Artists can and do play more. Phish in particular is pretty famous for doing multiple shows in the same venue on contiguous nights, as well as doing smaller sho

Artists can and do play more. Phish in particular is pretty famous for doing multiple shows in the same venue on contiguous nights, as well as doing smaller shows in smaller towns in between larger cities as a way of spreading out demand. And their prices have always been pretty reasonable as a result. More artists should care about their fans enough to do this, but I guess it's easier to just blame greedy scalpers for the ticket prices.