Today, scoring big-league concert tickets is a skill worth being listed on your resume. Prospective concertgoers set up multiple devices; counting down the seconds until they can move from a virtual waiting room to a random spot in a long, long queue. All to do, then, is pray that they’re lucky enough to get to the ticket selection page before every seat is gone.
Indian Coldplay fans experienced this pressure to an exponential degree on Sunday. Waitlists held several hundreds of thousands of buyers, causing BookMyShow to crash mere minutes before tickets were put up for sale. Despite the crash, tickets were snatched up and most were ultimately left disappointed when. Despite Coldplay adding a last-minute third show to meet high demands, the concert sold out almost immediately.
Chances are, you or one of your friends was bested in this battle for tickets and you’re wondering what to do next. Do you just accept defeat or do you keep fighting for your rightful spot in the stadium? While it seems like your chance to watch Chris Martin frolic across a glowing stage is gone, thousands of tickets are actually still available. All hope isn’t lost — at least, not if you’re rich.
On resale sites, Coldplay tickets are listed for up to 3 lakhs. No, that is not a typo. Scalpers are reselling a chance to see Coldplay in action for over 10 times their original price. While Coldplay undoubtedly has a huge fanbase in India, many of those ahead of you in the queue were there with the intent of making a profit. So it’s no surprise that fans are pissed that their opportunity to see their favourite band was not just taken, but robbed from them.
Though scalping has always been an issue, illegal mark-ups and resales were once confined to real-world exchanges. Old uncle-types would camp out of venues and lure desperate fans in for a ticket. As a result, their prices weren’t exorbitant; to make a profit, the scalper would have to sell their ticket in a short window of time and their buyers probably wouldn’t be willing to drop bands in an instant.
But the convenience of digital access has transformed the already-treacherous act of scalping for the worse. Today, all a scalper has to be is quick. Once the ticket is in their hands, they can list it for a ridiculous price online because someone, somewhere will almost definitely buy it. People who can afford to buy a ticket that expensive may not have been willing to scour the gates of a venue for a reseller, but that’s not what it takes anymore. Now, any show they want is a short Google search away.
Everyone is obviously entitled to spend their money how they want to. Any big Coldplay fan would jump on the chance to buy a premium ticket if it was within their means. This does beg the question, however, of whether those who score tickets are fans at all, and if they aren’t, what that means for concert culture at large.
Many fans of the group are upset at the thought of missing out on what would be a life-changing experience for them because those with access were given tickets first. This is compounded by allegations that BookMyShow reserved several seats for influencers, politicians, and other privileged members of society.
First and foremost, let’s make this clear: difficulty getting tickets to a Coldplay concert is by no means the biggest problem facing society right now. We’re not saying you can’t watch Coldplay just because you love ‘Hymn for the Weekend.’
Nonetheless, we have to consider how major art and cultural events are being gatekept from the masses. When they’re this difficult to get your hands on, a ticket to a Coldplay show almost feels like a class symbol. And in a world increasingly obsessed with social media, the ability to post concert clips on your story is a new way of flexing your means.
Concerts used to be ephemeral: at most they were captured in shaky glimpses by digital cameras. The motivation to go was then dictated purely by a love for the music you were paying to hear live. But as our personal lives and interests are blasted into the public sphere, open to be judged at worst and envied at best by others, our motivations have changed. Artistic appreciation is not a personal experience anymore. Rather, it is yet another indicator of where one stands in the world.
I wish I could say “Click here to buy Coldplay concert tickets” but unfortunately, all I can offer you are my thoughts, prayers, and, in most cases, condolences. At the end of the day, this Coldplay debacle is really just a microcosm of a complex, corrupt system in a rapidly changing world.
The concert industry, with its now impossible-to-get tickets, mirrors the inequalities prevalent in every aspect of our lives; barriers to entry are no longer just about who loves the music the most, but about who can afford to be part of that experience. Widespread outrage, in this case, is not the result of rabid fans acting out; it comes from a genuine place of frustration towards a concert culture that values profits over people, and access over appreciation.
If you enjoyed reading this, here’s more from Homegrown:
Superboys Of Malegaon Is An Ode To The Collective Legacy Of Homegrown Indie Cinema
Redefining Tradition: In Conversation With Homegrown Label Ekaya Banaras' CEO Palak Shah
Mahesh Shantaram's Photoseries Captures The Unseen Lives Of Bengaluru's Gig Workers