Oasis reunion tour ticket prices skyrocket due to Ticketmaster's 'in-demand' market-based surge pricing
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- Oasis fans are upset over Ticketmaster's "in-demand" pricing for the band's reunion tour.
- Surge pricing is a trend across industries, including ridesharing, restaurants, and theaters.
- Ticketmaster says promoters and artists can choose whether ticket prices are subject to demand.
Oasis got the band back together. But a lot has changed since they last sold concert tickets.
The "Wonderwall" singers announced this week they would embark on a reunion tour in the UK. It'll be the first time lead brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher will play together in over 15 years. The tour will have 17 dates in Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Dublin starting July 4 next year.
Oasis, one of the most popular bands at the end of the 20th century, offered pre-sale tickets beginning Friday and quickly stepped into a 21st-century mire: online surge pricing.
Surge pricing allows companies selling products online to increase prices as market demand rises. It all happens automatically and almost instantaneously.
While surge pricing is now commonplace — from trying to hail an Uber after an event to bowling alleys, restaurants, and even golf courses — users of these services all hate it. Now Oasis fans do, too.
They complained over the weekend that ticket prices surged on Ticketmaster after the group decided to add three more dates.
"That feeling when you wait in a queue for four hours only to be told the price of the ticket has risen from £148 to... £355??? Because they're 'in demand,'" Helen Barnett wrote on X. "How is this not illegal?"
According to CBS, tickets for the tour are already being sold on resale websites for up to $7,800. The band issued a warning on Saturday, telling fans tickets can only be officially resold through Ticketmaster.
"Please note, Oasis Live '25 tickets can only be resold at face value via @TicketmasterUK and @Twickets!" the statement says. "Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be canceled by the promoters."
Ticketmaster did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider. The company has made no public statement about the Oasis reunion ticket prices, but its website explains that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices.
"Promoters and artists set ticket prices. Prices can be either fixed or market-based. Market-based tickets are labeled as "Platinum" or "In Demand," the website says.
The practice has caused no shortage of controversy in the last year. Ticket prices for Taylor Swift's billion-dollar Era's Tour also surged on the platform, reaching as high as $5,500 for tickets that normally cost on average about $254.
Ticket prices on the platform increased so much during the Eras Tour that the Justice Department took notice, eventually filing an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation Entertainment.
A report from the American Economic Liberties Project found last year that 68 of the top 100 venues in the world are in the United States, and 53 of those arenas use Ticketmaster for ticket sales. This means that a whopping 78% of the highest-grossing arenas in the world use Ticketmaster.