Concert ticket resales are getting out of control
Fans are left scouring the internet to buy tickets with high prices
Art by @RESLUS
If there is one thing that true fans, old and new, would like to experience, it is to see their idols in the flesh and enjoy their music live. Going to see your favourite artist in concert is the ultimate bucket list item for anyone who’s made their music a part of their lives and wants to express support face-to-face.
Big names like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, and more are currently making a buzz around their stadium and arena concerts. Almost everyone wants to get a hold of tickets because of eagerness to see their idols perform live.
However, there are some instances where people buy tickets simply because they want to resell them at a much higher price. Fans should be wary of being taken advantage of and ending up spending a fortune in the name of a three-hour show.
Fans from all around the world now face a big challenge to secure tickets at a reasonable price. Big venue concerts have expensive tickets as is, but it becomes more challenging when resellers charge people more than triple the original amount to match the rapid demand.
There have been instances where bots were used to buy as many tickets as they could early on in the sale and then resold them at a higher price on other ticket-selling sites. I’ve only been to two concerts in my life, and a $300 ticket was already an expensive price to pay. I can only imagine the frustration of other concertgoers who tried to snatch a Taylor Swift ticket for The Eras Tour from the presale and didn’t manage to get one.
Fans who were unable to acquire tickets are willing to do whatever it takes to secure seats, even if it means spending a fortune. Resale tickets entered an estimated thousand dollar mark, from as low as $2,000 to as high as $6,000 each, depending on the seats. People even fly to other parts of the world just for a concert because they were unable to get tickets in their hometown. Imagine how much added costs these fans pay on top of the ticket itself.
A survey by Variety Intelligence Platform and UTA IQ found 45 per cent of participants are “somewhat-to-completely” willing to pay for overpriced tickets to see an artist play live.
People taking advantage of another person’s desperation becomes a dangerous and difficult part of the process. This poses a gigantic risk for consumers being scammed for thousands of dollars from random people on the internet.
Even through authorized ticket sellers like Ticketmaster, pricing gets out of hand. The demand is thus in Ticketmaster’s benefit as they get a cut of resale tickets sold through their site.
There is no clear-cut solution for the ongoing problem in the concert scene nowadays. Some advancements to protect consumers are being taken into consideration by lawmakers. As for who is to blame, we cannot point fingers because there’s more than one culprit.
It is the whole system that needs to be evaluated to see where the cracks lie and perhaps impose policies to fix these underlying issues. This problem may not be fixed instantly, but it needs to head in the right direction to ensure everyone’s best interest.
