Dynamic pricing, outrageous costs and an increasing monopoly: Ticketmaster’s users cry out evermore for the company to relent on the underdog. The past year has seen the promotion of many hit tours: Oasis’ reunion concerts, Swift’s Eras Tour and the emergent Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet shows.
Alongside the excitement and anticipation amongst fans for these gigs, frustration and disappointment has become a common theme as Ticketmaster outprice fans. Myself included, got caught up in this trope after conducting the usual routine to secure Sabrina Carpenter tickets. I surrendered the family’s technology for the morning and prepared myself for a long wait. This wait time was realised, but the securing of tickets was not, however. Once I reached the front of the queue, all remaining tickets– the nosebleeds, notably— were priced at £250. This was a shocking £200 price increase from the Carpenter tickets I secured in 2023. Following this, I discovered what ‘dynamic pricing’ was— and how it alone has the ability to make live music by big artists inaccessible for the majority.
Essentially, dynamic pricing constitutes the fluctuation of ticket prices based on the demand i.e. if there are 50,000 people in the queue for an artist, the ticket prices will skyrocket based on their popularity. This can be seen in the ticket sales of many artists in recent years, notably Billie Eilish’s 2025 tour which set basic standing tickets at £145.
Not only do these concerns reflect on Ticketmaster but the artists themselves, as fans like myself are left with a bitter taste in their mouths and a new opinion on the musician. While some artists respond to ticket prices in a similar manner to fans— Oasis, Swift and Coldplay are some of the big names who issued statements in disgrace of the platform— others remain silent. This brings into question musicians’ complicity with Ticketmaster’s prioritisation of profit.
While some rising musicians such as Carpenter have seemingly set the principle of unreasonable prices, others appear to be going against their long standing philosophies. The Gallagher brothers’ ticket sales saw soaring prices at £350 which exceeded initial promotions of prices as set at about £200 south. This hit home for many long-term fans who saw the band as the voice of the people and a celebration of working class culture. While they immediately responded to the sales stating that they had no involvement with the sale of tickets and announced more gigs to compensate for exasperated fans: the trust between artist and listener was fragmented.
The actions of the ticketing giant are not only impacting the fans but also artists and concert venues who try to resist. Ticketmaster’s monopoly over the live event market has affected smaller venues, such as Cardiff’s own independent venue The Moon whose doors have closed this November. While the pandemic and rising prices have greatly influenced this closure— as hinted in their online statement— the hold of large companies over the music industry has played a role.
Words by Ruby Collins
Featured image courtesy of appshunter.io
via Unsplash. No changes have been made to this image. Image license found here.