Why Are So Many Music Concerts Selling Out Instantly?
Why is it so hard to buy tickets to concerts these days? Why does it seem like so many events are selling out instantly?
- Technology allows more people to buy tickets quicker.
- The ticket market remains cornered by scalpers and secondhand ticket brokers.
- Your favorite bands are just getting more popular.
- The drying up of appropriately-sized venues in some locations for certain artists and their respective draw.
- An insistence by the industry to book artists in smaller venues than necessary to set the precedent of always selling out shows.
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Going to a concert is supposed to be a pleasurable experience, and it better be for how much it costs these days. It’s an elective. A splurge. But when it starts off with having to go to war with your fellow fans just to get into the venue, and many times losing out and having to rely on the secondary market where you know you’re getting hosed and are inadvertently aiding and abetting the same process that allowed the tickets to be sold out instantly in the first place, it’s almost enough to make you consider spending an evening with Netflix instead.
This used to be a problem only for fans who were a little slow fingered, or that didn’t know about a certain concert until the last minute. Now you have folks planning their lunch breaks around the official start times for ticket sales, logging in immediately, and still missing out on all of the good seats, if they get a seat at all. They’re battling against professional scalping companies and programmed bots that can swoop in instantly and buy entire sections of seats before anyone in the general public even gets a shot, if those seats were even released to the public in the first place. The ticketing companies don’t care because they get their money either way, and the secondary markets like StubHub have grown into multi million dollar businesses because of it. It’s a war for tickets, and fans are getting caught in the crossfire.
This isn’t just a problem for big mainstream bands playing massive venues anymore. As independent music continues to take over market share, and there continues to be a slow build of interest in more substantive music, this issue is starting to affect performers that a few years ago fans were used to seeing in dingy bars with 20 other people.
Upsurging country artist Chris Stapleton played the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in February. Tickets for two consecutive nights sold out immediately, so then a third night was added and it sold out immediately too. Dedicated hardcore fans who put out active effort to make sure they got a ticket were left out in the cold. A similar story was told for many of Chris Stapleton’s other upcoming shows which are all sold out, and for shows by other upsurging artists like Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell.
What’s so frustrating for patrons is that not only are they doing everything right and still not getting a legitimate chance at tickets, almost instantly tickets are being posted on StubHub and other resale sites. This leaves folks not just with the disappointment of not scoring tickets, but feeling swindled by a system that seems rigged to score extra money from tickets beyond face value. None of that money is going to the performers. It’s an extra expenditure by the fans that could go to merch, or other concert tickets instead of shady middlemen who either skirt the laws, or take advantage of the loopholes in them.
All this has been an ever-present issue for tickets in not just music, but sports and other places for many years. Remember Pearl Jam in their skateboard attire testifying in front of Congress on the matter in the 90’s? They sued Ticketmaster, and lost. But the issue now is being exacerbated by the amount of artists selling out venues, a slowly dwindling amount of choices in the mid-sized venue space, and an emphasis by artist management and promoters to sell out the venues they book.
Luckily there are some bigger artists today taking the leadership in trying to rectify the issue for their own fans, and music fans in general. Eric Church, who recently put tickets on sale for back to back shows at Colorado’s legendary Red Rocks venue, discovered that 2,700 tickets were purchased by known scalpers, including a block of over 750 tickets bought up by a specific scalper ring in Texas. All those purchases were canceled, and the tickets were re-released to the public. “I have never seen more relentless, nefarious and frankly disgusting efforts to defraud the fans and the general public,” Church said in a statement on the matter. The country performer has made it one of his personal issues to battle ticket scalpers. “Six words for you thugs: You Will Not Win. I Will.”
Last Friday, Radiohead released tickets to two shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and two shows at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. All four dates sold out almost immediately. Fans were furious, and so was Radiohead’s frontman Thom York. “I’m as fucked off as you are,” Yorke said on Twitter, “and am only human.” He then let it be known that strict ID checks would be happening at the venues, and patrons looking on the secondary market better make sure their tickets are legit, or they would be turned away at the door.
The quick sellout has given way to the immediate sellout. The long-standing issue of getting your hands on concert tickets has been exacerbated by technology making it so easy for so many people to buy tickets at once. Consolidation in the ticket selling business hasn’t helped either. But as frustrating as immediate sellouts can be, it is still a supply and demand issue. Whether tickets are going to scalpers or real patrons upon an initial sale, there’s more people who want to see these concerts than tickets to sell, and that’s what causes the skyrocketing secondary prices. For mid sized bands playing large clubs and small theaters, promoters and managers are encouraged to book venues slightly smaller than what demand might dictate, because you want to sell out every show on a tour.
The publicity that a sellout generates, and the precedence it sets for promoters is important to building up the guaranteed money and booking leverage an artist receives. Before an artist is allowed to play theaters, they have to prove they can sell out large clubs. Before they can move to larger theaters and amphitheaters, they have to prove they can sell out the mid sized theaters. Though this system ensures promoters don’t take a bath on any show or put a band in the wrong-sized venue, it means hot names in music will almost always sell to capacity for live events.
The long term solution is to create more inventory. That is what Garth Brooks has been doing on his current world tour. Instead of booking one show in a given locale and letting fans fight it out for tickets, Garth Brooks books a venue, and then scales the amount of shows depending on demand. He may begin with two shows, but if they sell out quickly, he may add a matinee performance, or a third night, or both. This way he stays ahead of the secondary market, and is able to keep ticket prices relatively low compared to other major acts. It also allows him to book arenas as opposed to stadiums and other big venues where the sound and presentation aren’t as easily controlled.
Not everyone can plan a tour like Garth Brooks though, and as Radiohead and Chris Stapleton have proved, even booking multiple shows at the same venue doesn’t always solve the supply and demand problem. But with so much technology making it easy for fans to purchase tickets instantaneously, the continued presence of scalpers taking advantage of lax regulations in the secondary market, and an insistence on promoters and managers to purposely book venues that will sell to capacity, purchasing tickets to see your favorite artist promises to continue to be a battle until big solutions are implemented industry wide.
Jason Johnson
March 21, 2016 @ 7:04 pm
This happened recently when I tried to purchase Sturgill Simpson tickets for the upcoming Knoxville concert. I logged in as soon as they went on sale and they were sold out. However, StubHub was able to sell me the tickets for twice the price. If I did this as an individual, I would be arrested for scalping. How do places like this get away with doing what is illegal for any other citizen?
Trigger
March 21, 2016 @ 7:26 pm
That’s a good question. It would seem like a pretty simple solution to insist that the people who actually purchase the tickets are the ones that show up to the venues. Of course sometimes your plans change, you get sick, etc., and it’s only fair there should be an outlet for you to make sure the seat doesn’t go empty.
The industry has lobbyists to make sure the rules governing ticket sales remain loose and poorly enforced. Unfortunately, fans don’t have lobbyists out there working for their interests.
Jared S
March 22, 2016 @ 7:31 am
Ticketmaster has an option for venues to require attendees to swipe the credit card used to buy the tickets in order to get in, eliminating resales. The site said that I would have to do that for the Garth Brooks concert I went to (Chicago). Turned out, they didn’t swipe the credit card at the venue, just scanned the tickets.
The problem with requiring the credit card or ID of the person ordering the tickets is that you can’t buy them as a gift for someone else, unless you are willing to give them your credit card for the night.
Talmadge East
March 23, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
The credit card swipe seems like a good idea, unless you are buying the tickets as a gift. My mother bought me Bob Dylan tickets a few years ago and we found out later that I had to take the credit card used to purchase the tickets (hers, obviously) to get in. At the time I was close by her, so that wasn’t an issue, but I now live 10 hours away. My mother should be able to buy me tickets for my birthday or Christmas and me not have to take her credit card to the show. I don’t care how they have to work it out. That is ridiculous.
Blackwater
March 21, 2016 @ 7:33 pm
What pisses me off is when they’re on stubhub before they go on sale. I mean before presales and the like. That’s the shady shit.
Trainwreck92
March 22, 2016 @ 2:56 pm
The same damn thing happened to me last week while trying to buy tickets for Sturgill’s Dallas show. I got home from work and immediately went to his website only to find that they’d all been bought up just a few hour prior. It’s a huge disappointment for me since I haven’t gotten the chance to see Sturgill play since he was still in Sunday Valley.
Dave
March 22, 2016 @ 11:56 pm
It’s bad enough that the tickets get bought by these scalpers but how much they try to sell them for. It’s not enough just to make a small profit. They have to gouge fans by charging way more than face value, even for seats that aren’t even that good. On the other hand, I once bought 2 Bob Seger tickets on eBay for $50 when the face value was $60 a piece.
Mike W.
March 21, 2016 @ 7:10 pm
The music industry needs to get on top of this or they will create a climate where people don’t even bother trying to buy tickets to shows or go to them. Which would be pretty damn bad considering live shows are pretty much the only section of the music industry that makes any money for artists/bands anymore. Sadly, this being the music business, we all know that the morons that run the major labels will ignore it until it starts to hurt their bottom line and then try to pin blame on Spotify or Apple Music somehow.
Wez
March 21, 2016 @ 7:55 pm
Artists, management and studios place tickets directly on secondary markets for higher prices.
Golddust
March 21, 2016 @ 8:28 pm
Another thing that Garth did to keep costs down was to make it clear that everyone who bought a ticket had to show ID at the venue, as well as the credit card it was purchased with, and all people in the party must be present at the same time to enter. I usually use gift cards for online purchases, and unfortunately that wasn’t allowed, but I applaud Garth for doing his best to keep the tickets OUT of the hands of the scalpers.
I have very limited funds to buy concert tickets, as I’m sure many of us do, and there are many people I haven’t been able to see due to the scalpers buying up the tickets and then selling them at a huge profit. I have no idea why it isn’t illegal. I know one venue around here not too long ago said on their website that they were not going to honor any tickets sold by a certain company in the secondary market and people had better make sure they bought their tickets from the actual source. I was extremely pleased to see that and hope that catches on as well!
Not a huge Eric Church fan, but I applaud him for speaking out. The industry as a whole needs to put an end to it. It’s pretty disheartening when you go to a venue’s seating chart and see a certain color (and price) for seats that are still available through the venue and another color (and different price) for seats that are available through the secondary market. If the artists aren’t getting anymore out of it, I have to believe the venues somehow are …
Dusty
March 21, 2016 @ 9:59 pm
I have to say I have NEVER been more frustrated than when I have logged onto a venue website an hour early to get “in line,” waited diligently until tickets went on sale, and then instantly received a message that no tickets were available. In the past, I have assumed the problem was with presales offered to “fans with CitiBank accounts,” etc., but you’re giving me new reasons to be pissed off about it.
lpctxgurl
March 22, 2016 @ 12:08 am
I’m sure it wouldn’t work for really large venues, but I thought the way tickets were sold for the Luck Reunion was an innovative way to sell tickets… I may have gotten “lucky” but I was able to get my ticket the first time I entered the code…. well sort of, I entered it, the site said the tickets were sold out but 5 were in progress and might be available, so I tried two more times in a row and got my ticket fairly easy. It probably wouldn’t be hard to add a captcha either(& they may have… I don’t remember). Also I noticed when I got my ticket that the most I could get at one time was 2 tickets…. While I’m sure it’s not a fool proof method to keep scalpers/resalers from getting tickets, it does seem like a decent method to keep most of the tickets at original cost and in the hands of the consumer… On the other hand, depending on a person’s computer skills, time achedule, and other factors, I’m sure all those hoops to jump through would be frustrating and possibly impossible to successfully navigate. So, I dunno…. just some late night random ramblings…
Jimbo
March 22, 2016 @ 3:55 am
Kyle, we all know those are your old Luke Bryan tickets. Don’t try to deny it :p
Charlie
March 22, 2016 @ 6:59 am
Didn’t catch that at first, but now I see what you mean…Damn! What a shithole of a concert that must have been!!
Pre-sales to soccer moms and frat boys musta been fierce for that one!!!
Corey
March 22, 2016 @ 4:57 am
In Boston, “legal” scalpers are the “official ticket reseller of the Boston Red Sox” – they take out ads during games and shit after buying up blocks and blocks of tickets to further fleece fans. Shameful.
Charlie
March 22, 2016 @ 5:06 am
The lack of availability of decent seats at decent prices in a reasonable time frame is the primary reason I go to very damn few concerts.
Tom
March 22, 2016 @ 7:30 am
The lack of availability of ANY seats at a decent price keeps me going to local dives or county fairs when I want to hear live music.
Matt Bjorke
March 22, 2016 @ 5:49 am
Lots of acts/labels now are in the StubHub game and use held, allotted tickets to sell for extra $$. There’s also fan club and tour sponsor partner early access points and even some venues have these. In other words, the “sellouts” can happen so fast because they’re never available to the public at his own.
NPC
March 22, 2016 @ 7:50 am
An example of this happened to us when Diamond Rio was at the Buckmasters Expo last year. When tickets sales went public through Ticketmaster, everything besides the back rows of the Montgomery Performing Arts Center was already sold out. The MPAC box office said that those were the only tickets they could sell and that the rest were allocated to Buckmasters members. It wasn’t anything horribly nefarious because you could simply join Buckmasters for $20 and get free tickets through Buckmasters, but it’s a small example of how these things can pan out on a larger scale. It is scary to think that StubHub may be used by venues, tour sponsors, and acts to re-sell tickets that were never available for sale.
GWB
March 22, 2016 @ 6:57 am
trigger, really like the website & i’m glad you addressed this as this very thing happened to me last week for stapleton tix. i was on the livenation website watching the counter click down to zero & when it did the page refreshed & i got a sold out message. the only tix available were meet & greet or you had to have a citi card. just for giggles i clicked on meet & greet but you couldnt even get those. me & my fiance saw stapleton last year at amos southend in charlotte & that wasnt even sold out–its a bar that holds maybe 300-500(guessing) i did see tix on secondary markets the night before they went on sale but didnt count on the “immediate” sellout.but we got regular price tix to see him in simpsonville 2 hours away so now instead of seeing him in my town i have to get off work early,spend the gas & get a hotel but its all good since we’ll just make a weekend of it—hope to hear something from hank3 soon
Doug
March 22, 2016 @ 7:17 am
I paid $250 for my ticket to the Friday night Chris Stapleton Ryman show in February! I got it literally 20 min before the show. It was worth it to me. But I do understand this being a huge problem. If I were a recording artist making music today like Jason Isbell, Stapleton, Sturgill; I would create MY OWN booking agency. I would deal with the Venue’s DIRECTLY and I would NOT allow ANY online ticket sales, whatsoever! I would go straight up old school, BUY YOUR TICKETS AT THE SHOW!!! THE NIGHT OF THE SHOW!!! People want music to return to it’s glory days? Then let’s go back to it’s glory days! When people went to go see Elvis, Hank Sr, Waylon or Johnny Cash; they didn’t buy tickets online.
This is just idea. If people could get behind something like this, it would be an interesting change in the music business!
Convict charlie
March 22, 2016 @ 9:03 am
It’s even possibly worse for the booking agency part. Trigger did an article a few years back on William Morris having 134 of the major country acts on their roster. That’s about 2/3 or so and the rest are on buddy lee for the most part. If a venue screws them then they get blackballed and can’t really do business with the whole entity.
lisa
March 22, 2016 @ 8:17 am
This is a big reason I am such a fan of Eric Church. His music, too, of course! But I really appreciate that he looks out for his fans in this way. You don’t see too many other artists doing this – maybe there are, but I haven’t heard of ANY other country artists doing this. I have to say, I have been to a LOT of shows, and never get good seats, EVER. Whether by purchasing through presales or the general sale. I’ve seen Kenny Chesney about 12 times, and no matter how soon I buy the tickets, I am at the back of the stadium – ALWAYS. But, I have always managed to score great seats for Eric Church shows, just by logging on and purchasing tickets. If I’m going to see Eric Church, when I’m looking to buy tickets, I get that disappointed feeling BEFORE I buy the tickets because I KNOW theyre going to suck, that I do with anyone else.
BLL
March 22, 2016 @ 10:11 am
Garth also doesn’t do tiered seating, or sell the first 4 rows-he has his crew go out in the venues and upgrade people in the upper seats, or if the view is blocked by a pillar. He said he’d rather play to a half empty place and know the scalpers were locked out of the process.
Jack Williams
March 22, 2016 @ 10:38 am
I saw that happen. I was a last minute fill-in for my niece for a make up Garth show in Baltimore in January a week and a half after the big blizzard caused a postponement on the original date. I was sitting with my daughter in the middle level, but in the far right corner at the top of that level. A friendly Garth crew guy went up into our section and upgraded a middle aged woman who was by herself. He gave my daughter a Garth guitar pick, which made her happy.
Derek Sullivan
March 22, 2016 @ 10:59 am
My wife and I are going to Adele’s shows in St. Paul in July. She’s playing two at Xcel. We only got the tickets because we know someone who is a Minnesota Wild season ticket holder. The season ticket holder heard that 75 percent of the tickets sold for the two concerts went to season ticket holders like himself. It’s a perk for renewing your seats every year and salesmen for the hockey team tell people they can earn some of the money they spend on seats not just by selling tickets to hockey games, but also concerts that are popular and they don’t want to go to.
It’s sad.
Somedude
March 22, 2016 @ 11:15 pm
There was a similar issue when the Dead played the Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago. Greedy asshole Chicago Bears fans had first dibs and that’s why $80 tickets went for up to $1000 before tickets were on sale to the public!
rusty beltway
March 22, 2016 @ 11:02 am
Change has to come from the artists and their management. They have the muscle. I applaud Mr Church.
But let’s face it: the music industry has always been run by people who think like gangsters and criminals.
Very good, and important, post Trigger.
Fat Freddy's Cat
March 22, 2016 @ 12:11 pm
Even when you get tickets, going to a large venue for a major band is a big pain in the ass in many ways (e.g. parking, standing in long lines just to use the restroom, etc.). I only went to one big show last year, and that was just because I was the official photographer for one of the opening acts. For the people waiting to see the show it was hideous, with a long long wait in a long long line in the hot hot sun. Small local shows is what I do nowadays.
Chris31
March 22, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
Being legally blind buying tickets is kind of a chore for me. Venues want to put me in wheelchair seating when i am move around just fine. My only problem is not being able to see what’s going on up on stage. My vision is 20/300 so what most people see at 300 feet i have to be at 20 feet to see the same thing. I prefer not to be on the floor but close enough to use my binoculars to see the stage (normally 20 rows back lets me see the show with binoculars) but would not turn down the front row if offered because it lets me enjoy the show without binoculars.
I have had plenty of larger venues work with me but smaller ones have more of a problem with my request. The venue usually takes my card information and runs the order when tickets go on sale.via ticketmaster ext. I never know where my seats will be other than close as possable but i do have a good idea if i had purchased tickets to the venue before. Most of the time they let me do 4 tickets only.
I have sat front row one time…to see Alabama at The Fox a few years back. Wife is a huge Alabama fan. It was very nice not having to use my binoculars. But that Jeff Cook is creepy and he kept looking me in the eyes when I put my arm around my wife (was standing maybe 5 feet from him). He was so creepy my wife was feeling uncomfortable. I live about 45 minutes from Fort Payne and was talking to a guy who used to fight chickens with Randy Owens (i do not agree with chicken fighting by the way) and he told me that Cook had always been a little off from the first time he had met him. I have heard other accounts of him screaming at kids who wanted an autograph while he was eating at a local restaurant. Other than Cook that the show wasn’t half bad.
Would love to sit front row more but my wife hates the front and I’m always scared the venue will think I’m nothing more than a scalper and that i will loose credibility for seats I need.
When i saw Garth Brooks and George Strait i crossed checked the tickets from each show with what the same section was selling for on stubhub and its crazy what the tickets in my section were marked up too. Its very unfair who these resellers can get a way with.
Carolinacowpunk
March 22, 2016 @ 1:43 pm
I sure hope this subject continues to be talked about, and other artist who can make a difference, like Eric Church and Garth Brooks, will join in the effort. I tried for 3 different venues to get fan club tickets for George Strait “last” tours, and they went on sale and 1 second after the start of the sale I couldn’t get the 4 tickets alloted to me as a fc member!
Matty T
March 22, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
Saw Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit with Shovels & Rope just recently with my lady. Logged on to the venue’s website the second tickets went on sale (through Ticketmaster) and the best seats they had for 2 together were in the mezzanine. Obviously I bought them but it left me puzzled as to why the only seats together were so far back and now I know why. Regardless, the show was incredible and we enjoyed ourselves but still, scalpers are the bane of live music.
Andrew
March 22, 2016 @ 2:51 pm
I don’t go to concerts, but I went to an Alabama football game last year and ended up paying stubhub twice the list price on the ticket. I hate having to go through stubhub, but its the only way to get tickets to something with that kind of demand. Scalpers suck.
Boatwrong
March 23, 2016 @ 11:22 am
I hate Stubhub and Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Fuck them. I go to a good number of shows every year and hate having to deal with them. Just got tickets to see Stapleton in Simpsonville, SC and their fees are ridiculous. Saw the Stones last year in Atlanta and tickets sold out in less than 15 minutes (had my alarm set though). My favorite shows to go to are at venues like The Orange Peel in Asheville or The Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA. Those venues usually don’t have the problems like bigger venues do.
D. Wayne
March 26, 2016 @ 8:10 pm
This is a major problem. Seems like anything that is pure is commercialized in an instant. Sad.
Lone Wolf
March 26, 2016 @ 8:31 pm
I never realized until reading this article that Stub Hub gets tickets before they go on sale. How does that happen??? I applaud Eric Church on how he handled the ticket situation at the Red Rocks show. That’s probably the only step an artist can take until they get everything under control. I agree that buying tickets for someone as a gift is difficult seeing that you need to provide your ID and the credit card you used to make the purchase. I’ve never seen that option buying tickets. Great points that everyone has pointed in in ‘this subject.
rogue
April 4, 2016 @ 5:27 am
Record companies are into it as well.They always like to play dumb and blame the consumer.Lots of seats have already been sold way before the show ,to make sure that the concerts say ”Sold Out'”.
Viagogo – The Great Ticket Scandal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgW9n04aqfo
kgf
February 21, 2017 @ 5:04 pm
what can you do we live in a capitalists country. Stop electing capitalists to office… but wait that would make us all commies wouldn’t it. seems silly to me to cry over spilled milk. as American consumers we are gouged on everything. get over it and live to deal with the monster we all created or vote for commies.