Ticketmaster is selling tickets on its own site for a shocking seven times the original asking price.
Campaigners say the Bruce Springsteen gig at Murrayfield is the perfect example of how the giant sales site is determined to “tout its own tickets” - now charging a minimum of £505 for basic briefs at the back of the stadium for The Boss. There are still tickets for sale at 25 separate sections of the Edinburgh ground, two months after they went on sale, at prices few fans could ever afford.
One well established tout told the Record that the Ticketmaster “dynamic pricing” and “platinum tickets” tactics, which are seducing more and more major global acts, are making sky high prices on tout sites like Viagogo look like a bargain.
The tout said: “It’s hard to believe that Ticketmaster makes a case for high pricing to fend off touts. All they are doing is gouging prices for fans and that is driving up the price on resale sites, as Viagogo all of a sudden looks like it’s offering a cut price deal.
“With Springsteen you can get tickets on secondary sites for around £360 - that’s around 40 per cent cheaper that Ticketmaster for an identical ticket.”
The cheapest £505 tickets are in sections at the back of the ground, where the original price was £73.
Other acts to jump on the dynamic pricing bandwagon are Coldplay and Harry Styles - who agreed to a strategy that means two fans could be sitting next to each other at gigs despite paying vastly different amounts for the pleasure.
Ticketing investigator Reg Walker, of the Iridium Consultancy, said: “Ticketmaster dress this as protecting fans and the industry but it does neither.
“Many of those who regularly attend gigs are from the lowest socio-economic groups and we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis. The reality is that many tickets will remain unsold for gigs where the prices are set so high.
“That has a knock-on effect for venues, as they need full audiences to make a profit. It also drives up prices on the secondary market, as they have a benchmark figure to price against and can say they are offering a bargain.
“If Ticketmaster is charging more than secondary sites it will drive trade back towards them.”
He added: “This pricing is common in America, where Ticketmaster makes to bones about seeking maximum profit for themselves and artists.”
Ticketmaster has gradually ramped up its price gouging measures in recent months, confusing many unbelieving fans, who believe tickets are being resold on the site by touts.
When the Springsteen sale opened in July, tickets prices soon stepped up to three times original face value.
But in the past two months they have continued to rise, to levels thought to be the worst seen on a primary sales site in the UK.
One fan tweeted to Springsteen’s management: “Tried endlessly. Cheapest I could get Murrayfield tickets x 2 in excess of £800. 40 years following - deeply disillusioned.”
Another tweeted: “I am one of @springsteen fans who cannot afford a ticket for @Murrayfield in Edinburgh. The ticket cost is sadly eye watering.”
Springsteen’s manager John Landau defended the pricing after similar protests erupted in the States.
In a statement to the New York Times he said: “Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range.”
On Ticketmaster’s site, it explains that dynamic pricing gives fans nothing for their money other than the ticket.
The blurb states: “These tickets vary in price driven by demand from fans, similar to airline tickets and hotel rooms.
“By using this dynamic pricing, we give fans an opportunity to safely buy official tickets for the events they love right up to the date of the show. Platinum Tickets are not part of VIP packages - they are tickets only.”
No-one from the company got back to us about the pricing strategy.
The Boss is heading to Edinburgh next May with the E Street Band for the first time since 1981.
Front standing tickets for the show were originally meant to cost £155 but reached £400 after the first flush of sales completed.
Springsteen is visiting just three UK cities, with two dates in London as well as gigs in Edinburgh and Birmingham.
The 2023 dates will mark the first live shows for Springsteen and the E Street Band since the end of their 14-month, global The River Tour, which concluded in Australia in 2017.
