Ticket Troubles
Robert Smith isn’t a fan of how tickets are sold for concerts these days. The Cure, when they planned their tour in America last year after seven years, chose not to use Ticketmaster’s changing price system and instead used tickets that couldn’t be resold to stop scalpers. Recently, he shared his thoughts on the unfairness of raising ticket prices for fans and criticized artists who ignore what he calls a “scam” driven by greed.
“We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that,’” Smith told the Times. “But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either fucking stupid or lying.” He’s been thinking about this a lot while working on the Cure’s new album, “Songs of a Lost World,” coming out on November 1, which is their first in sixteen years.
Smith’s new record deals with ideas like greed and unfairness. He sometimes finds himself thinking too much about how things used to be and says, “It’s easy to tip over to talking about the fond memories of a world that’s disappeared … but there are moments I just want to leave the front door shut.”
Fans might feel the same way about prices.
When Smith was 19, he went to a David Bowie concert that lasted only 42 minutes. It surprised him and made him a bit upset because he felt he didn’t get enough for his money. This experience influenced The Cure’s concerts, which usually last almost three hours. Even as he gets older and thinks about retiring from touring, he focuses on what real music lovers want.
“I was shocked by how much profit is made. I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower,” Smith explained. “The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt. But if you had the self-belief that you’re still going to be here in a year’s time, you’d want the show to be great so people come back. You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you.”
He believes that when fans save money on tickets, they’ll spend it on other things like drinks or band merchandise. This creates goodwill, making fans want to return. He wonders why more artists don’t follow this way of thinking.
