Why the Rock Band Ditched Ticketmaster’s Dynamic Pricing: ‘We Don’t Need to Make All That Money’

When The Cure began preparing for their 2023 Shows of a Lost World tour, the band didn’t anticipate the huge fees fans would face when purchasing tickets.

Vocalist Robert Smith, who was surprised by Ticketmaster’s so-called “dynamic pricing,” decided to do something about it.

He posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the disaster, promising fans that there would be changes. Their actions resulted in customers being issued refunds for exorbitant fees.

Smith, who has been with the English band since 1978, has become one of the leading celebrity advocates for change in the increasingly expensive world of concert tickets.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Smith, 65, called the Tickemaster ticketing scheme a “scam” “driven by greed”.

“I was shocked by the amount of profit made,” he said. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the record company have been about how we can reduce the price of things. The only reason you would charge more for a show is if you were worried about it being the last time you would be able to sell a t-shirt.”

The Cure, of course, don’t have that problem, given the band’s longevity – the group’s debut album, “Three Imaginary Boys”, was released in 1979.

On November 1, the band, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, will release their 14th studio album, “Songs of a Lost World,” which is their first album since “4:13 Dream” in 2008.

The Cure hope to return to touring in late 2025.

“If you had the confidence that you would still be here a year from now, you would want the show to be great so that people would come back,” Smith continued in the Times interview. “You don’t want to charge as much as the market allows. If people save on tickets, they buy beer or products. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It’s a good self-fulfilling vibe and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.”

Rather than let Ticketmaster continue its usual inflated prices and fees, The Cure opted out of dynamic pricing, in which prices increase when demand is high.

“It was easy to set ticket prices, but you have to be stubborn,” Smith said. “We don’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a fraud that would go away if every artist said, ‘I don’t want this!’ But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say no, they are either stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing is being reviewed by the European Commission following high prices for Oasis’ sold-out UK reunion tour, The Guardian reports.

Reuters reports that Irish authorities have also been responding to the plight of fans facing inflated Oasis ticket prices.

Oasis is bringing its Live ’25 tour to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on August 31st and September 1st. These tickets are also sold out.