Although everyone seems to know somebody who always gets tickets to the hottest gigs in town, doing it yourself sometimes feels impossible. Either the tickets sell out fast and become like gold dust, or scalpers hike the prices and force fans to pay extortionate amounts of money to get their hands on them. Not to mention that when you do see a good deal, it could be a scam. But the truth is that getting your hands on hot tickets at great prices is not impossible. You just have to look in the right places at the right times. This short blog is here to let you in on how to do it.
1. Sign Up to Fanclubs
The music industry is aware of the problem with scalpers, and one way they try to thwart them and make sure that true fans can get hold of tickets is by offering them to their fan club members first. So, if there is an artist that you really want to see, head over to their website and join their mailing list. That way you will be among the first to be notified about new performing dates and pre-sale ticket releases.
Following your favourite artists’ social media profiles is usually a good way to find out about pre-sales too.
2. Sign Up to Receive Promotions from your Credit Card Companies
Credit card companies sponsor a lot of concerts, and in return, they are often allocated tickets to distribute to their customers. If you have opted out of receiving promotional emails from your credit card companies, it might be time to opt back in.
3. Use More Than One Ticket Site
Setting a reminder on your phone, getting up early to sign in and constantly refreshing the page can help you get tickets from official retailers like Ticketmaster and Live Nation, but there is no guarantee that you will. Fortunately, you do not only have to rely on these places. If you miss out on those, your next stop should be a tickets marketplace or a social media platform like Reddit or Facebook. Many fans end up selling their tickets at face value or close to it because they find out that they are unable to attend the concert.
4. Buy at Unpopular Times
Many official ticket sales channels use dynamic pricing, similar to airlines. The price moves up and down in response to demand. When tickets are first released, bots and scalpers can make that demand seem artificially inflated, forcing everyone to pay more. By waiting for less popular times, like in the middle of the night or on weekdays, you might get a better price. A riskier strategy is to wait until shortly before the event date. Panic sellers often offer some real bargains.
Conclusion
With many famous bands performing down under in recent years, including Foo Fighters and Coldplay, live music is experiencing very high demand in Australia. Yet buying tickets to events at reasonable prices seems to be a real challenge, unless you know tricks like those above. Joining fan clubs, checking out several ticket sites, and buying at unpopular times can all help you score tickets to sold-out gigs without paying a small fortune.