Ticketmaster "wars": now a frequent battle for many, it's time to scrutinize how and why it’s increasingly tricky to see our favourite artists.
A large portion of the users in massive digital queues for tickets, snatching up seats before your eyes, are not people. According to queue.it, up to 40% of activity on ticketing websites came from bots. These bots are run by ticket scalpers to buy up and outcompete true fans. Afterwards, the scalpers that run these bots are able to resell tickets to fans at inflated prices. In the case of Taylor Swift's eras tour, tickets were resold at thousands of pounds more than the original price. Evidently, this system of exploiting fans is effective, with fans taking the hit: either being outcompeted for tickets or having to pay extortionate rates to see their favourite artists.
Additionally, Ticketmaster itself is set up against fans – tickets are dynamically priced. Dynamic pricing is when a site prices tickets according to demand, so when activity and demand are high, prices increase. This becomes especially dangerous when prices change by the minute (this is usually the case for buying concert tickets). Then, fans lose out; bots are not only buying tickets but also driving activity higher, which (due to dynamic pricing) raises ticket prices for all fans. Thus, fans are robbed of the true concert magic that they so deserve.
While fans can try to be more flexible with the concert venues and dates they Ticketmaster "battle" for, the real solution for this problem lies with Ticketmaster: more action needs to be taken by Ticketmaster (and other monopoly ticketing companies) to prioritize fan experience – not company profit.
Sources:
queue.it: Ticket Bots: Everything You Need to Know
Holly Dennis