During a lengthy promotional interview for the Cure’s forthcoming record, Songs of a Lost World, the band’s frontman Robert Smith took aim at Ticketmaster. On the band’s 2023 world tour, Smith intentionally kept their ticket prices down by refusing to allow Ticketmaster to institute their dynamic pricing model, while also convincing the ticketing giant to issue partial refunds to fans who paid “unduly high” fees. “I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing],” Smith said. “My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you. 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!’ It’s just driven by greed.” (Billboard)
