In this blog post, we’re taking the side of you, the fans. We’ll expose how third-party ticketing companies, scalpers, and their bot armies hijack tickets within seconds, why those tickets reappear at absurd prices, and how this system preys on fans’ love and money. We’ll also explore examples from around the world – from Gaga’s tour to other major concerts – and highlight the growing fight to stop these abusive practices. Strap in, because it’s time to call out the ticket tyrants and take back the shows!
How Do Scalpers Snag Tickets in Minutes?
Ever wondered how a concert that’s “just announced” can seemingly sell out in 60 seconds, even when you clicked refresh right at 10:00am? It’s not your imagination – scalpers and third-party resellers have sophisticated ways to swoop in and grab tickets faster than any human fan could.
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Bot Armies Beat You to the Punch: Modern scalpers deploy bots – automated software – to swarm ticketing websites the instant sales open. These bots can bypass purchase limits and CAPTCHA puzzles, scooping up hundreds of tickets in the time it takes a fan to select a seat. Ticketmaster revealed that during the Taylor Swift Eras Tour presale, their site was bombarded by 3.5 billion system requests – an “industrial scale” attack attributed to scalper bots. In that 2022 incident, 14 million people (and an untold number of bots) hit the site at once, causing crashes and chaos. Bots are supposed to be illegal – the U.S. passed the BOTS Act in 2016 to ban automated ticket buying – but enforcement is weak. In fact, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has only enforced that law once since it passed. In the meantime, scalpers have only grown more advanced. As Ticketmaster’s president lamented, resellers now have access to “powerful bots that can scoop up thousands of [tickets] far quicker than any fan can”.
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Multiple Accounts and Insider Tricks: Not all ticket hoarding is done by rogue outsiders – sometimes insiders or brokers play a role. In some infamous cases, blocks of tickets never even reach the public at face value; they’re directly allocated to resale markets. A joint letter from major music managers (for acts like Coldplay and Elton John) warned that “insider exploitation” is fueling an “industrial-scale abuse” – meaning tickets are being set aside and pushed straight onto sites like Viagogo at higher prices. Whether through inside deals or simply tech-savvy scalpers creating dozens of fake accounts, the result is the same: fewer tickets for real fans when the sale starts.
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Presale Codes and VIP Access Hacked: Many tours try to give loyal fans a head start with presales (fan club codes, credit card member promotions, etc.). Unfortunately, scalpers find ways in here too. They might snag presale codes or use bots to brute-force guess them. They often have the resources to buy fan club memberships or dozens of eligible credit cards just to access these early sales. By the time general public sale opens, a huge chunk of tickets might already be gone – leaving regular fans bewildered at how “sold out” happened in a blink. In Lady Gaga’s case, a presale for credit card holders saw over a million people in the queue within 10 minutes, and scalpers immediately started listing tickets on secondary platforms while genuine fans were still waiting in digital line.
In short, the deck is stacked against fans during ticket sales. When tickets drop, you’re not just competing with other excited humans – you’re up against an army of tireless bots and often shady tactics that give professional resellers a massive head start.
From $100 to $1,000: Tickets Back on Sale at Absurd Prices
The reason scalpers deploy all these tricks is simple: money. Resale of concert tickets is a hugely lucrative hustle. The moment scalpers secure tickets, they turn around and list them on secondary marketplaces (StubHub, Viagogo, SeatGeek, etc.) for several times the original price. Fans then face a cruel dilemma: pay outrageously inflated prices or miss out on the show. It’s a classic example of exploitation, driven by greed and enabled by a broken system.
Let’s look at a few jaw-dropping examples of how ticket prices balloon on the resale market:
In the Gaga Singapore presale, official prices ranged from roughly S$148 to S$368 for standard tickets (≈£85–£210). Yet within minutes, resellers were hawking those same tickets for thousands. The most extreme listing was a VIP package marked at nearly £30,000 – about the price of a car – for one ticket! Even if that was an outlier (and it was quickly removed after public outcry), many seats were still listed at 5–10 times their face value.
This pattern repeats globally. When Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets were notoriously hard to get, resale sites saw nosebleed seats (face value a few hundred dollars) listed for thousands above face. “You’re talking $250, $300, $500 tickets that were going for well above [that] – and we’re not even talking floor seats, I mean nosebleed tickets,” said Texas State Rep. Kronda Thimesch, highlighting how absurd the markups became. In short, fans often have to pay champagne prices for nosebleed seats.
Why do the tickets reappear so fast on these sites? Because many secondary marketplaces don’t require the seller to physically have the ticket in hand at the moment of listing. Scalpers can list tickets even before they receive them – sometimes even before the tickets officially go on sale, in speculative anticipation. It’s not uncommon to find listings for a concert on StubHub days or weeks before the official sale date, with scalpers confident they’ll get the inventory. This shows how deeply integrated the scalping operations are with the ticket sales cycle.
Furthermore, some resale sites are part of the problem in an official capacity. Ticketmaster, for example, has its own “verified resale” platform and has been accused of double-dipping: charging fees on the initial sale and then again on the resale. In one U.S. lawsuit, Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation were alleged to have an internal practice of coordinating with resellers, effectively controlling both primary and secondary markets to their advantage. (Live Nation denies wrongdoing, but it shows how murky the waters can get when one giant company dominates the whole ecosystem.)
For fans, seeing tickets you tried to buy at $100 suddenly priced at $500 or $1000+ is beyond frustrating. It feels like a giant rip-off – because it is. The concert experience has been hijacked by middlemen looking to cash in on your favorite band’s popularity. And they’re exploiting the one thing they know die-hard fans have in abundance: passion. Which leads to the next point…
Fans Pay the Price: Emotional and Financial Toll
It’s not just about money – it’s about the emotional rollercoaster that fans are put through. Imagine hyping yourself up for months for your idol’s ticket sale, only to end up empty-handed thanks to bots and greedy resellers. It’s heartbreaking. And if you do decide to pay crazy resale prices, you might be draining your savings or skipping bills to afford that one night of joy. The system preys on fan loyalty and FOMO (fear of missing out).
Emotional Exploitation: Scalpers and shady ticket platforms are effectively holding fandoms hostage. They know how much these experiences mean to people. As one young Little Monster (Lady Gaga fan) said after finally securing a ticket, “It was extreme madness… I know my 14-year-old self is happy” – highlighting how long some fans wait for a chance to see their hero. For many, concerts aren’t just entertainment; they’re a once-in-a-lifetime moment or a dream since childhood. Scalpers dangle that dream just out of reach, unless you fork over a fortune. This creates enormous stress and anxiety for fans. During recent presales, countless fans reported panic attacks and hours of anxiety watching spinning loaders on ticket sites, afraid they’d miss their chance forever. Taylor Swift even acknowledged how painful the experience became, saying it was “excruciating” for her to watch fans struggle due to ticketing failures. The joy of getting a ticket has been replaced by relief or Pyrrhic victory (“I got a ticket but paid way more than I should have”). And those who don’t get tickets feel genuine grief – it’s not “just a concert” to them, it’s something they deeply cared about.
Financial Exploitation: Let’s be clear: ticket scalping is big business. Ticketmaster’s president pegged the ticket resale industry at around $5 billion a year. And that money comes directly out of fans’ pockets. Young people, especially, can ill afford to pay triple-digit markups. But many do, sacrificing other things, because they can’t bear missing the event. Scalpers and resale platforms are essentially taxing fandom – a tax that goes straight to profiteers who did nothing to create the show. It’s not like the extra $500 you pay goes to better stage production or to the artist you love; it’s purely profit for the middleman.
In some cases, fans are even scammed on top of being overcharged. Not all resale tickets are legitimate – fake tickets and sellers pop up to prey on desperate buyers. For instance, before a recent Coldplay show in Australia, government officials warned fans about a spike in ticket scams, advising them to only use the authorized resale exchange or risk losing their money. It’s a Wild West out there: fans not only have to overpay, but they have to worry if the ticket is even real. The entire experience shifts from excitement to buyer beware.
All of this fuels resentment among music lovers. It’s hard to feel happy about a concert when you know the person next to you might have paid a fraction of what you did, or when half the arena seats are empty because scalpers haven’t found enough rich buyers. Fans have started to fight back by shaming scalpers online, organizing boycott calls for certain resale sites, and even coordinating not to buy from resellers (though in practice, the temptation of a sold-out show often wins). The anger is palpable: “This is not what live music is supposed to be about,” one fan tweeted after seeing exorbitant resale prices, “We’re being exploited for our love of these artists.”
Emotionally and financially, the current ticketing fiasco is sucking the fun out of live music for the very people concerts are meant for – the fans. But as infuriating as it is, this problem isn’t isolated to one artist or one country. It’s everywhere.
Not Just Little Monsters – A Global Epidemic
What’s happening with Lady Gaga’s tour is happening with almost every major artist’s tour – and it has been for years. From North America to Europe to Asia, fans of all genres (pop, rock, K-pop, you name it) have stories of heartbreak and highway robbery. Here are just a few snapshots from around the world:
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United States – Taylor Swift’s Record-Breaking Fiasco (2022): Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour ticket presale was so disastrous that it became international news and even prompted U.S. congressional hearings. Millions of “Swifties” flocked to Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan presale, only for the system to crash under unprecedented demand and bot traffic. Countless fans with presale codes were left empty-handed, leading to outrage. Swift herself said it was “excruciating” to watch it unfold, and fans likened the experience to The Hunger Games. The few tickets that did trickle out to resale were listed for as high as $10,000 each on StubHub for prime seats. The debacle was so bad it sparked dozens of fan lawsuits and renewed calls to break up Ticketmaster’s monopoly (more on that later).
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United Kingdom – Ed Sheeran, Adele and more: In the UK, the secondary ticketing scandal has been a hot issue for the past decade. British fans have seen tickets to everything from Adele at Wembley to small indie gigs appear on Viagogo at triple price. One notorious case was Ed Sheeran’s 2018 tour – his team discovered over 10,000 tickets on resale sites and decided to take action. Sheeran’s promoters canceled those tickets outright, leaving many resellers (and unfortunately some fans who bought from them) with invalid tickets at the door. This aggressive move was meant to send a message that touts (scalpers) aren’t welcome. While some fans were temporarily caught in the middle (having to seek refunds and buy tickets again at face value), many applauded the stand. The UK also grappled with a scandal involving resale platform Viagogo – which was so reviled that the government’s competition regulator ordered it to radically change its practices or face legal action. British MPs have held multiple inquiries into “ticket touting,” and artists like Iron Maiden and Arctic Monkeys have implemented paperless tickets or fan club lotteries to try and outsmart scalpers. There’s even a coalition called FanFair Alliance pushing to ban for-profit resale altogether.
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Europe – Countries Fighting Back: Some European countries were so sick of scalpers that they passed laws to ban or severely limit secondary ticket sales. Italy, for instance, outlawed resale above face value for commercial purposes; tickets must be sold through authorized platforms, and some concerts require the ticket buyer’s name on the ticket (checked with ID at entry). Germany allows artists to enforce a max 25% markup rule by personalizing tickets with buyer names. France has one of the strictest laws – unauthorized resale is a criminal offense with fines up to €15,000 for offenders. Despite these laws, enforcement is an ongoing battle (black-market sites still exist), but they do act as a deterrent and have led to some high-profile prosecutions of touts in Europe.
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Australia & Asia – Sky-High Prices and New Laws: Australian fans have recently felt the sting of both scalpers and another controversial practice: dynamic pricing (where the ticket vendor itself raises prices based on demand). When Lady Gaga’s Australia shows went on presale in 2025, fans were shocked that even “nosebleed” seats were over AU$300-500 due to what they suspected was dynamic pricing. (Ticketmaster denied using dynamic pricing for those shows, but the outrage was real). Down under, most states in Australia have introduced anti-scalping laws: for example, in New South Wales and Queensland, reselling tickets for more than 10% above face value is illegal. In Asia, countries like Singapore (as seen with Gaga’s tour) and Japan have started tightening rules too – Japan now often uses a lottery system for high-demand concerts to thwart scalpers, and Singapore police issued warnings about unauthorized resale for Gaga’s concert. Yet, the problem persists wherever demand outstrips supply.
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Historical Perspective – This Isn’t New: Ticket scalping problems go back decades. In the 1990s, grunge band Pearl Jam famously took on Ticketmaster in a battle over fair ticket prices. They accused Ticketmaster of monopolistic practices and tried to keep ticket prices under $20 with minimal fees. When venues and promoters (pressured by Ticketmaster’s dominance) wouldn’t cooperate, Pearl Jam even canceled a big tour in protest. They brought their complaints to the U.S. Justice Department in 1994, alleging Ticketmaster was using its power to shut out competition and overcharge fans. That Justice Department case didn’t break Ticketmaster, but it raised awareness. Fast forward 30 years, and Pearl Jam’s crusade seems eerily prophetic – we’re still dealing with a Ticketmaster/Live Nation giant and rampant resale markups. The technology (bots, online exchanges) has changed, but the fan’s struggle remains much the same: trying not to get fleeced just to see their favorite artist live.
From these examples, it’s clear: no country and no genre is immune. Whenever there’s a hot event – whether it’s Lady Gaga, BTS, a big festival like Glastonbury, or even sports finals – the ticket vultures circle. Fans worldwide are united in frustration, and many are crying out that enough is enough.
Fighting Back: Laws, Lawsuits, and Fan Rebellions
The good news is that this issue has gotten so out of hand, people are finally doing something about it. Fans, artists, and even governments are starting to fight back against the ticketing free-for-all. It’s a tough battle (the scalpers always look for new loopholes), but momentum is building to rein in abusive ticket practices. Here’s how the war is being waged:
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New Laws and Regulations: Authorities are waking up to the fact that fans need protection from predatory ticketing. After the Taylor Swift debacle, lawmakers in the U.S. were embarrassed and angry on behalf of constituents (nobody wants millions of Swifties mad at them!). In 2023, 24 U.S. states and Puerto Rico introduced over 70 bills aimed at ticketing issues, including cracking down on bots. Texas became the first state to pass a bipartisan law explicitly banning mass ticket purchases using bots. On the federal level, the U.S. Justice Department took the dramatic step of suing Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation in late 2024, accusing it of being an illegal monopoly that harms fans and the industry. That DOJ lawsuit – joined by 40 state attorneys general – seeks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster if they win in court. In other words, the U.S. government itself is now echoing what fans have said for years: the ticket system is broken and dominated by one player, and it needs a reset.
Around the world, other regulations are kicking in or being proposed. The UK banned ticket bots in 2018 by law, making it illegal to use software to buy more tickets than allowed. The UK also has consumer laws requiring greater transparency from resale sites (they must display seat numbers, original face value, etc., to prevent some fraud). Now, UK advocates (like FanFair Alliance and some MPs) are pushing even further – proposing a ban on for-profit resale entirely, which would mean you could only resell tickets at face value or less. In Europe, as mentioned, countries like France, Italy, Ireland, Norway, and others have outright bans or strict limits on resale profits. Below is a quick snapshot of how different regions are tackling the problem:
Table: Examples of legal efforts in different countries to curb ticket scalping.These laws and lawsuits show that the issue is on the radar, but laws are only as good as their enforcement. Fans and consumer advocates often argue that penalties need to be harsher and enforcement more proactive to truly deter the scalpers. It’s one thing to ban bots; it’s another to actually catch and punish those using them. Still, the legislative trend is a positive sign – the era of “anything goes” in ticket resale may be slowly coming to an end if these efforts continue.
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Artists and Industry Heroes: Some artists aren’t waiting for the law to catch up; they’re taking matters into their own hands to protect fans. We saw Ed Sheeran’s bold move of canceling 10,000 scalped tickets. British rock band Iron Maiden has also fought back by using a paperless ticket system tied to the buyer’s credit card and ID, making it harder for scalpers to resell. Pop star Adele partnered with a fan verification system to ensure her tickets went to real fans, not bot accounts. In one case, Adele even personally called out Viagogo as “terrible people” and urged fans not to use it. K-pop groups often implement lottery systems or require fan club IDs to claim tickets, trying to cut off scalpers.
Even Ticketmaster (perhaps to save face amid criticism) introduced its “Verified Fan” program, which Taylor Swift used, aiming to weed out bots by requiring advance registration and unique codes. It wasn’t foolproof (as seen, it still got overloaded), but the concept is that artists are collaborating with platforms to prioritize fans over scalpers. The downside is that it sometimes feels like a lottery and can still be unfair, but it’s better than nothing.
Within the industry, there are also grassroots heroes: people like Claire Turnham in the UK, who founded the campaign group Victim of Viagogo after getting ripped off, and helped fans reclaim hundreds of thousands of pounds in refunds; or organizations like the FanFair Alliance and Fight the Scalpers that spread awareness and push for reform. In the U.S., the Break Up Ticketmaster coalition formed after the Swift saga – it gathered over 100,000 fans, artists, and venues to pressure regulators to act. Their message is clear: the status quo is not working for fans or artists, and a change is needed.
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Public Shaming and Boycotts: Another powerful tool has been public pressure. Resale platforms like StubHub and Viagogo thrive on a bit of anonymity and inevitability (“this is just how it works”). But fans and media have been shining a harsh spotlight on them. For instance, Viagogo’s reputation got so bad in the UK that venues started refusing entry to tickets bought through them and politicians likened their practices to fraud. Social media campaigns have successfully pushed companies like eBay to divest from ticket resale businesses (eBay sold StubHub in 2020 after constant controversies). Meanwhile, whenever outrageous resale prices make headlines, it embarrasses the primary sellers and artists. We’ve started to see some artists and promoters include anti-resale clauses and actively monitor secondary markets to cancel tickets that pop up there. It’s a game of whack-a-mole, but every canceled scalper ticket is a small victory for fans (and a warning to touts that they could eat a loss).
Despite these efforts, the fight is far from over. The scalpers are crafty, and as long as there’s big money to be made, they won’t give up easily. But the tide is turning. Governments are under pressure from voters (because hey, even senators and ministers have kids who wanted those Swift tickets). Artists are under pressure from fans to ensure fair ticketing or risk backlash. The whole concert ticket ecosystem is being scrutinized like never before.
Conclusion: Time to Reclaim the Music
The concert ticketing industry’s abusive practices – from bots scarfing up seats to resale sites gouging fans – have turned what should be joyous occasions into sources of stress, anger, and financial strain. It’s a classic case of technology and greed running ahead of ethics and regulation. But fans are making their voices heard loud and clear: this is not okay. Music and live events are about the connection between artists and their audience, not an opportunity for third-party vultures to make a quick buck off someone’s devotion.
The recent Lady Gaga ticket saga is a wake-up call (one of many) that the status quo stinks. When VIP tickets end up priced like luxury vacations and even nosebleed seats break the bank, something is deeply wrong. Fans shouldn’t have to take out a loan or gamble with shady websites to see their favorite performers. Youth audiences, especially, deserve better – many of them are students or early in their careers, not exactly rolling in cash, yet they’re among the most passionate supporters of live music.
So what can be done, moving forward? Continuing to push for stronger laws – and actually enforcing them – will help. Embracing smarter ticketing tech (like verified fan systems, blockchain ticketing that tracks ownership, dynamic barcodes, etc.) can outwit some resale schemes. Most importantly, the music industry needs to prioritize fans over profits at every turn: that means artists insisting on fair pricing, promoters limiting price surges and allocations to resellers, and primary ticket companies cleaning up their act (transparent fees, anti-bot security, and no more winking at scalpers on the side). When fans unite and speak up – as they did after the Taylor Swift fiasco – it gets results. As one advocacy group put it, “The time for half-measures is over… without a full cleanup, fans, artists and independent venues will continue to suffer.”
This is a fight for the soul of live music. It’s about making sure that magical moment when the lights dim and your favorite artist walks on stage is accessible to all the real fans in the crowd, not just the richest 1% or the lucky few. It’s about saying “no more” to the heartbreak of seeing Sold Out in seconds and then seeing tickets you wanted at ten times the price. It’s about reclaiming the concert experience from the hands of exploitative third parties and putting it back where it belongs – in the hands of the community of fans and artists.
As young music lovers, our voices matter in this. We can be vocal, support artists who do the right thing, call out the scams, and educate each other on how not to feed the scalpers. The good news is everyone from Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters to Swifties to metalheads to K-pop stans are in this together. And together, we can make sure the future of live music is one where the only people crying at concerts are doing so out of happiness – not because they had to sell a kidney to be there.
Fans, it’s time to take the power back. The ticketing giants and scalpers have had their way for too long, but the show’s not over. With continued pressure and unity, we can turn the tables so that going to a gig feels as good as it should: exciting, inclusive, and worth every penny (not every last penny you have).
Let’s make concert tickets fair and keep the music alive for everyone. That’s a revolution every young music fan can get behind. 🎟️💪
Sources:
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Gaga Singapore scalping outrageindependent.co.ukindependent.co.uk; fans waiting in massive queuesindependent.co.uk.
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Taylor Swift Ticketmaster meltdown – bot impact and resale pricestherecord.mediancsl.org.
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Ticketmaster president on “industrial scale” bot attacks and $5B resale markettherecord.media.
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UK music industry letter on “industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation”musicbusinessworldwide.commusicbusinessworldwide.com.
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Dynamic pricing controversy in Lady Gaga’s Australia showstheguardian.comtheguardian.com.
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Ed Sheeran’s anti-tout ticket cancellations (10,000+ tickets)theguardian.com.
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Legal actions: DOJ lawsuit vs Live Nation-Ticketmaster (2024)ticketnews.com; U.S. BOTS Act & Senate hearingtherecord.mediancsl.org; UK ban on botsgov.uk; France/Italy laws banning resalemaketicketsfair.orgmaketicketsfair.org; Australian state 10% cap lawsliveperformance.com.au.
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Quotes: Fan frustrationstheguardian.com; Texas lawmaker on resale markupsncsl.org; Taylor Swift apology notencsl.org.
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