Since tickets remain available on the primary market, scalpers who do attempt the scheme often end up selling their tickets below face value-sometimes far below. By charging market rate for the best seats, concert promoters are leaving little room for sellers on the secondhand market to swoop in, and the reduction in ticket-scalping (a notorious problem in the concert industry, which everyone from Adele to Bruce Springsteen is trying to fix, in different ways) helps keeps tickets accessible and relatively affordable for fans. The high prices are actually a clever strategy that’s keeping prices down. Sales on the rapper’s tour for 4:44-a hotly anticipated album that dropped earlier this year with its own round of unusual business moves-are up 21% over his Magna Carta Tour in 2013, mostly because the nicest seats, such as those in the front row or with VIP experiences, are ruthlessly priced.įans may gripe-but they shouldn’t. How so? The ticket prices, for one thing. Jay-Z has been playing shows on his latest tour for less than a week, and it’s already the highest-grossing tour of his solo career.
