Authorities in India have summoned executives of a ticketing platform after furious Coldplay fans failed to secure tickets for the British rock band’s coming concerts in Mumbai and complained about unchecked scalping.
It’s the latest in a series of frustrating experiences around the world for fans facing growing competition and rising prices to see their favorite international artists onstage. Many of them are directing their anger at the platforms selling tickets — and calling on officials to act.
Last month, the American company Ticketmaster came under British government scrutiny after Oasis fans complained about its “dynamic pricing” for the band’s reunion tour. The platform was also criticized in the U.S. over its disastrous 2022 sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and along with its parent company, Live Nation, it is the subject of an antitrust suit the Justice Department brought this year.
Coldplay fans say they endured long waits and technical glitches on BookMyShow, the official ticketing platform in India for the band’s Music of the Spheres world tour, which is heading to India’s financial capital in January. They were left disappointed, they said, when tickets were snapped up by scalpers who are selling them at several times their original price.
Lavanya Maheshwari said she and five of her friends were ready and waiting when tickets went on sale at noon local time on Sept. 22, each refreshing the concert’s website on their laptops and phones.
“We had 12 devices in the room trying to book the tickets,” said Maheshwari, an accountant based in Gurugram, a city southwest of New Delhi.
But the website crashed even before sales began.
“We kept refreshing for half an hour,” she said.
When they eventually got in, she said, they were placed in a virtual ticketing line with hundreds of thousands of people ahead of them. They spent hours moving up the line, she said, only for the tickets to sell out.
Tickets for the show had been priced from 2,500 rupees ($30) to 35,000 rupees ($415). But within hours, reselling platforms were listing them for thousands of dollars.
On Monday, the website Viagogo showed the lowest-tier tickets available for $1,500 and the highest-tier tickets for as much as $4,000.
“It was the first English band that I ever listened to, and I really wanted to watch them perform on the stage,” said Maheshwari, who turned 23 the day tickets went on sale. “This was definitely not the birthday present I was expecting.”
BookMyShow’s chief executive, Ashish Hemrajani, was summoned before investigators Monday, a spokesperson for Mumbai police told NBC News. It is unclear whether he complied.
The platform said it had experienced a “brief delay.” It said that tickets were limited to four per person and that the virtual line was designed to manage the high demand.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure every fan had a fair chance to secure tickets,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
BookMyShow said it was not associated with reselling platforms such as Viagogo, adding, “Scalping and black marketing of tickets is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India and BookMyShow vehemently opposes this practice.”
The company said it had filed a police complaint and warned the public against buying tickets that might be fraudulent.
Coldplay was initially scheduled to play just two Mumbai concerts, on Jan. 18 and 19, at DY Patil Stadium, which has a capacity of 45,000. A third show for Jan. 21 was added the day tickets went on sale because of “unprecedented demand,” BookMyShow said.
Maheshwari said she logged on to the app as soon as the third show was announced.
“We were very sure that we were going to get the tickets this time,” she said. “But when we again got in the queue, we were still unable to get it.”
“There were friends who joined the queue after because we told them about the show. And somehow they got it, but not us,” she added.
Tickets are now available only at prices far out of her reach, Maheshwari said.
“These websites are selling tickets for 20, 30, 40 times more,” she said. “That is just impossible for us to buy.”
