 "Despite BMS warning, reselling platforms list Coldplay tickets for Rs 3L")
Grammy-winning rock band ‘Coldplay’ is slated to perform in Mumbai in January next year as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour. Months ahead of their three scheduled shows, all in Mumbai, fans have started buzzing at the virtual ticket counter.
The Coldplay was initially scheduled to have two shows in India, but given the unwavering love from Indian fans, the team has decided to add another show that will take place on January 21, 2025, following up their previous line-up of January 18 and 19.
Ticket price surges to Rs 3 lakh on re-selling platforms
Though the team has added another show to the lineup, thousands of fans are still disappointed after being unable to get a ticket. BookMyShow (BMS), the authorised partner to sell tickets, has sold out all the tickets.
However, re-selling platforms like Viagogo are offering concert tickets at huge markups, listing as high as Rs 3 lakh. Taking cognisance, the authorised channel, BookMyShow, has warned against buying tickets from unauthorised channels that lead to price surges.
According to reports, prices of concert tickets for the January 18 show are in the range between Rs 38,000 and Rs 3 lakh on re-selling platforms.
The lounge ticket was originally offered at Rs 35,000 on BookMyShow, while the reselling platform is listing it as high as Rs 3 lakh, and one hopeful has even listed Level 1 tickets for a whopping Rs 7.7 lakh.
In view of this, BookMyShow has warned that the tickets purchased from such re-selling platforms will be considered invalid.
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On Sunday (September 22), BookMyShow took to X (formerly Twitter) advising fans to avoid scams. The post read, “It has come to our attention that unauthorised platforms are listing tickets for Coldplay's Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India, both before and after the official sale. These tickets are invalid. Ticket scalping is illegal in India and punishable by law."
Fans blame BookMyShow for supply gap
Despite the warning from BookMyShow that the ticket purchased from an unauthorised partner would be considered invalid, there are thousands of disappointed fans blaming the authorised partner for creating a system benefiting illegal scalpers.
The ticket hoarding is a result of not tying the tickets to booking ID, resultantly anyone can purchase the tickets and further sell them at higher prices. Fans accused the platform of hoarding the tickets to save for high net-worth individuals, influencers and its employees, creating a huge supply gap.
One of the X users accused the authorised partner of hoarding and wrote, “The official partner (BMS) parked God knows how many tickets for their employees, for random insta influencers, for politicians and other celebs. As soon as tickets went live, the same were listed on resale platforms at 20-30x the price -- this would mostly not have been possible without BMS being complicit.”
Another wrote, “How does @viagogo get Coldplay tickets at the same time as @bookmyshow but at black market prices several times higher? Clearly there's a nexus and BMS is selling them to Viagogo. This is screaming scam!”
Thousands of fans who failed to get any ticket for the Coldplay show in Mumbai blamed the authorised partner for creating a virtual queue based on session ID rather than customer ID.