By: Ozzie Garibay
Sturgill Simpson has recently joins forces with artist allies on the war against ticket scalpers. A war that started back in the mid 90’s with Pearl Jam against Ticketmaster Monopoly. We have seen ticket fees skyrocket while standing in line at a local Tower Records to ticket prices skyrocketing, plus fees and service charges on top with online agencies(bots). Buying a ticket for your favorite artist has become a battle against time and your bank account. A handful fans will get a shot at getting a pair of tickets at face value at the time they go on the market, while the rest of the fans will simply be denied seconds after they go on sale, turning them to online scalpers(bots) with prices up to five times the face value for the lowest price ticket plus the service charge. In most cases the service charge is half the ticket price.
Sturgill recently posted his plan to fight on Facebook . “We are working on an experimental ticketing system that will (HOPEFULLY) prevent scalpers/bots from ruining the live music experience for everyone. It infuriates me to see so many people who have supported us from day one being shut out from the opportunity to come to our show for a price I designate. I know exactly who I work for and my tickets will always be affordable and no amount of trophy’s in the world will ever change that.
In the meantime the only way to put a stop to this is for people to stop buying tickets from scalpers all together or to make so much noise it forces politicians/Ticketmaster to stop taking money from Stub-hub lobbyists that pay them fat stacks of coin to keep online scalping legal. EVERYONE is fed up I assure you and we will be cancelling out bot purchased tickets and putting the reclaimed tickets back up for sale at normal price.”
Congress passed The BOTS Act late 2016 to slowly get rid of these online scalpers, but they have not slowed down a bit forcing the fans to either pay to much or have artist look at empty seats to a sold out show.
City Music Live 