In the wake of the ongoing outcry over the “dynamic pricing” of the Bruce Springsteen tour, Ticketmaster took the unusual step of Sunday afternoon by releasing some stats on costs and percentages of dates that went on sale last week. In downplaying the number of controversial variable-price “platinum” tickets that came to $5,000 apiece on the first day of sale, Ticketmaster says these represented just 11.2% of all tickets sold.
By ticket service accounts, that left another 88.2% of tickets sold at fixed prices that ranged from $59.50 to $399 before the service fee was added.
Ticketmaster further says the average price of all tickets sold so far is $262, with 56% selling for less than $200 of face value.
Although the service doesn’t dispute reports that tickets through the platinum program are priced at $4-5,000, Ticketmaster claims that only 1.3% of total tickets so far have gone over $1,000.
Ticketmaster releases this information after five days of public outcry over the most expensive ducats, and before the majority of cities on the tour sell out later this week. Sales of the 2023 US Tour are staggered over 10 days, and the company takes great care to make sure angry fans aren’t dissuaded by the belief that hundreds of thousands of tickets not yet on sale will be sold for the sums that made headlines.
The service also divided the percentages on the 56% of tickets that it says sold for less than $200. It said 18% sold for less than $99, 27% sold between $100-150, and 11% sold for between $150-200.
“Price and formats are in line with industry standards for top performers,” the company said in a statement.
Springsteen hasn’t made any statements himself about the controversy. Both he and Ticketmaster were pressured to provide an explanation for tickets priced in the four figures, with the $5,000 figure being held up by some critics as evidence that the artist isn’t actually a “people’s man.”
Ticketmaster and the singer have not previously disclosed any fixed costs for tickets, though fans quickly discovered that the first to skip the queue each day were able to purchase in the $60-400 range…awesome ducats – with values inflated by up to Up to 10 times the original value – as seen by most potential buyers when they sign in.
Ticketmaster is highly unlikely to abandon the “platinum” program that has proven unpopular this week, designed to devalue secondary ticket sites like StubHub and put additional money in the artist’s and promoter’s hands. It was revealed on the third day of sales on Friday that the hats were put on top platinum values, as a survey of seat charts in different cities showed those tickets maxed out in the mid-2000s instead of $4,000-5,000. But it is also possible that the prices for these seats are less responsive to the algorithm that perceives less hot demand.
The majority of dates reached the market this Tuesday through Friday.
On Tuesday, shows will go on sale in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, State College, Pennsylvania, Cleveland and Philadelphia, although the last two shows are among the few on the tour that don’t pass through Ticketmaster. On Wednesday, Detroit will go on sale. On Thursday, tickets became available for Atlanta, Kansas City, Seattle, Milwaukee, Columbus and Buffalo.
On Friday, the two New York City dates – Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center – will be shown (with no recent Brooklyn show dealt with by Ticketmaster). Also on sale is Friday Final Round in Newark, NJ and a two-night stop in Belmont Park, New York.
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