It's impossible to get tickets to gigs these days

[Oto]

DD and I both tried and failed to get tickets for Taylor Swift. Now, Olivia Rodrigo tickets are invite only. How do you even get an invite?

I don't find it difficult to get tickets for this at all. Booked Roisin Murphy this week. Maybe it's the artists you are trying to see?

Annoying but there are plenty of up and coming musicians that you could get tickets for and provably have a better time.

I agree, it's ridiculous now.

I gave up a good few years ago when they just do a London and Manchester date. Was excited to see that TS was in Cardiff but didn’t get tickets. Agree it’s rubbish OP!

I agree with you OP. Try telling a teen that there are up and coming musicians that they could go to.

It's a bit sanctimonious to tell OP to go to different gigs. That's not her point.
And fwiw even some up-and-coming gigs are difficult to get tickets for ie queues, waiting lists, click throughs and then sold out in a few minutes. Then unsurprisingly the week of the gig there are people trying to sell tickets on social media.
The ticketing system (through the big ticketing agencies) is broken.
Yy I can see my friend's band in the local pub. And I do. But we shouldn't be ignoring that music and culture is being ring-fenced for people who have internet access, are wealthy, are ticket touts or know people.

I just registered for Olivia Rodrigo tickets on the Ticketmaster site then they emailed me a code. As long as I used a Ticketmaster account with the same email address I registered with all I had to do was log on at the right time and wait for a chance to buy tickets. I wish I hadn’t now mind you as they weee flipping expensive, but that’s another story 🤣

I have no idea how people manage to get tickets to the ‘must see’ gigs in our local city.

I usually end up about eighty billionth in the queue!

I think you have to be on the fan club email list or whatever it's called, so you can get the pre-access code. Stupid system, if everyone has to do that then they've all just got the same access anyway.

Yeah it’s just a joke and then you get all the people just reselling their tickets.

I registered and got a code for Olivia R but was waitlisted. By the time I was off the waitlist and given a code the only tickets left were £££. Made me realise that festivals are a bargain in comparison!

I agree, OP. We’ve had some disappointments in this house.

I also don’t get how people afford them! Desperate to see a few, but tickets are like £500, wtf?!

Yy 'dynamic' pricing is a complete rip-off.

Thanks @AlexandriasWindmill you said what I wanted to reply, and did it far more eloquently.

@CurlyhairedAssassin this exactly. I don't want to be in anyone's fan club.

With Taylor Swift we were quoted £1200 per ticket at one point. WTAF.

@bananafishbones1 where do you register?

Yes festivals are a bargain by comparison. I actually hate them though, but I'm going to try and get Glastonbury tickets this year but they sell out before you know who is playing so it's a bit of a gamble isn't it. If it's Taylor headlining I'll have lucked out but if it's Central Cee it won't be the vibe I'm after! 😂

I’m old but I realised my gig days were over when they wanted 750 quid for a Bruce Springsteen ticket.

Taylor swift you could pre order the album or sign up for free for the pre-sale, I’m pretty sure most of the tickets were sold then as I haven’t heard of many people with that code not getting tickets.

But then that’s why so few people got them in the general sale.

Olivia Rodrigo, it was register on ticket master last week to maybe get a code. But IMO it’s been done with her as a marketing tactic... because the tickets are really expensive and there’s still plenty left on the dates I got codes for, but they’re all platinum or VIP... and I mean I like her, but I’m not paying £250 when she’s only released like an hour and a half of music so far.

Some people use second hand sites. This causes secondary sites and touting yo be a viable business. We need to either ban secondary sales or put up with people selling on for profit.

Unfortunately people continue to use them
You will get people on here saying I have used them but......
All the buts add up to a viable business.

Don't complain about having to pay hundreds on a secondary website. You don't. If you buy them you are the problem.

I know this is the problem. The ones we were offered for Taylor Swift were not resale ones - they were VIP Platinum ones that a friend with the Amex concierge thing was offered but there's no way I could ever afford that kind of money. If I were to be paying that much I'd expect to be hanging out with Taylor herself for a good few hours as well as the show. 😂

Easy enough for most gigs, it's literally a few high profile artists mostly Americans doing limited U.K. dates that sell out (to get the Taylor swift ticket code you had to buy the album before it was released which I did a year ago). I'm hoping for take that on sale next week but there's a huge number of tickets so I'm quietly confident

I got one yesterday, v excited.
Op they will sell quickly but wait and they'll all come up face value, or even below on Twickets.

I've seen 30+ gigs this year and many I just walked up and paid on the door

DD and I did the same and we're on the wait list.

I have got lucky getting Harry Styles tickets, and Taylor Swift though (probably 2 miles from the stage, but still there)

The most expensive VIP ones in the other sales were £660... and while IMO they’re terrible value for money, they come with a load of extra stuff.

I don’t know about the Amex one though.

But the standard just a ticket started at about £90 and went up to about £250. I paid £109 for standing tickets, which given the length of the concert is not appalling.

No clue why Olivia Ridrigos are similar prices though...