By Danielle O’Connor, Staff Writer
If you tried to buy a concert ticket off Ticketmaster recently, you probably found yourself stuck in the queue, staring at your screen, and anxiously waiting to buy tickets. When you finally reach the ticket site, you’re greeted with outrageous prices. Some people comply and spend the money for their favorite artists while others are outraged at the monopoly that Ticketmaster has become.
Junior musical theatre major Liana Genao shared her thoughts on Ticketmaster’s control over the ticket buying market.
“I used Ticketmaster to buy tickets to Gracie Abrams this past fall for my best friend and I,” Genao began. “ It was definitely a struggle to get tickets. As a lot of Ticketmaster users say, ‘I fought the Ticketmaster war.’ I had, as you can imagine, over 20,000 people ahead of me in the queue and when I finally got through it told me that all tickets were sold out. I then refreshed and still stayed on the page for about the next hour and a half. Tickets would show up and then disappear in a matter of seconds before I could even get them in my cart. I finally got lucky and two tickets showed up that I was able to snatch up for $150 each.”
Beyond the overall inconvenience that the queue has caused for many individuals who
use the application, the way the app functions raises a bigger concern: why does buying tickets feel like such a battle in the first place?
Buying tickets is supposed to be an enjoyable experience yet, in this day and age, it feels like a tug-of-war battle with scalpers and bots. The issues rising to the surface surrounding Ticketmaster sparks concerns as many users urge the government to step in to fix this monopoly mess. The site, which serves as a platform for the consumers truly has shown over time it cares more about additional revenue they bring in rather than the overall customer experience.
Genao shared a negative online ticket buying experience she had with scammers a few years ago.
“A couple years back I got tickets for one of my favorite artists. I wasn’t able to get tickets in the presale or the general sale, but was able to find reseller tickets that weren’t too ridiculously upped in price,” she said. “It wasn’t until the night of the concert that I found out they were scam tickets. I had to fight Ticketmaster for months trying to get a refund, but they refused and it was frustrating to communicate with their help center.”
Genao isn’t the only student on campus who feels this platform has become an issue. Junior musical theatre major Megan McMurray shared her experience and feelings regarding Ticketmaster.
“I just bought beyoncé tickets for about 200 each for me and 2 friends and it was absolutely horrible,” McMurray began. “I tried one day and being 7,000 in line out of probably 100,000, when I made it through the queue they were out of tickets. The next day we barely got tickets in our price range from being 5,000 in line. And we didn’t even get seats together. There were so many complications and annoying things I had to go through to even get in to see the ticket map, and when I did, it was lagging and just awful.”
McMurray’s and Genao’s experiences are only two examples out of a countless number of fans that have faced issues when dealing with Ticketmaster. This chaotic, stressful process feels more like a high-stakes gamble than a simple purchase. The long queues, sellouts, and glitches aren’t just inconveniences.
They highlight a system that prioritizes its own benefit over the customer’s experience and make consumers and society as a whole step back and question who brands care about more? – themselves or the customers.
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