Beware online sellers of Erykah Badu tickets

There is still time to get those tickets to watch the concert tonight of Erykah Badu, the Queen of Neo Soul, at the Sofitel Manila.

But if you do, better get them from authorized ticket outlets www.buytickets.at/vuetix and smtickets.com. Purchasing tickets elsewhere may mean unnecessarily paying for them, sometimes for as much as double the actual price, says Miro Grgic, co-producer of the Philippine edition of the Erykah Badu vs Everythang Tour 2017 A.D. tour with Volume Unit Entertainment and World Wide Womb.

American singer and songwriter Erykah Badu, who has developed her own unique brand of rhythm and blues and soul/funk music, is performing for the first time in the Philippines. Opening the show for her Saturday night are Kat Agarrado of Sinosikat, August Wahh, Skarm, RH Xanders, Kristian Hernandez and DJ Shortkut.

Grgic, who is also the moving force behind the Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival, says the scourge of online ticket scalpers is being felt by concert promoters across the region, including those that put up the long-running Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia and the Clockenflap Music and Arts in Hong Kong.

What happens, Grgic says, is that these online ticket scalpers promote the events and aggressively market and sell online. Then they turn around and purchase tickets from the real music producers at the actual price. They make big money from the difference unfortunately at the expense of music fans.

Two General Admission tickets to Erykah Badu, for example, are sold for only P11,000. But these are sold online by unathorized sellers for more than P16,000, which is a blow to both the buyer and the concert promoter who gets the ire of the fans who eventually find out about the price difference.

Grgic’s group found out about the unauthorized selling only last Monday and immediately notified the public through its Facebook page to buy tickets at fair prices from the authorized sellers, ensuring a hassle-free entrance to the much-awaited event.

The online ticket scalpers are able to fool buyers because their sites come out on top when fans search for tickets, say, for Erykah Badu. For Grgic, that means that these companies, which have so far been able to operate through legal loopholes, pay big money for search engine optimization and online advertisements.

“Unfortunately, there is no law against scalping,” says Grgic.

But there are ways to avoid their unscrupulous ways, and that is to buy only from the authorized ticket sellers./asu