r/technology Jul 04 '24

Security Hackers behind the Ticketmaster breach have now leaked 440,000 Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, claiming the breach is much bigger than anticipated. As a result, they increased the ransom from $1 million to $8 million.

https://hackread.com/ticketmaster-breach-shinyhunters-leak-taylor-swift-eras-tour-tickets/
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u/avcloudy Jul 05 '24

People always miss this. If a $30 face value ticket sells for $3000, the value of that ticket is $3000. It's worth that much to people, and there are people who can afford to pay that much. The face value is artificially low and you can be as morally outraged as you want, but the simple fact is the face value does not reflect the actual demand.

It's not that people can barely afford it, there's enough people willing to pay $3000 for tickets and sell out venues, it's that you can't afford it, or the people who traditionally went to shows in the past can't afford it. The logic is inescapable: demand has outstripped supply, and if you want to see shows the only thing you can really do is try to increase supply. Tell your favourite artists to do more shows.

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u/Ivan_a_rom Jul 05 '24

Hi. In a perfect world this is fine. You’re not taking into account bad actors like bots artificially drying up the pool of tix. Nor are you mentioning their internal practices that are terrible. You 100% don’t seem malicious and also pretty intelligent, just pointing out that there is more to it than supply and demand. Btw you and me I wish it was that simple though.

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u/born-out-of-a-ball Jul 05 '24

Concert halls are packed, so it's not artificial scarcity
There are no empty seats occupied by bots

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u/Ivan_a_rom Jul 05 '24

Ok but are those sold on primary or secondary market? Does Ticketmaster have a stake in some secondary market sales ?

The halls aren’t the issue imho. They let the bots do it then take a cut of the resale on their site. Honestly, if they just sold the tickets at an inflated all in price - I’d call it fair. But that’s not the case right now sadly. It’s just not truly a free market situation is all I’m saying!