Beyonce’s Mrs. Carter Show World Tour is the hottest concert ticket out right now. Once the tour stops were released, I knew I was going to get my hands on some tickets for her August show at the Barclay’s in Brooklyn. As soon as I got to work the day the tickets went on sale, Shamika Sanders and I hopped on Ticketmaster and prepped our accounts and by 9:45, we had the window open and ready to put in our ticket requests.
Must Read: Guns For Greatness: Turn In Your Guns, Get Beyonce Tickets
Frustration set in as we both tried multiple times to enter the captcha and were faced with this message multiple times:
By 10:50, I’d given up hope that I’d ever get ticket to Beyonce’s show. After a few days of sulking, I saw the powers that “Bey” added more dates, so I tried again and faced the same fate. How annoying! In all honesty, I thought it would come down to prayer. Yes–as in on my knees, asking the Lord to grant me a pair of the golden tickets.
Thanks to The Fader, we now have the answer to the FAQ’s surrounding Beyonce’s sold out tour. Check a few of them out below:
How do 19,000 Beyonce tickets disappear in just a couple of seconds?
They don’t. 19,000 seats were not up for grabs on February 11th, the morning of Ticketmaster’s public on-sale. The majority of available tickets had already been allotted elsewhere: to a presale for Beyonce’s fan club, a presale for MasterCard holders, presales for Ticketmaster users, VIPs, Beyonces team, and radio contesting.
Did anyone actually get Beyonce tickets for a reasonable price?
Sure. Lauren Blackwood, a Brooklyn marketing coordinator currently working toward a public health masters degree, scored a good seat at the first Barclays show for $187, its original face value. After missing the BeyHive presale (she was on a plane to visit relatives in Trinidad), she downloaded Ticketmaster’s mobile app and participated in their February 8th presale. “I had my best friend hold my credit card right in front of my face. She was yelling numbers to me and I was typing them in furiously. Then, boom, I was just like, buy, buy, buy. I bought insurance because that’s what you do when it’s Beyoncé.” Blackwood, who’s seen Beyonce live once before, bought just one ticket, and figures that gave her better chances than, say, a family looking for four tickets in a row. Empty-handed friends don’t appreciate Lauren’s luck, though. “There are people who are not talking to me now because I was out of the country and I got tickets and they didn’t. And they were using computers and I was on my phone. But I was supposed to go,” she says. “I think it was god. It was my time.”
What’s the artists’ role in all of this?
Artists themselves—or at least their management—are often involved in their own form of scalping. For that Justin Bieber concert in Nashville, 500 of the show’s most desirable tickets were reserved for Bieber’s team, who sold them through Ticketmaster’s Platinum program, which marks-up prices and offers fans perks like pre-show drinks and photos with the artist. Another two rows of balcony tickets were sold for profit by Bieber’s camp on Ticketmaster’s secondary market site, TicketsNow. Similarly, according to Dean Budnick and Josh Baron’s 2012 book Ticket Masters, Beyonce placed sought-after tickets for past tours on TicketMaster’s TicketExchange site, selling them at premium prices and, in doing so, essentially reclaiming the inflated profits typically earned by scalpers and professional brokers.
But without God’s help, how do you actually get Beyonce tickets?
Be prepared and willing to hand over your email address. Sign up for mailing lists: on Beyonce’s BeyHive site, Ticketmaster, and your local arena. If your credit card is affiliated with a tour, find out when their presale is and whether or not you qualify. Consider trying for just one ticket, like Lauren Blackwood, or traveling to a small city where there’s less demand (this time around, tickets were easier to get in Charlotte than at Barclays, for example). If you’re well off, investigate the special packages offered by credit card companies and Ticketmaster; these are prohibitively expensive for most people (and scalpers), so you’ll have a better shot. Beyonce has added dates to the Mrs. Carter tour sporadically; so it’s possible more will be announced. If not, for now, try your luck on StubHub. The prices are inflated, but they’ve got plenty of seats.
Check out the full list of questions on The Fader.
LIKE HelloBeautiful On Facebook!
Don’t Mess With Beyonce, Sony Sues Man For Leaking ’4′ Album
More On Beyonce:
The Best Of The Worst Reviews Of Beyonce’s ‘Life Is But A Dream’ [GIFS]
Don’t Mess With Beyonce, Sony Sues Man For Leaking ’4′ Album
Check Out This Beautiful Beyonce Gallery!
