The Cure Vocalist Calls Dynamic Price Determination For Concert Tickets As Fraud

The Cure Vocalist, Robert Smith (Instagram @thecure)

JAKARTA - The Cure vocalist, Robert Smith has consistently voiced his criticism of the concert ticket sales system. This time, the 65-year-old musician criticized Ticketmaster for setting his dynamic price (dynamic pricing).

Smith admitted that he was surprised when he learned about the amount of profit he made from ticket sales. In fact, as a musician, he doesn't want it.

"I thought, 'We don't need to make a lot of money.' My fight with the label is all about how we can lower prices,' said Robert Smith during an interview with The Times, reported Billboard, Tuesday, October 15.

The only reason you're going to charge more for a show is if you're worried that it's the last time you can sell a T-shirt."

Smith does not agree with those who try to sell tickets at high prices. According to him, the affordable ticket price actually makes people want to return to the concert.

But if you have confidence that you will still be here within a year, you definitely want the show to be great so people will come back. You don't want to charge as much as the market allows," he said.

If people save tickets, they buy beer or merchandise. "There's good intentions, they'll come back next time. It's a good vibration that fulfills itself and I don't understand why more people don't."

Regarding the determination of dynamic prices, Smith clearly calls it fraud. The system can be avoided if every musician rejects it.

"But most artists hide behind management. Oh, we don't know," they all know. If they say they don't know, they are very stupid or lying. It's just driven by greed," he said.

For information, the Oasis reunion tour in England sells tickets with a dynamic pricing. This is a complaint from fans, with ticket prices becoming more expensive.

More than that, the high price of tickets is considered to have damaged the image of Oasis as a band for working class in the UK.