Music

Concert tickets are frustrating and difficult to get. Here are some of the elements working against people.

For many fans, buying concert tickets can be frustrating and demoralizing. People wait in long queues and face high ticket prices. Sometimes, they don’t end up getting tickets after waiting. Now, things are getting even harder. Here are some reasons why people are unable to score tickets.

People are competing against bots to secure concert tickets

When people buy concert tickets, they are not just competing against other fans. Bots are able to purchase over 1,000 tickets a minute. People are also using ticketing bot services to help them get to shows. This violates the rules of many ticketing platforms.

“Using bots violates most ticket platform terms and comes with major risks,” said Gilad Zilberman, the co-founder of SeatPick. “Users can have their accounts flagged, purchases cancelled, or payments blocked.”

It can even result in legal action in some countries. 

“This recently happened during Ariana Grande ticket sales, after a number of purchases were reportedly cancelled for violating Ticketmaster ticket purchase terms,” he noted. “In some countries, using ticket bots can also breach anti-bot laws, potentially resulting in fines or legal action.”

Ticketing platforms may think real people seeking concert tickets are bots

The anti-bot systems may, unfortunately, make it more difficult for real people to get tickets. Actions like refreshing too often, having multiple tabs open, using a VPN, or clicking too fast might be flagged as suspicious. This could result in real fans losing their place in the queue. 

“Security companies working with ticketing platforms have described ticket drops as similar to cyberattacks because of the scale of automated abuse,” Zilberman said. “And whilst Ticketmaster has said it blocks hundreds of millions of bot attempts daily, it means the anti-bot systems are often tuned for maximum defence, making it likely that real fans are accidentally caught up in the process too.”

To avoid this happening, Zilberman recommended not refreshing the page, having only one tab open, and staying on one stable connection. 

Other factors are working against people

Ticketmaster’s president, Saumil Mehta, recently revealed that the waiting line positions are not completely random. This has led people to believe that there could be hidden ranking systems that are working against them.

Dynamic pricing, which adjusts prices based on demand, also makes things difficult. Prices sometimes surge to astronomical levels. When some fans make their way through the queue, they might discover that all they have left to select are VIP packages that cost hundreds of dollars.