Fans Fume Over 'Inaccessible' Gaga Tickets

Lady Gaga is heading on tour, but fans may have to "choose between seeing Gaga live or paying rent," reports the Daily Beast. Prices for the highly anticipated MAYHEM Ball Tour, Gaga's first arena tour in seven years, are "astronomical," according to the outlet, which blames Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing model, "a system that allows companies to raise prices in real time based on demand, bots, fraudsters, and resellers." One X user shared a screenshot showing a lower-level ticket for Gaga's Aug. 23 concert at Madison Square Garden was going for $1,770 before fees. A floor seat was priced at $6,204, per Digital Music News. Even limited-view nosebleed seats in Seattle were priced at $184.

Many fans directed their ire at Ticketmaster. "Back in 2014 I paid [about $90] for a decent seated ticket to see her," wrote one X user, adding "the current pricing structure should genuinely be illegal. Live music has become inaccessible." "Ticket master should have put Lady Gaga tickets on sale on April 1st because their system is a joke," wrote another. In a December opinion piece, Alan Cross at Global News pointed out it's actually artists and their management who set the face value price of a concert ticket, while Ticketmaster profits off its service fee. Still, its pricing model has become the subject of an investigation in the UK. (More Lady Gaga stories.)