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As the singer for the Cure, Robert Smith could reap some great financial benefits from Ticketmaster’s insane price gouging. But for the past couple of years now, he’s been parroting all of our complaints about the company, even getting them to issue partial refunds to fans due to egregious fees. And he’s not done calling them out yet! In a new, rare interview with the Sunday Times, Smith spoke again about the “scam” of modern ticketing.
Here’s what Smith had to say:
I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing]. I thought, “We don’t need to make all this money.” 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.
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. 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.
The Cure’s first new album since 2008, Songs Of A Lost World, arrives Nov. 1, and they have one gig scheduled in London that day. Hopefully, if and when they announce a full tour, we’ll see some reasonable ticket prices.