No Beta 12: To the Peripherals

The week of 12th of July

Hi there. Welcome to Active Faults.

This week, fanquan is talking about…

On Weibo, trending at #4: 680元和380元的演唱会门票仅差一排

Only a row of difference between 680 and 380 yuan concert tickets

This is not the first time concert pricing has headlined the hot searches in recent months. The pandemic was the rock bottom that concerts and music festival costs ricocheted off of in the post-COVID boom, where fans embraced large-scale music events with renewed enthusiasm and prices soared accordingly. I couldn’t make out exactly whose concert caught the fire this time, but this hashtag now has turned into bickerings between fans of Lay Zhang and Hua Chenyu each defending their idol’s “fair pricing” vehemently. Some Lay fans bought a ticket for over 1K RMB and were seated with a restricted view. Hua’s fans are claiming that he’s already upping the “visual presentations and auditory experience” to make up for the potential hit to people’s wallets.

Lay Zhang’s concert seat map where yellow-coded seats priced at 1314 can hardly see the stage at all, according to complaints.

Comments sections are venting that there are no relevant laws in place to regulate China’s Ticketmaster 大麦 or the artists’ companies’ malicious pricing.

God forbid they discover Dynamic Pricing, verified pre-sales, Authentic Realest Fan VVIP AMEX Exclusive pre-sales and everything in between.