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Ticketmaster is already infamous for making it anything but easy to secure concert tickets—but now a new price-surging policy is drawing fresh scrutiny from frustrated fans.
Welcome to the world of dynamic pricing, where customers pay different prices for the same tickets depending on demand. In short: Mediocre seats can suddenly cost hundreds more, based on popularity, availability and where you fall in the queue.
While Ticketmaster allows the feature, artists ultimately choose whether to opt in, decide how many tickets sell before dynamic pricing kicks in—and set a ceiling for how high prices can climb. The system mirrors basic supply and demand—in this case leaving fans to foot the bill.
One Raleighite secured VIP BTS tickets for ~$600 after taking the day off of work to sit in the queue. “That’s actually great for VIP, and we’re super close to the stage,” she says. “Last time, they were almost $1,000 apiece, so this was a much better deal.” BTS opted out of dynamic pricing, she notes, and while the queue was still long, fans noticed a major difference in ultimate cost.
It’s a fight for fanbases across the board, not just mega popstars’ fandoms like that of BTS or Taylor Swift. And not every artist follows suit. When Noah Kahan tickets went on sale for his July show at Carter-Finley, Raleigh fans fought through queues of thousands, only to encounter jaw-dropping prices. The show quickly sold out, and resales now range from $340 to upward of $2K.
The pricing confusion came as a shock to some fans. While dynamic pricing was said to be off, fans report paying very different prices for very comparable seats. Kahan attempted to avoid a ticketing frenzy by opting into Ticketmaster’s Face Value Ticket Exchange, where tickets can’t legally be resold above their original price and are nontransferable. Still, listings appeared on resale sites like StubHub, SeatGeek and Vivid Seats—leading some to question whether those tickets were legitimate or simply workarounds by scalpers.
“I tried to get legit Noah tickets and was denied,” a local tells RM of her ultimate resort to StubHub. “I’m not even sure they will work. I would have physically waited in line for these tickets—and preferred that over buying scalped. I hate being part of the problem, but I hated missing Noah Kahan more. What can I say, shit’s a dumpster fire.”
Ticketmaster maintains that artists control dynamic pricing and the model reflects real-time demand—arguing the system helps prevent scalpers from capturing most of the profit. Critics, however, say it simply shifts sky-high resale prices straight to fans. But every time the familiar ticketing outcry arises from a fanbase, the artist blames Ticketmaster. So the cycle continues, until policies change—or fans give up.
Other artists are experimenting with ways to protect fans. For his upcoming hometown Fayetteville show, NC-native rapper J. Cole limited early access to fans within a 30-mile radius—giving locals first dibs.
Still, the broader pricing problem remains. Dynamic pricing has quietly become standard across major tours, and it isn’t limited to music—similar demand-based models are now common for sports tickets, flights and even short-term rentals.
For concertgoers, the result is simple: The race to buy tickets is getting faster, pricier and far less predictable.
Pretend Presale
To get a presale code, fans often just click on a link or enter their email on an artist’s site. In practice, that means nearly everyone gets access—turning the “presale” into just another ~sale.~ Miss the sign-up window, though, and you may already be out of luck.
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