God Bless Robert Smith.
Although the neverending war against Ticketmaster has been going for decades, it’s only recently that the counter-movement is being taken seriously. When Pearl Jam attempted to take on the ticketing empire almost three decades ago, they were routinely dismissed by venues and lawmakers alike. Now, thanks to the ire of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé fans, it looks like congress is listening. Time will tell if anything actually changes, but it’s a good start.
While mainstream publicity might be on the Beehive and the Swifties (admittedly, two camps that nobody in their right minds should ever want to fuck with), one legendary musician has been instrumental in trying to right these longstanding egregious wrongs.
If anyone is in the vanguard of this fight, it’s Robert Smith. Although the revered frontman of The Cure had already managed to get concertgoers a partial refund from Ticketmaster, he’s now taken the battle a step further by getting thousands of scalped tickets to their upcoming tour canceled, with proceeds going to charity.
The Cure made a statement when they announced their first tour since 2016 earlier this month, assuring fans that they were circumventing Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” and “platinum ticketing” options. The band implemented several safety checks in order to keep costs equitable and discourage scalping, such as using the “Verified Plan” tool and making tickets non-transferable. Tickets could be sold among fans at face value only.
To Smith’s shock, Ticketmaster’s fees wound up being even higher than the face value of the tickets themselves at certain venues. He went into immediate action and got Ticketmaster to issue partial refunds of the fees. The singer further implored fans to stay away from third party vendors.
Regardless of these actions, tickets have found their way into the possession of scalpers. Yesterday, Smith tweeted the following:
“Beware another scalper scam: Offering to sell/send account login details to get around Ticketmaster transfer limitations… any/all tickets obtained in this way will be canceled, and original fees paid on those tickets will not be refunded.”
“Original fees paid on those tickets will be donated to Amnesty International, and the tickets themselves will be resold to fans.”
So far, about 7,000 tickets across 2,200 ticket orders have been canceled.
The Cure’s tour starts on May 10 in New Orleans, La.
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