This is a HUGE debate and a huge topic! Let’s chat a bit. What do you think about Ticketmaster? Where are you writing from? I’ve been in the UK for four years now from Canada and I am shocked at how corrupt it is in America. I know it’s not perfect here, I know it’s not perfect in Canada or anywhere, but I don’t think we are at the level of corruption that America is with the ticket selling/reselling market.
I love that in the UK, there are options - at least to some extent of who the ticketing company is. (Ticketmaster, AXS, SEEtickets, Dice, Ticketweb etc) I know that I have seen some of this changing in the UK too unfortunately. We are certainly seeing the dynamic pricing kicking in on Ticketmaster but still seemingly not to quite the extent that it is in the US. I was looking at Madonna tickets when they went on sale - and it was shocking how the dynamic pricing kicked in, quadrupling the cost of a seat in the 400 level at the O2 arena in London… Needless to say - I refused to go for that. And surprise surprise - they ended up giving regular pricing for way better seats.
This really shows - if you don’t just jump to buy, they’ll learn your buying pattern and won’t mess around with you so much on pricing. It’s also been very interesting - seeing two different Ticketmaster accounts comparing how their “available” seats show up depending on your buying patterns.
But at the same time, looking at the recent ticket disasters like the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in America, where there are hundreds of seats going empty (where they shouldn’t ever be empty for her) because Ticketmaster (yes… Ticketmaster) has moved them over to Stubhub… tickets face value for $75… selling for over $1,000. Or the man who paid his $21,000 for 4 tickets… or the tickets going for over $10,000 each when they maxed out face value around $500. It’s disgusting. Especially while there were still 10,000 people standing outside some shows trying to get in and people were reporting almost full sections empty due to the corruption.
Or hey - you can look at other shows that had tickets listed on Stubhub before the presale even began like the upcoming Aespa shows in America. You can’t tell me that is all above the board. It most certainly isn’t.
So - where do we go from here? I know it’s made a number of people reevaluate the shows they go to, the sacrifices they make for music. Maybe this is the reminder to hit more local shows! There are a lot of incredible bands in your home town small venues, you support great music venues, and great artists - and hey - you can see way more shows a year based on that!
This is a way bigger topic than we are covering today… But how many shows have you had to drop off because of the skyrocketing costs? Do you try to avoid Ticketmaster?
It’s coming to the point that it will all implode - and hopefully it starts with stopping the monopoly that is Ticketmaster/Live Nation.
Drop me a line and let me know your thoughts! What are your favourite local bands and local venues in your town?
Until next time!
Ash