds, exorbitant ticket prices, and shows constantly getting canceled, there are sadly more reasons than ever to pass up your favorite artist’s tour. So, how did we get here? Plus, what are the biggest takeaways from this year’s Coachella, given the recent criticisms of the star-studded event? And, wait a minute… they aren’t ACTUALLY putting on a Fyre Fest 2 are they? Oh God, they are.
Coachella & The Festival Spectacle
Just one weekend in, Coachella 2025 has already experienced a number of ups and downs. On the bright side, Lady Gaga’s set drew immense praise, Prodigy burst back onto the scene to get everyone moving, and Missy Elliott proved why she’s the queen of hip-hop (and that she should be cast in the next Transformers movie). On the other hand, soaring temperatures could account for why so much of the crowd seemed unwilling to actually dance. An insane traffic jam turned the gridlocked highways into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And the hotly anticipated Misfits set featured a number of technical difficulties. Basically, the low points can be summarized with this clip…
Ticket sales are a good indicator of the event’s fall from grace in recent years. Whereas 2014 sold out in 40 minutes, 2024 took a full month for the first weekend to sell. While 2025’s turnout seems to be a bit of an improvement, many are pointing to influencer fatigue as a major issue with the mega-festival. According to a survey, 75% of respondents feel that influencers overshadow the primary purpose of Coachella, and 68% don’t like the increasing presence of brands. It was recently dubbed the “influencer Olympics,” with internet personalities being flown out to take photos in their “Coachella fits,” and then getting the hell out of the desert. So actually being at Coachella has seemingly become less important than pretending you’re at Coachella. And it doesn’t take much scrounging to identify why people would rather pack it up than actually wade around in the dunes. There’s a bigger issue with live-music today that’s plaguing events both large and small.
But before we can get to that conversation, we need to discuss Fyre Fest 2, because even we aren’t convinced this is really happening. It’s being helmed by ex-convict Billy McFarland, the organizer of the first event (and we all know how that went). The conman was sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud, but he was released early—just in time to throw together another heinous attempt at a world-class festival! Titled “FYRE 2,” with “fire” misspelled to indicate how edgy it is, the event is set for May 30th in Isla Mujeres, or actually no… they just changed it to Playa del Carmen because officials in Isla Mujeres claim they were never contacted and no permits were ever issued. Hold on, it looks like Playa del Carmen is a bust too, because that local government also denies it’s hosting the event. Adding fuel to the fyre, no artists have even been confirmed yet. But tickets are on sale, with the cheapest available for $1,400 and the highest set at $1.1M! Before we could even finish recapping this dumpster fire, it just got postponed with the promise of new dates coming soon. If purchasing a pricey ticket from a convicted fraudster for an event that has no set location, date, or bookings doesn’t sound like a good deal, that’s totally fair. Really, Fyre Fest encapsulates the major qualms concertgoers have today. This over-emphasis on luxurious live experiences that can’t actually be delivered upon has cast some serious doubt on whether any concert is worth going to. So if Fyre Fest 2 does actually happen, then anyone who buys a ticket can NOT complain about the literal shit-show waiting for them. Rather, something actually worth complaining about is…
Insane Prices & Canceled Tours
So let’s say your favorite artist is hitting your city, and you’re willing to pay the price of admission. Well, you’re facing an uphill battle! With Ticketmaster monopolizing the music scene, the company has faced a ton of scrutiny for its supposed surge pricing model, glitchy interface, and lengthy virtual queue times. There’s the pre-sale, the VIP pre-pre-sale, the Spotify Fans First pre-pre-pre-sale, and the official merch store quadruple-pre sale. As a side note, it’s sort of backwards to ask your fans to pre-order a vinyl for an album that hasn’t even come out yet if they want to increase their chances of securing a concert ticket via an early access code. The best case of the “Ticketmaster Squid Games” is undoubtedly the Eras tour scandal. Swifties were rightfully pissed off to find that after waiting in line for what felt like an entire era, the website had crashed and Ticketmaster canceled the sale. Multiple class action lawsuits were filed against parent company Live Nation Entertainment, and even Tay Tay herself called out the brand for the fiasco.
Despite this, we’ve apparently learned nothing. Earlier this year, Gaga’s Mayhem ball tickets went on sale, dynamic pricing and all. Nosebleeds sold for $600, and pit tickets went for upwards of 2 grand! It’s not just Gaga though. In 2024, the average ticket price was $135. The cost to see your favorite artist live was never this offensively high in the past. Even adjusted for inflation, tickets used to be far cheaper. In today’s world, the low revenue takeaway for streaming has motivated artists to charge more for show admission to make up for lost profits. In a phenomenon termed “funflation,” Gen Z in particular are actually willing to stretch their budget for a chance to get in on the action. So artists continue to get away with it. The saddest part about all this is that while music platforms make big bucks off streams, and artists make big bucks off tickets, the ones who truly get exploited are the fans. More and more, concerts just feel inaccessible thanks to these skyrocketing prices.
Even if you do secure a ticket, it doesn't mean you’re actually going to get to see the show though. In a worrying trend, more and more cancelations have become the norm. FKA Twigs was dragged up and down the internet by fans for canceling dates in her “Eusexua” tour as late as the day before. Disgruntled concertgoers pointed out that they’d already flown into the city where the event was being held, and her radio silence was insulting. She’d later cancel the remainder of her North America tour and Coachella performance citing missing set pieces, and finally released a statement that visa issues had interrupted her ability to appear. Just last year, The Black Keys had to abandon their entire stadium tour as well, recently speaking out to expose their management team for mishandling the entire affair. Jennifer Lopez pulled a similar stunt too, forcing fans to scramble for refunds. While Taylor and Beyoncé sold out mega-tours, this trend points to a decline in fan’s willingness to shell out stadium seating cash for acts that aren’t massively popular. This tumultuous climate has left the industry in a bit of a tailspin, and there’s still one more major crisis that needs to be spotlighted.
The Concert-going Experience
So you waited in a virtual queue, you paid top dollar, the event didn’t get cancelled, and you just made it through the door to see the indie girl you stan take stage. Congrats! But are you sure you’re actually going to be able to enjoy yourself? That overly intoxicated guy behind you in the pit might hurl on your feet. The gaggle of squealing teens who snuck in with fakes might all shove themselves in front of you despite there already being no elbow room. That overdressed streamer might whack you with her angel wings the entire night. Your view could be blocked by a sea of arms holding up cell phones. Or maybe the performer will have to stop the show because deranged fans keep throwing random objects on stage.
It sounds overly pessimistic, and all of this is not to say that concert-going experiences can’t be fun. But this sort of entitled, toxic behavior has become an increasingly rampant issue at live events in recent years. And it’s being called out online by both ticked off fans and the artists themselves. Singer Mitski has been incredibly outspoken about feeling like she’s being taken from and consumed as content when trying to connect with the crowd. A clip of Lorde shushing her audience made its rounds after they began to sing over her. Both Kid Cudi and Harry Styles recently stormed off stage after being hit with flying items. Bebe Rexha even required stitches after a cell phone split her eyebrow open. The list goes on.
Really, the post-COVID landscape is to blame for this shift toward utter chaos. With live events on pause in 2020, then slowly returning toward the end of 2021, many young people felt they were missing out on the formative concertgoing experience. So when the floodgates were reopened, demand to attend live events skyrocketed. And in the process, all sense of decorum went out the window. The viral clips of scantily clad influencers at mega-concerts and festivals created a sense of FOMO. The need to prove you made it to the show became paramount—by posting a series of shaky, blown-out videos on your Instagram story that your friends will surely tap through. And so, the pit has become a total free-for-all; spilled drinks, thrown fists and all. It’s chaotic nights like these that make many opt for a quiet piano bar or movie concert instead. So is the live music industry really facing an existential threat?
There is some hope. Concerts have always been about creating a communal space for superfans to share in the joy of their favorite albums. To see the artists who’ve helped them through rough days perform the songs they belt out in the shower. Concert etiquette can improve, in fact it needs to. Artists rely on butts in seats (or feet in pits) to make their income. At the same time, COVID has made us all more comfortable with finding entertainment at home, and a looming recession has incentivized many to opt out of overpriced concert tickets. This post-pandemic “funflation” surge could come to a crashing halt at any moment. So if you’re not Beyoncé, you need to actually motivate your fans to show up. In order for nature to heal, things have to shift back to a space where it’s both feasible and worth going to a show again. By offering more tour dates and more affordable entry options, artists could usher in a less manic crowd. By addressing the absurd online ticketing scandals, there could be better transparency about an event’s true cost. And by responding to the cries for tamer crowds, fans could put in greater effort to respect the artist and everyone around them. This slow death of live music doesn’t have to actually end in a death. Instead, all this angst should lead to a moment of reflection, so that we can all get back to celebrating music without feeling the need to declare, “I’m finna be in the pit!”
What do you think about the state of live music? What price are you willing to pay to see your favorite artist tour? Vent to us in the comments below!
Welcome to— Welcome to MsMojo and— Ahem, WELCOME— See, this is why we NEED to have a conversation about concert etiquette! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re talking about the slow death of live music. Between raucous crowds, exorbitant ticket prices, and shows constantly getting canceled, there are sadly more reasons than ever to pass up your favorite artist’s tour. So, how did we get here? Plus, what are the biggest takeaways from this year’s Coachella, given the recent criticisms of the star-studded event? And, wait a minute… they aren’t ACTUALLY putting on a Fyre Fest 2 are they? Oh God, they are.
Coachella & The Festival Spectacle
Just one weekend in, Coachella 2025 has already experienced a number of ups and downs. On the bright side, Lady Gaga’s set drew immense praise, Prodigy burst back onto the scene to get everyone moving, and Missy Elliott proved why she’s the queen of hip-hop (and that she should be cast in the next Transformers movie). On the other hand, soaring temperatures could account for why so much of the crowd seemed unwilling to actually dance. An insane traffic jam turned the gridlocked highways into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And the hotly anticipated Misfits set featured a number of technical difficulties. Basically, the low points can be summarized with this clip…
Ticket sales are a good indicator of the event’s fall from grace in recent years. Whereas 2014 sold out in 40 minutes, 2024 took a full month for the first weekend to sell. While 2025’s turnout seems to be a bit of an improvement, many are pointing to influencer fatigue as a major issue with the mega-festival. According to a survey, 75% of respondents feel that influencers overshadow the primary purpose of Coachella, and 68% don’t like the increasing presence of brands. It was recently dubbed the “influencer Olympics,” with internet personalities being flown out to take photos in their “Coachella fits,” and then getting the hell out of the desert. So actually being at Coachella has seemingly become less important than pretending you’re at Coachella. And it doesn’t take much scrounging to identify why people would rather pack it up than actually wade around in the dunes. There’s a bigger issue with live-music today that’s plaguing events both large and small.
But before we can get to that conversation, we need to discuss Fyre Fest 2, because even we aren’t convinced this is really happening. It’s being helmed by ex-convict Billy McFarland, the organizer of the first event (and we all know how that went). The conman was sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud, but he was released early—just in time to throw together another heinous attempt at a world-class festival! Titled “FYRE 2,” with “fire” misspelled to indicate how edgy it is, the event is set for May 30th in Isla Mujeres, or actually no… they just changed it to Playa del Carmen because officials in Isla Mujeres claim they were never contacted and no permits were ever issued. Hold on, it looks like Playa del Carmen is a bust too, because that local government also denies it’s hosting the event. Adding fuel to the fyre, no artists have even been confirmed yet. But tickets are on sale, with the cheapest available for $1,400 and the highest set at $1.1M! Before we could even finish recapping this dumpster fire, it just got postponed with the promise of new dates coming soon. If purchasing a pricey ticket from a convicted fraudster for an event that has no set location, date, or bookings doesn’t sound like a good deal, that’s totally fair. Really, Fyre Fest encapsulates the major qualms concertgoers have today. This over-emphasis on luxurious live experiences that can’t actually be delivered upon has cast some serious doubt on whether any concert is worth going to. So if Fyre Fest 2 does actually happen, then anyone who buys a ticket can NOT complain about the literal shit-show waiting for them. Rather, something actually worth complaining about is…
Insane Prices & Canceled Tours
So let’s say your favorite artist is hitting your city, and you’re willing to pay the price of admission. Well, you’re facing an uphill battle! With Ticketmaster monopolizing the music scene, the company has faced a ton of scrutiny for its supposed surge pricing model, glitchy interface, and lengthy virtual queue times. There’s the pre-sale, the VIP pre-pre-sale, the Spotify Fans First pre-pre-pre-sale, and the official merch store quadruple-pre sale. As a side note, it’s sort of backwards to ask your fans to pre-order a vinyl for an album that hasn’t even come out yet if they want to increase their chances of securing a concert ticket via an early access code. The best case of the “Ticketmaster Squid Games” is undoubtedly the Eras tour scandal. Swifties were rightfully pissed off to find that after waiting in line for what felt like an entire era, the website had crashed and Ticketmaster canceled the sale. Multiple class action lawsuits were filed against parent company Live Nation Entertainment, and even Tay Tay herself called out the brand for the fiasco.
Despite this, we’ve apparently learned nothing. Earlier this year, Gaga’s Mayhem ball tickets went on sale, dynamic pricing and all. Nosebleeds sold for $600, and pit tickets went for upwards of 2 grand! It’s not just Gaga though. In 2024, the average ticket price was $135. The cost to see your favorite artist live was never this offensively high in the past. Even adjusted for inflation, tickets used to be far cheaper. In today’s world, the low revenue takeaway for streaming has motivated artists to charge more for show admission to make up for lost profits. In a phenomenon termed “funflation,” Gen Z in particular are actually willing to stretch their budget for a chance to get in on the action. So artists continue to get away with it. The saddest part about all this is that while music platforms make big bucks off streams, and artists make big bucks off tickets, the ones who truly get exploited are the fans. More and more, concerts just feel inaccessible thanks to these skyrocketing prices.
Even if you do secure a ticket, it doesn't mean you’re actually going to get to see the show though. In a worrying trend, more and more cancelations have become the norm. FKA Twigs was dragged up and down the internet by fans for canceling dates in her “Eusexua” tour as late as the day before. Disgruntled concertgoers pointed out that they’d already flown into the city where the event was being held, and her radio silence was insulting. She’d later cancel the remainder of her North America tour and Coachella performance citing missing set pieces, and finally released a statement that visa issues had interrupted her ability to appear. Just last year, The Black Keys had to abandon their entire stadium tour as well, recently speaking out to expose their management team for mishandling the entire affair. Jennifer Lopez pulled a similar stunt too, forcing fans to scramble for refunds. While Taylor and Beyoncé sold out mega-tours, this trend points to a decline in fan’s willingness to shell out stadium seating cash for acts that aren’t massively popular. This tumultuous climate has left the industry in a bit of a tailspin, and there’s still one more major crisis that needs to be spotlighted.
The Concert-going Experience
So you waited in a virtual queue, you paid top dollar, the event didn’t get cancelled, and you just made it through the door to see the indie girl you stan take stage. Congrats! But are you sure you’re actually going to be able to enjoy yourself? That overly intoxicated guy behind you in the pit might hurl on your feet. The gaggle of squealing teens who snuck in with fakes might all shove themselves in front of you despite there already being no elbow room. That overdressed streamer might whack you with her angel wings the entire night. Your view could be blocked by a sea of arms holding up cell phones. Or maybe the performer will have to stop the show because deranged fans keep throwing random objects on stage.
It sounds overly pessimistic, and all of this is not to say that concert-going experiences can’t be fun. But this sort of entitled, toxic behavior has become an increasingly rampant issue at live events in recent years. And it’s being called out online by both ticked off fans and the artists themselves. Singer Mitski has been incredibly outspoken about feeling like she’s being taken from and consumed as content when trying to connect with the crowd. A clip of Lorde shushing her audience made its rounds after they began to sing over her. Both Kid Cudi and Harry Styles recently stormed off stage after being hit with flying items. Bebe Rexha even required stitches after a cell phone split her eyebrow open. The list goes on.
Really, the post-COVID landscape is to blame for this shift toward utter chaos. With live events on pause in 2020, then slowly returning toward the end of 2021, many young people felt they were missing out on the formative concertgoing experience. So when the floodgates were reopened, demand to attend live events skyrocketed. And in the process, all sense of decorum went out the window. The viral clips of scantily clad influencers at mega-concerts and festivals created a sense of FOMO. The need to prove you made it to the show became paramount—by posting a series of shaky, blown-out videos on your Instagram story that your friends will surely tap through. And so, the pit has become a total free-for-all; spilled drinks, thrown fists and all. It’s chaotic nights like these that make many opt for a quiet piano bar or movie concert instead. So is the live music industry really facing an existential threat?
There is some hope. Concerts have always been about creating a communal space for superfans to share in the joy of their favorite albums. To see the artists who’ve helped them through rough days perform the songs they belt out in the shower. Concert etiquette can improve, in fact it needs to. Artists rely on butts in seats (or feet in pits) to make their income. At the same time, COVID has made us all more comfortable with finding entertainment at home, and a looming recession has incentivized many to opt out of overpriced concert tickets. This post-pandemic “funflation” surge could come to a crashing halt at any moment. So if you’re not Beyoncé, you need to actually motivate your fans to show up. In order for nature to heal, things have to shift back to a space where it’s both feasible and worth going to a show again. By offering more tour dates and more affordable entry options, artists could usher in a less manic crowd. By addressing the absurd online ticketing scandals, there could be better transparency about an event’s true cost. And by responding to the cries for tamer crowds, fans could put in greater effort to respect the artist and everyone around them. This slow death of live music doesn’t have to actually end in a death. Instead, all this angst should lead to a moment of reflection, so that we can all get back to celebrating music without feeling the need to declare, “I’m finna be in the pit!”
What do you think about the state of live music? What price are you willing to pay to see your favorite artist tour? Vent to us in the comments below!
