Is ‘ROMO’ Ticketmaster’s reckoning?
After winning the Ticketmaster war back in February, my brother and I excitedly headed off to see Kendrick Lamar and SZA this summer at Hampden Park Stadium in our hometown of Glasgow. Well, I should rephrase that – one of us was excited.
The main reason we had bought tickets, in all fairness, was because of my brother. He’s a massive fan of hip-hop and had long dreamed of seeing Lamar live and in the flesh – and he loved every minute of it. If I’m being really honest, that type of music typically isn’t my cup of tea, but as an avid gig-goer, I was game for a good time. I also fear I would be a terrible music journalist if I turned up my nose.
So, off we went on that muggy evening in early July, except I did admittedly have a slight pit of dread in my stomach. To be clear, this had very little to do with the concert itself and a lot more related to the fact that I have a passionate hatred for Hampden Park. Without mincing my words, it’s an absolute nightmare of a venue; an embarrassment to be considered Scotland’s national stadium, frankly.
If you fancy trekking what feels like five miles around the perimeter to reach your entrance, all while fighting against crowds of thousands who are all similarly confused and branching off in a million different directions, then be my guest. When you do eventually get inside, the view isn’t all that great, either, due to the odd way they decide to configure the stage setup. Then, God, don’t get me started on trying to leave – anyone want a game of car Tetris, where there’s no nearby parking and it takes you over two hours to properly get on the road, even though you only live 20 minutes away?
All of this is to say that by the end of the night, possibly for the first time ever, I had the sinking feeling that I really should have just stayed at home. I tried to check myself – live music is a privilege, and we should support it at every available opportunity, but I still couldn’t shake the disappointment. The thing is, many people are also increasingly feeling this way, as ROMO takes the place of FOMO as far as gigs are concerned.
The ‘Relief Of Missing Out’ feeling only tends to increase when you have negative experiences such as that, but it also extends much further. Let’s be honest – there’s not a single person on Earth who enjoys joining that brutal Ticketmaster queue at nine in the morning on a random Friday, a year in advance of the concert you want to go to.
Even if you do then secure the goods, the rush of excitement is soon swamped by the weight of logistics. Do you need to take time off work? What time do you need to get to the venue? How are you getting there? How are you getting home? Suddenly, what was once the prospect of an enjoyable night out turns into more like a military operation. It seems easier just to not get involved in the mess at all.
This is not to mention the fact that gigs, especially those on a large scale like stadiums, seem to be slowly slipping in quality and afterwards will be roundly mocked on social media or any other given social media platform. Every bum note or tacky gimmick is captured with thousands of cameras, and comments will invariably run along the lines of ‘Thank God I didn’t bother going’.
In this sense, the art of gig-going is gradually dying, although the apportion of blame for this should not be wholly placed on poor audience attitudes, because sometimes, they actually do have a point. Unless the whole structure of live music is reformed – right from the ticket buying process to the physical infrastructures on the night – more and more people will happily miss out on what used to be considered once in a lifetime opportunities.
Ticketmaster evidently has a massive role to play in this, as like them or loathe them, they are indisputably the heaviest industry power with the capability to enact change – if only they can be bothered, and put the audience first. Sure, they’ve managed to get away with it for so long, but unless things drastically improve for the better, that relief of staying at home will be cemented into empty stadiums and a scene in ruin. Above all, if they decide to do nothing, it’s themselves that they’ll be hurting the most in the long run.
