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Happy Monday, you caffeinated sceptics.
Coachella Weekend 1 just wrapped.
Sabrina Carpenter headlined. The music was loud. The prices were louder.
Coffee at the ready…
The Big Sip
Coachella resale passes — tickets fans flip to other fans at markup — topped $5,000 this weekend.
The original price for a standard three-day ticket was $649. The spread between those two numbers explains who actually gets into the tent — and who built the velvet rope.
Thirty-four state attorneys general and a federal jury think they know.
Turns out the real headliner at Coachella was the ticket scalper.
Sponsor Break
Before we slurp into today’s brew…
Here are some wordies from today’s sponsor.
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Intrepid's co-founder and CEO don't do corporate gloss. Their opening letter in the Integrated Annual Report gets into what 2025 actually required: the hard calls, the strategy reset, and how a nearly 30% growth year still came with real challenges.
Here’s Your Brew
The ticket is just the door charge.
Standard pass prices are up 73% from a decade ago. A leaked Justin Bieber rehearsal clip sent resale prices past $4,000 before the festival even started. Total cost for a Coachella weekend — travel, lodging, food — runs between $2,500 and $10,000 per person. Last year, attendee Ruth Viveros documented a $17 lemonade ("mostly ice") and a $102 spread of tacos, nachos, and drinks she rated five out of ten.
The tortillas were, in her words, "freezing cold."
This isn't a Coachella problem.
It's an industry pattern. Festival ticket prices rose 55% from 2014 to 2024 — nearly double the general inflation rate of 32%. Artist fees jumped 30–40% since 2020. Insurance ballooned from 6% of festival budgets in 2019 to 18% in 2025.
Generators cost 75% more to run.
So where does the money go?
Coachella itself runs on AEG's ticketing platform, not Ticketmaster. And the $5,000 resale markup doesn't go to the festival — it goes to scalpers and resale platforms.
But does the system price fans out of live music?
Hello Live Nation.
Live Nation pulled $25.2 billion in revenue last year. Its concerts division — the bit with the music — ran a 3.3% margin. Ticketmaster ran 37%. Sponsorship and advertising ran 65%. The profit isn't in the performance.
It's in the fees and the brand deals.
Washington noticed.
The DOJ settled its antitrust case against Live Nation last month, forcing the company to divest 13 amphitheatres and end exclusive ticketing contracts. But the settlement spared a full breakup. 34 states rejected the deal and pressed ahead with their own trial, which went to the jury last week. Dynamic pricing survived the settlement. A $350 ticket still becomes $500 within hours. The states say the monopoly is intact; Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino calls the settlement "a major step in improving the concert experience."
Your lemonade still costs $17.
Two Sides, One Mug
Pro: Premium pricing funds stages with 20-song setlists and Samuel L. Jackson cameos — the show is objectively bigger than it was.
Con: When resale hits $5,000 and food costs triple digits, live music stops being culture and starts being a class marker.
Our read: The product got better. The access got worse. Both things are true, and only one of them gets fixed by market forces.
Receipt of the Day
[Report] NPR — "Live Nation and Justice Department Reach Settlement in Antitrust Case"
Live Nation must divest 13 amphitheatres and end exclusive ticketing contracts. 34 states say it's not enough.
Why it matters: The DOJ blinked on a breakup. The states didn't. The verdict could reshape how Live Nation prices tickets at 78% of large US amphitheatres.
Spit Take
$17 for a lemonade. Mostly ice. — Moneywise
Extra Curricular Coffee Break Links
InspiredByBeatz — Festival Tickets Over €400: When Is the Tipping Point? — Insurance now eats 18% of festival budgets. The economics of keeping the lights on.
iMusician — The Decline of Music Festivals — Post-pandemic debt and a generation skipping the mud. Who survives 2026?
TicketNews — Senate Report Exposes Ticketmaster's Pricing Playbook — Internal records show the company pushed artists to surge prices so it could collect bigger fees.
Mugshot Poll 📊
What's the most you'd pay for a three-day festival pass?
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