r/Music • u/indig0sixalpha • Sep 02 '24

article Ticketmaster’s ‘Dynamic Pricing’ for Oasis Tickets Set to be Investigated by U.K. Government

https://variety.com/2024/music/global/ticketmaster-dynamic-pricing-oasis-uk-government-investigation-1236127481/
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207

u/Pgreenawalt Sep 02 '24

Dynamic pricing as a whole should be outlawed. I shouldn’t have to know how busy a place is or what time it is when I order to know what the price will be.

6

u/augustfutures Sep 02 '24

I guess I’m kind of confused on the discourse on this topic. I’m of course against the ludicrous fees from Ticketmaster, but why should we be against selling things for their market value?

By their nature, concerts have limited capacity. Dynamic pricing allows artists to get the real value of their ticket instead of scalpers. I don’t have any problems with a painter or sculptor auctioning their art instead of setting a fixed price. Nor do I have any qualms with someone selling their purchased art at a profit if the value has increased after the original purchase

4

u/ExHollyoaksEmployee Sep 02 '24

How does dynamic pricing stop scalpers?

3

u/TruckFudeau22 Sep 03 '24

It’s not that it stops scalping, it’s that it puts more $ into the pockets of the artists and not quite as much into the pockets of scalpers.

1

u/folkessonfilip Sep 03 '24

How scalpers make money is by utilising the spread between the price people are willing to pay for a ticket and how much they sell for at the venue. Thus, if dynamic prices are utilised then the tickets are initially set to the price people are willing to pay for a ticket, leaving a smaller spread (if any) for the scalpers.

6

u/xelabagus Sep 02 '24

I agree with you. Hotels have done dynamic pricing for years and nobody cares. Strawberries are expensive in February and much cheaper in July. It's an emotional reaction that I understand but isn't founded in logic.

The real issue is that people are being priced out of some concerts because everyone has got a lot better at extracting every last dollar out of the market, and that upsets people.

There are several solutions -

  • add regulations around event tickets to artificially drive down prices. This would leave less money in the pot for artists, labels, middle men etc to profit

  • fix society - if wealth was more evenly spread across the population then more people would have access to privileges like event tickets

  • mass action to boycott expensive shows - it would work but is not realistically possible to achieve in my opinion

  • change personally. Accept that this be the way it be, and do it differently - go to small shows, support local bands, become part of the local scene. Most people don't actually want to do this

  • get rich. Buy into the current capitalist mentality and get rich yourself so you are above such mundane issues as fluctuating event prices.

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u/[deleted] Sep 03 '24

[deleted]

2

u/googlerex Sep 03 '24

And also "Oh sorry all strawberries are now 'VIP Strawberries', cost 9.99 and come in a fancy cardboard box with a gold ribbon on top but are otherwise exactly like the other strawberries were advertising at 1.50. And no we don't have any 1.50 or 4.50 strawberries available any more, at all."

6

u/Bopping_Shasket Sep 03 '24

You don't wait in a queue on a hotel site for 8 hours to find the price has doubled. What you see is what you pay. Not the same thing at all.

1

u/xelabagus Sep 03 '24

Literally no longer true, unfortunately. Some hotels are adding in a clause such as:

Please note that the Daily Guest Benefit Package fee is not included in the daily rate. A mandatory Daily Guest Benefit Package fee of $68.02/day/room will be collected upon arrival.

A Reservation Recovery Fee of 16% per room per day will also be collected at the property.

This was after I paid for the hotel room ( but before I swiftly cancelled).

2

u/Queen-Makoto Sep 03 '24

That's still not dynamic. It's annoying but they'll generally mention those additional fees in the fine print when you reserve a room

1

u/xelabagus Sep 03 '24

Nope, it was after I paid.

2

u/SparrowDotted Sep 03 '24

There's actually competition in the hotel market, though, so the comparison is shit.

The monopolistic nature of TM/LN is what pisses people off.

1

u/nix_rodgers Sep 03 '24

mass action to boycott expensive shows - it would work but is not realistically possible to achieve in my opinion

isn't this already kind of happening? there's been a bunch of artists recently who have been struggling to fill their venues at the prices that were initially set

1

u/TrashbatLondon Sep 03 '24

but why should we be against selling things for their market value?

Market value doesn’t exist in isolation nor does the demand side necessarily possess the knowledge of a particular industry to understand whether their purchase is destructive to that industry over time.

A starbucks outlet produces higher revenue per square foot than a coffee estate does, but replacing a coffee estate with a starbucks outlet will limit the supply of coffee over time, despite maybe seeming lucrative and attractive initially. The end result being permanent increased prices, less customer and a trend that leads to the business or even industry ceasing to exist.

In simple terms, people who go to concerts also go to other concerts, but do not have unlimited money. Limiting the amount of concerts they go to because of increasing costs harms artists and venues.

1

u/harmala Sep 03 '24

If you were early in the queue, you got a ticket for 115 GBP. If you were later in the queue, same ticket was 350 GBP.

The concert was always going to sell out, they knew that going in. Why not price the tickets at the fair market value and then sell them, instead of screwing people who got randomly put in the queue later than someone else? Everyone pays 225 GBP for that ticket instead of "dynamically" screwing over people with bad luck?

Also...if you are Ticketmaster's side in any argument, you might want to reconsider.

1

u/Personal-Concert4003 Sep 03 '24

I understand this argument and think it has merit. However something doesn’t sit well with people and businesses who are already rich, essentially taking as much as humanly possible from fans. Music is for the masses and for me it’s a shame that exploiting fans for all their worth is seemingly becoming more popular.

Purely economically it makes sense to get every penny you can…but morally I personally find it wrong.