SAN ANTONIO – Picture it: You’ve been waiting for months for your favorite artist to sell tickets to their concert, only to be met by the dreaded Ticketmaster queue. Whether you’re the 100th or 100,000th person in line, the experience of getting tickets is now based on luck, according to San Antonio book influencer Clarissa Briseño, who has booked tickets to popular concerts like Taylor Swift’s more than $2 billion-grossing Eras Tour.
“We had multiple people on different — like their own Ticketmaster accounts — and it was almost a full day” for the Eras Tour, she said. “It was like eight hours of just trying to get tickets. And then when you get those tickets, you put them in your cart, and then they’re gone, or you click them, and they’re done.”
If you’re not able to score tickets during presales or general sales, your only option is to face the reseller market. And that’s where you could find nosebleed seats for thousands of dollars.
“I hate buying reseller tickets, but you know, when you really want to go, you’re going to do what you can. And I think I paid almost $250, probably, for tickets that were maybe like $90,” Briseño said. “But I’ve seen, you know, even in recent (sales), Lady Gaga tickets selling for thousands of dollars for being in the nosebleed seat.”
The Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan group of attorneys general from several states are now suing Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation, alleging they are forcing consumers to pay more to attend live events through a variety of illegal tactics.
The FTC says Live Nation and Ticketmaster have deceived artists and consumers by advertising lower ticket prices than what consumers actually pay and falsely claiming to impose strict limits on the number of tickets you can buy for an event.
The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster coordinates with brokers who bypass buying limits by using fake accounts to purchase millions of dollars’ worth of tickets. Then, those brokers resell the tickets at a significant markup on the Ticketmaster platform.
The FTC said Ticketmaster benefits from additional and hidden fees it collects from ticket sales.
“Americans are sick of having to fork over an arm and a leg to take their family to a baseball game or to see their favorite show, their favorite musician,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson told CNBC last week.
The reseller market has become so expensive for some that traveling internationally for a concert might be a cheaper option.
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“You have people, when the Eras Tour was going on, who found it cheaper to be able to buy tickets overseas and fly over there and get those tickets,” Briseño said. “And I think, you know, a lot of artists are adjusting to it.”
She recommends that artists follow past examples of Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran, tackling exorbitant resale prices by limiting resale and transfer ticket options.
“I think it’s definitely something that needs to be controlled and limited because you see, like, rows that are just bought out by bots in seconds,” Briseño said. “And then when you get to those concerts, you see those rows that are empty, you know? And thankfully, nobody’s buying those resale tickets, but it still stinks because that could have been somebody who really enjoys the artist.”
Ferguson told CNBC, “Ticketmaster knew this was happening and let it happen because a lot of these sales were then going to Ticketmaster’s secondary ticketing platform, and that means that, you know, Ticketmaster and these brokers got the pocket profits.”
While it’s impossible to guarantee a ticket, Briseño said she takes some specific tasks before trying to purchase tickets to ensure a smoother process if she can score them.
“Saving your info on Ticketmaster, logging in (to) your (accounts). Don’t have your account logged on to multiple items. It’s only one account per device, because then it starts flagging you,” she said.
Briseño also recommends clearing out your browser cache and cookies, so you’re not accidentally labeled as a bot. Overall, she advises staying calm and being prepared with your payment information on hand.
“I wish I had more of a solid strategy, but there’s influencers online that try to give you tips and tricks that didn’t even get tickets to Ariana Grande, doing everything that they have done. So, it’s really like the luck of the draw now,” she said.