The Cure’s Robert Smith is calling out Ticketmaster after the company allegedly doubled the prices for their upcoming North American tour.
“WE [The Cure] DIDN’T AGREE TO THE ‘DYNAMIC PRICING’ / ‘PRICE SURGING’ / ‘PLATINUM TICKET’ THING… BECAUSE IT IS ITSELF A BIT OF A SCAM? A SEPARATE CONVERSATION,” said Robert Smith in a tweet on Tuesday. His words came after a fan posted a tweet, claiming they’d purchased four tickets for $80, but after Ticketmaster’s fees, they total ended up being $172, which is more than double the cost of the ticket’s base price.
TheWrap cannot confirm the authenticity of the tweet, which has since gained 1.3 million viewers at this point. Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to request for comment.
After some backlash online, Smith responded with a slew of tweets calling out the mega ticketing company.
“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,’” Smith continued in his tweets. He even carried over the conversation into Wednesday, reiterating his prior statements and seemingly highlighting the impact of artists’ participation with the company.
“WHAT I MEANT BY THIS BIT WAS… 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,” said the rocker.
Smith is now among the list of artists who have spoken out about Ticketmaster and its ongoing issues. Tickets for the band’s Lost World tour went on sale on Wednesday.