Avenged Sevenfold NFT tickets didn’t stop inflated Ticketmaster prices
In an effort to beat scalpers and bots, Avenged Sevenfold have integrated their Deathbats Club NFTs with Ticketmaster for their upcoming shows.
If you’re holding an Avenged Sevenfold NFT, you may have snagged a ticket to the heavy metal band’s upcoming tour. But thanks to Ticketmaster, you probably didn’t get the “best prices” the band hoped you would.
Members of the Deathbats Club, Avenged Sevenfold’s exclusive NFT-gated fan club, were greeted with news last week of an interesting integration. In a tweet, the band revealed that it would be teaming up with Ticketmaster to give A7X NFT holders access to the best tickets.
The band had not been particularly active for a while. But on March 14, their silence was broken with the release of their latest single, No. This was to be the precursor to the announcement of their upcoming album, Life is just a dream. The new album is set for release on June 2 later this year.
To promote this new album, Avenged Sevenfold have set up a tour, sponsored by Ticketmaster. This includes a show at the world famous Maddison Square Garden, in New York City.
Despite efforts to avoid such bots, scalpers and unattainable ticket prices, fans were still unhappy with Ticketmaster.
How did Ticketmaster upset the fans this time?
Avenged Sevenfold NFT holders, as well as non-crypto fans of the band, took to Reddit to voice their unhappiness. Pricing by Ticketmaster was seen as exploitative, with screenshots showing some pretty unfair deals.
A fan shared a photo of the six tickets they bought. Each cost $282, but had an additional $54.29 service charge. There is a service fee of $54.29 Each of the six tickets!
This is standard practice for Ticketmaster, with fans of other bands being hit with this nasty surprise on many occasions. Recently, Robert Smith of The Cure had to wade in to save the fans. Smith intervened to bring the overpriced tickets down to a more affordable bracket.
Whether the members of Avenged Sevenfold will save the fans in the same way remains to be seen.
What is dynamic pricing and why is it bad?
Much of the controversy surrounding rising ticket prices is due to the relatively new concept of dynamic pricing. There are different types of tickets you can buy. First, you have the nominal ticket price, which is set by the artists and promoters. Then there are the secondary sales tickets, which tend to be tickets bought up by sellers. These deals then resell the tickets at a high price, blocking many fans from being able to see their favorite acts.
What exactly is dynamic pricing, then?
Dynamic pricing is a ticket pricing system based on demand. The idea is that the face value of tickets matches the prices that ticket buyers would sell them for, in the hope that this will scare off scalpers in the first place. In this way, Ticketmaster and promoters can keep the profit, instead of it going to mining. Although Ticketmaster has already caused controversy, it is accused of having a monopoly on the industry. This system also reduces the risk of fake tickets being sold on other sales sites such as StubHub and Viagogo.
Sounds good for artists and promoters, and Ticketmaster, but not so good for fans.
This system means that tickets are sold, in some cases, for more than double their original face value. Many see this as a move motivated by greed, rather than an attempt to fix a larger problem.
However, artists actually have the choice to limit ticket prices if they wish. For example Tom Grennan said last October that his team had worked hard to keep ticket prices down. The singer had rejected all VIP and platinum ticket options, citing the UK’s cost of living crisis as the reason.
A7X’s stance on dynamic pricing
Avenged Sevenfold’s own M Shadows weighed in on the theme last year, in support of dynamic pricing. He stated that artists set the prices and that it may be bad for the fans, but it means more revenue goes to artists.
While that last point is good, Shadows’ take comes off a bit harsh. The heavy metal singer stated: “you don’t automatically deserve a ticket because you’re a fan.”
Many artists have set price limits to the original face value, as this is the money they would have seen regardless of whether tickets were bought by fans or scalpers. While a fan tweeted Shadows about this, the singer responded with his own “tough” moral question.
This is a tough question…if you make a living playing live and someone is willing to pay 2k for front row but you are expected to keep the 200$ price would you? And is that fair? You play 10 shows now to make the same money.
— M. Shadows (@shadows_eth) 19 November 2022
In light of this, it is quite unlikely that Avenged Sevenfold will intervene in the same way as Robert Smith. But if you have an Avenged Sevenfold NFT of 10,000, you might have managed to find a decent ticket in the end.
