Dynamic/In Demand Ticket Prices

The notion that dynamic pricing is acceptable to the bands, the venues, the promoters and to Ticketmaster. That demand pressure should and will be applied to the prices offered to the public, flies in the face of every argument those same people make against touting.

It is price gouging, it is taking advantage of the finite supply of tickets for an event to squeeze the maximum price out of punters. Undertaking that type of consumer exploitation? Undermines any argument made by those people that "face price" is the only acceptable price for a ticket.

In a free market, shouldn't dynamic or any pricing be allowed?

The organizer can pick their price and nobody is forcing the public to pay it.

Scalping or touting is different as money is being paid to a third party that inserts itself and adds no value.

Yes, they should be free to set the price, but they are doing it in a very underhand way.

They get people excited about the gig, put out 'from 87 per ticket', then get people to queue for hours before letting them know that the previous price of 87 has been changed to 400. But the consumer has already bought into the whole experience. Spent time on line (hours). That is very hard to simply turn away and refuse this ticket when you now have been led to believe that so many others are buying it the prices have been forced up.

It needs to be far more transparent. X amount of tickets at 87, next 3000 at 150 etc. Then people would have a much better idea of the likely price.

They are manipulating the consumer and that is the issue. Not the price of the ticket. People will say that nobody is forced to buy a ticket which is of course true, but that completely ignores FOMO, sunk cost and the marketing that goes around such gigs.

I understand Live Nation own Ticketmaster.

If I were Taoiseach I would ensure that Live Nation/Ticketmaster publish annual accounts specifically for their Irish operations.

And it would be good to have the names of the shareholders in Live Nation.

scam, simple as, and they ll get away with it to!

Live Nation is traded on the NYSE. It's shares change hands regularly. What difference would knowing the names of shareholders make?

Also you can't make company law specific to one company.

In reality no one was forced at gun point to purchase any of these tickets. However it is an inherently nasty practice and as someone else eluded to they are playing on the almost gamblingesque impulsive behaviour of a target market. Make them feel that if they don't buy they will be missing out and regretting it down the line.

I simply wouldn't pay that sort of money out of principal and as a football fan i've almost stopped going to games in England now since the model is pushed towards 'hospitality' tickets at extortionate rates; which in reality mean a plate of curry and bottle of beer adding up to £300 to the price of a ticket.

But - i'd be looking back at why artists are charging so much. Forget all about the cost of venues, insurance, security and logistics etc …. If you take Coldplay over the weekend - what % of the people attending have ever purchased a Coldplay album? This stream of revenue has all gone the way of spotify and apple music leaving a massive blackhole in the traditional revenue stream. So gigs and merchandise at the venue is almost the only way they can get money from fans.

the bands concerned have a say in the pricing, otherwise The Cure wouldnt have been able to keep their Ticketmaster prices inline without any price increases. Oasis management more than likely could have prevented this had they been arsed

i'm not saying they aren't making money - but it's about how much money they want to make / know they will have enough punters paying.

The Smashing Pumpkins wouldn't have been able to sell 80,000 tickets at those prices. It is a cash grab and i'm in no way trying to justify it - but the music industry has never been known for it's morals and why would that change now. The promotors, artist and ever other vested interest will want their pound of flesh and when hype like Oasis comes around there is plenty of flesh to go around.

The teenagers from the 90s are now in their 40s and probably at the height of their earning power and have that little more disposable income and that is there to be milked.

I'm not sure that the ticketing market can be called a free market at this stage though. This is what happens when a company gains a monopoly. Ticketmaster has been allowed to get away with this for too long and have been allowed to get a monopoly foothold wordwide. Competition laws were created to prevent this very situation and should be used.

do we have any absolute evidence of this, do we have access to the undisclosed contracts agreed to, in order to make such as statement?

Lol, I gave up on going to anyone I was interested in as soon as tickets started heading north of €50. No band is worth that. None. I get it if you like atmosphere and that, but I usually like bands for the music, and in my experience live reduces my enjoyment because I'm used to hearing the perfect studio versions. And I hate people. So meh.

But for those who like it, just like everything else in this country, ye are getting rode. And it would be great to say just don't go, but there's always going to be more than enough people with the money, or willing to out themselves into debt, just to (in this case) try and recapture some of the youth that has been lost.

Either way, it is blatantly abuse of a monopoly. The CCPC should be getting involved, but they do fuk all as far as I can tell. Just another one of those shut up and take it situations.