For decades, concerts were considered one of the best ways, if not the best way to show your appreciation for an artist’s music and connect with them directly in-person in a way that is simply not possible through listening to pre-recorded tracks or records.
With reasonably affordable tickets, accommodations, and travel options, concerts for artists on all levels of recognition and fame could act as a fun moment of spontaneity, or a long-standing time investment, functioning as the highlight of someone’s year.
However, in recent years, we’ve seen an unmistakable and undeniable wall rise when it comes to the accessibility and affordability of concert tickets that would have once been at the disposal of the general public.
With online ticket purchasing sites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub dominating, and in some cases monopolizing the industry, there is little to no oversight as to how ticket pricing is determined for modern sales, as well as minimal competition from other sites to allow for the most fair bid.
With limited legislation in place to combat these unethical practices, online ticket sellers are becoming overly influential and powerful, eliminating other forms of purchase and participating in “dynamic pricing,” otherwise known as price gouging for tickets depending on demand and availability for a certain show or tour.
A well-known example of this is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale and on-sale debacle, in which millions of fans were either kicked out of online queues or fully priced out of tickets due to the lack of digital preparation from Ticketmaster. This was in addition to the onslaught of dynamic pricing and scalping of tickets, or the purchasing of large amounts of tickets using bots or automated accounts in order to resell them on other platforms at a higher price.
Online ticket sales have become a ruthless arena, wherein hundreds of thousands, if not millions of individuals are forced to prepare to cough up an arm and leg to see their favorite artists, if scalpers or bots don’t get to the massively-inflated, overpriced tickets first.
We must see through the trend of legislation that was introduced after these ticket fiascos, ensuring that music, and the live performance of it, returns to being accessible again.
