Neil Young will no longer offer Platinum tickets to his concerts after being inspired by The Cure’s Robert Smith.
The ‘Heart of Gold’ hitmaker agrees with his peer that the extremely high-priced premium tickets introduced by Ticketmaster – adjusted based on demand – to give fans access to the best seats in the house without having to go through secondary resale sites are not fair on gig-goers, so from now on, he will not put Platinum tickets up for sale.
Writing on his Neil Young Archives site, he said: “My management and agent have always tried to cover my back on the road, getting me the best deals they could.
They have tried to protect me and the fans from scalpers who buy the best tickets and resell them at huge increases for their own profits.”
Young continued: “Ticketmaster’s high priced Platinum tickets were introduced to the areas where scalpers were buying the most tickets for resale. The money went to me. That did not feel right. Very soon, Platinum tickets will no longer be available for my shows.
“I have decided to let the people work this out.
“Buy aggressively when the tickets come out or tickets will cost a lot more in a secondary market.”
Smith had told The Times last year: “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’
“You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you. If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It is a self-fulfilling good vibe, and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.”
The UK government previously announced that it was investigating Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system, which caused uproar among those trying to bag tickets to Oasis’ reunion tour.
The European Commission launched an “urgent review” into the platform’s ability to raise prices of concert tickets based on demand in light of the inflated prices for the Britpop legend’s highly anticipated ‘Oasis Live ’25 Tour’.
The US-owned company was warned it could have breached UK and European laws over the inflated prices.