Tickets to ‘Beyonce & Jay-Z’ dropped to just 6 euros this week in Milan, with fans quickly swiping the bargains. We know — we’re one of them.
Last year, Jay-Z’s ‘4:44’ tour turned into a bargain-priced disaster, with secondary ticket prices dipping below $10 in a number of major American cities. That included $6 seats in Anaheim, with $8 and $11 tickets peppering a number of other markets.
Now, it looks like a similar situation may be emerging around the ‘Beyonce & Jay-Z’ tour, which is currently moving through Europe. Just yesterday, we heard numerous reports of ticket-dumping in the U.K, with shows in the region failing to sell out.
“The duo currently has thousands of unsold seats for shows in the UK,” TicketNews reported. “This past weekend, they performed in Glasgow and since the audience was not full, fans reported that they were handed free tickets or received upgrades for no cost. One fan took to Twitter, claiming that people were just giving them away to fill seats.”
Indeed, multiple fans reported free VIP upgrades into sections normally costing hundreds of pounds. Others pointed to curtained-off sections to hide vast unsold areas, a situation highly reminiscent of Jay-Z’s undersold ‘4:44’ trek.
Demand in Italy seems equally unenthusiastic, with tickets dipping to just €6 on Wednesday, June 13th. Just a glitch?
My first thought was that this was some technical glitch or error. After all, we’ve all read stories of airlines accidentally selling tickets for $5 before they fix the issue. Taking a closer look, the tickets did show ‘test’ under ‘Row,’ though other pricing tiers had similarly-vague descriptors like ‘x,’ ‘TOP,’ or a simple blank space.
To test things out, DMN purchased 5 tickets at the €6 price.
StubHub said they’d check to verify that that price was correct, though so far, we haven’t heard anything. Just the normal confirmations and credit card charges. And according to the transaction receipt, we’re getting 5 Ticketmaster tickets in the mail to see Beyonce & Jay-Z in Italy next month.
Of course, we weren’t the only ones grabbing these tickets. Immediately after our purchase, we noticed the entire section was purchased, so let’s hope there are seats for everyone. Or at least some refunds.
Meanwhile, demand for upcoming weekend shows in London seems to be mixed.
Friday’s show at London Stadium is quickly heading towards a sell-out, though Saturday still has plenty of availability. That may be part of an emerging ‘slow drip’ selling philosophy, an approach that avoids quick sellouts that result in huge scalper markups.
Or, markdowns if there isn’t enough demand.
Paul, Why are you shilling for the ticket scalpers?
The whole story aims to make the tour look like a failure and then the final line sums up what is most likely actually happening:
“That may be part of an emerging ‘slow drip’ selling philosophy, an approach that avoids quick sellouts that result in huge scalper markups.”
Writing these stories is just furthering the narrative of an industry ripping off artists and tearing down the acts trying to fight back.
Am I really taking a side here?
Europeans aren’t idiots. They don’t buy this garbage repackaged as culture. Neither one of these clowns is a great vocalist or can play an instrument. Sonny and Cher were a better act. Go away!