It's the end of an era for Bruce Springsteen fans with the announcement that the magazine/website Backstreets — a cornerstone in not just Springsteen but of all rock fandom — is coming to an end after 43 years. The reason for the magazine, which is essentially now just a very active news and message board-based website, coming to a halt is due to Springsteen's recent ticket on-sales via Ticketmaster, which due to the company's pricing structure made some of the events' choice seats completely unaffordable.
Fans were shut out of great seats due to the company's “Dynamic Pricing” — also called “Platinum Seats” — which forced the sales into super-competitive market-based pricing. Due to the surge in supply and demand, the prices of some of the seats easily soared past the $5,000 mark — a situation that was begrudgingly addressed by Springsteen and his management — but not changed nor amended in any way.
Editor-in-chief Christopher Phillips, who took over Backstreets in 1993 from founder Charles R. Cross, posted a long explanation for the publication to wind down, writing in part: