I go to many North American kpop shows and often for big groups that do arenas or bigger. This year alone I’ve seen BTS, Enhypen, Twice, IVE, Aespa, Le Sserafim, and more. I’ve also gone to past kpop concerts in Korea and Japan and know much of the discourse around Asian concerts and ticketing.
A lot of western fans complain about ticket prices and while they are high, I don’t think many people realize how good we have it in the west. In Asia, you’re fighting to get basically any ticket for a big name and often in bigger venues like domes in Japan. Western fans complain that $100 is too much for nosebleeds but that’s the starting price in Asia where incomes are lower. I think fans need to realize how much higher western incomes are and that helps offset some of the higher ticket prices we see.
If you value getting good tickets that’s very hard to do in Asia as scalpers are so rampant. Ticketmaster has its issue but its queue system does let many genuine fans get good tickets compared to a first come first serve system (you can’t beat bots with speed). And the resale market can be a sin or a blessing as you can luck out with good deals from last minute tickets. In Korea, resale runs the risk of not getting in if they decide to check your ID or risk that the ticket is taken away from your account (seller used macro to transfer the ticket and the system detects it). And there are cancelled tickets as people can get refunds but fans stalk those constantly and some even stay up a lot at night just monitoring the queues to get in and check. Honestly it’s exhausting. In Japan, the lottery system can be a curse if you keep getting bad seats despite paying the same as everyone else.
Plus western concerts are honestly lucky to get artist interaction perks that aren’t typically found in Asia like send off, hi bye, hi touch, photos, etc. Yes it’s a way to justify the high VIP prices but if kpop groups become too popular than they’ll be able to get away with no artist participation at all with the same high prices. Blackpink and Bigbang did this with their NA shows with expensive VIP packages. In Japan, a lot of groups do post show hi touch only through album lotteries and people spend A LOT to win. That can happen in an environment where kpop is very popular and fans are willing to pay.
Honestly for the most part, a lot of North American tours haven’t been too hard to get tickets for the last few years. Hardest this year was definitely BTS but that’s not the norm. Some groups even had to lower ticket prices to sell more as well. I think if you value closer concert views, VIP perks, and easier ticketing experiences than the west has it way better. I’m really glad that most kpop groups do arena or smaller venues in the west as that makes the concert viewing experience so much better as stadium concerts just have such really far views for most people.
submitted by /u/happyending10
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