Some fans of Beyonce are scratching their heads over how many of the best seats for the singer’s 37-city summer tour, including an August 12 show in Boston, are being auctioned on StubHub.
The Boston Globe reports that most of the tickets for the pop star’s performance at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston are on sale through Ticketmaster, which has an exclusive contract with the Garden to sell its tickets. But a small number of seats near the stage are up for auction at much higher prices on StubHub, the San Francisco-based online marketplace for ticket resellers. Officials connected with the Beyonce tour and StubHub declined to comment on the ticketing arrangement.
Music industry officials say tour revenue has become increasingly important as CD sales have declined in recent years. Some artists have tried selling tickets directly to the public, bypassing promoters, concert venues, and ticket companies, selling seats to the highest bidder. . .
Though officials have looked into changes to the law, scalping remains illegal in Massachusetts, except under a few restrictive exceptions.
Ticketmaster, the nation’s dominant ticketing firm, sued StubHub in April for interfering with Ticketmaster’s exclusive contracts to sell tickets at many US concert venues. A Ticketmaster spokeswoman declined to comment on the Beyonce ticket situation.
In an interview last week, Mathew Knowles , Beyonce’s father and manager, said he didn’t know how concert tickets for his daughter’s tour ended up on StubHub. Knowles said he would investigate, but since then has not returned phone calls.
