Coldplay will perform three shows of its Music of the Spheres world tour in Mumbai, India, next year. The concert tickets for these shows sold out in minutes, only to be resold for outrageously high amounts on various resale platforms.
When the tickets initially went on sale in late September, the prices averaged from 2,500 to 12,000 rupees, with over 10 million people competing to buy 18,000 tickets. Coldplay fans complained about waiting hours due to digital queues and site crashes, in addition to potentially rigged sales as resellers began selling the tickets for five times the price – reaching as high as 900,000 rupees – before the official site even released them.
Ticket scalping is a prominent issue in India, with people utilizing automation tools or bots to bypass the digital queues and buy multiple tickets simultaneously. Fans now wonder if the official ticket sale site took steps to prevent this kind of behavior or if they are turning a blind eye. Though the official site has put out a statement denying any complicity in this behavior, fans are still suspicious. Some fans had a similar experience while buying tickets for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s upcoming concerts.
As ticket scalping is illegal in India, experts say legitimate ticket-holders may have set up these ticket resales, hoping to profit from the massive demand. While the inflated prices of these tickets are shocking, the high demand reflects how the live music business in India has grown exponentially in recent years.