Ticketmaster who? Artist finds success in old school concert ticket sales

Apr 10 2023, 9:00 pm

Want to buy a concert ticket like it’s 1965? One musician is trying to fight rising ticket prices ahead of her new tour, and she’s going old school to do it.

Maggie Rogers, an American singer-songwriter, says her upcoming Summer of 03 Tour is “going analog” and launched a return to in-person sales and old-fashioned lineups.

“There’s a lot of conversation right now about combatting bots and making sure tickets get directly into the hands of fans, and at a reasonable price. Ticketing fees have never been higher and a lot of people, me included, are justifiably frustrated and concerned,” her Instagram post reads.

Rogers seems to be hinting at several high-profile ticket catastrophes in recent months, including the Taylor Swift tour that led to Ticketmaster being questioned by US Congress, as well as recent outrage from Drake fans over ticket prices being comparable to the cost of a used vehicle.

“I’ve been thinking about this over the last few months and wanted to provide you with another option. So this time, in an effort to eliminate bots and lower fees – we’re going analog. Come buy a ticket like its 1965,” she wrote.

For fans, that meant they had to buy tickets in-person at several box office locations last week, and unlike other post-concert ticket sales lately, there didn’t seem to be an army of fans outraged as a result.

“the peace i felt paying the actual price of the ticket at the box office window thank you
@maggierogers,” one person wrote on Twitter.

Others seemed thrilled that the most they would be paying is $125, and that the money would not be going to miscellaneous fees or seeing tickets sold out by a bot.

Rogers wrote on social media that the experience was ” so unbelievably special i don’t quite have words yet. feeling so grateful and heart full.”

The response also provided a bit of hope of a return for a first-come, first-served model, something which has sadly been replaced with a capitalistic approach where whoever is keen to pay the most lands the best tickets, or whoever buys the most merchandise ahead of time is placed in an early bird queue only to have the website freeze.

While Rogers did sell tickets in person, the artist is not completely in the past. Tickets can be bought online as of Tuesday, but she bypassed the usual suspects like Ticketmaster to sell them and is instead using her website to provide them to people who weren’t able to make it last week.

Rogers has only one tour date in Canada, in Toronto, which is sad news for fans in the rest of the country. Those in southern BC may be keen to travel to Seattle, however, as the artist will be taking the city by storm on August 16.

Daily Hive has reached out to Ticketmaster for comment regarding this story but did not receive a response in time for the deadline.

Claire FentonClaire Fenton

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