It appears Ticketmaster is taking some of the lessons learned from a few of its recent failures and making some major changes when it comes to the tickets for Beyoncé’s upcoming Renaissance World Tour.
In addition to instituting a SNKRS-like lottery system to ensure that the ticketing systems won’t be overwhelmed again, the company has apparently also restricted resellers, the scourge of any high-demand commodity market (again, see SNKRS).
Apparently, ticket holders won’t be able to sell their seats on Ticketmaster’s platform for more than their original retail price. That means that the extravagant four-and-five-figure prices you saw for acts like Bruce Springsteen will be blocked on Ticketmaster.
Tickets for Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE World Tour cannot be resold for more than the original purchase price.
There is also strictly no ticket transfers outside of Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s resale platforms. pic.twitter.com/uma7giNlFB
— COWBOY CARTER TOUR (@CowboyCarterWT) February 3, 2023
Of course, nothing is stopping enterprising wannabe middlemen from making other arrangements on third-party services, but Ticketmaster is limiting its own liability here. I don’t know if Live Nation (Ticketmaster’s parent company) is more worried about the Senate Judiciary Committee, which issued the company a warning ahead of the pre-sale, or the BeyHive, the most feared stan army of them all.
While Swifties have filed a pair of class-action lawsuits against Ticketmaster in the wake of the sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the Hive counts some of the most powerful folks in entertainment and politics among its members — including former First Lady Michelle Obama. Ticketmaster’s already on thin ice — this time, it’ll need to be on point like one of Bey’s backup dancers or else face the wrath of the swarm.
