A new Ticketmaster pricing system, which alters the price of tickets based on demand, is being criticized by both fans and industry experts.
Called dynamic pricing, it has been used in the UK for recent sales by Harry Styles, Coldplay and Blackpink.
The system is regularly used in the US, where the resale market is a lot bigger, and touting is more prevalent.
Ticketmaster says it is being used to try to stop touts and to give more money to artists.
But fans say they are being priced out of concerts, with some tickets doubling in price.
“We give fans an opportunity to safely buy official tickets for the events they love, right up to the date of the show.”
The pricing system means Ticketmaster does not publicize ticket costs ahead of time – as they will change constantly, based on demand.
Adam Webb is a campaigner for the FanFair Alliance, a group that aims to stop ticket touting in the UK.
He told the BBC “there’s a whole bunch of issues” with trying to price tickets based on demand.
“You’ve got the face value price, which is determined by the artist and promoter, then you have the secondary market price, which is obviously going to be a lot more because it’s mostly ticket tout businesses reselling those tickets, and you’re trying to inflate the primary ticket price to get closer to that.”
The logic is that by increasing prices on the official website to match what touts are charging on secondary sites like Viagogo and StubHub, the touts will be scared off, meaning Ticketmaster (and the artists) can keep the extra profit.