Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Ticketmaster, the world’s biggest seller of music and sporting tickets, has come under fire for the use of “dynamic” ticket pricing that forced up costs for thousands of music fans who this weekend struggled to secure tickets for Oasis.
The reunion of the Mancunian band has sparked fevered demand for tickets among its millions of fans, not just the original audiences but also their children given the resurgence in 1990s music among younger generations.
Tickets for the first Oasis gigs in the UK and Ireland in 16 years went on sale on Saturday morning, with the tour expected to generate hundreds of millions of pounds across ticket sales, hospitality and hotel packaging, merchandise and possible media rights sales. The band has already benefited from a surge in listening to its tracks on streaming services.
However, fans have been left angered after having to wait for many hours to access tickets, and then finding that seats were priced much higher than initially stated. Hundreds took to social media complaining of the spiralling cost of tickets, with standing tickets for some venues jumping by hundreds of pounds. Many also reported being thrown out of the queue after waiting for hours.
Ticketmaster operates a dynamic pricing system that changes the price of tickets based on demand, a practice often adopted in the US. Ticketmaster says the system helps stop ticket touts, and gives more money to artists by allowing them to price their tickets nearer market value.
But some fans and politicians were outraged by the rise in prices. David Baines, Labour MP for St Helens North, said it was “shocking to hear that Ticketmaster UK are now using ‘dynamic pricing’ to fleece fans and rake in the cash”, adding that it was “especially insulting for those who have queued all day”.
The Labour government has made tackling higher prices caused by ticket touts — who often buy up large numbers of tickets and sell them on at a massive profit — a priority for its first year in power.
Dublin MEP Regina Doherty said that Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should investigate Ticketmaster following the surge in pricing for tickets at the city’s Croke Park.
“The EU’s Digital Services Act has sections included specifically to ensure large platforms that control aspects of the digital economy don’t just make up their own rules that are unfair for consumers,” she said. “I think TicketMaster’s ‘in-demand’ pricing structure certainly needs investigating in this context.”
Ticketmaster is owned by US media company Live Nation, which manages music venues and festivals. The outrage will add to the concerns among music executives and artists over Live Nation’s power in the industry after it acquired the ticketing platform in 2009, allowing it to span management of venues and artists as well as ticket sales.
The US Department of Justice, along with 30 state and district attorneys-general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in May for “monopolisation and other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the live entertainment industry”.
The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the live concert industry, and provide better choices at lower prices for fans. Attorney-general Merrick B Garland said it was “time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster”.
Cris Miller, global managing director of Viagogo, the world’s largest ticket resale marketplace for live events, said he was “glad to see the Department of Justice act finally” to sue Live Nation for monopolising the market. “Ticketmaster has a monopoly [in the UK] too . . . they have a disproportionate amount of control over the concerts.”
Pricing strategies are also agreed with artists, however, which has also sparked criticism of Oasis. Artists and promoters can turn down dynamic pricing to create a level playing field for all fans.
Aidan Moffat, singer with Scottish band Arab Strap, said on social media platform X that as “many people are finding out today, dynamic pricing for concert tickets is an utterly despicable practice, and acts who do it are no better than the touts they claim to oppose . . . Voice of the working classes? Pfft.”
On its website, Ticketmaster said that “prices are adjusted according to supply and demand. The goal is to give fans fair and safe access to the best tickets while enabling artists and other people involved in staging live events to price tickets closer to their true market value.”
Ticketmaster was not available for comment on Sunday, while promoter SJM Concerts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Credit: Source link
