MW Another sign we may be heading into a recession: Some Beyoncé tickets are selling for under $80

By Charles Passy

The good news for Beyoncé fans: Prices have been dropping for the 'Cowboy Carter' tour on resale markets. The bad news: Experts say this could signal broader economic problems.

The BeyHive doesn't appear to be quite as buzzy when it comes to Beyoncé's newly launched "Cowboy Carter" tour. But could that be a sign of broader economic worry among consumers?

It's a question worth asking, at least according to financial and music-industry professionals who spoke with MarketWatch. With resale ticket prices for her tour dipping below $60 in some instances, experts suggested Beyoncé may be a bellwether for how people are choosing to spend - or not spend - their money.

"The timing is tough with a potential recession in the cards," said Samyr Laine, a former music-industry executive and co-founder of Freedom Trail Capital, a venture-capital firm.

Others suggested Beyoncé-specific factors could be more responsible for those lower ticket prices. A key one: Beyoncé is touring in support of her Grammy Award-winning "Cowboy Carter" country album - and country isn't the genre that fans typically associate with her.

That means there may not be the same willingness to spend the big bucks compared with Beyoncé's previous tour, dubbed "Renaissance" after her namesake dance-centric album.

Consider this metric: The cheapest ticket for opening night of the Cowboy Carter tour, held in Los Angeles earlier this week, was $44 on the resale platform Gametime. By contrast, when Beyoncé launched the U.S. leg of her Renaissance tour, with a Philadelphia date in July 2023, the cheapest ticket was $115 on the same platform.

Of course, some fans spent way more to attend Renaissance shows - in many cases, thousands of dollars when factoring in tickets plus travel and other expenses.

In response to a MarketWatch request for comment, tour promoter Live Nation $(LYV)$ pointed to data supplied by Beyoncé's team that demonstrated demand for the tour. Specifically, the information showed that the tour was over 94% sold as of March 17 and that 10 dates have been added to the initially announced slate of 22 shows.

Officials with Live Nation didn't comment about the resale prices.

The resale situation led to some frustration among fans who purchased tickets at higher prices when the Cowboy Carter tour first went on sale in February. Obviously, they didn't see the price drop as a possibility. If anything, they anticipated shows would sell out immediately and resale prices would surge.

Alison Hoesli spent $650 apiece for prime seats for an upcoming Cowboy Carter show in her home city of Chicago. The last time Hoesli checked the prices, she could purchase similar seats for around $350 on the resale market.

"It's not a great feeling," she said.

The concert industry often fares better than other businesses during challenging economic times, according to experts. It "has shown a relatively strong degree of resilience," Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent research note. The analysts pointed to other leisure-related industries, from theme parks to spectator sports, that didn't do as well during a recession.

'When there is even a threat of a possible recession, the first thing people will cut is luxury expenses.'Nathan Green, chief executive of New Level Radio

Of course, we aren't yet in a recession by standard measures. Still, it's hard to ignore the reality of what's happening with Beyoncé's current tour, others observe.

"When there is even a threat of a possible recession, the first thing people will cut is luxury expenses and unfortunately, that includes entertainment such as concerts and sporting events," said Nathan Green, chief executive of New Level Radio, a company that creates customized audio experiences, including music programming. "Even megastars such as Beyoncé are not immune to this."

If people are cutting expenses, prices can drop to spur sales. But Bill Werde, director of Syracuse University's Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries, said what's happening with Beyoncé's current tour may be a case of returning to the prepandemic norm for the concert industry.

The success of the Renaissance tour and other high-profile ones - especially Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" - was a "rapid expansion of the live-music market fueled by pent-up appetite," Werde said. In other words, after being stuck in their homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were eager to get out and enjoy themselves no matter what the price.

But growth like that was "unsustainable," Werde added. He echoed that "Cowboy Carter" was perhaps not the musical vibe that appealed to some Beyoncé fans. Or at least not enough for them to spend hundreds of dollars on a ticket.

Meanwhile, some Beyoncé fans may be able to take advantage of the situation. A case in point: Sarah Belizaire, a London resident who spends time working in the U.S. She didn't buy a seat initially for the Cowboy Carter tour, in large part over concerns about the economy and how it may affect the public-relations business she owns.

Now, Belizaire is looking at the drop in ticket prices and starting to reconsider her plans. "I'll probably keep an eye out," she said.

-Charles Passy

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April 30, 2025 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

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