The Cure ticket prices shitstorm

Remember last year when fans got all upset at Bruce Springsteen for using so-called "dynamic pricing" to sell tickets to his U.S. shows, which resulted in exorbitant prices, sometimes upward of 5000 (yes, you read that right) dollars?

Bruce's response to that was disappointing, to say the least. He basically said: I'm in my seventies, time to cash out. When booking the Cure's US. tour, Robert Smith tried his best to keep prices low, but the fees that Ticketmaster charges are so high that some buyers found themselves paying more than twice the amount advertised. And of course, the secondary market, which is a must-million dollar industry and therefore has powerful lobbying capabilities, is now trying to sell those tickets to fans for even more maddeningly high prices.

This fucking industry needs to be regulated. It's not just Springsteen or The Cure. It's rampant at every level. It's been nearly thirty years since Pearl Jam's war against Ticketmaster and nothing has changed. Why? Because most artists are complicit. But "secondary market" ticketing is a parasitic economy and that bubble needs to burst. Fans shouldn't have to mortgage a home to see an artist play 90 minutes. Fans shouldn't get priced out of a night out with their favorite singer.

In full disclosure, we are an affiliate partner of Ticketmaster France (although we have yet to make any money off of that partnership) and the problem is slightly less prevalent here. But we are definitely heading that way.

Here are some of Robert Smith's tweets trying to make sense of the whole debacle. When even the artists have next to zero say in the way their events are being sold, it's a concern. The artists are the ones that drive that industry and the public are the ones that fuel it. In the words of Rage Against The Machine, it's time to take the power back.

WE HAD FINAL SAY IN ALL OUR TICKET PRICING FOR THIS UPCOMING TOUR, AND DIDN’T WANT THOSE PRICES INSTANTLY AND HORRIBLY DISTORTED BY RESALE - WE WERE TOLD "In North America the resale business is a multi-billion $ industry.

— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 15, 2023

I AM AS SICKENED AS YOU ALL ARE BY TODAY'S TICKETMASTER 'FEES' DEBACLE. TO BE VERY CLEAR: THE ARTIST HAS NO WAY TO LIMIT THEM. I HAVE BEEN ASKING HOW THEY ARE JUSTIFIED. IF I GET ANYTHING COHERENT BY WAY OF AN ANSWER I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW. X

— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 16, 2023