Such a rush, such a rush…everybody’s out there
Glitches and unknown rules of engagement may have hampered the buying experience but the few hundred thousand who did get the tickets will make it to the stadium and revel in their connection with the band on a balmy January evening in Mumbai for a priceless experience.
The handful of Coldplay concertgoers I know have confided that the music experience is one of the best they’ve ever had. There is seldom a group that makes you feel this special singularly in any large stadium with a capacity of anywhere between 30,000 to 100,000 fans.
The group has upped its game — those remote-controlled LED wristbands that are programmed for each section of seats, their remarkable ability to extend the stage into the crowd, Chris Martin’s infectious energy and his ability to rally the entire crowd into rolling up into a giant ball of love.
The ticket-buying experience, on the other hand, is almost the polar opposite of this joyous sphere. While attempting to sit with over a million people in the queue (based on Sunday’s numbers on the ticketing site) to try one’s luck at getting a second shot at seeing the Music of the Spheres concert, it became gradually apparent that it was less about getting a ticket and more of a mass sociological phenomenon that we were all a part of.
When a new show was announced, the demand merged into a giant river but with a four-ticket per purchase limit, no sane person with a half-decent credit card limit would’ve let their quota go, which meant that the first 20,000 people in the queue snapped up seats in each concert while the rest of us million-odd people were either laughing, fuming or just left exasperated. It was like being in a Monopoly board jail ad infinitum even as the game went on.
In a country the size of India, 150-200 thousand tickets were going to be consumed in minutes of course. To see a Coldplay concert will continue to be a concert destination-driven vacation for a lot of India 1 (Many of whom have travelled to other countries to watch the group but who now want to watch them again with their friends in India), and India 1A (reference: Blume’s Indus Valley Annual Report). Frustrated eyes and fastest fingers are already being trained on the nearest dates and cities of Abu Dhabi, Seoul and Hong Kong, no doubt.
In Mumbai, the stated ticket prices were ₹2,500 to ₹35,000 but the Viagogo (official black) pricing will establish the new equilibrium in demand and prices. Coldplay could add five other dates for India and still be sold out many times over. It’s like selling a World Cup cricket final in India, featuring India.
My tweets on this triggered much engagement but also debates and questions that ranged from whether this is a priority for India in the face of its several developmental needs to whether this was akin to subscribing to an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
“Is the ratio of demand to supply on the same lines as in some recent IPOs? Is there some parallel to be made there?” texted my colleague with a smiley. It is indeed about the same effect for the punter reseller — he/she makes some quick money and the pop from a concert ticket is many times more than the hot IPO stock pop. For the legit IPO buyer, the two are not so similar though: The legit stock buyers want an attractive price for a long-term hold and value appreciation. At worst, they can buy the day of the listing for some premium, rarely more than 100%. For the legit music lover, it’s a proxy buy of a cocktail of the four happy hormones — serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin on top of some dollops of love for Coldplay in this case.
Now that’s a tough one to put a price on for music concert prices and experiences. The person finding a way to buy the overpriced resold ticket does get the same hit — it’s just that this hit is three to 10x more expensive.
The aspirations of a country are manifold. Experiences are the new trade-in for fixed assets like cars, furniture and homes. Vacations, concerts and sporting events are right on top of the list of Gen Z and millennials. Of course, we need more concert venues and planning for these mega-events, including different-sized venues in multiple cities. With our population and aspirations, India can reach 10 to 20x of the live entertainment market. BookMyShow is not yet listed but folks may now think Zomato’s entry into this business was a great bet.
Glitches and unknown rules of engagement may have hampered the buying experience but the few hundred thousand who did get the tickets will make it to the stadium and revel in their connection with the band on a balmy January evening in Mumbai for a priceless experience.
Karthik Reddy is the co-founder of Blume Ventures. He managed to get tickets to a Coldplay concert in Wales last year to celebrate a milestone birthday, but his luck didn’t hold out for tickets to the Mumbai concerts. The views expressed are personal