Concert ticket shopping has become a daunting experience for many fans, who often find themselves stuck in lengthy virtual queues, facing steep prices, and frequently coming away empty-handed. The struggle to secure tickets is intensifying, and several factors contribute to this frustrating scenario.
People are competing against bots to secure concert tickets
Fans eager to buy concert tickets are not just up against fellow enthusiasts; they’re also contending with automated bots that can snap up over 1,000 tickets per minute. Additionally, some individuals are turning to ticket bot services to gain an unfair advantage, a tactic that contravenes the terms of many ticketing platforms.
“The use of bots violates most ticketing platform policies and carries significant risks,” explained Gilad Zilberman, co-founder of SeatPick. “Users who engage in such practices risk having their accounts flagged, purchases annulled, or payments blocked.”
In certain jurisdictions, these actions can even lead to legal consequences.
“This issue surfaced recently during Ariana Grande’s ticket sales when several transactions were reportedly canceled due to breaches of Ticketmaster’s purchase terms,” Zilberman remarked. “In some countries, employing ticket bots is a violation of anti-bot laws, which can result in fines or legal proceedings.”
“This recently happened during Ariana Grande ticket sales, after a number of purchases were reportedly cancelled for violating Ticketmaster ticket purchase terms,” he noted. “In some countries, using ticket bots can also breach anti-bot laws, potentially resulting in fines or legal action.”
Ticketing platforms may think real people seeking concert tickets are bots
The anti-bot systems may, unfortunately, make it more difficult for real people to get tickets. Actions like refreshing too often, having multiple tabs open, using a VPN, or clicking too fast might be flagged as suspicious. This could result in real fans losing their place in the queue.
“Security companies working with ticketing platforms have described ticket drops as similar to cyberattacks because of the scale of automated abuse,” Zilberman said. “And whilst Ticketmaster has said it blocks hundreds of millions of bot attempts daily, it means the anti-bot systems are often tuned for maximum defence, making it likely that real fans are accidentally caught up in the process too.”
To avoid this happening, Zilberman recommended not refreshing the page, having only one tab open, and staying on one stable connection.
Other factors are working against people
Ticketmaster’s president, Saumil Mehta, recently revealed that the waiting line positions are not completely random. This has led people to believe that there could be hidden ranking systems that are working against them.
Dynamic pricing, which adjusts prices based on demand, also makes things difficult. Prices sometimes surge to astronomical levels. When some fans make their way through the queue, they might discover that all they have left to select are VIP packages that cost hundreds of dollars.