Scammin' Harry

That’s what the internet is collectively asking this week. We’ve been here before with Taylor Swift when we heard people were getting a second mortgage to pay for tickets, though the average price was somewhere in the $400-$600 for the nosebleeds (reportedly). Beyonce’s Reddit ticket discussion thread had tickets in the $166 range for the nosebleeds, while some people saw prices closer to $500 plus fees.

And sure, fans were mad. But something changed this time around - even the marketing stiffs on LinkedIn are asking, “What on earth?” Maybe it’s because this one seems to impact a wider range of people? Or maybe, because Harry was already in the spotlight ‘cause of his surprise album drop, and it is a quick content win? (‘cause music isn’t in their remit for 99% of their ChatGPT slop posts - but, still, they are showing up now).

Either way, the public is annoyed. This one, unlike the others, also made it into the industry WhatsApp group chats.

It also seems that many people have just learned what dynamic pricing is, and are throwing it around like it’s the worst thing in the world.

Anyway, let’s have a look at what is going on and why people seem to care more this time around, to the point we’re seeing fans boycott…

His guests are pretty high profile: Robyn, Shania Twain, Jamie xx, Fousheé, Jorja Smith, Fcukers, and Skye Newman. They’re worth a pretty penny ticket-wise themselves. Rather than hopping from city to city, running night after night, Harry is in each venue for at least 2 nights, with London and Amsterdam running for 6 days, a whopping 30 evenings in NY, and then 4 dates in Australia.

A residency isn’t new for him; he did one in 2022, with a run of 15 shows at Madison Square Garden and 12 in LA at the Kia Forum. Maybe the length of time this one runs for has surprised people. Maybe it is the pricing. Speaking of.

Dynamic pricing is in play for these tickets - so what does that mean? In this case, fans are pointing out that Platinum is dynamic pricing, renamed, and something that artists can opt out of. When tickets are in high demand, pricing can automatically increase before they go on sale (based on sign-ups and pre-public sales, etc.), and before the sale of ‘regular’ tickets appear, too. Which is why we are seeing some eye-watering high prices. It’s so close to scalping your own fans it hurts.

Note: sometimes dynamic pricing drops ticket prices a lot, if you’re lucky. But it is a rarer occurrence for big artists.

The dynamic pricing might sound familiar because Olivia Dean recently went with dynamic… sorry ‘platinum’ pricing, and when she and her team realised they refunded those who had paid way over the odds, and shut it down. This earned some fabulous PR because she took action to protect fans. But you have to wonder: if there were no complaints, would she and the team let it slide?

If a fan is willing to pay $1,000 for a terrible seat, whose fault is it? Ticketmaster for being trash? The artist and their team for being trash and doing nothing about it? Is the artist blameless, having “zero control over it”? The fan for being willing to drop the cash?

Maybe it is so much worse, and just before we hit your inbox, Harry and his team will pull a PR blinder and refund people. Pinning the problem firmly on the system and looking like the good guys. It becomes too easy to be so cynical.

We’re so (as a collective) convinced that $200+ is the norm, $500 starts to look okay, and then $1,000 feels bad, but people are still paying it… while shaming the celeb for the charge.

What an intricate and sticky web we have woven for ourselves. (Let’s not even get started on resellers.)

The truth is, millions of people could boycott any of these artists, and a million silent ones will pay whatever the price is. And we can talk about relationships with artists like Beyonce, Taylor, Adele, and Harry as much as we want, but the truth is, we don’t have a relationship with these artists. Not a real one. We can turn them into whoever we want based on what we see and hear. And we can be sure they don’t have a relationship with Trisha, who lives down the road and is $2500 in medical and ticket debt, but who will turn up to every venue that she can while sliding further into a hole.

We should remember that, always. Sure, they give us music that fills up our silence; it becomes what we lean on when times are tough. But the person we are looking at on the stage isn’t someone we know, or who knows us.

We pay them to perform for us. Just like we pay a plumber to fix the toilet.

This is business. It isn’t personal to them; it is personal to us. Sure, we might be the reason they are even on the stage in the first place. But we are one of one million. We’re not saying that all artists see it only as a business, or that when faced with upset fans or meeting them in person, they aren’t moved by it. But there are a lot of people between them and us. And 90% have money on their mind and a job to do.

The job is recouping tour costs, paying wages, paying studio fees, covering marketing, covering the thousands of people who work on an artist's campaign, paying Harry, and paying hundreds of unseen costs. And your $1,000 is split into 1,000 pockets.

So while we might be seeing people say, “Harry is a multi-millionaire - he can make the tickets as cheap as possible,” there comes a point at which the economics stop making sense, and much of the cost is beyond his control. Would fans be happy without the sparkle, bands, glitter, and costumes? Everything that makes the show what it is, and what fans expect, comes with a price tag.

Always remember, it is the fans who beg for the tour. A tour becomes a duty attached to the thing they loved doing in the first place: making music and recording the album.

So, while Scammin’ Harry has made a chump of everyone, he’s not the first, he won’t be the last. This is the state of play.

Enjoy the game, or sit it out.

Until next time,