The Cure's stand against Ticketmaster's monopolistic, egregious prices with their crusade to keep their 2023 North American tour "affordable for all fans" was one of the defining moments in music news last year. Frontman Robert Smith was at the heart of this mission, even admitting at the time that the band's decision to opt out of the ticketing platform's dynamic pricing model (which adjusts prices based on consumer demand) was still "far from a perfect system" — and right he was, as Ticketmaster tacked exorbitant fees onto the so-called affordable prices.
But Smith managed to convince the company to issue refunds and lower fees on subsequent ticket sales, with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino saying this decision cost the live entertainment mega-corporation "a million dollars or so." In a new rare interview with the Sunday Times, the Cure singer once again spoke about the "scam" of modern ticketing.
"I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing]. I thought, 'We don't need to make all this money,'" Smith told journalist Jonathan Dean in a feature published yesterday (October 13). "My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you'd charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt."
He continued, "But if you had the self-belief that you're still going to be here in a year's time, you'd want the show to be great so people come back. You don't want to charge as much as the market will let you. If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It is a self-fulfilling good vibe and I don't understand why more people don't do it."
"It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed," the musician explained. "We didn't allow dynamic pricing because it's a scam that would disappear if every artist said, 'I don't want that!' But most artists hide behind management. 'Oh, we didn't know,' they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they're either fucking stupid or lying. It's just driven by greed."
Smith's closing comments can't help but feel like a slight at Oasis, who claimed they "didn't have any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used" for the Ticketmaster sale of their initial 2025 reunion tour dates in the UK and Ireland. They later decided to opt out of dynamic pricing when selling (out) their North American shows. Conversely, despite not making a big show of it, Coldplay didn't use dynamic pricing when recently selling tickets for their 2025 North American tour. (Bruce Springsteen, meanwhile, has defended his use of the dynamic pricing model.)
Ticketmaster can probably expect more choice words from Smith as the Cure's press cycle for Songs of a Lost World — their first new album in 16 years, out November 1 — ramps up over the next couple of weeks.