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Thursday, September 01, 2022
Congressman Goes After Bruce Springsteen and Ticketmaster's Pricing
consequence.net: Two Garden State heavyweights are on a collision course as New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. is seeking information pertaining to Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” model, especially as it relates to New Jersey’s most famous cultural export, Bruce Springsteen.
4 comments:
Gaby F
said...
As an “at least once a year” concertgoer, I can confirm that the Ticketmaster wait lobby gets increasingly chaotic as the years go by. Factored in are my age and the fluctuating levels of “excitement” for the event. Personally, I’ve only ever been to concerts of a mid to low popularity level, so I have only heard from friends how chaotic it is for more popular acts. This insane pricing culture comes from a mix of Ticketmaster holding the monopoly as the entertainment events distributor and the reselling culture fueled by that fact. It is not uncommon for resellers to dedicate their time to buying several batches of tickets all at once during pre-sales so they can up the price for it. Talking about Ticketmaster specifically, they are known for inflating prices even when that money doesn’t even go to the artist themselves. Though it is odd thinking that policymakers are now getting involved, I am glad they are.
To quote a mediocre superhero, "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." The good ol' American man Bruce Springsteen himself is dynamic pricing his tickets and selling them at exorbitant rates and won't comment on the situation. On one hand, it's a really bad look for the guy, and on another hand, he really made a lot of the older generation and the people who grew up on his music quite upset. Here this guy is singing about being like a blue collar town man who just wants to love his country in feel good music and he's upselling all of these tickets to make more money. I was having a conversation with an older person earlier this week and they were just so upset about Bruce Springsteen selling out and I was like, ohhh so this is what I look like when I complain about Panic at the Disco and Twenty One Pilots.
This is one of the reasons why I don’t really go to concerts, the exorbitant price for tickets. Have they ever even considered that people just won’t pay the money to go to these concerts, especially as they keep increasing prices. Don’t get me started on the stupid fees that Ticketmaster is notorious for tacking onto the cost. Bruce Springsteen’s are actively upset at the cost of the tickets, and yet his manager is blowing off their concerns. But I guess it’s always been about the money and how much you can pull out of the consumer before they realize they’re being swindled. Maybe this will be the breaking point, $5K for a ticket, absolutely not. Hopefully, with the inquiry by the NJ congressman will get some attention brought to the matter, and maybe the people wanting to go see this concert will see the response and decide not to go.
There is truly no feeling like the one after leaving a concert. It is so difficult to describe- a mixture of starstruck and moved and confused and so incredibly happy you went, yet so destroyed that it had to end. I feel like everyone should splurge and go see one of their favorite artists in concert at least once- but it's incredibly difficult due to high ticket prices and the competitive nature of getting seats online through resellers. Making tickets more accessible seems like a task that shouldn't be very difficult, yet zeros continue to get added to numbers and ticket sales continue to grow. Ticketmaster is notorious for stacking on fees that are just absolutely absurd, and I have been a victim to them many times. (Thank you, Harry Styles Love on Tour.) I wonder what the effects of the Congressman’s letter will be, and if Springsteen will ever come out with his own comments on the situation.
4 comments:
As an “at least once a year” concertgoer, I can confirm that the Ticketmaster wait lobby gets increasingly chaotic as the years go by. Factored in are my age and the fluctuating levels of “excitement” for the event. Personally, I’ve only ever been to concerts of a mid to low popularity level, so I have only heard from friends how chaotic it is for more popular acts. This insane pricing culture comes from a mix of Ticketmaster holding the monopoly as the entertainment events distributor and the reselling culture fueled by that fact. It is not uncommon for resellers to dedicate their time to buying several batches of tickets all at once during pre-sales so they can up the price for it. Talking about Ticketmaster specifically, they are known for inflating prices even when that money doesn’t even go to the artist themselves. Though it is odd thinking that policymakers are now getting involved, I am glad they are.
To quote a mediocre superhero, "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." The good ol' American man Bruce Springsteen himself is dynamic pricing his tickets and selling them at exorbitant rates and won't comment on the situation. On one hand, it's a really bad look for the guy, and on another hand, he really made a lot of the older generation and the people who grew up on his music quite upset. Here this guy is singing about being like a blue collar town man who just wants to love his country in feel good music and he's upselling all of these tickets to make more money. I was having a conversation with an older person earlier this week and they were just so upset about Bruce Springsteen selling out and I was like, ohhh so this is what I look like when I complain about Panic at the Disco and Twenty One Pilots.
This is one of the reasons why I don’t really go to concerts, the exorbitant price for tickets. Have they ever even considered that people just won’t pay the money to go to these concerts, especially as they keep increasing prices. Don’t get me started on the stupid fees that Ticketmaster is notorious for tacking onto the cost. Bruce Springsteen’s are actively upset at the cost of the tickets, and yet his manager is blowing off their concerns. But I guess it’s always been about the money and how much you can pull out of the consumer before they realize they’re being swindled. Maybe this will be the breaking point, $5K for a ticket, absolutely not. Hopefully, with the inquiry by the NJ congressman will get some attention brought to the matter, and maybe the people wanting to go see this concert will see the response and decide not to go.
There is truly no feeling like the one after leaving a concert. It is so difficult to describe- a mixture of starstruck and moved and confused and so incredibly happy you went, yet so destroyed that it had to end. I feel like everyone should splurge and go see one of their favorite artists in concert at least once- but it's incredibly difficult due to high ticket prices and the competitive nature of getting seats online through resellers. Making tickets more accessible seems like a task that shouldn't be very difficult, yet zeros continue to get added to numbers and ticket sales continue to grow. Ticketmaster is notorious for stacking on fees that are just absolutely absurd, and I have been a victim to them many times. (Thank you, Harry Styles Love on Tour.) I wonder what the effects of the Congressman’s letter will be, and if Springsteen will ever come out with his own comments on the situation.
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