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
But that is never going to be an entirely accurate reflection of how many tickets of a specific cost are left at a specific point in time (until the point in time where they are literally all gone)
I honestly don't think it would change anything for those that have a cost in their head and aren't going to go above it no matter what the situation - as should be the case for any right thinking individual - have a budget set - stick to it.
Based on the capacity issues they had at the weekend and for really high deman gigs in general adding something like that may or may not be accurate anyway.
Wrong.
There were over 10,000 dynamically priced tickets for each of the Manchester gigs, another 5k platinum.
cause the amount of dynamic tickets is minuscule for an event. No issue keeping them high until week of the show
Prices don't even seem to drop if demand isn't there. Pantera tickets went on sale in June, standing was initially priced at €80 for pre-sale. On general release they shot up to €150, and eventually over €200 (think €250 was the peak). Three months later, they're still priced at €230. Clearly there isn't much demand if they haven't sold out, so why no drop?
Simple solution. Have a dynamic element of the queue page show the estimated tickets remaining at each price slot that constantly updates.
So you might be 10,000 from top of the queue and see that only €200+ tickets remain. Up to you then to decide whether to stay in the queue or not, and gives you more time to decide too.
There isn't a chance in hell that ticketmaster would do this without being forced to though.
I suppose the thing is - with the weekend, no matter HOW you did it, a significant amount of people would be dissappointed, that doesn't mean things couldn't have been done better.
But even in the instance where ticket prices were published prior to the gig - just say the example I gave above. There were seats available to €120 (as well as other tiered ticket prices).
I log on, join the queue, knowing there are seats available at the price I am willing to pay. Get to the top of the queue - there's not seats available for that price (they've all been sold already) - should I blame TM or anyone else, if I then decide to purchase one of the more expensive tickets that I have been presented with?
Come off it. Grand, set a price, tell everyone, let them decide if they fancy it. Let's not pretend that that's what happened at the weekend.
There were a number of advertisements where the tickets were said to be priced "from 89.50*" but yes, it would be beneficial to have all the various tiers of ticket costs outlined prior to the tickets sale going live. I am not sure what exactly it would change in this situation however. I was ok to pay around €120 a ticket for a seated ticket (I was after 4 seated tickets). Were there ever seated tickets for sale at that price - from what I can tell, probably not, unless you were seated behind a pillar or stage. So when I was presented with standing tickets for 415 that was me out, no matter how long I queued.
If you told me before hand that the cheapest seated ticket with a view was approx €200 euro, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting involved. So in that case I can see that the lack of a pricing structure defo added to the hype - but at the end of the day, it was my own decision whether I ultimately bought a ticket - no one elses.
that was going on the report i read here - and i misremembered, the original price was stated at around £130.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/sep/02/failure-to-warn-oasis-fans-of-dynamic-pricing-may-be-consumer-law-breach-say-experts
They literally weren't told anywhere tickets were 80 quid. The first place ticketmaster showed the price was once you get out of the queue at which point you are presented with a range of options and you could then add the ticket(s) to the basket. Perhaps it should be mandatory to disclose that dynamic pricing is turned on. I think it should be mandatory to disclose al ticket options before the sale, but you can't really ban it without costs going up elsewhere.
Tickets were advertised here as "From €86". I wouldn't say they were misinformed. Tickets were indeed from that price.
Its like when Ryanair advertise their sales and say "Flights as low as €19.99" but you might find the flight you want is €60. Or when you go into a shop that has sales "up to 50%", you might find the top you want is only 20% off.
The wording is clear enough that not all the tickets are €86. Now perhaps there is a push to be more clear what the price range is, but I wouldn't say there is anything misleading as the word "From" makes it quite clear.
The issue the UK consumer authority has seems to get to that issue - people were told that the tickets were about 80 or 90 quid and by the time they were presented with the option to buy, they were four times the price with only few minutes to decide - that's the issue there, they were misinformed to begin with.
If a picture artist makes a painting they should be allowed to set the price and sell to the highest bidder. Fans of the artist have no right to complain that they were priced out of owning a piece themselves.
The same goes for concerts. The artist should be free to set the entry price to their shows and charge as mush as people are willing to pay.
Once everyone is informed, why shouldn't they have that right?
In that context, the closest analogy would be selling art at auction.
An artist paints a picture, they decide to sell it for 10,000 euro. Some pays it. They got the price they wanted.
Where is the dynamic pricing? You opening paragraph makes no sense.
I'm not paying €425 to go to Genoa. No way. Fecking Ticketmaster.
I don't think the two are directly comparable and I wouldn't call your theatre example dynamic-y. You are correct that prices are different depending on weekday/weekend and where you would sit in the theatre. But they don't fluctuate depending on demand.
It's similar for venues like National Concert Hall: I just bought a ticket for a concert and selected the most expensive band that came to 32 euro - so i can be in a "better" seat. That price has been standard throughout the sale. If I thought this was too expensive, I could have selected a different "worse" seat for 20 or 25 euro. Again, no fluctuation on prices... plus I got to select my seat (naturally I understand that selecting your seats for a big gig at Croke Park isn't practical)
You could go to another music gig though.
I know it's a flippant thought but it's kind of the same thing.
To use your example, Genoa this Friday and Genoa next Friday could be wildly different places with different things on.
Or if there is no flight for the rest of the year to Genoa.
there's an obvious parallel to be drawn with airline tickets - but with a large caveat that if you don't want to fly to genoa on friday because the tickets are too expensive, you can likely try the friday after. with gig tickets, it's not as if you can choose to see oasis in croker one week later.
I can't see that being the norm much longer, perhaps Taylor Swift might get that with kids but adults in their right mind surely won't pay that. As the dust settles people can see how ludicrous the pricing is.
I'm in two minds about dynamic pricing. I fully agreed that the Oasis situation was a complete sh*tshow. But I lived in London for a year and used to attend countless theatre shows and their pricing was often dynamic-y.
I never really felt THAT put out by it. They were priced by the seat and more often than not I'd go for the cheap seats. At the weekends you'd pay a premium. The week of, you could get caught for a massive rise or drop in tickets. All very transparent. It would remind you of airline tickets. Everyone knows the story.
I am glad we agree then .
And no ..I won't be rereading your comments so you can retract that bxxxsxxx suggestion ,, to paraphrase your own comment above to me .
See it really depends and I think it was the CEO of live nation ( I cant find the article at the min) who said this... People see these things as a once in a lifetime event and will buy
I think this grabbed a lot of non regular gig going people who will do the 1 a year . Given I think the age profile of a typical Oasis fan I assume a lot of this gig going stopped for a lot once raising a family came along and now it's something they are willing to go all out and spend to do it as a once off.
I am a regular gig/festival goer ( up to 30/40 a year) and as much as I'd have loved to go to this gig i financially couldnt justify it for one single concert.
The problem isn't Ticketmaster or Dynamic Pricing. The problem is that people were stupid enough to pay the high prices. I love Oasis but couldn't justify the price of the tickets.
People are idiots and the fact that this concerts sold out at stupid prices proves that there is no cost of living crisis in this country. It's just people want to save their money for luxuries and expect society /government to pay for the basics for them.
The vast majority of concert goers only know of ticket master such is there hold on the industry.
That hasn't been proven at all. I've seen it before and it is supported only by confirmation bias.
And before you claim it, a reddit thread isn't proof.
People claimed it for Taylor Swift and it was shown to be a BS theory.
The queue position on big events isnt random.
There is an algorithm, certain accounts are given priority, these are called Fire accounts and there is a market for the buying and selling of these.
Other accounts are sent to the back of the queue and the rest are randomised.
There were 3 ticket vendors for the Oasis gigs in the UK. I assume that there were no issues over there so?
The only way to tackle it is to not buy the tickets en masse. It's the same with flights or hotel rooms, don't buy the tickets and then eventually the prices comes down.
But you know what the problem with that is.
how do we tackle dynamic pricing then? dynamic pricing is openly exploiting a scarcity, driving up prices because you know there's only two gigs on offer - but that's a scarcity which the promoters probably well know they might completely undermine by announcing more gigs.
