Two weeks ago, the Gallagher brothers decided that their drawn out, and lengthy argument was enough and that it was time to bring nearly everyone’s favourite band back together. What ensured is perhaps one of the biggest ticket rushes we’ve seen this decade (Aside from one Taylor Swift‘s world-shifting tour last year).
The first question on everyone’s lips was the price, how much were they going to be? While perhaps the average Joe who hasn’t been to a gig in a few years was crossing their fingers for a sub-£70 ticket, avid gig attendees knew that tickets to see the Gallagher brothers grace the stage together again were going to cost a pretty penny. So when the cheapest tickets available were set to start at £75, but with the main standing tickets marked at a wallet-crushing £150, many simply accepted this with a slight wince, and prepared themselves for the oncoming carnage of Friday’s presale, and Saturday’s general sale.
However, what lay in wait for the unsuspecting on Saturday’s sale was Ticketmaster’s “Dynamic Pricing” system. A predatory system which is becoming all too familiar for those who find themselves at bigger gigs, but for the general public, it was a nasty surprise. The £150 standing tickets that so many were clamouring for? Well, according to Ticketmaster’s system, they were now due to be priced at a whopping £348, over double their initial price.
Ironic, almost, when you consider that such a stink had been made both by Ticketmaster and the band’s official social media accounts regarding the sale of tickets of touting websites such as Viagogo. It was clearly stated that tickets sold on these sites would be cancelled should the person be caught attempting to make a sneaky profit. Clearly though, this announcement wasn’t to try and dissuade any budding entrepreneurs, or protect the pockets of the average fan, but to ensure that all of the money would end up in the back pockets of the band, and Ticketmaster.
It’s easy to point the finger at Ticketmaster for creating such a needlessly greedy system, but it’s also worth noting that the final decision for dynamic pricing comes from the artists themselves. Many people have speculated that an Oasis reunion would only ever be for the money, but with other outlets reporting that the brothers are set to bring themselves a gold-mine of £50 million each, then it’s not hard to imagine why they might have downed their weapons, at least for next summer.
While calls for investigations to be made by the UK Government into Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system are finally being heard it seems, it’s worth noting that not all bands are looking to cash in with this new system. Famously The Cure, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift have all ensured that dynamic pricing has been turned off for the ticket sales, helping to at least try to make things fairer for their fans. That being said, the dynamic pricing system isn’t something that’s set to go anywhere anytime soon, and it’s not the biggest problem that gig attendees are facing in this day and age.
You see, the biggest issue many are facing is actually the prices of tickets themselves. The battle against high ticket prices themselves is one that has been fought desperately by fans in recent years, but there have certainly been more losses than victories. In today’s market, for larger artists playing arenas, fans can expect upwards of £65 for the pleasure, with some artists charging well over £100 a ticket, and some of Live Nation’s hallmark festivals now cost goers upwards of £300 for a weekend of camping. Meanwhile, independent venues up and down the country are still struggling to keep the lights on, with Music Venue Trust highlighting that only 11 out of the 34 venues that Oasis played on their first tour are still open today.
Ultimately it seems like high ticket prices and self-scalping ticket vendors are going to become much of the norm, fans have been transformed from a band’s biggest champions into their highest spending consumers, and unless fans begin to protest in retaliation, little is set to change.
