Jonas Brothers fans were definitely “Burnin’ Up” last night, but not all of them for the same reason.
Last week, The Jonas Brothers officially announced a tour – “The Tour” – ahead of their reunion album, simply titled The Album. Fans of the millennial Disney Channel band were overjoyed, and gleefully awaited their Verified Fan presale codes from Ticketmaster.
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Last night, however, the mood turned sour in the fandom – because while some fans received codes as expected, many more were devastated to find that they did not make the cut.
I just got waitlisted for Jonas Brothers tickets and I’m literally so confused. I’ve been a Verified Fan for years. My heart is broken. ðŸ˜ðŸ’”
— moonlightbae ✨ (@osnapitzis) May 8, 2023
ticketmaster was supposed to release the jonas brothers presale codes at 5pm est, then it got pushed to 6pm est, and now 7pm est. WHAT IS THE TRUTH? pic.twitter.com/yLooxL1NiH
— bri (@romanspearme) May 8, 2023
Ticketmaster did explain that they were employing a lottery system when it came time to decide to which Verified Fans would be allowed to participate in the presale, but most have not been satisfied with this explanation. Many suspect that the only reason this method necessary now is that Ticketmaster’s large umbrella of businesses make it far too easy for bots to buy and then immediately scalp tickets on their other websites, and that the company is not doing enough to combat this practice.
The fact nosebleeds at Gillette are on resale sites for over $1600 and Ticketmaster isn’t sending codes to actual fans I’m so pissed I’m not going to be able to go to my local show because TM doesn’t care about resellers or bots
— han 🧣 (@wakeuphan) May 9, 2023
This situation follows a series of other mishaps in which Ticketmaster was unable to handle the sheer demand of fans upon their servers – a similar incident occurred when tickets went on sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, crashing their servers and creating such a fiasco that President Joe Biden himself vowed to open up an investigation into Ticketmaster’s business practices.
They really said Eras Tour: Jonas Brothers Version
— Tiffany // THE ALBUM & THE TOUR (@tiffcavanaugh) May 2, 2023
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Fans are also unhappy about the “dynamic pricing” that Ticketmaster has implemented, which hikes ticket prices up depending on how many people want to go to the concert. These are not small hikes – Blink-182 and Bruce Springsteen fans alike reported ticket prices being in the thousands due to this practice.
been a jonas brothers fan for about 15 years but respectfully WTF is this?? pic.twitter.com/E6h1DGaGGP
— morgan (@moogiieee) May 9, 2023
The company’s logic is that this is simple supply and demand, but when applied, it means that these concerts are going from events meant for the general public, to events that only those with comfortably lined pockets can attend – at a time when many people’s pockets are closer to empty than they’ve ever been.
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If there were ever an obvious example of a monopoly forming in the modern era, it’s the stranglehold that Ticketmaster and LiveNation have over the live music industry at the moment – and if they keep alienating their fans like this, it’s only a matter of time before it all comes crumbling down.