That’s that me depresso! News flash – unfortunately, if you are poor, you might have a better chance of seeing an alien in person than watching Sabrina Carpenter in concert.
Suppose you were anywhere near your phone this summer. In that case, chances are that you have not been able to escape from the ongoing enigma that is Miss Sabrina Carpenter, who has taken the world by storm with her critically acclaimed album Short n’ Sweet, filled with smash hits like Espresso, Please Please Please and her latest hit – Taste.
From her tongue-in-cheek humour in her outros for her song Nonsense (RIP Nonsense outros you will be missed!) to her Barbie-like style, it is no wonder that Carpenter’s refreshing presence has attracted many new fans, resulting in an unprecedented demand for her Short n’ Sweet tour. The tour has generated many positive reviews since opening in September, with critics praising Carpenter’s playful stage presence and the 70s-variety show-inspired set.
While the tour has certainly been Short n’ Sweet just like its name, the same cannot be said about its ticketing process, which is deemed an absolute disaster by fans due to its dynamic pricing. According to its ticketing organisation Ticketmaster’s website, dynamic pricing, which is more common in the US because of its bigger ticket resale market, is implemented as an option for artists to stop touting. Thus, prices are adjusted to reflect the demand for tickets to maximise profit. Despite its success in tourism markets, it is pertinent to assert that dynamic pricing is inapplicable to the music market as fans are fighting for tickets at a much more restricted capacity, causing prices to rise to obscene amounts. Consequently, this led many fans to turn to social media to share screenshots of prices in the pre-sale, with a lot of the tickets costing £200+ each for ‘nosebleed positions’ in the arena where you can barely see Carpenter perform. Such a jump in prices is jarring, considering Carpenter’s standing ticket prices only cost £24.50 last tour, which is TEN times less than the current ticket price with objectively better seats before she blew up. Therefore, in an era where inflation is on the rise and the UK economy is in a cost-of-living crisis, no matter how talented Carpenter is, it is unjustifiable to pay a wealthy stranger four times your wage to attend a concert where you are supposed to relax and escape from your financial worries, instead of adding to them.
Regrettably, the chaos did not end there. Like the calm before a storm, when queuing up for tickets, fans were placed in a waiting room which prevented them from seeing the costs of tickets before they were let into the service. Then, by the time they were finally admitted, they were abruptly thrown into the Hunger Games as they were faced with a timer that mercilessly hounded down on them and absurd prices. As if this was not stressful enough, fans also expressed their frustration with the unreliability of the Ticketmaster website, which repeatedly booted people out of the queue and malfunctioned due to the excess demand. As a result, many longtime fans have been excluded from the joy of celebrating Carpenter’s music in person because they could not afford the insane prices, even after going through the grueling ticketing process.
Indeed, the article mainly focuses on the ticket price scandal faced by Carpenter’s tour. Despite this, it is important to note that she was not the first, nor the last participant in this trend of exploitation, as Billie Eilish’s use of dynamic pricing at her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour has also generated criticism, with standing seats averaging at £150 each. The latest outrage over this unscrupulous practice is further illustrated by the controversial ticket sales for the highly anticipated reunion tour for the duo Oasis, which was stated to be sold at a staggering price point of £350 – double the amount of the tickets at face value due to dynamic pricing.
With dynamic pricing being implemented more in the music industry, it seems that we are living in a nightmare where being a fan of an artist you love is a test of your financial ability, rather than a personal celebration of music. However, it is crucial to highlight that the media scrutiny of this malpractice has not been lost on public authorities and some artists, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. After the explosive controversy of the American ticket sales for the Eras Tour in the fall of 2022, leading pop singer Taylor Swift denounced dynamic pricing for the European leg of the tour, allowing fans to stand a fighting chance against securing tickets in the wake of the star’s unforeseen demand in recent years. Additionally, in light of the recent Oasis ticketing scandal, renowned band Coldplay has opted out of dynamic pricing for their upcoming Wembley shows, with Ticketmaster confirming that “all prices for these concerts are fixed at their advertising rate” on their website. The controversial Oasis reunion tour ticket sale has also prompted the Competition and Markets Authority to officially launch an investigation into its potential breaches of consumer laws, to ascertain whether dynamic pricing is transparent for fans and whether fans are pressured into ‘panic buying’ tickets within a short period of time.
Although it is a relief that there is gradual intervention from public authorities to hold ticketing organisations such as Ticketmaster accountable for dynamic pricing, the fact that big artists can freely choose to reject this practice and protect their fans should not be overlooked. At the end of the day, an artist’s success ultimately depends on their fans, as they are the ones who dedicate the time to streaming their music and garnering publicity for their art, thereby funding their income. The least they can do in return is to ensure such fans have a higher possibility of attending their tour as a small reward for their constant support.
Thus, to end the article on a high note, I would like to dedicate a message to all the big artists going on tour – please please please fix your ticket prices and stop exploiting your fans.