Ticketmaster is the number one ticket-selling platform in the world. But in recent years, Ticketmaster has had its fair share of problems, upsetting many fans. In 2022, the site crashed during the presale for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour”. More recently, in summer of 2024, tickets were taken away from some fans going to the Sabrina Carpenter concert. Now, fans are complaining about the price of Oasis tickets.
On Ticketmaster, to buy tickets for most artists, fans sign up to get a presale code and sign in before the tickets go on sale, only to wait in the queue for hours with hundreds of people in front of them. This has led to a major problem, because by the time many get to the front of the queue, all tickets have been sold — mostly by ticket scalpers, who buy lots of tickets with the intention of reselling them for a much higher price.
“You would click on [a seat] that it would show as open, and then as soon as you click on it, [Ticketmaster] would be like, ‘oh, never mind that’s taken,’” FHS sophomore Zoë Grant said. You click on the next [seat], ‘oh never mind that’s taken.’ I did that until there were no tickets left.”
Ticketmaster prices for tickets and reseller prices have increased significantly in the US, resulting in many people traveling abroad for cheaper concerts. The price of tickets in Europe are about 87% cheaper than those in the US, according to Billboard.
“It’s sad that people have had to resort to going to see shows in other places because they can’t get tickets at one that was 10 minutes away from their house,” Grant said.
Over the summer, Sabrina Carpenter announced her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which was to start on Sept. 23. During her presale on June 24, almost every ticket sold out; when the tickets went on sale officially, prices were at least $200 each, depending on the location in the stadium, which is unaffordable for many and deters fans from seeing their favorite artists perform live.
“It’s hard for people to even afford to go to concerts anymore, and there’s just so many fees on Ticketmaster that if I was just buying the ticket this would be fine, but I can’t afford the fee that’s almost the same price as the ticket,” FHS math teacher Alissa LaFerriere said. “So it’s kind of making it so a lot of fans of artists aren’t actually able to go see them in person.“
Along with the high prices of resale tickets for the Short n’ Sweet Tour, tickets were taken away from buyers who were thought to be bots. After purchasing tickets in another Ticketmaster battle, some tickets were later removed from the fans’ account; luckily, those buyers received refunds.
“I understand an algorithm can only do so much of trying to see if someones a bot or not,” LaFerriere said. “But, what steps are they taking so that people are actually proving that they are not a bot?”
Overall, Ticketmaster has some issues to fix to make tickets easier and more accessible for real fans; hopefully these changes will be made by the next big tour.
