Olivia Rodrigo Dynamic Pricing Fiasco | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: This is from Digitalmusicnews dot com. This is one of

0:04 Speaker 1: my favorite resources for music industry news. Always some interesting

0:09 Speaker 1: articles here right on their homepage. And I've got a

0:11 Speaker 1: couple here, a couple things pulled up we can look at,

0:14 Speaker 1: and you know, they both relate to things that we've

0:15 Speaker 1: discussed on the show, obviously one of them being dynamic pricing.

0:20 Speaker 1: This article is titled and this just went up two

0:23 Speaker 1: days ago, dynamic pricing strikes again. Olivia Rodrigo's AMEX Ticketmaster

0:29 Speaker 1: presale quickly devolves into a price spiked nightmare. Now, for

0:33 Speaker 1: those of you who don't know what dynamic pricing is,

0:35 Speaker 1: and we've been talking about it on the show for

0:37 Speaker 1: at least a couple of years now, it's something that

0:39 Speaker 1: Ticketmaster uses, it's something that other they've tried it in

0:42 Speaker 1: other industries, even fast food. I think Wendy's was trying

0:45 Speaker 1: to do this at one point but it kind of

0:47 Speaker 1: didn't work out. But dynamic pricing is where the price

0:50 Speaker 1: of something will fluctuate depending on demand for whatever it is,

0:55 Speaker 1: for whatever service item or in this case, tickets. Ticketmaster

0:59 Speaker 1: has been using this. When demand is high for a

1:02 Speaker 1: certain show, then the ticket price will increase quite a bit.

1:08 Speaker 1: In some cases, if demand is low, the ticket price

1:11 Speaker 1: will automatically go down. So it makes sense in theory,

1:16 Speaker 1: but it causes a lot of problems. But gone are

1:21 Speaker 1: the days seemingly so, or at least with some shows

1:24 Speaker 1: where you know you know what the price is. The

1:26 Speaker 1: price of a ticket is announced and you say, okay,

1:28 Speaker 1: that's the price now. Of course, with Ticketmaster there's also

1:31 Speaker 1: the problem of you go on to their site, you

1:34 Speaker 1: think a ticket costs a certain amount, and then by

1:38 Speaker 1: the time you get to check out, the ticket price

1:40 Speaker 1: is nearly doubled with all the fees and taxes and

1:43 Speaker 1: everything else it gets added on that they don't tell

1:45 Speaker 1: you about upfront, even though the Federal Trade Commission has

1:48 Speaker 1: told them you got to start displaying that all up front,

1:52 Speaker 1: not waiting till the end when they go to check out,

1:54 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the ticket price is twice

1:56 Speaker 1: what it was, or you know, close to twice forty

2:00 Speaker 1: percent higher whatever it is, right So, but dynamic pricing

2:04 Speaker 1: is where the price automatically fluctuates based on demand. And

2:10 Speaker 1: again some people really really hate this, but apparently this

2:16 Speaker 1: Olivia Rodrigo tour has already when we talked about this

2:20 Speaker 1: the first time on the show. I think it had

2:21 Speaker 1: to do with the Oasis tour, the Oasis Reunion tour

2:24 Speaker 1: that was happening in the UK where they were using

2:27 Speaker 1: dynamic pricing, and it just it just caused all kinds

2:31 Speaker 1: of issues. We won't revisit that, we'll focus on this,

2:35 Speaker 1: but this is the newest kerfuffle, a word that I

2:38 Speaker 1: feel has not used nearly enough involving dynamic pricing. So again,

2:41 Speaker 1: this is from Music Business Worldwide. Oh no, I'm sorry,

2:45 Speaker 1: this is from Digital Musicnews dot com. Music Business Worldwide

2:48 Speaker 1: is a great side too, but this is from Digital

2:50 Speaker 1: Musicnews dot Com. Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing strikes again, angering fans

2:54 Speaker 1: with exorbitant ticket prices that some said should be illegal

2:59 Speaker 1: for an arena show. Olivia Rodrigo, who by the way,

3:02 Speaker 1: was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live last weekend.

3:05 Speaker 1: If you missed it, Olivia Rodrigo is embarking on the

3:08 Speaker 1: Unraveled Tour, a global trek with sixty five plus dates

3:13 Speaker 1: in supported her forthcoming third album, but fans are already

3:18 Speaker 1: disgruntled over the pre sale ticket prices. Unfortunately, it's a

3:21 Speaker 1: tale we've heard before. Yeah, the article even references this

3:24 Speaker 1: has become a problem that you know, we've certainly discussed

3:27 Speaker 1: many times on this show. It says here. On Tuesday,

3:30 Speaker 1: the presale for the Live Nation Promoted tour kicked off

3:33 Speaker 1: for American Express card members. But when tickets first went

3:36 Speaker 1: on sale, fans quickly took to social media to vent

3:39 Speaker 1: their frustrations over sky high prices for an arena performance.

3:44 Speaker 1: Prices ranged from over two hundred to eight hundred dollars

3:47 Speaker 1: depending on location. Either way, not for nothing, but we

3:53 Speaker 1: live in a time where that actually doesn't sound I mean,

3:58 Speaker 1: you know, compared to what ticket price is were twenty

4:00 Speaker 1: years ago, that sounds very high. But I feel like

4:03 Speaker 1: tickets to any kind of arena show, whether it's music

4:07 Speaker 1: or you know, you see this. This is a big

4:10 Speaker 1: subject in professional wrestling right now. They talk about it

4:16 Speaker 1: on all these podcasts. We've talked about it on Tough Bumps,

4:19 Speaker 1: the wrestling podcasts that I do with Eric Pilcher and

4:22 Speaker 1: Austin Hicks. That's every Sunday night, by the way, usually

4:26 Speaker 1: well I should say afternoon, usually around four pm Eastern,

4:28 Speaker 1: we go live. You can find it online. That's strictly online.

4:32 Speaker 1: That's not associated with the radio station. But but in fact,

4:38 Speaker 1: someone gave me some off air advice last night that

4:40 Speaker 1: maybe I should do more of that anyway, if you know,

4:45 Speaker 1: you know, but yeah, so so. But this is a

4:50 Speaker 1: problem with WWE events too, where people are getting you know, families,

4:56 Speaker 1: This is a big discussion going on right now. Families

4:58 Speaker 1: are getting priced out, you know, not being able to

5:00 Speaker 1: go to WWE events unless they happen to be wealthy

5:03 Speaker 1: because the cost has become so prohibitive. Okay, but to me,

5:09 Speaker 1: two day eight hundred dollars, it almost that almost Maybe

5:12 Speaker 1: I've just become desensitized. Maybe a lot of us have.

5:15 Speaker 1: That almost sounds normal. Now, two day, eight hundred dollars.

5:19 Speaker 1: I look at that number and I think, yeah, I'm

5:21 Speaker 1: not that surprised, it says here again, going back to

5:25 Speaker 1: the article, many would be attendees admitted that they were

5:28 Speaker 1: willing to dish out more for Taylor Swift's aristore, which

5:33 Speaker 1: was a stadium level blowout affair, with each show lasting

5:36 Speaker 1: over three and a half hours. But as much as

5:38 Speaker 1: fans love Olivia, she's no tailor. One fan wrote on Twitter, quote,

5:44 Speaker 1: in no universe should any standard seated tickets be what

5:50 Speaker 1: is that pounds? You know? This is all I'm just

5:56 Speaker 1: going to convert it to dollars. I don't know how

6:00 Speaker 1: to do it. In no universe should any standard seat

6:02 Speaker 1: seated tickets be the three hundred dollars plus let alone

6:06 Speaker 1: in the in a twenty thousand capacity arena. I paid

6:10 Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars for seats at Wembley's for

6:12 Speaker 1: the at Wembley for the Ariostore, a ninety k capacity stadium,

6:17 Speaker 1: for a three and a half hour show, and forgive me,

6:20 Speaker 1: I must take a gulf of water because my allergies

6:23 Speaker 1: are still terrible and I'm really feeling it in my throat.

6:26 Speaker 1: Bear with me. M does the mic pick up my

6:34 Speaker 1: swallowing the water? I'm curious, let's see. Another person wrote

6:39 Speaker 1: on Twitter, quote the prices for Olivia Rodrigo are actually

6:42 Speaker 1: making me sick. I would understand if it was one

6:45 Speaker 1: ten for standing in a stadium, but an arena. Another

6:49 Speaker 1: person wrote, what do you mean a back row of

6:52 Speaker 1: the two is being sold for one forty seven in

6:55 Speaker 1: some sections? Absolutely ridiculous pricing. Another person's literally watch ticket

7:01 Speaker 1: prices go up as I was in the queue as well,

7:05 Speaker 1: and another person wrote those Olivia Rodrigo ticket prices were disgusting.

7:09 Speaker 1: What business do you have charging Beyonce prices in the

7:12 Speaker 1: O two arena? Oh my goodness. The article continues, but

7:18 Speaker 1: it's not just rodri or Rodrigo's shows that have drawn

7:21 Speaker 1: the ire of fans. Sabrina Carpenter, Zach Bryan, Ghost Green Day,

7:27 Speaker 1: and Bruce Springsteen fans have all sung the same song

7:30 Speaker 1: complaining about Ticketmaster's infamous dynamic pricing. The idea behind okay,

7:35 Speaker 1: so this is I explained this before the article, but

7:37 Speaker 1: the article might explain it more succinctly. The idea behind

7:41 Speaker 1: dynamic pricing is that ticket prices increase based on demand,

7:45 Speaker 1: but many fans have pointed out that nothing in the

7:47 Speaker 1: industry will change as long as people continue to pay

7:50 Speaker 1: such prices. One Twitter user said, no wonder everyone thinks

7:54 Speaker 1: they can go do massive tours when people can sell

7:57 Speaker 1: out in seconds at five hundred dollars. Good point. Another said,

8:03 Speaker 1: y'all need to stop complaining and just mutually agree to

8:06 Speaker 1: refuse to pay these unreasonable ticket prices. Olivia Dean played

8:10 Speaker 1: the same venue as Noah Kan and Olivia Rodrigo and

8:14 Speaker 1: had sold out shows at half the price. Indeed, the

8:18 Speaker 1: demand for Rodrigo's shows has been such that new dates

8:22 Speaker 1: have already been added. In London. Initially she was scheduled

8:26 Speaker 1: to play four shows at the O two Arena between

8:28 Speaker 1: April five and nine, but this has been doubled with

8:31 Speaker 1: shows on April twelve, fourteen, fifteen, and nineteen. Well, this demand,

8:36 Speaker 1: all right, my god. Other new shows have been added

8:39 Speaker 1: in Amsterdam and Paris and and state side. Joining her

8:46 Speaker 1: on the tour will be grace ives and we don't

8:48 Speaker 1: need to get in all that. There's some details about

8:49 Speaker 1: the tour at the end, but the point is, yes,

8:51 Speaker 1: dynamic pricing in fact strikes again and some people are

8:56 Speaker 1: very upset.