It’s Valentine’s day, which means a number of things here in the U.S., not least of which is every company in the world is trying to capitalize on people’s need to produce some kind of memorable gift for their sweetheart – leading to deals on everything from flowers and chocolates to video game consoles and beyond.
Event tickets are no exception – after all, what’s a better gift than a date night out for a concert or a chance to see a favorite team together? Ticketmaster is on board – offering a special 2-for-1 ticket deal for select shows. It’s a solid deal – though individuals who purchased full price tickets for a trio of tours that were heavily promoted as being threatened by massive demand and immediate sellout via the company’s Verified Fan program may feel otherwise.
Among the tours eligible for 2-for-1 purchase as of Tuesday afternoon were Shania Twain’s NOW tour, Niall Horan’s Flicker World Tour and Demi Lovato and DJ Khaled’s co-headlining tour. All went on sale in late 2017, and all apparently fell a touch short of their initially expected demand.
Horan, an Irish singer/songwriter who rose to fame as a member of One Direction, has the highest number of deals available for fans who were able to resist the urge to buy tickets last fall when they saw their perceived demand inflated to great heights. A whopping 25 stops on his tour can be had at the 2-for-1 offer. Twain, who utilized Verified Fan as well as a presale linked to the purchase of tour merch, has 18 dates with 2-for-1 deals enabled, while Khalid and Lovato come in with a more modest eight shows on the offer.
Obviously there’s nothing wrong with throwing fans a deal, particularly if it moves inventory for shows that may not be selling as well as initially hoped – fans in the seats make for a better show all around. It’s just another stake in the heart of the ongoing spin that Verified Fan manages to do anything other than offer artists and promoters a chance to artificially pump up perceived demand, or even more cynically, force fans to buy something to have a chance to buy what they actually want – a concert ticket.
Surprisingly, no stops on the much-maligned Taylor Swift Reputation Tour made it into 2-for-1 land. There are, as of Wednesday morning, seats as far as the eye can see on a number of stops on the tour, particularly the late additions “due to overwhelming demand. Perhaps St. Patrick’s Day will see a special deal for those. There’s certainly potential for a tie-in with Jonathan Swift, the 18th century Irish satirist who once penned a hyperbolic piece implying that the poor should sell their children as food to the rich.
