Live event conglomerate Ticketmaster isn’t having a good quarter. Last month, President Biden jumped onto the company’s hate train, calling them out for the unnecessary, or as he called it, “junk” fees it tacks onto each transaction. Eventually, proposing his plan for the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which aims to chip away at this. Since then, Ticketmaster has allegedly begun work internally to mandate transparency in its pricing at checkout for patrons to get a better understanding of what they are paying for.
However, for many artists, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their anger with the company. The Cure’s Robert Smith is the latest in a long line of musicians calling out the company on social media. After fans of the band began flooding Twitter with complaints as they noticed something off about ticket prices for The Cure’s forthcoming North American tour.
Smith joined in on the conversation to drag Ticketmaster for interfering with ticket prices for their upcoming tour. Yesterday (March 14), he took to his personal profile to write, “WE [The Cure] DIDN’T AGREE TO THE ‘DYNAMIC PRICING’ / ‘PRICE SURGING’ / ‘PLATINUM TICKET’ THING… BECAUSE IT IS ITSELF A BIT OF A SCAM? A SEPARATE CONVERSATION.”
(WE DIDN’T AGREE TO THE 'DYNAMIC PRICING' / 'PRICE SURGING’ / ‘PLATINUM TICKET' THING… BECAUSE IT IS ITSELF A BIT OF A SCAM? A SEPARATE CONVERSATION!)
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 15, 2023
One fan generated some attention on Twitter after they showed that they bought four tickets for $80 total, but after Ticketmaster’s fees, they ended up paying $172, well over double the base price.
the cure deliberately kept ticket prices low and @Ticketmaster was like “lol bet” and charges more in fees than the band is for the actual show pic.twitter.com/Ig0U5Ywcpw
— frank costanza’s lawyer (@_carrrmen) March 15, 2023
Today (March 15), the rocker returned to Twitter to double down on his original statement, writing, “WHAT I MEANT BY THIS BIT WAS… I HAD A SEPARATE CONVERSATION ABOUT ‘PLATINUM’, TO SEE IF I HAD MISUNDERSTOOD SOMETHING… BUT I HADN’T! IT IS A GREEDY SCAM – AND ALL ARTISTS HAVE THE CHOICE NOT TO PARTICIPATE… IF NO ARTISTS PARTICIPATED, IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST.”
WHAT I MEANT BY THIS BIT WAS… I HAD A SEPARATE CONVERSATION ABOUT 'PLATINUM', TO SEE IF I HAD MISUNDERSTOOD SOMETHING… BUT I HADN'T! IT IS A GREEDY SCAM – AND ALL ARTISTS HAVE THE CHOICE NOT TO PARTICIPATE… IF NO ARTISTS PARTICIPATED, IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST X https://t.co/Kj7hjkRGn1
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) March 15, 2023
Fans jumped in to cheer the musician on in calling out the company for taking advantage of fans.