ticketmaster dynamic pricing uk

[Suprefan]

Blink 182 blood money. 

[Muppetmark]

1 hour ago, jannybruck said:

It's also worth noting that dynamic pricing algorithms can also drop prices nearer to the show kick-off if stuff isn't selling. I haven't seen this switched on in the UK yet but I've no doubt a few of the arena tours coming up this autumn/winter that haven't fully sold all tickets might utilise it – Kenny's dates will be a good test to see if this happens as there's a bunch of gigs he needs to fill out still.

Basically we're getting to a point with Ticketmaster-generated shows in particular where there'll be no true fixed price for a lot of gigs and after the original 'start price' they simply fluctuate continually based on demand, muddying the water of what the perceived value of a gig ticket actually is and everyone pays a little differently based on the date they want to go to, seating option, time it was bought, etc.

the problem with it dropping in price is the lack of urgency that helps drive sales. If it might be cheaper later then a lot of people are going too wait it out. I doubt it comes for a long time if at all.

[gfa]

43 minutes ago, barcelonista1899 said:

Rage Against the Machine had a small percentage of tickets at vastly inflated prices for their USA tour. Caveat was that the extra was raised for local charities. Guess that's one way to do it.

Better than TM but i'd prefer a charity raffle than this - as it is still the band charging over FV even if its for charity. Could be used to write off their tax in someway or something. like that potentially. Or at least donate the entire value and not just excess to charity

[Superscally]

10 hours ago, DeanoL said:

Yup - I have to admit I had assumed that a lot of the price rise of arena shows was down to the arenas putting their prices up, increased costs of production and so on. I had assumed arena gigs for less than £50 were impossible. That Heaton is able to do them for £30, and still make a profit (presumably) was somewhat eye-opening.

Hope they're rewarded with sell outs everywhere 

[stuie]

3 hours ago, DeanoL said:

It means that for decades huge portions of the population have been blocked out of popular gigs because they're not able to be sat at a computer at 9am on a weekday as they're at work. (There's a reason Glastonbury runs the sales on a weekday evening and a Sunday morning).

Now with dynamic pricing a different but similarly huge portion of the population are blocked out of popular gigs because they can't afford them.

While dynamic pricing makes things worse for you (and to be clear, for me as well) it's not inherently a "less fair" system than the first-come, first-serve one we had before. It just moves the biases elsewhere. 

I'd personally do fixed pricing with a ballot system as that's the closest we'd get to fair. Failing that do sales in evenings rather than core working hours for the majority of the population. But I don't think either is going to happen.

Firstly, most people are mobile first these days. Not everyone sits at a computer to buy tickets. 

Secondly, how does dynamic pricing help anyone who doesn’t have access to a mobile or computer at the time of sale?

 

[clarkete]

5 hours ago, Suprefan said:

Blink 182 blood money. 

'kinel, imagine paying that for a gig if the sound was rubbish, the band had a bad night or (as I had at what was actually one of my favourite gigs ever this year) you spent the evening worrying about that bout of diarrhoea and whether you were gonna sh*t yourself surrounded by thousands of people. 

[moogster]

- I'm old post -

I miss the days where tickets where on sale on saturday morning at 9 am at the record shop/post office (not in the UK). Lady behind the counter was always heading towards the ticket machine when I entered, ready to type the name of the artist at 8.59.59 sharp.

[Suprefan]

8 hours ago, clarkete said:

'kinel, imagine paying that for a gig if the sound was rubbish, the band had a bad night or (as I had at what was actually one of my favourite gigs ever this year) you spent the evening worrying about that bout of diarrhoea and whether you were gonna sh*t yourself surrounded by thousands of people. 

Thats the risk youll run. And it went higher for my date. 
 

Hilarious though that even when Blink plays festivals that the demand wont be like these solo dates even though it would be immensely cheaper and better value.

[CaledonianGonzo]

8 hours ago, clarkete said:

'kinel, imagine paying that for a gig if the sound was rubbish, the band had a bad night or (as I had at what was actually one of my favourite gigs ever this year) you spent the evening worrying about that bout of diarrhoea and whether you were gonna sh*t yourself surrounded by thousands of people. 

Or if the band came on and comprised the members of Blink-182 playing Blink-182 songs.

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, Suprefan said:

Hilarious though that even when Blink plays festivals that the demand wont be like these solo dates even though it would be immensely cheaper and better value.

That's a good point, this ticketing change makes many festivals look like comparatively great value. 

[DeanoL]

16 hours ago, incident said:

Bollocks.

Marvellous insight mate, well done. Keep it up.

13 hours ago, stuie said:

Firstly, most people are mobile first these days. Not everyone sits at a computer to buy tickets. 

Secondly, how does dynamic pricing help anyone who doesn’t have access to a mobile or computer at the time of sale?

Being sat at a computer isn't the point. You can't whip you phone out and start booking tickets when you're in the middle of teaching a class, or treating a patient, or driving a truck. Or y'know, working in a supermarket where you're literally not allowed to have your phone on you.

And it helps by keeping the tickets available until those people can actually get a chance to book them during their lunch or rest break.

The downside is the pricing means they can only do one a year, instead of the four they might like to. But it's better than the none they were used to unless ticket day happened to be a day they weren't working. Obviously for us it's a downer as we were used to being able to afford tickets to everything we wanted.

It's fascinating how much people are desperate for this not to be a thing. Do you have any friends that just don't do big gigs? Try talking to them about why not - plenty of them will tell you it's such a "hassle" getting tickets - then dig in and find out what that means.

[Crazyfool01]

9 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Or y'know, working in a supermarket where you're literally not allowed to have your phone on you

Not true these days , it did used to be the case. Many companies give you apps that you use on a phone instead of them paying out for equipment . Personally I time my break so I can attempt to get them … but I’m sure others may go to the toilet for a bit 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Crazyfool01

[MEGABOWL]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:46 PM, tarw said:

Devils advocate. 
 

Before dynamic pricing it was the touts that made the huge profits from gigs where demand outstripped supply. They made large amounts of money just by having the resources to buy up tickets. 
 

With dynamic pricing at least the artists get a chunk of the reward for the demand that they have created. 
 

There is no pretence of them being a working class hero anymore 

It’s a fair point. I hate the Dynamic Pricing as much as I hate the touts but the latter made the former inevitable. 

[GeezLouise]

I don't understand how does this stop touts? If the touts get the tickets before the dynamic pricing kicks in, then surely the touts can charge more than they would usually but maybe slightly below the dynamic pricing level so it actually looks like you're getting a barg buying off touts? 

Edited October 13, 2022 by GeezLouise
Edited to make less Essex.

[gigpusher]

4 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Not true these days , it did used to be the case. Many companies give you apps that you use on a phone instead of them paying out for equipment 

Although there are plenty of jobs where you are not allowed a phone or certainly couldn't be seen staring at a phone for over 20 minutes waiting for a ticket queue. I work from home and can do pretty much what I want a lot of the time but if there's a p1 call at the same time as some tickets go on sale then I miss out on those tickets. 

The whole practice is just capitalism at its worst and it should be made illegal. Pick a price for your tour that enables everyone to make a good living from it and sell the tickets for those prices. By all means have tiered prices for those who you think will get a better experience ie lower tier seating cheaper than higher tier seating but fans shouldn't be penalised for not being able to get onto a website as quickly. 

Imagine if they did it for Glastonbury. first people get tickets for face value but by 09:15 they cost about a grand a ticket and all because you didn't get lucky in the f5 finger mashing contest. 

[gigpusher]

1 minute ago, GeezLouise said:

I'm sorry, but how does this stop touts? If the touts get the tickets before the dynamic pricing kicks in, then surely the touts can charge more than they would usually but maybe slightly below the dynamic pricing level so it actually looks like you're getting a barg buying off touts? 

Exactly as I said it before it doesn't stop touts at all it just makes TM the touts and they charge much more outrageous prices than most touts. I am also reading conflicting things about how much more of this money actually goes to the artist but even if it does it's like trickle down economics in that it means the very richest artists already get even richer and as we have seen this week it is actually damaging things for smaller artists. If you've paid £500 to see Springsteen/Coldplay etc you don't have as much spare money to see the Animal Collectives and Santigold's who are having to cancel their tours. 

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Although there are plenty of jobs where you are not allowed a phone or certainly couldn't be seen staring at a phone for over 20 minutes waiting for a ticket queue. I work from home and can do pretty much what I want a lot of the time but if there's a p1 call at the same time as some tickets go on sale then I miss out on those tickets. 

The whole practice is just capitalism at its worst and it should be made illegal. Pick a price for your tour that enables everyone to make a good living from it and sell the tickets for those prices. By all means have tiered prices for those who you think will get a better experience ie lower tier seating cheaper than higher tier seating but fans shouldn't be penalised for not being able to get onto a website as quickly. 

Imagine if they did it for Glastonbury. first people get tickets for face value but by 09:15 they cost about a grand a ticket and all because you didn't get lucky in the f5 finger mashing contest. 

Oh absolutely for sure some can’t do what I try and do …. And I can only do it rarely as I might occasionally go over on my break … just pointing out that supermarket workers probably wasn’t the best example in this instance 

[Muppetmark]

23 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Marvellous insight mate, well done. Keep it up.

Being sat at a computer isn't the point. You can't whip you phone out and start booking tickets when you're in the middle of teaching a class, or treating a patient, or driving a truck. Or y'know, working in a supermarket where you're literally not allowed to have your phone on you.

And it helps by keeping the tickets available until those people can actually get a chance to book them during their lunch or rest break.

The downside is the pricing means they can only do one a year, instead of the four they might like to. But it's better than the none they were used to unless ticket day happened to be a day they weren't working. Obviously for us it's a downer as we were used to being able to afford tickets to everything we wanted.

It's fascinating how much people are desperate for this not to be a thing. Do you have any friends that just don't do big gigs? Try talking to them about why not - plenty of them will tell you it's such a "hassle" getting tickets - then dig in and find out what that means.

Then isn't the solution to change the on sale time rather than legalised touting?

[gigpusher]

Just now, Crazyfool01 said:

Oh absolutely for sure some can’t do what I try and do …. And I can only do it rarely as I might occasionally go over on my break … just pointing out that supermarket workers probably wasn’t the best example in this instance 

Although checkout staff would be a perfect example you couldn't really have your phone when on a checkout at least I have never seen it. 

[Crazyfool01]

6 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Although checkout staff would be a perfect example you couldn't really have your phone when on a checkout at least I have never seen it. 

It’s rare to even see people sat on a physical checkout 😂 but yeah point accepted 

[stuie]

1 hour ago, DeanoL said:

Being sat at a computer isn't the point. You can't whip you phone out and start booking tickets when you're in the middle of teaching a class, or treating a patient, or driving a truck. Or y'know, working in a supermarket where you're literally not allowed to have your phone on you.

And it helps by keeping the tickets available until those people can actually get a chance to book them during their lunch or rest break.

The downside is the pricing means they can only do one a year, instead of the four they might like to. But it's better than the none they were used to unless ticket day happened to be a day they weren't working. Obviously for us it's a downer as we were used to being able to afford tickets to everything we wanted.

It's fascinating how much people are desperate for this not to be a thing. Do you have any friends that just don't do big gigs? Try talking to them about why not - plenty of them will tell you it's such a "hassle" getting tickets - then dig in and find out what that means.

I still can’t understand how changing who the tout is benefits people who might be working at the time of a ticket sale.

Historically, it’s been a ‘hassle’ getting tickets to big gigs because of demand created by touts and secondary ticket sites.  Dynamic pricing does nothing for those that can’t be on the internet at the time of the sale. 

[kingbadger]

6 hours ago, DeanoL said:

It's fascinating how much people are desperate for this not to be a thing. Do you have any friends that just don't do big gigs? Try talking to them about why not - plenty of them will tell you it's such a "hassle" getting tickets - then dig in and find out what that means.

The amount of people missing out due to not being online at 9am is infinitesimal compared to the amount of people who can't afford tout prices that is in effect what 'dynamic pricing' is. What's the point of tickets still being available at 7pm in the evening if they're being sold at 4x the price?

Why are you so desperate for people to pay extortionate, gouged prices? Why are you happy for gig tickets to only be affordable for the richest of folk and for the masses to be outpriced? Is this Liz Truss's alt account? 

[Maurice Mecca]

Dynamic pricing is a terrible development.  Imagine going to the supermarket and let's say they were nearly down to their last block of cheese and ramped the price up on it.  Or you go to McDonalds and their Big Macs were selling like mad so they upped the price on them.  Unfortunately unless bands decide to boycott them and fans stop paying the prices it will continue to be a thing (also any idea what impact these dynamic prices have on the various spurios fees TM charges on tickets already?  Do they increase in line?)

The other element is what happens to the likes of Twickets, how can they police face value resale for anyone honest enough just to want to sell to another fan when the pricing will be so random.

It's driving me to stop going to the larger gigs/venues and back to supporting upcoming/lesser known artists with appropriately priced gigs (whcih may not be a bad thing).

Edited October 13, 2022 by Maurice Mecca

[maelzoid]

49 minutes ago, Maurice Mecca said:

The other element is what happens to the likes of Twickets, how can they police face value resale for anyone honest enough just to want to sell to another fan when the pricing will be so random.

Speaking from personal experience. I had a pair of dynamically priced tickets and tried to sell them on Twickets and they would only list them at the original face value, over a hundred quid less than I had pad for the pair.

[gfa]

8 hours ago, clarkete said:

That's a good point, this ticketing change makes many festivals look like comparatively great value. 

Its been like this years (/forever?). Just look at any time a stadium act has done TRNSMT, R&L, Download etc. Day tickets are always about the same price as standing at their own show