Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary have been in the spotlight in both Malaysia and Australia this week as BTS fans prepare to log on next week and compete for tickets for the group’s upcoming shows in the two countries, which take place in December and February respectively.
In Australia, it’s Ticketmaster that has been in the spotlight over the way it’s communicating ticket prices for the shows - or, more to the point, over the way it’s not communicating ticket prices. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, Live Nation has been criticised as promoter of the BTS concerts over rumours tickets are secretly on sale already to those in the know - something the live music giant has denied.
Ticketmaster Australia has come under fire for not providing full pricing information prior to tickets for the BTS shows going on sale next week. Instead, ticket prices will only be revealed when the group’s biggest fans get access to the online ‘waiting room’ during a superfan pre-sale.
As a result fans won’t know how much money they are going to have to spend on tickets until they enter “a high-pressure sales funnel”, according to Erin Turner, CEO of Australia’s Consumer Policy Research Centre - and with no clarity on pricing, fans could be charged different amounts for the same tickets.
She told The Guardian, “Ticketmaster should be absolutely upfront about the cost of a ticket. I’m worried that they’ll be charging different fans different prices, there’s nothing to stop them doing that currently. And by not letting anyone know prices or even price ranges beforehand, fans really face the prospect of being manipulated and tricked into spending more than they necessarily need to for a show”.
BTS fans themselves have been vocal in their criticism of Ticketmaster’s decision to withhold pricing information until the very last minute. One fan group posted an open letter to the Live Nation ticketing company on social media.
“Withholding ticket pricing information until your consumers are already in the waiting room or actively within the sale process places fans in an unnecessary and completely avoidable position of difficulty and stress”, the letter reads.
Without access to “basic pricing information ahead of time”, it goes on, “we are unable to make complete, informed financial decisions before entering an extremely high-pressured purchasing environment during an already stressful cost of living crisis”.
Ticketmaster previously came under fire in the UK in 2024 for the way it communicated the pricing of tickets to the Oasis reunion shows.
During that on-sale the ticketing company employed so called ‘tier pricing’, so tickets for similar seats are segmented, with different segments then priced differently. As the lower priced tickets sell out, the price appears to suddenly increase for fans still stuck in the queue.
Outrage over the way Oasis ticket sales were handled prompted inquiries by both the Competition & Markets Authority and Parliament’s Business And Trade Committee. The latter published a report last weekend expressing concerns about the market dominance of Live Nation and urging the CMA to launch a full investigation into the UK live music sector and Live Nation’s position in it.
When the CMA staged its specific investigation into the sale of Oasis tickets it raised formal concerns about Ticketmaster’s poor consumer communications and said it was considering legal action.
However, that was avoided after Ticketmaster made commitments to improve its future communications, including promising that “fans will be told at least 24 hours before a sale begins if tiered pricing will be used and what that means”.
Many Australian BTS fans have now called on the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission to investigate the poor communication of pricing around BTS shows in the country.
Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the ACCC confirmed that under Australian consumer rights law businesses must display clear and accurate prices and must not mislead consumers about their prices for goods or services.
However, they added, there isn’t technically a requirement to publish pricing prior to products being on sale. The spokesperson went on, “if a business clearly and accurately displays its prices prior to a consumer booking, ordering or purchasing, and does not otherwise mislead or deceive consumers as to price, that business is unlikely to be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law”.
In Malaysia, BTS fans were outraged for a different reason, amid reports that tickets were actually being sold through unofficial channels this week ahead of the official on-sale dates next week.
Social media chatter suggested that VIP tickets were already being sold through unofficial channels, but at a premium price three times the face value. However, Live Nation Malaysia insists no tickets are on sale as yet and won’t be until the pre-sales begin on 3 Jun.
Managing Director Paramananthan Rajagopal has added that anyone selling tickets through unofficial channels this week is a scammer and therefore should be avoided by fans, who should only buy tickets from officially endorsed platforms.