Fans call out Lady Gaga over obscene concert ticket request

Little Monsters have been forced to make an impossible choice - missing out on seeing their favourite artist, or dropping a month's worth of grocery money on a ticket.

Let’s face it, concert tickets are too bloody expensive these days.

When groceries and other necessities are as pricey as they are, you cannot expect people to pay $400 for a GA ticket. It’s a huge reason why the live music scene is dying.

But, if it’s their favourite artist, many people will fork out a little more money - if they’re given enough notice, and platforms are transparent about just how much a seat is going to set them back.

Unfortunately for Lady Gaga fans, none of this has been the case - and people are pissed.

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Image: Instagram / @ladygaga, Ticketek.

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Sorry, Little Monsters!

When it was first announced that Lady Gaga was going on tour, and would be making multiple stops in Australia, Little Monsters everywhere couldn’t have been more excited.

Lady Gaga, despite consistently releasing music, hasn’t done a show in Australia in 11 years, meaning demand was at an all time high - especially this week, following the absolute show she put on at Coachella.

However this excitement and eagerness quickly turned to disappointment, and even anger, as details around ticketing were slowly announced.

Gaga’s Aussie shows were announced last Wednesday, April 9, to be held in Sydney at Accor Stadium, Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, and Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium this December.

Tickets to the Melbourne and Brisbane shows would be sold on Ticketmaster, whilst Accor’s partnership with Ticketek meant promoter Live Nation had to turn to them instead for the Sydney show.

However, no prices or tiers except those for VIP hopefuls were announced at the time - nor was a vague range of $113.06 to $1,581.12 given until people were already in a presale queue of over 150,000 people in Sydney alone.

And, to make matters worse, there were no real ticket brackets, with multiple seated tiers all simply labelled as ‘Reserved Seating’, ranging from $120 to $622 with no specifically correlated sections.

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@almostaranga

♬ There is no way in hell this is 5 million dollars - itsgivinfag

The real villain is dynamic pricing

As I’m writing this, before April 17th’s general sale, I can go onto the Ticketek and Ticketmaster websites to theoretically buy a ticket to any of Lady Gaga’s Aussie shows - shows that under any other circumstances should have sold out immediately given the extreme hype.

However, what I’m met with is tickets in Sydney, in sections 321 and 320 for a whopping $622. Standard, seated tickets are on sale on Ticketmaster in Melbourne for $699.38.

To put this into perspective, for Taylor Swift’s Sydney shows at the same venue, these seats were labelled as G Reserve tickets, and were sold to fans for $79.90. Yep, you read that right.

This, along with vague messaging on both Ticketek and Ticketmaster’s websites alluding to the potential of changing ticket prices, has led fans to believe that dynamic pricing is in place.

Dynamic pricing, also sometimes referred to as surge pricing, is a business strategy put in place by artists and promoters like Live Nation, enabling them to raise the prices of certain tickets that are ‘in demand’.

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@jacindachenelle

Replying to @elise the message is still there, just removed from her ticketing page. 😵‍💫 #ladygaga #ladygagavideos #themayhemball #ticketek #ticketmaster #dynamicpricing

♬ Storytelling - Adriel

This is no new thing - I remember being so upset that dynamic pricing was in place for Harry Styles tickets two years ago, however with the prices only hiked up $100 or less at the time, I had no idea how good I had it.

Live Nation has spoken out to other media outlets saying that dynamic pricing has not been in place for Lady Gaga’s ticket drops so far.

Ticketmaster told Kidspot the same thing when we reached out, adding that they provided fans with both the minimum and maximum prices for tickets - so no tickets will be sold over the maximum amount.

"Ticketmaster does not have surge pricing or dynamic algorithms to adjust ticket prices. Tickets were priced in advance of the sale and set at the individual seat level," a Ticketmaster spokesperson said.

So, why nosebleeds are selling for close to $700 when others have purchased similar tickets for far less money, we may never know.

Many have turned to blame Gaga herself, referencing artists like Swift who openly spoke about the failures of platforms like Ticketek, Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

She reportedly refused to use dynamic pricing for The Eras Tour, and spoke out against Ticketmaster and Live Nation specifically due to the constant crashing of their platforms and the number of hidden fees.

This ultimately resulted in the U.S. federal government, co-signed by 29 U.S. states, filing an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation–Ticketmaster, alleging unlawful business practices.

Though I’m sure Gaga isn’t in on all of these meetings personally, maybe it is time for her, and other artists, to stand up?

Is there anything that can be done?

Fangirls everywhere have been battling the war against ticket retailers for years now.

At the moment, there isn’t really anything you can do but hope for cheaper tickets down the line, or resale tickets (directly from Ticketmaster and Ticketek only, of course, to avoid scammers and scalpers).

However, there are multiple petitions going around requesting for the Australian government to put an end to dynamic pricing and hidden fees altogether - so maybe there is hope for the future?

Kidspot has reached out to Live Nation for comment.

Originally published as Fans call out Lady Gaga over obscene concert ticket request