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Pearl Jam have promised fans”tickets at fair prices” for the nine concerts of the summer tour in the United States. As explained in an official statement, to protect buyers, the grunge band “has decided to make the non-transferable tickets where permitted”, in order to avoid resale at higher prices on the secondary market, and to sell “about 10% of the tickets with the PJ Premium formula at the market price to compensate for the increase in costs” and thus keep the price of the other ticket categories accessible. In addition, for the first time Pearl Jam will use the policy of “all-in price”, already including commissions, “so that there are no surprises at checkout”. Tickets will be available as part of the programme Verified Fans Of ticketmasters, which offers fans the ability to sign up for an early sale based on buyer verification. “Pearl Jam have always supported their fans and we hope more artists, teams and venues follow their lead and start using the all-in pricing display available on Ticketmaster. It would be better for fans if all-in pricing were mandatory nationwide, but in the meantime we’ve created the all-in display option to help fans see the full costs up front.”
THE CONTROVERSY OF ALMOST THIRTY YEARS AGO
The history between Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster dates back to the 90s. As reported by Rolling Stone, in 1994 the group had expressed a desire not to overinflate the price of tickets, but the company had expected a higher amount. Pearl Jam had therefore sued the alleged monopoly of Ticketmaster, accused of collecting high fees and signing exclusive deals with major concert venues thus leaving consumers and artists with no alternatives. The band had had to give up theaters and arenas and organize concerts in fairs, soccer fields and parks but, after losing the case also examined by the United States Congress, had canceled the remaining dates of the tour.
deepening
Dear tickets, also Neil Young against Ticketmaster
THE CONTROVERSY OF OTHER ARTISTS
Robert Smith, frontman of The Cure, recently asked Ticketmaster for explanations on the “unduly high” fees which, in many cases, even exceeded the price of tickets for the US Lost World Tour. The songwriter got a reimbursement for fans andcancellation of 7000 tickets purchased by scalpers with fake accounts or offered on the secondary market, with a schedule of resale of the titles to fans and donations to charity of the original commissions to Amnesty International. At the end of March, Neil Young also lashed out at the American company, accused of applying heavy commissions on concert tickets: “Artists have to worry about cheated fans who blame them for Ticketmaster surcharges and speculators. Tours are no longer funny”. He also protested a man from Montréal who, after buying two tickets “official platinum” for a Drake show priced at $789.54 each, sued Ticketmaster for “intentionally misleading consumers for its own financial gain.” In February, the Backstreets community formed by Bruce Springsteen fans closed after 43 years in protest against the cost of tickets which, due to the mechanism of dynamic pricing (according to which the price is not fixed, but varies according to demand), have even reached peaks of 5,000 dollars. Finally, last November, Taylor Swift fans stormed the site to witness the The Eras Tour but, “because of the extraordinarily high demands on the ticketing systems, which proved insufficient to be able to satisfy the huge amount of requests”, the company stopped the sales. In January, the US Senate then held a hearing to hear testimony on ticket sales, monopolization, resale markets and Ticketmaster’s influence on the live music industry.
