So many peoples dreams were not made of strawberry lemonade...

[Demonhunter]

Not really an AIBU as I'm not the unreasonable one.

I didn't even try and get Oasis tickets yesterday, but I'm annoyed for those (including friends) who had an appalling experience with ticketmaster. It seems it was pre planned to kick people off, accuse of being bots when only one device being used etc.

What concerns me is the dynamic pricing. I know they've been subtly doing it for a long time, but if they can so publicly expose themselves to doing this with such a sought after tour, and get away with it, is this possibly the beginning of the end for big band tours?

Could the introduction of a new ticket system be possible do you think?

They do it because they can. The purpose of this, and any other event, is to make money. Ticket sellers will use whatever pricing model makes them the most money. Third parties will make money by reselling.

While some people are willing and able to take a 'money no object' approach to ticket buying, it won't stop.

A legal price-cap could be introduced, but it wouldn't stop 'under the counter' sales, and it's questionable whether it would be fair to do this for tickets but not for other luxury items - we can't all afford a Louis Vuitton handbag, for example, and most people accept that - why are concert tickets different? Price caps should really only apply for no-choice expenditure, such as ultility bills.

TLDR - This is Capitalism at work in a Capitalist society.

Wasn't there the same complaints for Taylor Swift?

@TickingAlongNicely also bruce Springsteen and numerous others. Article in the daily fail today

Artists are there to make money, not provide a free service. It may all be “we love you guys” being shouted from the stage … but it’s really about stiffing as much money out of you as possible.
These are very rich artists, looking to make themselves even richer. They know the deal with Ticketmaster, and are perfectly happy to enter into a commercial relationship with them.
Oasis (and other artists) knew the deal.. it’s never been about fans, it’s not about artistry, it’s about money.

This was Noel remember, who refused to get back together to play the concert for the victims of the Manchester Bomb… but can suddenly put his “fall out” behind him when he has a divorce to pay for.

While I agree that they can charge what they like I do think you could force ticket sellers to list the prices in advance. Listing that tickets will be £100 (for arguments sake) then pushing that up to £3-400 while someone is queuing to buy them online is not something that would happen with physical goods or that many of us would be happy about happening with anything we bought.

It's the simple law of supply and demand - something is worth whatever someone else is prepared to pay for it. And it does happen with other things - property is a prime example, and any items sold by auction. Items sold by retailers that acquire a cult following or are limited edition get bought up and resold for 10x original price. People were selling toilet rolls for inflated prices in 2020.

If the price goes up beyond what you want to pay, don't pay it. If no one wanted to pay it, it would go back down again.

That is Capitalism. It's crap in many ways, but the Communist Party received only 2000 or so votes across the whole of the UK in the last General Election, so we are stuck with Capitalism unless there's a huge change in popular opinion.

It's hard to know how to solve this when demand so heavily outstrips supply. People do have disposable income and some of them will happily spend it on the events they're interested in.

We paid five hundred quid each to see Scotland play in the Euros. It's insane money but we couldn't not take our son to this once in a lifetime event and it was worth every penny.

Once you factor in hugely popular acts like Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Oasis etc it's a cash cow for someone - should the money be made by the acts or by re sellers? The cheap tickets era is sadly gone.

Oasis and their management set the ticket prices and decide what any surge pricing is, not Ticketmaster.

Website operation is obviously another matter.

I agree. You could argue these tickets were already ‘justifiably expensive’ based on Oasis reforming.
Fans knew that and accepted it. Planning to raise the prices mid-sale to way beyond ‘just about reasonable’ feels misleading.
Especially when you’ve organised it in such a way that there’s a huge hours long queue of over invested people who end up panic buying at the inflated price.
Taylor Swift, pricing was expensive but transparent and they used two ticket firms, timed venue specific slots and managed it all better.

Yes this is exactly the point I was trying to make. Dynamic pricing when it's a quick sell out, and someone got the listed price and 5 minutes later, in the same queue, its double for someone else.

Plus it's claimed the extra profits go to ticketmaster and not to the artist.

Imagine it happening, if like back in the day, you had to sit outside the venue ticket office and half way through they increased the prices. It just wouldn't happen.

I think it’s very unfair . Ticket prices should be set and locked.

Yep, artists choose whether to have dynamic pricing or not. Its a perfect storm with how rubbish the website is though, someone who has been waiting in the queue for hours will invariably be more likely to grab whatever they can.

Plus it's claimed the extra profits go to ticketmaster and not to the artist.

Yes and no, the fees (that ticketmaster keep) are a % of the price, so higher priced tickets mean higher fees for them; but all of the money from the tickets themselves go to the artist.

It was obvious at what point the dynamic pricing kicked in - after being in a slow queue for hours it picked up so much pace I said to ds how the prices just be so high now people are just looking and thinking ‘not worth it’

Plus it's claimed the extra profits go to ticketmaster and not to the artist.

What difference does that make? It's not as if the artists whose tickets go for inflated prices are in dire need of the money. They're not working harder because the tickets sell for more; they're doing the same work they were doing when they were an unknown band making a name for themselves and being given £50 to play for a night at their local pub.

This is a comment from a fan on Oasis’ official social media, summing things up nicely:
Imagine walking into a shop to buy a mars bar. You stand in a big long queue, finally get to the front only to be told there are only mars duos left. Ok, it’s not what you originally wanted but it’ll do. The price is similar so you’ll have it. Only then to be told that not only do you have to leave the shop and queue again, but you have to leave the shopping centre, the town, the county swim around the whole country and then queue up at passport control before being able to try and buy your mars bar again. Basically @ticketmasteruk ‘s policy today.

So are you saying that tickets were £100 but then when people were queuing they changed to way more??

And when you get there everyone else has done the same so the price has changed and is now a lot more 😂

No they’re not working harder but it’s a fact that touring is the only main source of income for most bands. Streaming and physical sales don’t pay big bucks. So they maximise every opportunity for revenue from tours. Touring is expensive hence stadiums on multiple nights not an arena in a different city every night.

Yes.

If that fan equates sitting around to join a second ticket queue on their device with making an international journey, there is something seriously wrong with them.

Really it’s ’demand driven immoral pricing’ not ‘dynamic’

I take your point! The queue kept kicking people out at the buying stage and sending them back to the beginning, I think that’s what they’re referring to.

Noel and Liam are estimated to have a combined net worth of £52 million so I don't think they need to worry about their income.

Less well-established artists do, but then less well-established artists won't be selling tickets for inflated prices because the demand won't be sufficient.