Pearl Jam fans furious at band charging ‘Scalper’ ticket prices

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Tickets for Pearl Jam’s 2022 show went on sale this week, and fans were shocked at the prices charged. Social media posts share screenshots of prices like $956 plus fees for nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden, and several thousand for the lower tier. Typically, such anger is quickly directed at ticket sellers, but in this case, it’s Pearl Jam and its tour operator – Live Nation Entertainment – who charge those prices.

Pearl Jam, which accused Ticketmaster of raising fees by creating a monopoly when it gobbled up competitors in the 1990s, has come full circle. After lobbying on behalf of Ticketmaster against the BOSS Act, the band is once again using Ticketmaster mobile ticketing systems to deny their fans the rights to transfer or resell tickets for their upcoming tour dates, except in New York and in Colorado – states that require consumer choice. in the form of a ticket by law. With transfer and resale restrictions in place, there shouldn’t be any “scalping,” but that’s where Ticketmaster “platinum” tickets come in.

“Platinum” tickets are all the rage among event organizers, who are opting for them more and more. These are by no means special or VIP tickets – they are just regular tickets, marked as “platinum” and then sold at extreme markups over whatever was originally claimed to be “face value”. In its recent earnings report, Live Nation cited the increased use of platinum prices as a key driver of its record earnings. For Pearl Jam, “platinum” tickets are branded as “PJ Premium”, but that’s just a slight name variation on the same thing: take tickets that would have been a prize, and multiply that number by a factor of 2 – 3 while claiming to protect fans from “scalpers”.


Pearl Jam fans are making it clear they are unhappy in forums and on social media after seeing the prices they have always been told to blame on ticket sellers charged by the band itself.

That last bit is true – John Oliver spent the majority of a recent episode eliminating Ticketmaster and its role in driving up ticket prices. This article discussed how Live Nation and Ticketmaster have increasingly got artists to embrace the concepts of dynamic pricing and “platinum” pricing to increase profitability, while doing everything in their power to restrict consumer rights for ticket resale or transfer, and blame the “scalpers” for everything anyway.

Watch Paul McCartney’s recent tour that went on sale. Prices were as expected, as has become the norm. While presales were underway, The Spokane Public Amenity District has warned consumers be wary as they shop – saying ticket prices should range from $99 to $299, with anything higher “most likely a scalper”.

Meanwhile, prices on the venue’s website for the Paul McCartney concert were actually up to $2,895 before fees.

Platinum price

When contacted for clarification on its consumer warning, a spokesperson for the district told TicketNews that it was simply trying to warn consumers about resale websites. They didn’t think implying a price over $300 would be “scalping”, while saying that charging ten times that amount without it being “scalping” was apparently hypocritical at all.

The list of examples goes on and on. Daddy Yankee’s latest tour goes on sale this week, and while shows can get “sold out” quickly, they continue to have thousands of tickets available, only marked 500% and labeled as “platinum” instead of have been made available at face value. to the public.

Daddy Yankee Platinum Tickets

When the news broke that Live Nation had admitted artists had scalped their own tickets in 2019, it was a pretty major outrage, even if it’s common knowledge within the industry. What appears to be happening now is just a different page of the same playbook. Rather than withhold tickets entirely and then sell them on resale marketplaces, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have created a system that allows artists to do the same, only calling it platinum instead of scalping.

The question is, how long will the fans let them get away with it?

Pearl Jam Ticket Links

Pearl Jam Tickets at Ticketmaster
Pearl Jam Tickets at AXS
Pearl Jam Tickets at SeatGeek
Pearl Jam Tickets on StubHub
Pearl Jam Tickets at Ticket Club | Free membership offer
Pearl Jam tickets on TicketNetwork
Pearl Jam tickets on TicketSmarter
Pearl Jam Tickets at TickPick
Pearl Jam Tickets at Vivid Seats

Pearl Jam North America Tour Dates 2022

3-May – San Diego, California | Viejas Arena
6-May – Los Angeles, California | The forum
7-May – Los Angeles, California | The forum
May-9 – Glendale, AZ | Gila River Arena
May 12 – Oakland, California | Oakland Arena
May 13 – Oakland, California | Oakland Arena
May 16 – Fresno, CA | Save Arena Mart *
May 18 – Sacramento, CA | Golden Center 1*
May-20 – Las Vegas, NV | MGM Grand Garden Arena*
September 1 – Quebec, QC | Videotron Center
September 3 – Ottawa, ON | Canadian Tire Center
September 6 – Hamilton, ON | FirstOntario Center
September 8 – Toronto, ON | Scotiabank Arena
September 11 – New York, NY | Madison Square Garden
September 14 – Camden, NJ | Waterfront Music Pavilion*
September 16 – Nashville, TN | Bridgestone Arena
September 18 – St. Louis, MO | business center
September 20 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | Payment center
September 22 – Denver, CO | ball arena

*Newly added date