After the popularity of their recent album release, the music industry’s most loved musicians choose to go on tour to see fans, gain more popularity, and debut their newest songs live to an audience. While this is very successful, with many artists gaining more fame shortly after, popularity is not the only thing rising to high levels.
“The bigger the artist, the more competitive it is to get seats, but I feel the need to pay because it’s a once in a lifetime experience and I’m not always sure if the next tour will be anytime soon,” sophomore Maia Loew said.
In recent times, the most effective promotion tactic for generating excitement about an upcoming tour has been through presales. This helps manage the thousands of sales happening at once due to demand, but it also causes high stress among dedicated fans. Everyone wants the greatest selection of seats and the best deals.
“I’ve bought tickets for super popular artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lorde,” sophomore Misha Smoyer said. “You have to prepare to go through [stressful queues] and long waits to get tickets, guaranteed or not.”
By “camping out” on ticket sale websites like Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, StubHub, and more, fans try to guarantee themselves a spot in the queue. While some fans are lucky enough to secure their seats, many are left disappointed and have to continue this process for the general sale. The number of fans who even get a chance at the presale is disproportionately small, leaving it up to luck.
“It’s just frustrating because I’ve spent class time trying to buy tickets and failing due to Ticketmaster crashes and thousands of people beating me in the queue,” Smoyer said.
These fans, plus an even higher number, join the sale in hopes of tagging along in the buzz and seeing the beloved artists they may not get to see at a later time. In the general sale, there is a larger quantity of tickets, but also a greater pool of people seeking tickets.
“My experience with general sales is that it’s very stressful because you don’t know if you’ll actually get tickets by the time it’s your turn, and sometimes the prices increase while you are waiting,” Loew said.
The soaring demand for general sales opens up the resale market, with many of the ticket purchases being resold at a higher price for more profit. The issue that comes along with this is that the money made does not go to the artist or the ticket company.
“I think it’s incredibly unfair because resellers turn concerts into something only certain people can access,” Loew said. “They usually buy them in bulk during the presale, and mark the tickets up to 200%, making the concert inaccessible for so many people.”
With these tickets originating in the low hundreds and being chalked up to amounts past $1,000, fans are faced with a difficult decision. Event platforms should consider possible solutions to this problem.
“These ticket companies should make a bigger deal out of verified fan registration systems, or limit how many tickets one person can buy during one sale,” Loew said. “This could make concerts more accessible for real fans instead of resellers.”
