Dynamic pricing for concerts

[LewysGot2]

The stooshie over the last couple of days over Springsteen at Murrayfield highlighting that some ticket sales are now "dynamic" in the way flight prices change. Tickets that were supposed to start at a crazy £73 dynamically changing to £400 plus because of high demand. That's just for a ticket and nothing else.

Pretty poor stuff all round. When did this become a thing?

[CropleyWasGod]

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The stooshie over the last couple of days over Springsteen at Murrayfield highlighting that some ticket sales are now "dynamic" in the way flight prices change. Tickets that were supposed to start at a crazy £73 dynamically changing to £400 plus because of high demand. That's just for a ticket and nothing else.

Pretty poor stuff all round. When did this become a thing?

Ticketmaster started doing it only last year, which is why many people have been taken by surprise.

AIUI, artists can opt out of it. I think Crowded House (?) told their ticket agents to refund anyone who had been charged over the base cost. Springsteen has form for doing the moral thing, so perhaps he might so the same.

[Northernhibee]

It’s utterly shameful. Embarrassing. I understand taxis and the like doing this, but it’s not an event that the conditions change with the time you book. There are - let’s say - ten thousand tickets for an event. The date of the event doesn’t change if people book early, the demands on the organisers doesn’t change, neither is any work added of a ticket sells early.

It’s naked, unashamed greed and the companies using this can shove their tickets up their bloated arse.

[Pretty Boy]

It's scandalous.

There is literally no justification for it. Profiteering and nothing more.

[Since90+2]

Hotels and airlines have been doing the same thing for years. As soon as high demand is detected the price increases.

It's not right, but it's also nothing new.

[marinello59]

I had two ordinary tickets in my basket for Springsteen yesterday at £379 each. I passed on them.

[Jones28]

Disgraceful behaviour. Really makes me not want to bother with any sort of gig where this is going on.

Algorithms win.

[bringbackbenny]

They aren't known as TicketBa***** for no reason.

[danhibees1875]

Playing devils advocate a tad for those who are against dynamic pricing for concerts (and I appreciate that there can also be an element of simple profiteering regardless of the below)...

Are you also against the same pricing mechanism for other things (flights, hotels, trains(I think?), etc)? These seem to be more generally accepted as just a part of life (admittedly some extreme examples less so).

What about general price increases? They're happening across all products as companies cover their increasing costs. Inflation hitting costs for businesses mean that the cost of production for the shows are increasing - but is there an expectation that tickets should stay as originally priced despite this?

On the flip side, should there not be early bird rewards for those who commit their money early for shows?

[Dalianwanda]

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Playing devils advocate a tad for those who are against dynamic pricing for concerts (and I appreciate that there can also be an element of simple profiteering regardless of the below)...

Are you also against the same pricing mechanism for other things (flights, hotels, trains(I think?), etc)? These seem to be more generally accepted as just a part of life (admittedly some extreme examples less so).

What about general price increases? They're happening across all products as companies cover their increasing costs. Inflation hitting costs for businesses mean that the cost of production for the shows are increasing - but is there an expectation that tickets should stay as originally priced despite this?

On the flip side, should there not be early bird rewards for those who commit their money early for shows?

You could compare to (flights, hotels, trains etc) but there are far more commodities that aren't priced dynamically. Theres absolutely no justification for it apart from greed. Also with the other things you have mentioned you can shop around and generally theres other things available. If you wanted to go to specific concert thats it there is no alternative for that gig (yes you could go see a different artist but thats not the same as shopping around for a hotel in a particular area on a particular date)..

There are plenty of alternatives to ticketmaster so I don't know who the blame lies with? The artist their management company? Ticketmaster are what they are, they dont have to be the supplier of choice.

[Sylar]

It's just a legal version of touting without a middle-man. Why bother just running secondary sale sites that fleece people after a show sells out, when you can fleece people at point of sale AND the desperate folk who resort to such sites once all other avenues have been explored.

It's a racket.