Mainstream music today is junk. There, I said it. No amount of computerized drum beats and auto-tune can satisfy my musical appetite. Luckily for me, and millions of other music fans around the world, there is a new wave of creative, innovative, and altogether enjoyable bands rising to fill the void created by the top-40 musical establishment. These DIY indie bands have risen from anonymity based solely on their own talents; combining unique and profound lyrics with experimental instrumentation and arrangements. As the Indie scene has grown and flourished, from Brooklyn to San Francisco, and every place in between, many of these bands have broken out of obscurity, and become fully-fledged stars, playing shows in arenas and headlining festivals. As these bands have grown in popularity, their ticket prices have risen right along with them. Here at SeatGeek, we want to save you money, by giving you as much information on ticket prices as possible. To borrow an expression from Sym’s clothing stores: “An educated consumer, is our best customer.” With that in mind, as you prepare to head out to see your favorite Indie acts in concert this summer, we have created a comprehensive analysis of Indie band ticket transactions from 2010, so you can make sure you’re getting the very best deal possible.
One might assume that given Indie bands low profile and relative lack of promotion from radio stations, record companies, and concert promoters, tickets to Indie shows would be cheap. Well unfortunately that is not the case, with average transacted ticket prices for Indie concerts being comparable to more mainstream artists like Rihanna.
Here are the top 10 most expensive Indie shows of 2010 up through today.

With top alternative band’s shows going for upwards of $100 a ticket on average, clearly these are no bargain shows. However, there are good deals on concert tickets to be found. Here are the top ten cheapest Indie shows from SeatGeek’s database.

As you can see, there is a wide discrepancy between the most, and least expensive concerts amongst these artists. For example, tickets to The National’s show on June 5th could be had for an average of under $25, only 26% of the average price for tickets to their show from the previous week!

Clearly this is an indication of the relative popularity of these bands in different locations, as well as a testament to the value of investigating multiple concert dates when deciding to see a certain band, as their show-to-show prices fluctuate tremendously.

We also delved a bit deeper to find which bands offered the most bang for your buck. We took three of the most popular alternative bands today – MGMT, The National, and LCD Soundsytem, and analyzed their respective transacted ticket prices during a period of over a month from May to June of this year.

As you can see, The National‘s prices generally lagged somewhat below the other two bands. However, all three generally followed the same trends and transacted at similar prices. While these prices are nothing to sneeze at, fluctuating between lows of around $50 and highs breaking $120, they are all incredibly affordable when compared to some of the high grossing acts of the year such as Lady Gaga. Over the same time period, tickets for her shows were transacting at prices around double these other bands.

As our data reflects, going to an Indie concert is not cheap. However, if you want to experience some great and unique music, without all the fluff and artificiality that seems to constitute the majority of popular artists’ concerts nowadays, these tickets are certainly worth your while.
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