India’s precious business of concert tickets

If you were in India and had 900,000 rupees ($10,800; £8,000), what would you buy? A car? A trip around the world? Diamond jewelry? Or a Coldplay concert ticket?

The British rock band will perform three shows of their Music of the Spheres world tour in Mumbai next year and the tickets are being sold for obscene amounts on reselling platforms after selling out in minutes on BookMyShow (BMS) – the official official opening of the concert. ticket platform.

The tickets went on sale last Sunday and were priced from Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,000. More than 10 million people competed to buy some 180,000 tickets.

Fans complained about hours-long digital queues and site crashes, but many also claimed that sales were tampered as resellers started selling tickets for five times the price (as much as 900,000 rupees) before releasing them on the official site.

Earlier this month something similar happened with tickets for the Oasis concert in Great Britainwhere resellers charged more than £350 for tickets costing £135. But even then, the high prices of Coldplay tickets are striking. To put this into perspective, Madonna charged £1,306.75 for VIP passes to her Celebration tour and the best tickets for Beyoncé’s Renaissance concerts sold for £2,400.

The events have sparked a debate about ticket scalping in India, where people use bots or automation tools to bypass queues and buy multiple tickets to sell on resale platforms. Fans are wondering if the official site took adequate measures to prevent this, or chose to look the other way.

BMS have denied any association with resellers and have urged fans to avoid tickets from ‘unauthorized sources’ as they could be fake. But this does not stop people from viewing the site with suspicion.

Fans have complained that they had a similar experience when buying tickets for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s upcoming concerts. Tickets were released earlier this month on concert promoter Zomato Live, and after selling out, appeared on resale platforms for several times the original price.

Ticket scalping is illegal in India, and experts say that while it is possible for it to happen, it is also likely that legitimate ticket holders are selling their tickets through resellers to make a profit due to high demand.

Graphic designer Dwayne Dias was one of the lucky few who managed to buy tickets for the Coldplay concert on the official site. He bought four tickets for Rs 6,450 each.

Since then, he has been approached by people willing to pay up to 60,000 rupees for a ticket. “If I wanted to, I could sell all the tickets and watch the concert in South Korea (Coldplay’s upcoming tour destination). The amount would cover my travel expenses and I could experience a new city,” he says.

While the high prices of Coldplay tickets are shocking, the huge demand for tickets to see popular international artists perform is not uncommon. In fact, India’s live music sector has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years.

According to one reportMusic concerts generated around 8,000 million rupees in revenue last year and by 2025, this figure will increase by 25%. Brian Tellis, a music industry veteran and one of the founders of the Mahindra Blues music festival, says concerts have become part of the cultural currency of an individual – and the country.

Top performers like Ed Sheeran, Alan Walker and Dua Lipa have performed in India recently, and the latter two will perform again this year. “Like other industries, India is also a booming market for the music industry. There is a huge demographic that is young and has money to spend. Everyone wants a piece of the pie,” he says.

The rising demand is clearly visible in ticket prices and sales. Tellis says that about a decade ago, 80% of production costs were paid by sponsors and 20% by ticket sales, but today the numbers are reversed.

“Going to a concert is a mix of showing off, being a conformist and being part of the scene,” he says. “There are also real music fans in the mix, but many come because they get carried away by the hype around a performance and don’t want to feel left out.”

Days before and after Coldplay concert tickets went on sale, social media was filled with captivating Instagram images of the band performing hits like Adventure of a lifetime And Fix you in packed stadiums, while fans sing along and transform the hall into a party A Sky full of stars with their LED bracelets. Influencers waxed eloquent about their love for the band and there was no shortage of Coldplay memes.

Industry sources told the BBC that targeted marketing plays a key role in ticket sales – a task handled by the promoter’s website. The more demand arises, the more ticket prices can be increased. Organizing concerts is difficult because they often suffer losses, so when the opportunity arises, affordable artists are exploited for profit.

While some fans argue that the government should take steps to control ticket prices, Tellis disagrees. “This (selling tickets) is entrepreneurship; it is not right for the government to get involved. Because if you want to control revenues, you also have to control costs,” he says.

Despite the upward trajectory of India’s live music sector, experts say the country still has a long way to go before it can come on par with the international music scene.

“We have very few concert halls and they do not meet international standards,” says Tellis. “That’s why artists are doing fewer shows in India despite huge demand.”

Dias and his friends recently traveled to Singapore to attend a Coldplay concert. He says booking tickets went smoothly, the venue was top class and the crowd was well managed.

He’s not sure if he’ll have the same experience at DY Patil Stadium, the venue for the band’s concerts in India. “Firstly, it is much smaller and the crowds in India can be quite undisciplined,” he says. He also worries about how safe the venue will be and whether crowds will be properly managed at the entrances and exits.

But for now, he’s holding on to his tickets and is willing to endure whatever comes his way just for the chance to see Chris Martin and company perform again.