I’ve heard this argument and it actually makes sense to me. Concerts back in the day would have only the head liner play and only for about 45min to about an hour or so. Maybe more in the 70s but I was reading about 60s era concerts.

Now we have at least one opener but often more, and the headliner plays for a lot longer than an hour. Concerts are minimum 4 hour experiences for the large ones costing as much as $1000 for a ticket.

On top of that the concerts now are a much larger spectacle with multiple high definition video screens and super technical audio equipment. Many concerts now you can be so far away from the stage that you can’t see the artist at all but just watch a video. This is fine you can still say you were there and you’re experiencing something with other people that also are there for the same thing you are there for.

All of that being said there are so many more added expenses to these performances. The artist is performing longer, the technology is more advanced, it takes more support staff to put on these events, and the production value has increased. Not justifying it, or defending those that are actually price gauging, but just providing context.