How The Cure showed what’s right – and wrong – about ticketing [Bill Werde]

The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith began his crusade to protect fans even before tickets for the band’s new tour went on sale. His concerns about high Ticketmaster fees evolved into a rage as dynamic pricing and scalpers took over. Along the way are valuable lessons about communicating with fans and what’s right and wrong with ticketing overall.

by Bill Werde

A version of this essay first appeared in his free, weekly Full Rate No Cap email. Werde is a former Billboard Editorial Director and Director of The Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

For folks studying and trying to create fan-friendly solutions in the ticketing business of late, The Cure are an aptly named band. Frontman Robert Smith’s choices and public communications are creating a treasure trove of insight if you know where to look and what you’re seeing.

Last week we covered how Smith was basically writing the manual on how superstar artists can and should advocate for their fans. It requires: 1) caring, 2) wading into some complexities, and 3) refusing to compromise. Smith has basically created the masterclass on how any superstar should value their fans. 

But this week, we get to pore through the public data of the on-sale. It doesn’t disappoint. The Cure did almost literally everything a band could do to stop scalping and skyrocketing prices, and yet still, every market has hundreds of marked up tix for sale.

So what’s going on? Let’s dive in.

Vivid Seats Is Not Respecting The Artist’s Wishes

One fascinating aspect to the Cure on-sale is that both Stubhub and Seatgeek have declined to sell any tickets to the shows, except for the shows in New York, Colorado, and Illinois; Seatgeek isn’t even selling those.

These three states are among the small handful that ban limitations on resale; these states think they are being fan friendly, but really, they are just being scalper friendly, and removing an artist’s ability to control what happens to their concert tickets.

But Vivid is the one large secondary market site that has essentially issued a giant “screw you” to The Cure.

I’m told that SeatGeek typically plays ball when asked by Ticketmaster on behalf of artists to restrict resale, but that this is the first time Stubhub has done this. I think this speaks to how the increased scrutiny of ticketing is already leading to some positive change. I’m also told that Vivid Seats has never respected this sort of artist request. 

photo credit: Robert Smith (musician) via Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0