The Cure’s Robert Smith Addresses Problems with Ticketmaster’s “Far from Perfect” System

Eddie Fu
·5 min read
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The post The Cure’s Robert Smith Addresses Problems with Ticketmaster’s “Far from Perfect” System appeared first on Consequence.

Robert Smith has addressed issues with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan pre-sale system, which The Cure decided to use for their upcoming North American tour in an attempt to make sure fans have access to “affordable” tickets.

In a tweetstorm that began on Monday, March 13th, Smith warned fans against purchasing “insanely priced” Cure tickets from “scammers” on secondary market sites. While laying out their ticket policy for the tour, the band said tickets would not be transferrable, while also opting out of “platinum” and “dynamically priced” tickets.

Smith returned to Twitter on Tuesday night and acknowledged the “pretty overwhelming” demand for the Ticketmaster Verified Fan Sale and gave an explanation for their decision to use the platform.

After calling out secondary ticketing sites and citing a statement with statistics about the success of Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform, Smith wrote, “We were CONVINCED THAT TICKETMASTER’S ‘Verified Fan Page’ AND ‘Face Value Ticket Exchange’ IDEAS COULD HELP US FIGHT THE SCALPERS… WE KNOW IT IS A FAR FROM PERFECT SYSTEM — BUT THE REALITY IS THAT IF THERE AREN’T ENOUGH TICKETS ONSALE, A NUMBER OF FANS ARE GOING TO MISS OUT WHATEVER SYSTEM WE USE; AT LEAST THIS ONE TRIES TO GET TICKETS INTO THE HANDS OF FANS AT A FAIR PRICE… AND/OR WE SHOULD PLAY MORE/BIGGER SHOWS? HA!!! ONWARDS…”

Smith added the band had been told Ticketmaster “will continue to sell tickets to those who are verified until there are no more tickets to sell.”

For his final tweet, Smith explained why The Cure opted out of platinum and dynamically priced tickets: “I HAD A SEPARATE CONVERSATION ABOUT ‘PLATINUM’, TO SEE IF I HAD MISUNDERSTOOD SOMETHING… BUT I HADN’T! IT IS A GREEDY SCAM — AND ALL ARTISTS HAVE THE CHOICE NOT TO PARTICIPATE… IF NO ARTISTS PARTICIPATED, IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST.”

Update: In a new tweet, Smith lashed out at excessive ticket fees: “I AM AS SICKENED AS YOU ALL ARE BY TODAY’S TICKETMASTER ‘FEES’ DEBACLE. TO BE VERY CLEAR: THE ARTIST HAS NO WAY TO LIMIT THEM. I HAVE BEEN ASKING HOW THEY ARE JUSTIFIED. IF I GET ANYTHING COHERENT BY WAY OF AN ANSWER I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW. X”

Tickets are currently on sale for The Cure’s North American tour. Try your hand via Ticketmaster.

The Cure’s Robert Smith Addresses Problems with Ticketmaster’s “Far from Perfect” System
Eddie Fu

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