Why a Bad Bunny ticket costs more than a trip: the boom in luxury concerts

Bad Bunny has confirmed that he will be landing in Spain at the end of May 2026 to bring fresh tracks made in PR ( Puerto Rico for those who are not fans of his slang), with the excuse of presenting his new album Debí tira más fotos (I Always Throw More Photos ), and it has unleashed madness . In part, because to buy his tickets (which go on sale this Friday at 12 noon , although there was a pre-sale yesterday) his fans had to save a lot of money or, going the fast track, simply sell a kidney. Although the cheapest tickets start at 73 euros, the most expensive will cost 600 euros because they will include "VIP experiences." Specifically, the ticket classified as VIP 1 (or ultimate Bad Bunny VIP lounge experience ) will cost 543.30 euros, plus a hefty 72.50 administration fee.

Luxury prices have become more democratic in recent times, as have controversial management fees, which doesn't prevent us from raising our eyebrows in sheer bewilderment in some cases. When Taylor Swift arrived in Madrid last year to present her famous The Eras Tour at the Bernabéu, tickets for the front left corner of the stadium could easily cost 226 euros. Motomami prices Rosalía 's 2022 show left fans speechless, as it could reach 413.50 euros, something unusual for an artist who wasn't yet established or had only been on stage for a few years. After all, that same year the Rolling Stones played in Madrid , and prices ranged from 50 to 280 euros (excluding booking fees). When did such high ticket prices become normal?

"No matter how humble the artist presents himself, be it Bad Bunny or whoever, live music has become a luxury product," says music journalist Nando Cruz, author of Macrofestivals: the black hole of music . "Attending concerts gives you a kind of social status. What centuries ago meant going to a ballroom dance or a horse race, today is going to see Bad Bunny or the Rolling Stones. You can say, 'I was there,' and that puts you in a special position."

"Attending concerts gives a kind of social status, what centuries ago meant attending a ballroom dance or horse races."

He explains that concert-organizing companies (like Live Nation , which is organizing Bad Bunny's tour ) are studying how high they can raise prices and whether the specific audience is willing to pay them. "Last year, the president of Live Nation said that tickets are sold very cheaply . Why? Because if you sell a ticket for €200 and then see that on resale it sells for €1,000, you're losing that €800 difference . Resale, facilitated by technology, has given promoters clear clues as to how much fans are willing to pay. That's why there are different prices: there are people who can only pay €100, and people happy to pay €600 to be in the best spot."

Cruz points out that this increase in expenses has several aspects that explain it: On the one hand, there's globalization ; when you buy a Bad Bunny ticket, you're not just competing with people from Madrid or Barcelona, ​​but with people from all over Europe, such as the English or the Dutch , who have greater purchasing power than you and are perfectly capable of paying 300 or 400 euros. "And something even more perverse happens," he points out, "when Bad Bunny 's album comes out, we all comment on it on social media, so we're talking about how cool it is and doing a free advertising campaign for him. That generates greater interest in the artist, so when the tickets go on sale, their price already reflects that free marketing campaign we've done. We ourselves have raised the price of the tickets."

FOMO and management fees

"I'm one of those who save paper tickets, and I'm saddened by their decline. They no longer exist today, neither with nor without ink; they're just a number you can print yourself," journalist and screenwriter Carlos H. Vázquez tells us. "Of all the ones I have, one of my favorites is the one I saw Bob Dylan at the now-defunct Vía Jazz festival in 2006. The price: 20 euros. On previous visits to the capital, tickets were quoted at a premium: from 85 euros to 300." The journalist tells us that, on one occasion, promoter Gay Mercader explained to him that bringing Bob Dylan to Spain had stopped being profitable a long time ago , given his health and age. "I don't see Dylan doing a meet & greet either, and now everyone does it. It's part of show business and it's cool. Kiss used to do it for you, and Leticia Sabater does it for you."

Dylan's anecdote fits well with another interesting fact mentioned at the beginning of the article: a ticket for Rosalía or Bad Bunny, artists without a very extensive musical career, is much more expensive than a ticket for the Rolling Stones. "The thing is, in 2025, anyone who wants to see the Rolling Stones has probably already had the opportunity to do so," Nando Cruz tells us again. "Besides, you can't say they're at their best. Rosalía or Bad Bunny, on the other hand, probably are. Many fans have never seen them live, so they're willing to pay a lot for it."

"In 2025, you've had a thousand opportunities to see the Rolling Stones. However, Rosalía and Bad Bunny are at their best."

"I find the tickets expensive, just as the cost of living is high," concludes H. Vázquez. "And I think this will only get worse, basically because everything is getting more expensive. Then there are the management fees, another tax for having fun with the experience. And you pay for it, because it's a business; a company isn't an NGO, and it plays on FOMO (fear of missing out ) just as it does with nostalgia."

Management fees didn't exist 20 years ago (Cruz explains that one of the first groups to rebel against them was Pearl Jam ), but now we've assumed them as part of the purchasing process: if a ticket costs 70 euros, they'll charge you 10. If it costs 500, they can easily charge you 72. Although there are no real management fees for a ticket that you buy in a virtual queue and download from an app on your mobile (also purchased by you) or print on your own printer.

"I understand, however, that a portion of the ticket revenue from all the concerts will be donated to the Good Bunny Foundation ," says H. Vázquez. "It's a foundation that focuses on supporting children and young people from disadvantaged communities to foster the development of talent in music, the arts, and sports. Fans are skeptical about whether this is true. Some people think it should be a choice for the buyers. Everyone decides how to spend their money. However, none of us will be Pino Sagliocco (Live Nation) with Michael Jackson or Narcís Rebollo (Universal Music) with Taylor Swift at the Santiago Bernabéu. No matter what we pay."