4 ms·
It's pure rent seeking, it creates no value except for much wealthier people who don't want to remember when tickets go on sale.
by and0 9y ago
It's pure rent seeking, it creates no value except for much wealthier people who don't want to remember when tickets go on sale.
- saosebastiao 9y agoCan you imagine what the world would be like if we had to remember a sale date for a specific airline flight? We'd probably all end up buying from scalpers, the airlines would get screwed out of lots of money, and we'd all be pissed that we'd be buying from greedy no-value middlemen. But from a qualitative and quantitative customer perspective, it probably wouldn't be much different from the way it is now with dynamic pricing...the only difference is the airline makes less money and the scalper would capture the difference. Artists are the problem in this market. They should charge more (which eliminates the incentive to scalp), or play more shows (increasing the supply and lowering market prices) if they don't want to charge more.
- and0 9y agoFlights and concerts are entirely different industries, so this is a silly comparison. These issues don't have perfect Econ 101 answers. Artists can't just play more shows as touring is pretty demanding, and charging more means only wealthier people can attend which (rightfully) looks bad and is a legit moral issue.
- saosebastiao 9y agoArtists can and do play more. Phish in particular is pretty famous for doing multiple shows in the same venue on contiguous nights, as well as doing smaller shows in smaller towns in between larger cities as a way of spreading out demand. And their prices have always been pretty reasonable as a result. More artists should care about their fans enough to do this, but I guess it's easier to just blame greedy scalpers for the ticket prices.