The state of ticket-buying is in flux as bots and third-party sellers enrage music fans

Scoring tickets to concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheatre is harder than ever, music fans have complained. And a statement fired off last week by ticket-seller AXS — which peddles the majority of tickets to Red Rocks shows — did not chip away at that perception.

“We’re trying to prevent rampant scalping and rampant re-selling and get these tickets into people’s hands,” said Don Strasburg, co-president and senior talent buyer at Denver-based promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, whose parent company Anschutz Entertainment Group also owns AXS. “But what happened with the Skrillex show is relatively rare.”

Last week, AXS took the unusual step of “sweeping” tickets for the April 29 Red Rocks concert from dubstep artist Skrillex due to what officials said was fraudulent activity. That meant recovering passes that had already been sold, then re-selling them through the company’s lottery system.

“What Zach Bryan did at Red Rocks is a really good example of (lotteries),” Strasburg said. “He used FAIR AXS right out of the gate, and went one step further by delaying transfer of the tickets until the day of the show.” Bryan, a rising alt-country star, is one of the hottest tickets in the country right now. He will play Red Rocks on June 26.

Prices, and frustrations, are at an all-time high right now as music fans and artists decry a broken system in the wake of face-planting failures by ticketing companies.

The most notable dustup of late was when Ticketmaster wasn’t able to successfully offer pre-sale tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest tour. Ticketmaster blamed “staggering” demand for its repeated website crashes, and subsequent decision to cancel the presale after it was already launched, locking out countless fans who had waited all day for the chance to buy.

That 2022 debacle instantly caught the attention of lawmakers across the U.S., who have for years investigated companies like Ticketmaster, to little apparent effect.

Meanwhile, instant sell-outs for high-demand Denver shows from artists such as Pretty Lights and Maggie Rogers have forced some fans onto the secondary and third-party markets, where prices can balloon to many times the price set by the artist.

Fees are also causing heartbreak for music fans. In some cases, they can make up one-third of the overall price of a ticket, as fans complained when The Cure’s policy of affordable, fixed-price tickets was instantly undermined by Ticketmaster and re-sellers. Singer Robert Smith said earlier this month the band had reclaimed about 7,000 tickets obtained by apparent bots and re-sellers.

“I have been told: StubHub has pulled listings in all markets except NY, Chicago, Denver (i.e. cities in states that have laws protecting scalpers). Please don’t buy from the scalpers. There are still tickets available — it is just a very slow process,” Smith Tweeted in March.

The Cure is set to play Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on June 6 as part of its 30-date tour.

Ticketmaster officials declined to do interviews for this story.

Still, some experts see optimism in a series of new, evolving systems that limit fees and third-party sellers — not just for concerts, but Broadway shows, sporting events and more. Promoters say a little extra research and patience is all it takes to prevail in most online buying situations.

“Situations like Skrillex are relatively uncommon,” said Strasburg, whose company books more than 100 annual shows at Red Rocks. “Maybe under 3 or 4 percent of every event we do.”

Fans remain unconvinced. “This is the new normal in live music,” wrote a Reddit user in the r/Denver subreddit. “It sucks.”

Legislators seem eager to make meaningful changes. Colorado lawmakers are now considering a bill introduced in January that sponsors say would protect ticket buyers. Senate Bill 23-060 would force ticket-sellers to list the total price at the beginning of the transaction. It further defines “deceptive trade practices” such as selling tickets that re-sellers don’t actually possess, and targets bots, third-party sellers and others that take advantage of open sales and anxious fans.

The bill has the support of Live Nation — Ticketmaster’s owner — and AEG, as well as several major local venues, Strasburg said. But consumer groups have argued it’s a bad sign and that Ticketmaster, for example, would gain greater control over the secondary market as a result of its passage, with purview over any sales that originate on the site, but that go bad during the process.

Ticketmaster is already a quiet but major player on the secondary market and critics who accused it of being a “monopoly” after the Taylor Swift situation, say it should be investigated for antitrust violations. (The company has repeatedly denied allegations of a monopoly.)

“Once again Ticketmaster is gaslighting its customers and government officials, this time with the Colorado bill,” said Jason Berger, board director at the Coalition for Ticket Fairness, a New York-based consumer group.

“‘It is a pro-consumer bill,’ they say. Then why is almost every consumer protection organization against it? Name another product that you purchase, that is nonrefundable, and the price you can sell it for, to whom, when and how is entirely controlled by one company?” he asked.

The Colorado bill remains under consideration and has not yet been voted on.

As the debates rage, here are a few suggestions for how to get the cheapest and least-frustrating concert tickets — keeping in mind that demand for some shows is so high that instant sell-outs are assured, regardless of the process or seller.

• Digital literacy. Learn to differentiate legit ticket-sellers from re-sellers. That can be difficult when websites use addresses such as fillmoreauditorium.org, which is not related to promoter Live Nation or Ticketmaster, or the similarly misleading theredrocksamphitheater.com (note the “the” in the URL). Don’t use the first results on Google searches, which are typically advertisements, and instead look for links to major ticketing companies — or follow links on the artist website’s tour listings. Don’t buy or use presale codes from anyone but the artist, venue or first-party seller.
• Custom alerts. Fans can get the heads-up when artists, teams or venues have upcoming events. Major ticket sellers support this because it gives artists and credit-card sponsors a chance to gauge interest and reinforce loyalty to and reliance on their systems. In some cases it may also give you the leg-up you need. Visit the account settings page on your ticketing account and tweak them to your interests. Following promoters and artists on social media also occasionally offers an advantage.
• Lotteries. Yes, the odds are inherently low. But some fans have gotten to see “Hamilton” during its Broadway tour thanks to $10 tickets they won after signing up for the random drawings. AXS FAIR’s ticketing system, which the artist can choose to use, promises unbiased selection for fans — although promoters admit its roll-out during Mission Ballroom’s opening weeks confused some, leading them to pause the practice for the most part. Sign up whenever you can.
• Devices and accounts. Use only one tab per device when you’re waiting in an online queue, and don’t refresh or navigate away from it. It’s tempting to have your phone, laptop, tablet and other hardware trained on the same on-sale page to increase your chances, but it can also confuse the software and invalidate your wait by having the same IP address (your personal digital location) attacking from all sides. Use only one account per device, and enlist other people you know to wait for the same on-sales to increase the odds.
• Membership. Most ticketing websites have a next-level option that artists can choose for their sales — with Ticketmaster it’s called Verified Fan — and the results are more favorable in terms of blocking bots and re-sellers, due in part to pre-filled forms from fans. This also forces you to update your payment options and other preferences so you’re not slowed down by them during the buying process.
• Patience. This is typically in short supply, but it could yield affordable tickets. Most shows don’t sell out, and even the ones that do may have additional tickets made available closer to the show — owing to readjusted needs from the artist and promoter, changing capacity and other factors. Set alerts to revisit the ticketing page and experiment with different price levels and seating a few days or weeks after the initial on-sale. You might be surprised at what you’re able to find, whether it’s a dirt-cheap obstructed view or last-minute front row seat that’s opened up.
• Don’t give up hope. Along those same lines, it’s understandable (and typically justified) to feel cynical about the entire process. But since some fans have found that physical tickets can materialize hours before the show, or that walk-up box office sales can sometimes yield results, it’s not all doom and gloom. With some due diligence, you’re more likely to prevail with affordable tickets and avoid buying that $350 secondary-market ticket to a show that went on sale for $70.

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