By Genna Contino
When artists opt out of dynamic pricing, resale ticket sellers on platforms like StubHub make more money
Lady Gaga, left, received backlash from fans for using dynamic pricing on tickets for “The Mayhem Ball” tour. Ariana Grande opted out of dynamic pricing for the “Eternal Sunshine” tour, but fans are still frustrated by eye-popping resale ticket prices.
When news broke that tickets for Ariana Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine” tour would not be subject to dynamic pricing – a strategy where prices fluctuate based on factors like demand, the purchaser’s location, or what time they buy them – fans praised the artist’s decision.
“Ariana proving once again she’s in it for the music not the money,” one fan posted on X. “Keyword: CHOSEN which means your favorite artists opt-in to using it,” another said, referring to reports that Grande had chosen not to use dynamic pricing.
Tickets for the tour were priced in advance between $75.35 and $799, including service fees, according to a notification fans received while waiting in the Ticketmaster queue on Sept. 9. But Grande’s attempt to shield her fans from sky-high prices didn’t quite work. Less than a week later, the pop star was responding to the high cost of resale tickets, posting on Instagram (META) that she’s “been on the phone every second of my free time fighting for a solution.”
As of Sept. 17, resale tickets for Grande’s July 2026 show in Brooklyn ranged from $611 to a whopping $17,537 on StubHub (STUB), a secondary market that went public this week. A representative for Grande did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.
To ticket experts, this surge in resale prices was predictable. If tickets are sold at a fixed rate, scalpers can buy them up at a low cost with the certainty that the primary market price won’t change, then flip the tickets for profit on the secondary market. The industry’s countermove is to implement dynamic pricing, which puts additional costs tacked on to account for demand in the artist’s pockets instead of resellers. But that logic does little to soothe frustration of fans who view dynamic pricing as a form of price gouging by the artists rather than a tool against scalpers.
So who does dynamic pricing help and hurt? Though consumers often assume they lose out with dynamic pricing, experts told MarketWatch that’s not necessarily the case. Dynamic pricing can also lower prices for fans when ticket demand softens. It also helps the artist and venue collect the full market value of the ticket, as opposed to scalpers.
The question came to the forefront amid StubHub’s stock-market debut Wednesday. The company’s value is dependent on a thriving resale ecosystem that dynamic pricing is meant to undermine.
See more: StubHub’s stock dips in a mixed reaction to the polarizing practice of ticket resales and signals of a softer economy
StubHub did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.
“Dynamic pricing isn’t really a tool for fans. Dynamic pricing is a tool for the artists, so that the artists can put additional proceeds in their own pockets … in an effort to reflect what people say that the market value of a ticket is,” said Dean Budnick, co-author of “Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.”
Dynamic pricing can lead to dynamic discounting, too
A common misconception about dynamic pricing is that it only raises prices, said Z. John Zhang, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. But it can lower them as well. For example, tickets for Lady Gaga’s “The Mayhem Ball” were dynamically priced, and while one fan complained in a Reddit (RDDT) post about floor tickets selling for nearly $1,000, a commenter saw tickets in the same section selling later for about $350. Lady Gaga’s label, Interscope Records (NL:UMG), did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.
If artists and ticket sellers framed it as “dynamic discounting” of a set high price, Zhang said fans might view it as an opportunity to snag a deal rather than a punishment for trying to buy something that’s in high demand.
Dynamic pricing also allows fans to “game” the system. Just like travelers who risk waiting till the last minute to score cheap airfare for seats on a flight that otherwise wouldn’t sell, fans might wait until the 11th hour in hopes that a final batch of concert tickets will be released. That’s hard to do, however, for popular artists who sell out stadiums.
From September 2024: A Taylor Swift fan had $3,500 concert tickets stolen from her Ticketmaster account. Here’s how to help protect yourself.
“Unless you want to be really, really patient and wait even day of when they release house seats,” Budnick said. “I think when it comes to high demand shows, it really is challenging.”
Artists opting out of dynamic pricing incentivizes not just professional scalpers, but regular fans as well to scoop up inexpensive tickets with face values lower than their market values to sell on secondary markets like StubHub.
“If I buy for $75 [and the] ticket price is [worth] $600, I mean, what are you going to do?” Zhang said. “Of course you’re going to go to the scalpers and then sell them there.”
If tickets are not dynamically priced for these high-demand shows, some dedicated fans who stick out the long waits for presale tickets can snag good seats at the original fixed price – but they’ll face more competition from scalpers.
Critics of dynamic pricing liken it to price gouging and highlight a lack of transparency around what influences ticket prices. For example, the difference between what two concertgoers sitting side-by-side paid for the show could be hundreds of dollars based on the day and time they purchased their tickets.
See more: The FIFA World Cup ticket presale is live. What to know about dynamic pricing, lotteries and sale dates while trying to score seats.
Dynamic pricing has even become an issue in local politics. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, known for his focus on affordability, called on soccer’s governing body FIFA to end dynamic pricing for 2026 World Cup ticket sales, saying “so many of our neighbors will not be able to afford to be there” in a post on X. Multiple matches, including the final, are set to be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., close to New York City.
How dynamic pricing helps and hurts StubHub
Whether or not venues implement dynamic pricing can influence StubHub directly, too. When artists like Ariana Grande opt for fixed pricing, it creates a gap between tickets’ face value and market value. StubHub then benefits from this when resellers flock to the platform, according to Zhang.
“The lower and more uniform pricing that promoters put in place, the more StubHub can gain through [its own] dynamic pricing,” he said. “In this sense, no one will like it more than StubHub if all concert artists decide to fix a fan price in advance.”
If resellers are primarily hurt by dynamic pricing, expansion into the primary market could be a solution – and it’s something StubHub hints at in its initial-public-offering filings. It would be a daunting task, Budnick said, as most venues already have exclusive contracts with ticketing vendors.
“It still remains to be seen how much primary ticketing StubHub will be able to realize,” he said. “I think venues and promoters will be a little bit reluctant, at least initially.”
Even if dynamic pricing in the primary market negatively impacts resellers, StubHub says it still helps price resale tickets on its platform. The company has a “pricing assistant” tool for resellers where an algorithm can dynamically raise and lower the ticket price to find the market value without the reseller needing to constantly monitor it.
From March: StubHub files for IPO as markets remain anxious. Here’s how it believes it can expand.
“When StubHub started, secondary ticketing was a fragmented offline market, untouched by technology and data,” the company’s IPO filing said. “To win in secondary ticketing, StubHub had to create a technology-enabled marketplace where tickets were sourced and priced dynamically and all types of live events could be supported.”
StubHub ended its first day of trading Wednesday at $22.17 a share, $1.33 below its $23.50 offering price. Analysts say StubHub is a strong brand, but general market volatility around the Federal Reserve’s 25-basis-points rate cut could have influenced the company’s IPO.
Ticketing industry faces increased regulation
Listed among StubHub’s risk factors is the prospect of increased regulation. There is no federal regulation of the resale market and laws are handled by individual states. Maine is a recent regulatory leader in this market, Budnick said, as it passed a law implementing a 10% price cap on resale tickets in June.
On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it sued Live Nation (LYV) and its subsidiary Ticketmaster for engaging in illegal ticket resale tactics. The agency alleges that Ticketmaster coordinated with brokers to illegally acquire tickets on the primary market and resell them at inflated prices on the secondary market. Live Nation did not respond immediately to MarketWatch’s request for comment on the lawsuit
Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at the Public Interest Research Group, also highlighted the issue of bots grabbing tickets to sell on the secondary market.
Read more: Bots make buying concert tickets a nightmare. Could the FTC’s Ticketmaster probe help?
“All of these bots are to blame for snatching up tickets to concerts – just so they can be resold on the secondary market at two or three or 10 times face value,” Murray said. “The industry does need to address this issue of bots.”
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