Over the last few years, frustration has grown amongst Ticketmaster customers. Ticketmaster has received much hate and criticism for the website, and the ticket costs themselves. When tickets go live, millions of customers are on the website, ready to secure them. The site fails to handle the massive load of customers and crashes, leading to a frustrating experience for the users. Recently, there has been a ton of criticism of Ticketmaster. Customers have been reporting that the website has suspended them as bots, and the site crashed because of overwhelming demand. As a result, the tickets doubled in price once joining the queue again. Some may even spend hours on their computers waiting for tickets, just to end up empty-handed.
Some customers have proposed ideas to help Ticketmaster run more smoothly. A few proposals have suggested that staggered ticket sales would be a better solution than simultaneously putting all the tour dates and tickets out. This could reduce the number of site crashes and customers waiting hours for tickets. Customers have also argued that if the issues of Ticketmaster are not addressed, the prices of tickets will just increase. People have noticed that ticket costs have gone up significantly since the pandemic and have not gone back down. The site adds incredible fees to each ticket purchased.
Robert Smith of The Cure and Maggie Rogers have tried their hardest to keep tickets affordable. Smith has forced Ticketmaster to refund the extra fees to their customers. Rogers has gone so far as to meet up with fans to sell tickets personally. This ensures that the ticket prices will be affordable and fees won’t be charged. According to Pollstar, a live music trade publication, the average ticket price of the top 100 music tours last year was $122.84. In 2019, it was $91.86, and in 2000, it was $40.74. As you can see, ticket prices have continuously climbed.
Many other students and staff have also felt the adverse effects of recent price increases at Pennridge High School. “Exponentially, I feel like you don’t even think about how much cheaper they were from then to now. The problem is the processing fee.” Adam Tatar stated. Tatar is a teacher at Pennridge High School who used to go to concerts often but doesn’t anymore due to high prices. Tatar and many other customers have a massive issue with the processing fee. The fees on Ticketmaster are shared between Ticketmaster, the venue, and whoever is performing/playing. Many different little fees pile up to create that outstanding fee. The service fee goes to the venue and sports team in return for selling their tickets. The order processing fee is shared between Ticketmaster and the venue. This fee is charged once per order. The faculty fee covers hosting live events, including staffing, insurance, and paying suppliers. These fees can be raised or lowered at any time based on the location or event.
Shannon Leo, a fellow concertgoer, has been infuriated by the issues Ticketmaster has been having. “Yeah, it is so slow and takes forever to lag, and it is really frustrating when you get kicked out of the queue,” Leo states. Millions of customers have been frustrated with the Ticketmaster website and the issues it has caused. People have begun to move away from using TikTokmaster and, as a result, toward using StubHub and Game Time instead. It needs to be brought to the attention of Ticketmaster that their website is beginning to be difficult to use, and prices are too high to purchase tickets.
Tickets are always guaranteed to fluctuate, but the future ticket industry has been projected to decrease concert attendance. Exorbitant ticket prices make music lovers of all ages wonder if they will ever be able to see their favorite artists.
Sources:
Half The World Awaits: Why the way we buy tickets need to change
https://www.ngpf.org/blog/question-of-the-day/question-of-the-day-what-was-the-average-ticket-price-across-the-years-top-100-concerts/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20live%20music,price%20was%20even%20higher%3A%20%24152.97.
https://help.ticketmaster.com/hc/en-us/articles/9663528775313-How-are-ticket-prices-and-fees-determined
