Robert Smith’s rage towards Ticketmaster seems to have had an effect, as the company is now reportedly going to give partial refunds to fans who purchased tickets to the Cure’s upcoming North American tour.
“After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price transactions,” Smith announced via Twitter. “And a $5 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for all other ticket price transactions, for all Cure shows at all venues.”
The Cure frontman went on to note that refunds would automatically process for those who’ve already bought tickets, while purchases moving forward would “incur lower fees.”
The compromise seems to – at least temporarily – calm the discourse surrounding Ticketmaster’s pricing.
Earlier in the week, Smith explained that the Cure chose to use a “verified fan” approach for their ticket sales in an effort to thwart the exploitative secondary market.
“We were convinced that Ticketmaster’s … ideas could help us fight the scalpers,” the singer wrote. “We didn’t agree to the ‘dynamic pricing’/‘price surging’/‘platinum ticket’ thing, because it is itself a bit of a scam? A separate conversation!”
“We know it is a far from perfect system,” he continued. “But the reality is that if there aren’t enough tickets on sale, a number of fans are going to miss out whatever system we use. At least this one tries to get tickets into the hands of fans at a fair price.”
Fans soon notified Smith that Ticketmaster was adding extra fees to the Cure’s tickets, essentially negating the band’s efforts to keep prices affordable.
“I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaster ‘fees’ debacle,” Smith tweeted on March 15. “To be very clear: The artist has no way to limit them. I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know.”
Top 40 New Wave Albums
From the B-52’s to XTC, Blondie to Talking Heads, a look at the genre’s best LPs.