The day the tickets for the Oasis reunion went on sale, Lourdes Barragán spent eight hours in front of the computer and got nothing. “They left at 9 in the morning, a friend of mine had gotten pre-sale codes and we were, from home, with the computer on, prepared for a marathon session,” he recalls in statements to this newspaper.
She went through two different virtual queues. In the first, he waited about two hours, during which time he took the opportunity to install washing machines and prepare food. Then they moved him to another screen. There, you can choose the destination that interests you most. “At that moment, I entered three different queues simultaneously, the only ones I had access to, since I had opened the Ticketmaster page in different tabs on the computer,” he explains.
His colleague, from his device, did the same operation. They stayed like that until noon, when they were finally able to select the destination and access the stage map where, finally, they could choose whether they wanted a seat, a box or a track. However, each time they chose a seat, they got an error and the page invited them to try again. “I’m sure by that time they were all sold out. I think Ticketmaster kept the operation open to generate traffic to their page,” he says. They tried until five in the afternoon in six different cities. Then they gave up.
It was August 31, 2024, and within ten hours, all the tickets for the great Britpop group had been sold out. The Gallagher brothers’ first concert will take place in Cardiff on July 4, 2025. That’s still almost a year away.
Concert tickets like Uber rides
The initial price of the group’s tickets was 175 euros, but it doubled to 210 euros thanks to the concept of “dynamic pricing”, which varies according to demand. A practice that not only they used, but that is beginning to be pilloried: the Authority The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reported last week that will investigate Ticketmaster company regarding ticket sales after receiving numerous complaints that the tickets had been inflated. And yet, they sold them all.
According to data from Ticketmaster, the world’s leading ticketing company owned by concert production giant Live Nation, even if the tickets are more expensive, They are selling more than ever.
The question that arises in these circumstances is whether human beings are now ready to –almost– all this for an experience.
This FOMO is a wreck.
According to psychologist Álvaro Gallego Martínez de la Casa, these permitted circumstances are a consequence of what is now called FOMO (from the English Fear of missing out the fear of missing out on something important. “FOMO arises from the onset of anxiety due to the lack of enriching experiences,” Martínez explains to elDiario.es“What makes a person spend so many hours to get a ticket is explained by two factors: the apprehension that other people are having great experiences in which one is not present and on the other hand the perceived need on the part of the individual to be present at all the events in which people from their own community participate,” he explains.
In the concert field, it has great roots and is “very naturalized.” “It also depends partly on our current digitalized social environment, where social validation and comparison are constant, which is why we assume it naturally,” continues the psychologist.
“The way we consume has also changed a lot,” says journalist Héctor G. Barnés from his experience. “Currently, there is too much demand for the existing supply, which causes a lot of frustration. I remember the first concert I went to, Springsteen’s in 1999, at Madrid Rock in Móstoles. Then you went to the store and bought the tickets, or you queued for a while and there was no problem,” he recalls. Arrive, buy and that’s it.
But that’s a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Or even for small concerts in halls. Not for the frontline personalities that everyone goes to. –literally– I want to see it live. “Now you’re always going to be stuck without a ticket. There are people waiting in virtual queues for hours for Oasis or, back then, Taylor Swift, how are you going to get a ticket if there’s a total capacity of 600,000 people and the demand is over a million and a half?” he asks. According to him, “in a bad way”, it’s better to queue online than to have to go to a big city to see if.
Between frustration and desire, another element enters the equation: the resale of tickets.
The grays of legality
“In Spain, in many autonomous communities, it is forbidden to sell a ticket at a price higher than the starting price without authorisation from the organiser and the administration,” explains Rubén Sánchez, secretary general of FACUA – Consumers in Action. The problem is that there is no monitoring in this matter. “I doubt that anyone controls it,” says Sánchez
The only real way for consumers to defend themselves in this case is to file a complaint. “We need to point out that the regulations are not being respected so that the communities can take action and open a disciplinary file, but nothing else,” he explains.
Ticket reselling is a very lucrative business and, to avoid getting your fingers caught, the Ticketmaster platform has the possibility to sell tickets. From fan to fan. This is where a fan who can no longer, or does not want to, go to an event, puts tickets up for sale on the platform and another user buys them. Neither will receive payment/refund from the other until the event takes place, this means that Ticketmaster will have a large reserve of money for a long time with which to manage other events and activities in a process similar to that of banks.
“It is legal, yes, as long as the application does not have a commission on the sale, this way the platform can wash its hands because the prices are not set by it, it is just a means,” explains Sánchez.
Marcos Garcia used the system fan to fan for one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Madrid last May. “My friends and I had bought tickets to Lisbon after an exhausting, stressful and anxiety-filled trip. The tickets had cost us about 145 euros and we were in a place with obstructed vision. Practically backstage. Then the second date happened in Madrid, out of the blue,” he says. He says they immediately started looking for tickets. You could get four per person. They had one left.
The Dutch company TicketSwap, founded 12 years ago, is one of the resale platforms currently active in Spain. They charge 5% of what the seller earns and another 5% from the buyer and limit the surcharge to 20% of the initial price, which is the maximum resale surcharge established by laws such as that of the Community of Madrid.
Just as the use of dynamic entrances is also legal in Spain. On one condition, of course, that they do not set a fixed entrance price and then make it more expensive. The way to report it is the same: request the opening of a disciplinary file.
Prices that move
As the Ticketmaster spokesperson recently explained in a statement, about 75% of European and international tours use dynamic pricing. Some examples of artists who have started to apply this system on their tours are Taylor Swift, Harry Styles or Paul McCartney. Also Bruce Springsteen, who did it only in the United States, and the measure was not very well received by the North American public, who complained about the difficulty and high cost of getting a ticket in their country compared to other territories.
The justification given so far by the platform for implementing this strategy is that it is a tool offered to promoters and artists when the demand for tickets far exceeds the available supply. “What we offer is the possibility of applying dynamic pricing on a limited selection of very good quality tickets,” they said. In addition, they argue that this tactic “reduces fraud and speculation.”
To the question of whether the dynamic price can be capped – whether people can afford it or not – the answer is yes. From Ticketmaster Spain, they point out that a minimum and maximum price can be established, or specific rules for each concert or festival. It all depends on the agreement reached with the organization of the event.
Take advantage of despair
“I sold it for 160 euros through the system, it had cost me about 80 or 90. It was for the 29th and a girl who wanted to go with her boyfriend bought it from me, what I saw was that people were putting them up for sale at exorbitant prices taking advantage of the desperation of others, remembers García who, before acquiring the tickets, had also considered reselling them. “You have to be very careful because it is very easy to get scammed. Twitter was full of accounts saying they had codes and most of them were fake,” he explains.
Andrea Proenza, 28, also got tickets for Taylor Swift in Lisbon. She went with her son and had a similar journey to Barragán. Many hours in front of the computer, a lot of tension, many screens, many emails from you and your family to sign up. She got it. “It was my dream, I’ve been following Swift since I was very young and I would have been upset if we hadn’t made it happen. “I’ve had a terrible time,” he confesses. He asked to telework the day they left to have an opportunity.
The tickets cost him five hours in front of the computer and around 200 euros per person. “They are incredible, but I don’t usually go to concerts and it’s something I’m really passionate about,” he continues.
Proenza admits that he wants to believe that he would not have fallen into the reselling and abusive prices. “I am aware that I say this after having lived the experience, after having enjoyed the concert, and it is somewhat misleading. And then, I am almost thirty, I am older, but what about the girls of 18 and 20 who are dying to see their favorite artist? “I know people who have been scammed.” That is where the element of desperation comes in and, with the emotions, you know.
