Foreign

The Cure’s Robert Smith Denounces Ticket Resale Scammers Ahead of North American Tour

Published

1 week ago

March 16, 2023

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Waitlist Confusion and Exorbitant Prices

Tickets for The Cure’s North American tour go on Ticketmaster Verified Fan sale today at 10 AM. Did you get in, or get stuck on the waitlist? Most of my friends, at least the ones posting about it on Facebook, seemed to get put on the waitlist. Meanwhile, over the weekend resale sites had Cure tickets listed for exorbitant prices — even though no tickets for the tour had been sold yet and no ticket prices announced — which added to confusion among fans.

Robert Smith’s Twitter Warning

Robert Smith, who had already said “we want the tour to be affordable for all fans,” took to Twitter on Monday, in his usual all-caps style, to say, “ALL THE ‘SECONDARY TICKET MARKET’ SITES SHOWING INSANELY PRICED CURE TICKETS ARE A CON – NOT ONE OF THESE SCAMMERS HAS A GENUINE TICKET FOR SALE – PLEASE DON’T FALL FOR IT – WAIT TO SEE HOW YOU GET ON THROUGH THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION CHANNEL.”

Response to Registration Overwhelming

TM HAVE JUST TOLD ME “ALL tickets for The Cure Shows Of A Lost World Tour will be made available during tomorrow’s Verified Fan Sale” SEEMS THE RESPONSE TO REGISTRATION HAS BEEN PRETTY OVERWHELMING – THANKS! HOWEVER, I REALISE THERE ARE PROBLEMS, SOME MORE REAL THAN OTHERS…

Final Say on Ticket Pricing

WE HAD FINAL SAY IN ALL OUR TICKET PRICING FOR THIS UPCOMING TOUR, AND DIDN’T WANT THOSE PRICES INSTANTLY AND HORRIBLY DISTORTED BY RESALE – WE WERE TOLD “In North America the resale business is a multi-billion $ industry. The touts are sophisticated businesses that are expert at acquiring tickets, and the major marketplaces like Vivid, Stubhub and Seatgeek spend tens of millions of dollars on marketing. The touts get an unfair share of tickets and resell them on these marketplaces.”

Verified Fan Platform and More/Bigger Shows?

WE WERE TOLD “Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform has been used more than 400 times to qualify buyers and reduce the % of tickets on the secondary market. Using Verified Fan scalping is regularly reduced by 80%, with typically fewer than 5% of tickets on the secondary market after a Verified Fan campaign. Listed below are a few of the artists who have effectively used VF to limit resale.”

…AND/OR WE SHOULD PLAY MORE/BIGGER SHOWS? HA!!! ONWARDS…

No Presale: Tickets Available Until Sold Out

As for those wondering if today is a just a presale, he says The Cure were told “We will continue to sell tickets to those who are verified until there are no more tickets to sell.”