ELI5: Tickets for a concert go on sale. They sell out within minutes and now they're all on stubhub for much higher prices. Why is this legal!?

it ignores literally EVERY OTHER VALUE

Some would say the price of an object represents the sum total of its monetary value as well as every other value to a human.

why would a musician charge less than what the market will bear? If they could sell out the arena for $750 a ticket why would they charge $100 instead? Because they know there are people in that city who have been their fans since before they could sell out the local theater but can't afford $750.

So why don't they sell tickets to individuals like plane tickets?

Or, why don't they sell for $750 with a $650 rebate you can claim if your ID matches the ticket?

Or, why don't they just send the rebates out to their hardcore fans? Even if those people bought the ticket at the rebated value and resold it, better they get the profit than a scalper...

The reason all of these things don't happen is because the people controlling the business model—the intermediaries (which is the label when it comes to selling the music on CD, or the ticketing agencies and/or venues when it comes to live performing)—don't care about the band or the fans and what either of them want.

This is why there's so much disintermediation happening as technology advances. People and bands can now get what they want without having to depend on middlemen that only care about the money. All of the above approaches and many more are definitely feasible and practiced in other industries.

It's like the Koch brothers being allowed to spend a billion dollars on the next election because their money is somehow "speech." Their ability to outspend everyone because that's "what the market will bear" prices out all of the working people in the country who might like a little political speech themselves.

(This is actually nothing like political speech and campaign finance. That has almost nothing to do with this subject.)

Reducing all of human experience to a market makes us all poorer in many ways that have nothing to do with money.

Reducing human economies to a market makes a lot of sense, though.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread Parent