A series of music artists from Ed Sheeran to Taylor Swift and The Cure to Tom Grennan have refused to use dynamic pricing on tickets – a ticketing method which has caused fury among Oasis fans.
Standard tickets for the Manchester band’s reunion tour more than doubled from about £150 to £350 on Ticketmaster’s website amid a scramble on Saturday.
At least 450 people have since submitted official complaints to the advertising watchdog about the issue, and the Government has pledged to look into the use of surge pricing in its forthcoming review of the secondary gig sales market.
Ticketmaster claims prices are set by the event organiser, and it has been claimed that Oasis could have rejected the pricing model and kept prices lower for fans.
But other bands have previously hit out at dynamic pricing, including The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith. He once labelled it a ‘greedy scam’, adding: ‘All artists have the choice not to participate – if no artists participated, it would cease to exist.’
Both Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift decided not to use dynamic pricing on their recent tours
Tom Grennan (left) and The Cure’s Robert Smith (right) are both against dynamic pricing
Former Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton fixed prices at just £35 for his upcoming UK tour
Tom Grennan also refused to allow dynamic pricing on his tickets, tweeting in 2022 ahead of an arena tour that ‘VIP’ and ‘platinum’ options were ‘just bollox in the middle of a cost of living crisis.’
Former Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton fixed prices at just £35 for his upcoming sell-out UK arena tour, despite being told by promoters to charge more – telling the BBC: ‘We’re getting paid enough and we want to keep it low for you.’
Frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff has also hit out at high ticket prices, and previously called on the ticketing industry to allow artists to ‘opt out of dynamic pricing’ and be able to sell them at a price they choose.
Both Sheeran and Swift decided not to use dynamic pricing on their most recent tours in the UK, and Sheeran has also been particularly outspoken against ticket touting.
Following the Oasis ticket furore, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has now received 450 complaints about Ticketmaster adverts for the gigs.
Oasis fans spent hours in the queue for tickets on Saturday before facing surging prices
A Ticketmaster screengrab on Saturday showing ‘in demand’ prices for Oasis in Manchester
A spokesperson for the UK’s regulator of advertising said the complainants argue that the adverts made ‘misleading claims about availability and pricing’.
They added: ‘We’re carefully assessing these complaints and, as such, can’t comment any further at this time. To emphasise, we are not currently investigating these ads.’
Ticketmaster said it does not set prices and its website says this is down to the ‘event organiser’ who ‘has priced these tickets according to their market value’.
Many fans also missed out on the reunion tour tickets as they battled with website issues, and being mislabelled as bots, before Oasis announced all 17 shows in the UK and Dublin had sold out.
Yesterday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy released calling the inflated selling of Oasis tickets ‘incredibly depressing’.
‘After the incredible news of Oasis’ return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live’, she said.
A photograph of Liam and Noel Gallagher released last week as they confirmed the Oasis gigs
‘This Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales.
‘Working with artists, industry and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.’
House of Commons leader and Lord President of the Council Lucy Powell was among those hit by dynamic pricing on Saturday, and eventually forked out more than double the original quoted cost of a ticket for an Oasis show.
Ms Powell said she ended up buying two tickets for £350 each for Heaton Park in July, which were originally quoted at £148.50, not including a booking fee of £2.75.
The Manchester Central MP told BBC Radio 5 Live that she does not ‘particularly like’ surge pricing, before adding: ‘It is the market and how it operates.’
Oasis fans attending the gigs at Wembley Stadium next summer were hit by dynamic pricing
‘You’ve absolutely got to be transparent about that so that when people arrive after hours of waiting, they understand that the ticket is going to cost more,’ she said.
It is believed the ticket prices for Oasis gigs were set by promoters.
The band’s promoters, Manchester-based SJM Concerts, Irish MCD and Scottish DF Concerts & Events have all been approached for comment.
Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher confirmed their reunion on Tuesday following the end of their more than a decade long acrimonious split.
There has also been concern about the non-official sellers Viagogo, who are listing resale tickets for thousands of pounds.
The secondary seller has defended the practice saying fans sell the tickets, and its global managing director added: ‘Resale is legal in the UK and fans are always protected by our guarantee that they will receive their tickets in time for the event or their money back.’
Oasis have told followers that Ticketmaster and Twickets should only be used for resales, and put up for prices at ‘face value’, otherwise they will be ‘cancelled by the promoters’.