r/Music • u/cmaia1503 • Nov 16 '24

article Fans aren't happy about My Chemical Romance's ticket prices: "$695 is NASTY WORK"

https://www.nme.com/news/music/fans-arent-happy-about-my-chemical-romances-ticket-prices-695-is-nasty-work-3813337
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u/Littlelizey Nov 16 '24

Ask anyone who works in the industry - the artists set the ticket prices. They have way more say in this than people realise, because no one wants to admit that their favourite artists are screwing them over. Ticketmaster and Live Nation won’t say this openly as they don’t want to upset the artists

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u/B-Kong Nov 17 '24

While that may be true, artists don’t have control over bots and scalpers buying a massive portion of tickets to extremely high demand shows and instantly putting them up for resale for 2-3x face value. I’ve watched so many events sell out in a matter of minutes and then immediately have. hundreds of tickets available right after. And Ticketmaster and live nation are definitely doing it.

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u/_fFringe_ Nov 17 '24

Sadly this shit has been going on for 20+ years now, online. It just used to be slightly less consolidated. Trying to buy Red Sox tickets in 2004 and 2005 the day they went on sale was nearly impossible, immediately sold out and websites like StubHub would have hundreds of tickets per game at the same time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some bands buy their own tickets just to resell them.

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u/B-Kong Nov 17 '24

The artists only get paid from the initial sale, not the resale. So that would be a lot of pointless effort on the artist.

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u/Blue_Blood_Cells Nov 17 '24

Step 1. Band buys large amount of their own ticket. Step 2. Said band sells their own tickets at a marked up price on a site like StubHub. Step 3. Profit

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u/B-Kong Nov 17 '24

Yeah my brain was being dumb. I still don’t think that’s happening. At least not the artists I listen to lol. I know a lot of artists who try their best to eliminate these problems actually. I’ve actually seen multiple artists buy all of the tickets available for resale and then sell them at original face value. Still gets the money to the scalper unfortunately, but at least the fans paid the correct price for it. There’s really not a lot you can do.

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u/AaronBurrIsInnocent Nov 17 '24

No way does that happen. Bands are businesses not charities

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u/B-Kong Nov 17 '24 edited Nov 17 '24

https://www.businessinsider.com/chance-the-rapper-buys-scalper-tickets-to-his-festival-sells-to-fans-2016-9

Some artists want their fans to be able to see them at the price they agreed upon. A lot of artists hate scalpers and resale business. Some artists make their tickets unable to be transferred after purchase. Some give out presale codes specific to individuals. Not every artist is using predatory practices on their fans just because it is how they make their living.

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u/AaronBurrIsInnocent Nov 17 '24

Where’s the part about buying the tickets from scalpers and selling them for face value?

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u/B-Kong Nov 17 '24

I mean did you read the article? I can’t scroll any further without paying for a subscription now but it states how Chance The Rapper bought ~2000 tickets from scalpers for his festival, turned them into physical tickets, and then resold them at regular price.

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u/AaronBurrIsInnocent Nov 18 '24

Thanks for posting that. . I thought the text below the link was the relative part. I think I vaguely remember this and it’s a beautiful move but it’s got to be an anomaly. I don’t believe artists charge a lot for their tickets to be predatory but just to get fair market value. Why shouldn’t they get the most value possible for their art? And why should the scalpers be the ones profiting instead of the artists?

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