INDIA: Rock band Coldplay is scheduled to perform three concerts in Mumbai, India, for their Music of the Spheres world tour next year.
According to a BBC report, concert tickets were sold out within minutes on BookMyShow (BMS), the concert’s official ticketing platform. They are then resold at astronomical prices on re-selling platforms, going for as much as $10,000 per ticket.
🚀 “Sold out in seconds!”
That’s the headline dominating conversations across India as Coldplay’s upcoming concerts quickly sold out, leaving fans scrambling for tickets. #ColdplayIndia #EventMarketing #LiveConcerts #DigitalStrategy pic.twitter.com/10Cub5pRUl
— Anmol Gogia (@Anmolgogia) September 23, 2024
The tickets on BMS went on sale on Sunday and were priced at between 2,500 rupees and 12,000 rupees. More than 10 million people tried to purchase the 180,000 tickets on sale.
Many complained about digital crashes as they couldn’t get to the BMS site, and re-sellers began selling them for five times the price soon after, going up to as much as 900,000 rupees.
Ticket scalping is a big problem in India, where bots and automation tools are configured to bypass queues and purchase multiple tickets to sell on reselling platforms. Coldplay fans believe BMS did not do anything to prevent this.
BMS, however, has said that they are not in cahoots with any resellers and that fans should not purchase tickets from “unauthorized sources” as they may be fake.
One individual, Dwayne Dias, told the BBC that he had gotten lucky and bought four tickets from the BMS site at 6,450 rupees each. He is now being approached by people willing to pay up to 60,000 rupees for a ticket.
“If I wanted to, I could sell all the tickets and watch the concert in South Korea [Coldplay’s upcoming touring destination]. The amount will cover my travel expenses, and I’ll be able to experience a new city,” said Dias.
Despite these crazy prices, the music industry is thriving in India. According to one report, concerts generated 8 billion in revenue last year, and in 2025, this figure will increase by 25%.
Founder of the Mahindra Blues Music Festival and a veteran in the music business, Brian Tellis, said that concerts have become part of the country’s cultural currency.
“Like other industries, India is a booming market for the music business as well. There’s a huge demographic that’s young and has money to spend. Everyone wants a piece of the pie,” he said.
“Attending a concert is a mix of bragging rights, being a conformist and being part of the scene. There are true music lovers as well in the mix, but many attend because they get swept up by the hype surrounding a performance, and they don’t want to feel left out.”
Some notable concerts in recent months in India have included those by Ed Sheeran, Alan Walker and Dua Lipa.
Tellis feels that the government does not need to step in to control ticket prices. “This [selling tickets] is entrepreneurship – it won’t be right for the government to get involved. Because if you want to control revenue, then you’ll have to also control costs.
We have very few concert venues and they are not up to international standards. That’s why artists perform fewer shows in India despite the massive demand,” he said.