Out of the hundreds of thousands of online tickets, those who get their virtual hands on them aren’t even real fans; they’re bots and scalpers. They swarm the ticket platforms, specifically Ticketmaster, buy up huge batches in seconds, and then list them for double, triple, sometimes 10 times the original price. Some even have the audacity to resell tickets for millions of dollars, which is just cruel, even as a joke.
Ariana Grande’s tour is definitely not the first to suffer from resellers. During Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, many fans paid scalpers thousands of dollars for a single ticket. In some extreme cases, fans did so for an obstructed-view ticket where they could only see the show through a screen, or even bought a ticket long after the show started, just to be able to experience half of the concert.
What Can Be Done to Stop This From Happening?
In her Instagram story, Ariana Grande herself claimed that her team is working hard to ensure those who buy her tickets are her fans and not scalpers, but such actions have yet to be made. In the meantime, the pre-sale for the London leg of the tour commenced at the beginning of this week. Millions of people (and bots) found themselves waiting at the Ticketmaster queue, causing the site to crash while most were still trying to get in line. After the problem was fixed, the tickets were again sold out in minutes, mostly to bots, and the only response from Ariana Grande’s team was to open more dates for scalpers to swoop in and claim.
Via @GrandeTourNews
Many other artists are also attempting to fight this epidemic. When Chappel Roan announced her pop-up USA tour, she made sure to leave her fans careful instructions with the sole purpose of keeping ticket prices as affordable as possible and away from scalpers. Her fans had to register at Fair AXS for a chance to purchase a ticket, and only those who were randomly selected were able to secure a ticket for the show. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the effort was greatly appreciated by the fans.
Billy Joel, on the other hand, outright refuses to sell front row tickets to any of his shows. He has stated that he doesn’t want those seats to only go to those who were willing to pay ridiculous prices to scalpers. Instead, Joel’s team selects fans from the back of the arena and moves them to these front rows, ensuring those who occupy these seats are people who truly appreciate the experience. Obviously, artists can’t do that with entire arenas, but this way of thinking is crucial for any possible change in the future.
Ticketmaster VS the World
There are plenty of ways to fight scalpers at their dirty game. Most rely on regulations that should be enforced across the country. The best of which is to ban scalpers in the U.S altogether, as many other countries already do. But even without banning scalpers, there are still measures that can be taken. If those behind Ticketmaster cared about their consumers, they would not allow users to buy six seats at a time, and a simple verification process could stop most bots from even entering the queue.
The fact that these measures are not being properly enforced is what unsurprisingly led Ticketmaster to an investigation set to determine if the platform is putting in enough effort to prevent bots from illegally reselling tickets. Whether or not this investigation will contribute to the fight is to be seen.
It’s Time to Boycott
The main part of this problem is the length fans are willing to go to get a hold of a concert ticket. The fastest and most efficient way to prevent tickets from being resold at 20 times their price is to stop buying them. This market, like any market, is based upon supply and demand. If we want scalpers to stop supplying tickets at unreasonable prices, we have to stop playing their game. As soon as people refuse to buy, scalpers will have no choice but to revert to a price closer to the original.
Via gilaxia, Ariana Grande, blindingliqhts
While it does stink to risk missing your favorite artist perform live, if consumers don’t set clear boundaries, nothing can change. As long as people buy scalpers’ tickets, they are undoubtedly contributing to the problem.
There are plenty of less “hot” artists who manage to stay away from scalpers’ radar. A quick look at Renne Rapp’s tour proves that resellers are capable of selling tickets at lower prices than the original standard tickets. All it takes is less demand.
We can keep waiting for Ticketmaster to come to their senses, or for Ariana Grande’s team to find a way around resellers so they can sell tickets directly to fans. Nothing, however, will force a change faster than a good ol’ fashioned consumer boycott. We have the power to say no. The second we stop lining scalpers’ pockets, the second this cycle starts to break. The artists don’t benefit from the thousands of dollars you spend on a resold ticket anyway; they can survive a boycott. And since Ticketmaster is already deep into a lawsuit due to its monopoly, maybe artists should use this opportunity to create their own ticket-selling platform with better bot detection and regulation. Either way, we can’t let the situation get any worse, so if you’re angry about insane ticket prices, it’s time to stop feeding the beast.
