Ticketmaster and dynamic pricing

Beasty

Thread started to avoid specific gig threads being inundated with comments about this. Please only use this thread to discuss the issues we have seen with Oasis and other events

Ash.J.Williams

It's wrong and anyone supporting it should be executed

MrMusician18

Dynamic pricing and the ticketmaster queuing system will continue since it is the most effective way to sell tickets at the highest price possible. The name of the game is to maximise profit, like any business.

I don't know why people think gigs should be different to the rest of the economy.

Fairness doesn't come into it. Never did.

hynesie08

Isn't it amazing how the ticket price for half sold Gigs never comes down, surely it should work both ways...…

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575022#Comment_122575022

In that case I’ll support it as long as I can have as my last wish 2 tickets to Oasis next year and a deferred death sentence until after the gig 🤪

Don’t suppose you’d downgrade that sentence to my right arm?

Anyway- listened to BBC today and a commentator said that the band in question must have been involved in the decision making- he had spoken to another artist on the basis of confidentiality and was told yes, it is an option for artists to choose dynamic pricing

not in favour of it myself have to say- given the volumes looking there will always be disappointed fans - Coldplay had how many sold out or near sold out gigs this year? Many fans went multiple times as they did for some of the other gigs earlier this summer.

Dynamic pricing simply means band or artist can receive maybe 1.5 times (that’s my guess) the money per gig than they would without it. It is pure greed - it’s better to make it more difficult to re sell on tickets or only through official channels and same purchase price or whatever and concentrate on that - for ordinary fans, the outcome is similar -it’s simply a case of either the ticket tout will scalp you or the band will.

Fanirish

the fairest solution is oasis should of charged €50 extra per ticket and not done dynamic as they would have generated same amount of money

Beasty

The UK government have started an investigation into it. The Taoiseach has questioned the system and the US authorities are already investigating Ticketmaster's monopoly.

I think this is the beginning of the end of dynamic pricing. It may well be outlawed in some countries, but that may take some time to happen .In the meantime it may well be that Ticketmaster (and of course the band) have tried to hold off selling tickets for any additional Oasis gigs while they review the backlash they have already had.

dulpit

Until there is some way to come up with an alternative to the random number generator that decides where you are in the queue there will always be issues. Having some sort of merit based approach to tickets would at least make it less galling if you can't get tickets (e.g. that person queued for 2 nights, so they deserve it more than me).

A guy I work with's brother-in-law logged onto ticketmaster at 07:55 and when the queue started he was number 2,000 or something. Easily got tickets. Whereas I know other people were on from whenever the waiting room opened and got put into position 200k or 300k in the queue. That feels wrong.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575051#Comment_122575051

To be fair it does in the instances where they're not sold.

The issue is that they largely sell long before that point…

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575101#Comment_122575101

If you don't do it randomly then people and bots will game the system. While someone waiting patiently at their screen for hours might "deserve" tickets, a bot or a script could easily mimic that.

The only way the system cannot be gamed is to make it random. When it's random it's unfair, but it's always been unfair especially when there aren't enough tickets to go around so the market sets the price at an affordable level.

10-10-20

Government just needs to cap the dynamic pricing sillyness - put a limit of 15% on it.

Widescreen

It is the Bands getting there own back on the ticket touts and to a certain extent the music buying public many of whom have been downloading music for free for years.

I guess putting up a gig for sale with tickets priced at 100 and then seeing touts selling them on for multiples of that price sickened the promoters and bands and dynamic pricing is there solution to that problem.

So the bands are trying to get back the money they feel is being stolen from them on an ongoing basis.

I don't agree with it though, because most people are law abiding and as usual the majority are paying for the minorities actions.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575051#Comment_122575051

Do they still have tickets for €400+ for them gigs on sale or did they never got above the FROM price advertised? Dynamic pricing can go up and down but all companies have a base price it won't drop below.

kippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575142#Comment_122575142

How does this work in practice?

reubenreuben

With all the bad press Oasis has had over this, it's become very clear of the bands mindset.

It's obviously all been done to gain a large income but if they had fixed the prices they would probably have made more money.

People feeling good about the band might have started to buy more Oasis albums, merchandise etc.

Now, I'm not so sure. Plenty of peeved off people out there.

Acosta

Don't need to hear politicians whinging about it, when they're the ones who can put stop to it it with regulation.

Thankfully, I've never been stung by it, as I only attend gigs by uber cool/obscure small acts 😉

Goldengirl

Agree .

Bad feeling after this would not make you inclined to spend anything more on them , their music or their merch .

Think they won't care as probably not going to play again .

US has taken Live Nation to court over this this year so as @Beasty said could be the beginning of the end for dynamic pricing if other countries follow suit .

But not going to help us with Oasis tickets unfortunately .

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575142#Comment_122575142

They could probably legislate that ticket prices have to be announced the day before and no changes can be made. The way around that I suppose is any gigs that are a guaranteed to sell out the cheapest ticket will €200+

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575265#Comment_122575265

You're spot on. Ticketmaster will just say "Standing Tickets €170 - €500 (subject to demand)".

It won't happen though. Nothing will come of this in the short-medium term.

And even if somehow Dynamic Pricing is removed, ticket prices will just go up anyway to account for it.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575212#Comment_122575212

Unlikely. The average price of tickets is likely around 275-300 mark. Single fixed sitting and standing prices would have cost Oasis at least €100 a head. No way would you have every attendee spending that much on merch if the ticket prices were lower. Instead, touts would have pocketed the difference.

The only thing it's cost them is people now consider them greedy and out of touch with their roots. What that's actually worth remains to be seen as it hasn't harmed the likes of Springsteen in the long term.

Kaisr Sose

A possible solution would be to reform the licence process for these big acts to include clear pricing limits per category of ticket in the licence.

The reform shall include a stipulation that event licence must to be applied for in advance of any tickets going on sale.

Promotor makes application for event for x number of people. They include breakdown x number of tickets at certain price points within the venue. They could do this easily.

Alternatively, just state in the licence that dynamic pricing of tickets is not permitted.

A concert licence clearly needs to come with commercial guidelines and restrictions to protect fans from what happened on Saturday last.

Beasty

It does not happen in sport. You can pay a premium equivalent to a VIP package, but imagine the outcry if they tried this with a major soccer event.

Sky News presenters have the bit in their teeth now and I think changes in the UK are inevitable. And that will flow through to Ireland but it may take time. However it may put TM on notice and they could act yo stop it. And to be clear, yes artists have a say, but it it TM who are selling this product to them and they are raking in more fees on the back of it.

I have picked up a ticket in France for Paul McCartney without any suggestion of dynamic pricing. It was the same for the Who last year. That may be down to local legislation or the fact TM have no monopoly.

beachhead

Oasis or any concerts and dynamic pricing=consumer rip off

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575429#Comment_122575429

we should also require all new hotels not to charge more than €200 a night.
dynamic pricing only affected a small number of tickets, in the 5% range if even.
tickets to events have always been stratified. And if dynamic banned all that will mean is artists will move dynamic allotment to vip packages for €500 or more

kippy

The alternative, I would suggest in a similar situation as last weekend is fixed price tickets at a higher price point, which if that is what people what is perfect.

It still wont protect consumers from themselves.

Larbre34

I think if a robust push back comes against dynamic pricing, it will be from the EU.

On the face of it, its already highly illegal under EU consumer and competition rules.

I mean any fool could have seen there would be demand for these tickets and indeed any popular act. And so dynamic pricing, as described, is also highly disingenuous.

Comparisons excusing the practice have been made with Air Fares and Hotel Tariffs, but while concert or match demands may certainly affect both, at least when you search Ryanair or Aer Lingus, the price is there in front of you. It does not increase between selecting the flight, or the room and completing the transaction.

If concert promoters want to set their prices, at say 85 for the pitch tickets, or 105, or even 405, then thats what the prices should be advertised as from the beginning, and let consumers make the choice, not have a gun put to their head after hours and hours of waiting.

I think if Ticketmaster is to be probed, then it should also be a systems audit to investigate the queuing process and site capacity, as its clearly disadvantageous to the consumer as things stand.

Stillill42

https://x.com/PSB_HQ/status/1830312077237403677

thomas 123

is this the first thread in the history of boards where we all agree on something?

My god.

Stillill42

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/17/the-cures-robert-smith-convinces-ticketmaster-to-refund-unduly-high-fees-after-fan-anger

I mean not everyone's a cnut.

Shakyfan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575552#Comment_122575552

Hotels are not the same thing! You have a choice to stay elsewhere with them.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575565#Comment_122575565

dynamic pricing is not illegal. It’s common in dozens of industries particularly hospitality and transport.
when you select the flight the price options are displayed similarly when you pick ticket options for oasis. Buyer is fully informed when making purchase decision as to the price. They make purchase with full info.

no system can’t easily handle millions of IP addresses trying to gain access and carry out transactions in small window. Glastonbury system barely copes every year.
quite simply oasis could never do enough summer shows to meet demand. Supply affects demand and they increased ticket price to reflect the actual market. If 5000 people bought those expensive Croker tickets it’s on them