Robert Smith Details The Cure's Ticketing Strategy For North American Tour

When The Cure announced their first US tour in seven years last week, they made it a point to ensure affordable seats. Before tickets went on sale, the band shared a statement explaining how, in an effort to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers, they would be non-transferable. They also said Ticketmaster agreed to forgo its "dynamic pricing" model that increases the price depending on demand. Now, Robert Smith is explaining the strategy a little more.

"WE HAD FINAL SAY IN ALL OUR TICKET PRICING FOR THIS UPCOMING TOUR, AND DIDN’T WANT THOSE PRICES INSTANTLY AND HORRIBLY DISTORTED BY RESALE - WE WERE TOLD 'In North America the resale business is a multi-billion $ industry,'" The Cure frontman started in a series of tweets. "WE WERE CONVINCED THAT TICKETMASTER'S 'Verified Fan Page' AND 'Face Value Ticket Exchange' IDEAS COULD HELP US FIGHT THE SCALPERS"

"(WE DIDN’T AGREE TO THE 'DYNAMIC PRICING' / 'PRICE SURGING’ / ‘PLATINUM TICKET' THING... BECAUSE IT IS ITSELF A BIT OF A SCAM? A SEPARATE CONVERSATION!)," he continued. "WE KNOW IT IS A FAR FROM PERFECT SYSTEM - BUT THE REALITY IS THAT IF THERE AREN’T ENOUGH TICKETS ONSALE, A NUMBER OF FANS ARE GOING TO MISS OUT WHATEVER SYSTEM WE USE; AT LEAST THIS ONE TRIES TO GET TICKETS INTO THE HANDS OF FANS AT A FAIR PRICE…"

See all Smith's tweets below.