Beyond profit: Seth Hurwitz’s philosophy on fair ticket pricing in an era of dynamic pricing
In an industry increasingly dominated by algorithms, surge pricing, and corporate consolidation, Seth Hurwitz stands as something of an anomaly. The founder of I.M.P. and co-owner of Washington D.C.’s iconic 9:30 Club has built a career on principles that sometimes seem at odds with modern concert promotion trends—nowhere more evident than in his approach to ticket pricing.
“I think we should set a price and it should stay that way, and a ticket should not become a commodity that people trade,” Seth Hurwitz has said, articulating a philosophy that runs counter to the current tide of dynamic pricing and uncapped resale markets that have sent concert prices soaring.
The ticket price problem
The numbers tell a stark story: concert ticket prices have risen at rates that make inflation look modest. The average ticket for a top 100 tour jumped from $91.86 in 2019 to $135.92 in 2024—a nearly 50% increase in just five years. What was once an accessible form of entertainment has, for many fans, become an occasional luxury.
Hurwitz sees this trend as fundamentally damaging to the very essence of live music culture. “The more people pay for tickets, the less shows they’re going to go to,” he explains. This simple economic reality has profound implications for the entire ecosystem of live music—not just for fans, but for venues, emerging artists, and the cultural vitality that comes from frequent, accessible live performances.
The crux of the issue, according to Hurwitz, isn’t necessarily what artists initially charge. Rather, it’s what happens after those tickets enter the market. The secondary resale market—dominated by platforms like StubHub, Vivid Seats, and even Ticketmaster’s own resale service—has transformed tickets into investment vehicles, where profit, not participation, drives pricing.
The resale market problem
For Hurwitz, the problem is structural. When a scalper buys a ticket for $150 and resells it for $600, that additional $450 doesn’t benefit the artist, crew, venue, or any of the people who actually create the live music experience. Instead, it flows to middlemen who contribute nothing to the show itself.
“The scourge of the industry and the reason that the ticket price thing and all that, and it’s spiraled,” Hurwitz says. This spiraling effect creates a self-reinforcing cycle: as resale prices climb, original prices eventually follow suit, as promoters and artists see money being left on the table.
What makes this particularly frustrating for independent promoters like Hurwitz is the loss of control over their own events. After carefully considering what price makes sense for an artist and venue—balancing accessibility with financial viability—that carefully calibrated decision can be immediately undermined by unlimited resale markups.
The attempted solutions
Various solutions have been attempted to address ticket price inflation, but most have fallen short. Dynamic pricing—where ticket prices fluctuate based on demand—was supposed to recapture money from scalpers, but often just alienates fans when prices surge dramatically. Paperless tickets and ID requirements create friction for legitimate ticket transfers. Fan presales become increasingly complex mazes of verification steps that still don’t guarantee fair access.
In Hurwitz’s view, these approaches miss the fundamental issue. “The only way this will ever stop, and I’ve said this, the top of the mountain is if they put a resale limit, a percentage on ticket prices,” he insists. “Otherwise, it’s whack-a-mole and you will never prevent other people from making money on the show you booked and worked on.”
This solution—a simple cap on resale prices—would allow genuine fans to resell tickets they can’t use without enabling the price gouging that has come to define the secondary market. But implementation has proven difficult, not for technical reasons, but political ones.
The political realities
Hurwitz has seen firsthand how legislative attempts to cap resale prices can be derailed. “We had that legislature ready to go in Maryland,” he notes, “like any other thing, like a trial, whatever, if your lawyer’s got to be better than the other one and their lobbyists were better than ours, so that was the end of that.”
The secondary ticketing market has become a billion-dollar industry with significant lobbying power. This influence has repeatedly defeated attempts at meaningful regulation that would limit their ability to set uncapped prices. Meanwhile, fans and artists alike continue to feel the squeeze.
Profit vs. participation
What drives Hurwitz’s commitment to fair pricing? It’s not anti-capitalism—he’s built a successful business empire in Washington D.C., after all. Rather, it stems from a deeper belief about what live music should be: a participatory culture, not just a premium product.
In Hurwitz’s worldview, the value of live music isn’t solely measured in dollars and cents. Success means creating spaces where people can regularly experience the transformative power of live performance. “I want people to go to a lot of shows,” he emphasizes. This seemingly simple statement reveals a business philosophy that prioritizes frequency and accessibility over extracting maximum revenue from each transaction.
This long-term vision stands in contrast to the short-term profit maximization that drives much of the industry. When tickets become too expensive, fans must choose between shows rather than attending multiple events. Artists struggle to build audiences when performances become rarified experiences rather than regular community gatherings. The ecosystem becomes less vibrant, less diverse, and ultimately less sustainable.
The independent approach
Hurwitz has backed up his philosophy with action throughout his career. As the founder of I.M.P. and the force behind venues like the 9:30 Club, The Anthem, and the recently opened Atlantis, he’s maintained a commitment to fair pricing even as corporate competitors pursue different strategies.
When he testified before Congress against the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in 2010, he warned about the vertical integration that would give one company unprecedented control over ticketing, venues, and artist representation. Those warnings proved prescient, as the consolidated company’s dominance has coincided with rapidly escalating prices and fees.
Yet Hurwitz continues to operate successfully as an independent, proving that principled approaches to pricing can coexist with business sustainability. His venues consistently rank among the most attended of their size, with the 9:30 Club holding the title of most-attended nightclub of its size in the world for decades.
The future of fair pricing
The question remains whether Hurwitz’s vision of fair pricing can gain wider adoption in an industry increasingly driven by data analytics and profit maximization. The evidence suggests it’s an uphill battle against powerful economic incentives and entrenched interests.
Yet there’s reason for cautious optimism. As ticket prices climb to levels that exclude more fans, backlash has grown. Artists themselves are becoming more vocal about pricing concerns, recognizing that short-term revenue gains might come at the cost of long-term fan relationships. Some have experimented with novel approaches to combat scalping and keep prices reasonable.
For Hurwitz, the path forward is clear: cap resale prices. This simple solution would maintain the legitimate secondary market for fans who need to sell tickets they can’t use, while preventing the speculative investment that drives prices skyward.
Until that happens, Hurwitz continues to stand as a rare voice in the industry—one who recognizes that the true measure of success isn’t just the money made from a single show, but building a sustainable culture where live music remains a regular, accessible part of people’s lives. In an era of algorithmic pricing and corporate consolidation, that philosophy feels not just principled, but increasingly necessary for the future of live music itself.