It’s very exciting for fans when a musician announces a concert in their city, however the thrill quickly fades when ticket prices can break the bank.

Last month, Edmontonian Mike Tighe tried to buy Zach Bryan tickets for his son’s birthday, only to find that third-party agencies were ripping off fans for resold tickets.

“(We) go on Ticketmaster, (and it’s) almost sold out, other than nosebleeds … Then you go to the next logical thing, StubHub. We see ‘Resale’ — well, resale is ridiculous,” Tighe said.

“The cheapest (places) in nosebleeds were $800 to $900. For (smaller venues), you’re looking at close to two grand a ticket for the three of us.”

Tighe told CTV News Edmonton on Friday that he made the calculation to get the family out of the country to see Zach Bryan.

He said it’s cheaper to book a five-day trip to Phoenix, AZ, including flights and hotels and seats at an NBA game, than it is to go to a concert in Edmonton.

“I think the government needs to step up in some way,” he said. “There is this monopoly of artists.

“I get it, it’s a business and they have to make money. But it goes from the artist to Live Nation, which basically owns every concert venue. Then it goes to Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation.

“So there’s a whole middle ground there, that they’re just raising prices.”

A music industry expert said ticket prices are based on the ever-changing state of how we consume music and the loss of album sales by artists.

“Music streaming services like Spotify and YouTube, while providing worldwide access to all the music at our fingertips, pay a very, very low royalty rate compared to, say, a vinyl record or a CD back in the day .” Eric Alper said.

“Artists have realized that … and seeing that tickets for their show are going for $5,000 or $10,000 … I think a lot of artists are standing up and saying, ‘We’re going to start charging the market value and we’re not going away. any money on the table,'” he added.

Alper said other factors leading to increased ticket sales are the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar, longer travel days for bands and artists when they tour Canada, and taxes on concert equipment and merchandise when they travel to Canada.

CTV News Edmonton reached out to the provincial government to find out if Alberta has considered any regulation on ticket sales restrictions for resold tickets.

“The Government of Alberta is not currently considering any new regulation of ticket sales, including capping resale prices,” Brandon Aboultaif, press secretary for the Alberta government, said in an email.

Aboultaif said in the same email that Albertans are protected by the Consumer Protection Act when purchasing concert tickets.

These guards include:

• Prohibiting the use of bots so that buyers do not have to compete with computer software when tickets go on sale;
• Refunds from secondary sellers so that buyers can receive compensation if in certain circumstances the ticket does not get them to the event; and
• A “right to sue” ticket sellers and buyers to protect their interests against potential losses resulting from the use of bots.

Tighe said he made the right choice in going to Phoenix.

“It still cost me a lot of money to go, but it’s a vacation instead of spending a night in Edmonton.”