Virgilio Lorenzo Jr

Coldplay's India concerts expose black market for tickets

Article (news)

Deutsche Welle

While millions of fans cheer British rock band Coldplay&#x27;s return to India after eight long years, for many, the only way to get tickets was turning to a shadow market where forbidden deals move faster than frontman Chris Martin&#x27;s fingers over the keyboard.Over 13 million fans joined a virtual line as early as September 22 last year to purchase tickets for Coldplay&#x27;s Music of Spheres&#x27; tour in Mumbai.The surge crashed the ticketing website and kicked out many fans. Soon after, tickets emerged on the resale market for up to 100 times the price.As fans vented their anger on social media, a lawsuit was filed alleging foul play by the ticketing platform, and authorities opened an investigation into ticket scalping.One fan told DW that she found tickets after looking on social media, and paid five times the original price of around $110 (€107).<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/10/21/from-scalping-to-filming-with-flash-let-s-talk-about-concert-etiquette-1247">From scalping to filming with flash: Let&#x27;s talk about concert etiquette</a></div>&quot;I was a teenager without the means or money to attend their concert in Mumbai when Coldplay played in 2016. There&#x27;s no way I was going to let this chance go,&quot; she said.To meet demand, Coldplay added more shows, with a total of five in Mumbai and Ahmedabad between January 18 and 26.<div>Big-ticket shows an expensive status symbol</div>For many young Indians, attending big-ticket concerts has emerged as a status symbol.BookMyShow, the leading company in the sector and the ticketing partner for Coldplay in India, saw sales of live entertainment rise 82% in 2023, according to its year-end report.International names like Bryan Adams, Alan Walker, Maroon5, Ed Sheeran, and Dua Lipa graced Indian cities last year. Domestic artists like Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla hit dozens of cities with packed shows.A black market for concert tickets has grown alongside the hype.Mumbai-based lawyer and Coldplay fan Amit Vyas said it wasn&#x27;t surprise when he failed to procure tickets on BookMyShow. But he was taken aback when no one he knew was able to, either.He said BookMyShow admitted that their servers were down between noon and 12:15 p.m. on September 22.&quot;How is it that over a hundred thousand tickets were sold out in the next fifteen minutes, yet no one seems to have been able to buy them?&quot; Vyas told DW.Suspecting foul play, Vyas filed a public interest litigation on behalf of Coldplay fans, alleging the ticketing platform had colluded with the black market to sell a large chunk of tickets via third party platforms and sellers.&quot;Scalpers were selling an unlimited number of tickets for as much as $15,000 on Viagogo, even before they went live on the exclusive ticketing partner&#x27;s website. How is that possible without BookMyShow knowing what&#x27;s going on?&quot; he said.The lawsuit led to Mumbai Police&#x27;s economic offenses wing opening an ongoing investigation into BookMyShow and third-party platforms like Viagogo.BookMyShow and Live Nation – the producer of Coldplay&#x27;s Music of Spheres tour — among others mentioned in the legal complaint have denied wrongdoing.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/10/21/2ne1-concert-prompts-call-to-probe-scalpers-1807">2NE1 concert prompts call to probe scalpers</a></div>Both companies issued statements condemning resale of tickets, denied association with third party sales platforms and warned fans that tickets bought from the black market would not be accepted as valid entry to the venue.In a statement to DW, BookMyShow said it &quot;worked hard to ensure every fan had a fair chance to secure tickets&quot; and would be &quot;vigilant and proactive&quot; in cooperating with authorities to stop black market ticket selling.Switzerland-based third party website Viagogo clarified that it had no association with BookMyShow.In a statement to Indian media, the company said, &quot;tickets listed on Viagogo come from a range of sources, including multinational event organizers, corporate ticket holders, season ticket holders, sponsors and fans who simply can no longer attend an event.&quot;<div>Black market only for the biggest tickets?</div>Shreyas Srinivasan, the founder of insider.in, an Indian online events dashboard, told DW that the scale of black-market ticketing in India is overblown.He estimates that the size of the black market for live concerts in India comes in at around 10% of formal sales.&quot;It happens only for the premium of premium concerts, maybe top 5% of the shows,&quot; he said, adding that the hype drives the secondary market.&quot;This is always going to be the case for big artists because the demand is going to be thousand times the supply.&quot; Srinivasan said.And reselling tickets is not always lucrative. One fan looking for Coldplay tickets told DW that he was introduced to a ticket resale group on Whatsapp called &quot;grey market.&quot; He was offered a free ticket if he would help with further sales.Chats in the group indicated that after Coldplay added more shows, and the initial hype wore off, demand began to wane around December.Some in the group discussed how they had to cut their losses and resell tickets acquired through other sellers for less than what they originally paid.&quot;Wait for Taylor Swift to come to India, then I&#x27;ll more than recover my losses,&quot; one user quipped.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/11/10/beat-the-fomo-tips-to-scoring-k-pop-concert-fan-meet-tickets-1524">Beat the FOMO: Tips to scoring K-pop concert, fan meet tickets</a></div><div>What can be done to curb resales?</div>Of course, scalping concert tickets is not unique to India.Be it Taylor Swift&#x27;s Eras Tour or highly anticipated cricket matches, high demand means people are willing to pay.Some authorities have taken action against ticket resales.In 2016, the United States passed the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which makes it illegal for computer bots to bypass security and purchase large quantities of event tickets.In parts of Australia, ticket sales are regulated under the &quot;major events&quot; regulation, which deems selling and advertising already purchased tickets for over 10% of face value illegal.However, even if reselling tickets is forbidden, there is no way for organizers to cross check this at the time of entry.Srinivasan suggests attaching tickets to a government ID during purchase, and cross-checking IDs during the time of entry is a simple and effective way to cut down illegitimate reselling.&quot;Of course, it adds to customer frustration. Any ID verification on ground is an operative nightmare but eventually both organizers and consumers will get used to it,&quot; he said. &quot;The issue is less about the secondary market and more about how concerts are organized in India today.&quot;Meanwhile, lawyer Vyas said that the Bombay High Court should have issued guidelines for buyer verification to curb scalping, a request the court denied saying the government is responsible for making legislation. — Mahima Kapoor in New Delhi

For many FOMO-suffering fans, getting their hands on a ticket was tough, and scalpers took advantage with some tickets selling for over $10,000. Now ticketing agencies are in the spotlight.

For many FOMO-suffering fans, getting their hands on a ticket was tough, and scalpers took advantage with some tickets selling for over $10,000. Now ticketing agencies are in the spotlight.