The Cure’s Robert Smith criticises Ticketmaster over fees for US tour tickets exceeding face value prices
completemusicupdate.comThe Cure’s Robert Smith has responded to criticism about ticket fees for shows on their upcoming North American tour, which in some cases exceed the price of the actual tickets being sold.The band, he said, had opted to sell tickets though Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system in order to limit the number that ended up on the big bad touting sites (or ‘scalping’ sites if you prefer, given these are US shows).
Despite seeing positives with that approach, Smith said that he was also angry about the high fees charged by the Live Nation-owned ticketing platform.“I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaster fees debacle”, he wrote on Twitter last night. “To be very clear: The artist has no way to limit them.
I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know”.Prior to the tickets going on sale, Smith explained to fans why the band had chosen to sell exclusively though Ticketmaster, saying: “We had final say in all our ticket pricing for this upcoming tour and didn’t want those prices instantly and horribly distorted by resale”.He said that Ticketmaster had assured the band that, by using its Verified Fans system, they could reduce the number of tickets that would end up being touted via North America’s “multi-billion dollar” resale market by as much as 80%.As a result, he continued, the band “were convinced that Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan page and face value ticket exchange ideas could help us fight the scalpers”.“We know it is a far from perfect system”, he went on, “but the reality is that if there aren’t enough tickets on sale, a number of fans are going to miss out whatever system we use.
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