Matthew Hennessey raises the concept of dynamic pricing in “Oasis, Ticketmaster and the Price of Economic Ignorance” (op-ed, Sept. 17). As demand rises, so do prices, especially if a band that hasn’t been together in 15 years announces a reunion tour.
Yet the way Ticketmaster employs this strategy raises significant ethical and economic concerns. When fans are lured in with the promise of a specific price only to face a sudden spike after a website holds them in an hourslong queue, it ceases to be a straightforward transaction. It resembles a high-pressure shakedown more than a fairly operating, consumer-centric business. We wouldn’t accept the same process in other contexts, like medicine or transportation.
If Ticketmaster were merely an “inert” platform, artists would have more partnership options for ticket sales. Such sites often position themselves as mere facilitators, suggesting that artists are responsible for setting high prices. Yet the current arrangement—and the sites’ stranglehold on different parts of the industry—ensures they remain the gatekeepers, dictating terms while deflecting accountability.
The website’s crash during the high-demand sale for the Oasis tour highlights the problem. Not only did it reveal technical shortcomings; it also underscored the lack of competition and transparency in the marketplace. Consumers were left in limbo, forced to navigate a broken system designed more for profit than providing a professional, trustworthy service.
Gerard Scimeca, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, Alexandria, Va.
In the abstract, dynamic pricing is a fair way for artists to be compensated. It’s also delicate, not a perfect science, and it doesn’t work for all artists. Recent tours like those put on by The Black Keys and Jennifer Lopez were canceled for reasons including sluggish ticket sales, caused by pricing that exceeded what the market could bear.
Part of the problem is that lack of competition in ticketing undercuts the principle of supply and demand. Only Ticketmaster offered primary tickets for Oasis, and a single marketplace was given exclusive rights to list resold tickets. Constrained distribution manipulates the market and disadvantages buyers.
Mr. Hennessey notes that a concert ticket is like any other commodity. But the original seller of a book or bottle of wine has no right to dictate the terms of any future secondary sales once he has received compensation. This should be the standard for tickets that have already been sold and for which the artist, team or venue has been paid. A free market would allow fans to shop for tickets and exercise their right to do what they choose with their property.
Read the letter at Wall Street Journal.