Bruce Springsteen excited fans earlier this month by announcing plans to tour North America with his E Street Band for the first time since 2016.
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That excitement quickly turned sour as they logged into Ticketmaster to try and buy tickets and found that the high-demand show was retailing for thousands of dollars. Though the tickets varied in price, some of the “platinum” tickets cost as much as $5000 when they first went on sale.
The astronomical prices were a result of Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” model, which seeks to squeeze out scalpers and peer sites like StubHub and SeatGeek. The idea is that Ticketmaster can charge a large sum for tickets when they first go on sale and if the tickets are still available later on, the prices might drop. The practice has been pissing off ticket buyers for a few years now, but $5000 for a Springsteen show seemed to be the final straw for many.
Now, as Variety reports, Ticketmaster is defending the whole Springsteen debacle, claiming that only 11% of the tickets sold last week were at the “platinum” price and only 1% were $5000 or more. The company then went on to claim that the average Springsteen ticket sold for around $300 – which is still expensive, albeit not used-car expensive.
Ticketmaster also claimed that “prices and formats are consistent with industry standards for top performers.”
Springsteen has not commented on the whole controversy as of yet, but as Variety points out, he sold his masters and publishing rights to Sony last year to the tune of $500 million – so he could probably live without your $5000.
“bruce springsteen should write a song about a working man refinancing his car and home to purchase bruce springsteen tickets,” wrote @johnsemley3000. “i got a sixty-nine chevy with a three-ninety-six fuelie heads and a hurst on the floor i had to sell it to go see the Boss at the Wells-Fargo Center”
Check out some disgruntled fan tweets about the situation below.
(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for SUFH)
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