Is it just me or is Ticketmaster Platinum ticketing just like scalping? @itvmlshow

A few interesting recent gig ticket buying exploits. A few days ago, I bought some tickets for one popular artist's gig via dice.fm. Totally fair. I paid the right kind of price for just released tickets without any hassle, in minutes.

Today I tried to buy a different artist via Ticketmaster. I had a pre-sales code for the relevant shows, logged in and was offered seats. Limited choices of so-called Platinum seats. It may sound good, but I wonder whether Platinum could be code for 'rip-off'.

It simply means the seats are dynamically priced by Ticketmaster. If you are fortunate enough to be a pre-sales person then Ticketmaster know you are probably keen to see the artist and they can mark the ticketing up. 100% or more.

I took three attempts to get some decent seats via the Ticketmaster site but the pricing increased even whilst I was doing this. First time £126, then £135, then £145. Ouch.

In the UK, touts are now forbidden from bulk buying. Ticketmaster had to stop its secondary market web-sites like Seatwave and GetMeIn and the support it provided to secondary ticket sellers through programs such as TradeDesk. It looks to me as if they now do the price hiking at source.

Here's how: Release tickets slowly on pre-sales at so-called demand-driven prices - which can be multiples of the underlying seat price. Don't declare a formal 'seat price' - after all they are 'Platinum'. There is nothing else special about Platinum seats. It's scalping, pure and simple. I wonder whether the artist or the venue gets any of the surplus cash generated in these 2x and 3x seat pricing scams?

The gov.uk site has a section about stopping touting, but it doesn't cover the original ticketing agency running this kind of rip-off. After all, Ticketmaster must have detailed experience to know what 'fair' seat prices are for a given artist and venue?'

My third attempt to buy tickets was via another card that I hold. It offered the same pre-sales for the same artist as the rip-off Ticketmaster, but far more fairly priced. Faster access, wider choice of seats and no hidden mark-ups. The seats were roughly one third of the price of Ticketmaster - same gig and similar seats. I didn't just try one venue, I tried three.

The UK Government attempt to fix the mark-up behaviour is documented on the gov.uk website. It doesn't work.

Here's some of Ticketmaster's own small print:

Tricky when they run a near-monopoly on some ticketing.