r/Music • • Sep 16 '26

article Thousands of Ed Sheeran Tickets Remain Unsold for Singer's Tour, With Prices Down to $65 Online

https://www.rollingstone.com/product-recommendations/tickets/ed-sheeran-tour-tickets-2026-cheap-seats-prices-buy-online-1235627439/
36.9k Upvotes

2.0k comments sorted by

21.5k

u/brodoswaggins93 Sep 16 '26

Scalpers having to sell at a loss is a lovely side effect to all of this

4.2k

u/yindseyl Sep 16 '26

Warms my little heart!

1.8k

u/Azagar_Omiras Sep 16 '26

Not as much as lighting the scalpers on fire but heart warming all the same.

874

u/showyerbewbs Sep 16 '26

Build a man a fire, he warm for night.

Set man on fire, he warm rest of life.

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u/jdoggsoxfan33 Sep 16 '26

True wisdom

18

u/H3lls_B3ll3 Sep 16 '26

Jesus was on to something with this one.

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u/mientosiempre Sep 16 '26

But respect goes out to the fans who bought tickets and are listing the tickets for resale now instead of supporting him. By placing them on the resale market they're actually doing quite a lot in cratering the market.

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u/jambrand Sep 16 '26

Eh.. the news is bad enough that I doubt anyone who didn't already have tickets to the tour is lining up to buy them from anyone, scalpers or legit holders.

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u/th3-villager Sep 17 '26

Exactly. Re read the previous comment.

They may well not be able to sell them but listing them anyway is actively driving the price down. That may well not be their intention, but for some it probably is.

If they ignored it and kept them and didn't list the price would likely not have changed

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u/BreadElectrical6942 Sep 16 '26

Couldn’t happen to a better group lol

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u/Deranged_Kitsune Sep 16 '26

My first thought as well. If anyone deserves to be caught in the negative fallout from this, it's them.

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u/TastySaturday Sep 16 '26

This is the kind of rug pull I do like.

75

u/ExIsStalkingMe Sep 16 '26

I still think it's the billionaires who were actively fighting against freedom of speech that deserve negative fallout the most

This is a very "the worst part is the hypocrisy" moment

14

u/andthecrowdgoeswild Sep 16 '26

I think it's the billionaires that are the scalpers. There are entire sites now that are just a hop skip and jump away from ticketmaster and those scalper sites are probably run by the same Ticketmaster goons.

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u/Szuter88 Sep 16 '26

Hopefully they won’t be able to sell at all

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ Sep 16 '26

No, hopefully the tour gets canceled. I think there are a lot of people that wanted to go to the show previously but don't want to go anymore whether because of the politics or they wanted to see one of the opening acts. They should get their money back.

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u/backdoorwolf Sep 16 '26

If the tour gets cancelled, Ticketmaster issues refunds for all purchased tickets. Scalpers would just get their initial money back. Better if the tour proceeds and scalpers sell at a loss or not at all.

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u/The_Autarch Sep 16 '26

i'd rather the regular people get their money back. fuck scalpers, but people deserve their refunds.

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ Sep 16 '26

Fuck all them Macklemore fans who bought tickets!!! Right?

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u/seanl1991 Sep 16 '26

Are people really paying Ed Sheeran prices to go see Macklemore though

21

u/_WeSellBlankets_ Sep 16 '26

I know my brother is trying to sell his tickets now and he's a big Macklemore fan. But I think he also likes Lukas Graham. I wouldn't be surprised if my sister-in-law got him into Ed Sheeran a bit, but I've never heard either of them talk about him. Mostly Taylor Swift and Macklemore.

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u/Different_Set_3690 Sep 16 '26

We'll remember them as martyrs for a greater cause.

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u/orionsfyre Sep 16 '26

Won't someone think of the illegal ticker sellers in all this!?

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u/squeezemachine Sep 16 '26

Little known fact is that artists also scalp their own tickets to maximize profits (and take a share of the service fees, all while maintaining their reputations) so he might be getting a haircut.

129

u/Affectionate-Panic-1 Sep 16 '26

It's pretty obvious for people buying tickets that artists hold back tickets during initial on sales.

105

u/Popular_Hunter7415 Sep 16 '26

All the tickets are usually gone right away and then immediately available as “platinum tickets” at double the price

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u/2Completion2Ography Sep 16 '26

It's pretty obvious for people buying tickets

That's extremely charitable to the majority of people who purchase things.

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u/Ghosts_of_the_maze Sep 16 '26

Can’t be worse than his usual haircuts

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u/nalicali Sep 16 '26

I’m at work, had to pretend this laugh was a cough…

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u/BlueSkyBasin Sep 16 '26

The CEO of StubHub owns a separate ticket reseller

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u/Evening_Band7762 Sep 16 '26

I’ve always thought someone should run for president on the sole promise to fix the concert/festival ticketing system. I’d vote for them.

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u/BlueSkyBasin Sep 16 '26

We all are just getting Middle Manned to death on everything

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u/Perryn Sep 16 '26

I should start a service that deals with middlemen so that our clients don't have to.

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u/WigglySpaghetti Sep 16 '26

You can thank all the management consultants and MBAs running around.

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u/brockhopper Sep 16 '26

That's the logical endpoint of capitalism - rentier capitalism, where the point is to protect market share and not generate anything other than profits.

4

u/Zuwxiv Sep 16 '26

Exactly! Rent-seeking is the Wikipedia page, for anyone interested. This is different from "rent you pay your landlord." It's economist speak that roughly means "money earned where you didn't make a good or provide a service."

It sounds like you know, but for those who don't: It's not just profits above all. It's specific kinds of behavior that don't produce any good or valuable service, and instead just try to collect more money through legal, bureaucratic, or monopolistic practices.

A "normal" business manufactures a good, or provides a service. They make money by making things people want to buy, or providing a service people want to pay for. In theory, this is good - people want the thing they're buying. The service is either better than alternatives, cheaper than alternatives, or novel and unique.

But in rent-seeking, a business seeks to extract value that they didn't produce. American car companies lobby for strict restrictions and tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles; as a result, Americans don't have access to what's widely seen as cheap, effective electric vehicles. It's not that American car companies make better, more desirable vehicles. It's that cheaper, better options aren't allowed to be sold. The net effect is that you're paying more on your car payment than you should be, and the money goes to a company that isn't keeping up with vehicle innovations.

Major telecommunications companies lobby to make it illegal for municipalities to create their own internet service provider. These new providers would simply have been extra options for residents to choose from using existing infrastructure. Residents would have been free to choose from among multiple options in a free market, and the municipal option would have to be price and feature competitive. But these companies have no incentive other than to protect a monopoly and charge residents far in excess of the actual cost to provide their service.

Sony announces they're not going to produce physical disks for Playstation games. Buying games digitally is already a service that exists; they aren't providing a better option for customers, they're just taking one away. The reason they're doing that is because used game sales undercut their own digital store. They're removing a feature from their product in order to extract more value out of game purchases.

In all of these examples, there is not a better product for the consumer. And there is not a better service. Money is made not by providing value, but by manipulating the market. The entire purpose is to make existing things more expensive, and options worse for consumers. And if you look around yourself and think about how all kinds of products and services seem to both be getting worse and more expensive, you'll understand how much rent-seeking has taken hold of our corporate environment.

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u/Ill-Elephant-9583 Sep 16 '26

Yeah I was saying the exact same thing on an Uber eats and others (which I've never used) thread. Parasitic

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u/Weekly_Interview_936 Sep 16 '26

"Separate".

The fact that the government allows bullshit on-paper-only tricks like this to happen is a big part of why people view the whole system as less and less legitimate.

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u/niberungvalesti Sep 16 '26

Anything that makes scalpers take a huge L is the moral and correct thing to do

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u/InevitableBudget510 Sep 16 '26

The real bandits are the billionaires and millionaires that made off of this

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u/dinosaurclaws Sep 16 '26

I’m not sure how the tickets were sold this time but when I went to his last tour, his policies were very fair and prevented scalpers by prohibiting platinum pricing, prohibiting resale on secondary sites, and prohibiting resale above face value. I follow a lot of pop acts and he and Billie Eilish are the only artists I’ve seen take these steps to prevent scalping.

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u/Expert_Ad_1259 Sep 16 '26

Noah Kahan went above and beyond to make his tickets stay as affordable as possible--only official resale at face value

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u/pomchisarenice Sep 16 '26

Same for Hayley Williams. And because something came up and I can’t go, selling them was super stress free too. Didn’t lose anything to resell fees etc

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u/ZemlyaNovaya Sep 16 '26

I wish Ed could generate as much profit as he could generate excuses

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u/Theslootwhisperer Sep 16 '26

I would have respected him more if he told the truth like "Look, I'm all for Palestine and stuff but if I cancel its gonna cost me 50 million dollars in penalties and I'm just not willing to take that kind of loss."

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u/orionsfyre Sep 16 '26

I wanna hug this comment.

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u/squeaky19 Sep 16 '26

I really hope they don’t cancel+refund the scalpers. I want them to lose their shirts

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u/KakeLin Sep 16 '26

Scalpers are the worst people, so well deserved

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u/TheTigerbite Sep 16 '26

Are they scalpers though? I haven't looked to see if they're regular tickets or resale tickets.

I went to his Mathematics Tour in Atlanta a few years ago and I bought tickets the day before. It was not sold out and there were a lot of empty seats.

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u/Silver-Sprinkles8153 Sep 16 '26

We shall tell stories of this for ages to come

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4.0k

u/MrBlueandSky Sep 16 '26

I remember when $65 was expensive

1.8k

u/weaseltorpedo Sep 16 '26

$65 is still expensive if you ask me

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u/Uhmerikan Sep 16 '26

Especially when 65 really means 90+ all said and done. Fuck that

277

u/Aethermancer Sep 16 '26

Plus $40 for parking.

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u/MutedAstronaut9217 Sep 16 '26

And that's without getting a beer or any merch.

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u/orange-shades Sep 16 '26

I remember going to shows that were $15-$20 and shirts being $20. Bands would make up the cheap covers by selling merch and you would walk away with something and felt like you were directly contributing to the artist instead of the venue. You spent $40, but you knew half of that was going to the band you actually liked.

Now tickets are easily in the $100 range and shirts are $50 and hoodies are $100 and what's the point anymore? It's too much man.

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u/TheWolfAndRaven Sep 16 '26

It's less that Bands were making up cheap covers and more that the venue was happy with the drink sales. That's no longer the case and now they want a merch cut too, which is why band shirts on tour are so fucking expensive.

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u/TheSaxonPlan Sep 17 '26

That explains so much, thank you! Goddam late/end-stage capitalism ruining everything good...

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u/Doctor_Kataigida Sep 16 '26

Most sites include the fees now, unless you're talking about other things like gas, parking, or merch.

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u/Amiibohunter000 Sep 16 '26

I’m a big fan of than all in pricing. It’s crazy that it wasn’t always the norm.

I went to see Wu-tang last week. Got a 2 pack of lawn tickets for $55 and parking was free at the venue! Cheapest concert I’ve been to in probably 20 years lol

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u/pitabread024 Sep 16 '26

I mean hypothetically, i think $65 would be a good price for a stadium show. Just not in this case

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u/lonnie123 Sep 16 '26

Stadiums should be the cheapest shows of them all

At a certain point, and it ain’t that far back, you are so far away you are watching a screen the entire time

And with dozens of thousand of people the ticket prices can be cheap and still rake in a ton of money

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u/Current_Helicopter32 Sep 16 '26

Not only that, but I saw videos on social media recently and if felt like at least a fifth of the stadium was empty at that particular show.

Why not eventually lower prices such that every seat is filled?

I can’t imagine how deflating it must be to perform a show that big and see massive gaps in all the sections with a sprinkle of rich people near the front.

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u/Max_Trollbot_ Sep 16 '26

Hello early 90's concert-goer

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u/Ellsass Sep 16 '26

I remember being blown away when Rolling Stones tickets first hit $150. It was explained to me that their fanbase was older and could afford it. Not sure how it's rationalized now that all tickets are three digits.

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u/Hope-u-guess-my-name Sep 16 '26

I remember when I was a kid, the Eagles came through town on their hell freezes over tour, and the tix were like 90 bucks a pop. It was a huge scandal. The radio DJ’s were even calling on people to not go. 90 bucks now won’t even get you two t-shirts

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u/SassyMcNasty Sep 16 '26

I remember paying $65 to see Metallica at 15 years old and thought I’d never spend that much again to see another band.

But it was Metallica, I was 15, I had to be there.

Now the prices are $65 for a wet sock band in nosebleeds. Insanity.

Most I’ve spent to-date is $95 for Tool. Can’t see really going higher than that as I get older. It’s just not worth the prices.

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u/dgjapc Sep 16 '26

I wish Wet Sock played their old stuff

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u/kerbalsdownunder Sep 16 '26

5 bands and $5 at the door

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u/giantpotato Sep 16 '26

Tickets for sale on third-party sites are 'sold' as far as Ed Sheeran is concerned. It's the scalpers' problem now.

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u/BrownSugarBare Sep 16 '26

Scalpers are scum so that's lovely!

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u/CashBrilliant5366 Sep 16 '26

Not 100%. Artists make a lot of their money on merch, and the stadium makes a lot of its money in alcohol sales, parking, etc. They have to pay the police/security, concession employees, other operations/cleaning staff, and the alcohol license whether people show up or not. The ticket might be sold, the stadium will make something but they will nottttt profit the way they expected. And that drives people like that NUTS

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u/Tarancholula Sep 16 '26

Not to mention, it has to be somewhat humiliating to play in a huge venue with very few people present.

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u/Version_1 Sep 16 '26

I once went to a gig where the band was pretty ambitious and had to half the venue with a massive curtain.

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u/isigneduptomake1post Sep 16 '26

Not sure how the economics have changed, but it used to be that 80s nostalgia bands and the like would go on tour in massive arenas, radio stations would give away 1000s of tix and the venue would make their money on drinks, snacks, and parking. It was a much better business model than packing 1000 seat venues with actual die hard fans, even if the venue was 60% empty.

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u/ThisBuddhistLovesYou Sep 16 '26

Still kind of happens. Friend of mine picked up group tickets to a nostalgic 90s band and we all went for the fraction of the cost of a normal concert ticket.

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u/TheVeryVerity Sep 16 '26

Surely the ideal would be to do both

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u/isigneduptomake1post Sep 17 '26

There are only so many acts that can sell out arenas.

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u/smokeweedNgarden Sep 17 '26

Yea but if half the tickets were free so they buy drink and food? Hell, I'd go see someone I don't know

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u/scarab456 Sep 16 '26

Yeah. Folks pointing out the whole "Fuck you, got paid already" really aren't taking into account how bad this is going to look down stream. Even if this is Sheeran's most profitable concert ever, the short term gains aren't going to outweigh the long term costs.

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u/sunshineriptide Sep 16 '26

I'm just thinking about how these big name concerts (big is relative, I suppose) aren't very accessible to people like me in rural areas who have to travel 2-6 hours to see them, and how a lot of people might've only wanted to see Macklemore and will probably bail now. It's not worth the expense of travel if the artist you wanna see isn't playing anymore. I've never seen an instance where the second headlining act was dropped from the tour before.

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u/JuanLuisGuerrero Sep 16 '26

That's never gonna be the case for someone as big as him. Internet outrage lasts less than a week.

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u/liggieep Sep 16 '26

last concert i went to sold out merch before the show even started. you had to be lined at the doors like 2 hours before to get anything i heard.

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u/Ellsass Sep 16 '26

Until videos of the empty seats start making the rounds

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u/Sorry-Secret-2347 Sep 16 '26

Maybe Kraft can buy them for him

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u/CanExplainThings Sep 16 '26

Kraft does not care but importantly neither do the billionaire stadium owners who joined him. 

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u/stop_spam_calls Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

But they did just expose something: they do coordinate with each other. Colin Kaepernick accused them of a coordinated attack against him, which they vehemently denied; well sure looks like they did now, not that it wasnt already clear as day.

Something I think they also miscalculated is how unpopular Israel is with millennials and younger than previous generations. Before they could get away with blackballing pro-Palestinian artists. Now? Not so easy…

Edit: thanks for the upvotes! Let us also not forget Kraft is in the Epstein Files!

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u/saintofhate Sep 16 '26

The internet was both a blessing and a curse to capitalists. It's probably why there's a huge push to restrict the internet.

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u/Weekly_Interview_936 Sep 16 '26

To the oligarchy in general. Both the billionaires and the cushy political class, both elected and paid staffers. So many of the narratives their power was built on were, it turns out, based entirely on lies. Lies maintained by the fact that broadcast media is inherently a cartel due to bandwidth limitations and start up and run costs.

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u/sumeriandisputations Sep 16 '26

If somehow Kapernick is able to take them back to court for this it would be a gift that keeps on giving.

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u/WakeNikis Sep 16 '26

They already settled the case and paid him???

He cant sue again. That’s part of the deal for settling for $$$z

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u/pizza-chit Sep 16 '26

Kraft is getting a massage that night

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u/yourmomdotbiz Sep 16 '26

I’d love to see someone do this like 50 cent did to ja rule 💀

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u/BigVillage Sep 16 '26

I agree that Ed Sheeran deserves this negative press but I'm also bummed that the main culprit here, Robert Kraft, will likely get away without any negative impact on his life.

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u/tnwthrow Sep 16 '26

Public image doesn’t affect people like that. Look at Musk and Trump for example.

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u/SambaPapi1 Sep 16 '26

People like that own the presses for a reason. 

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u/JigglesTheBiggles Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Their money isn't tied to being liked by the public either.

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u/custardisnotfood Sep 16 '26

Though it is a nice side effect that Musk clearly really wants people to like him. At least there’s one thing he’ll never have

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u/HighPriestofShiloh Sep 16 '26

He doesn’t want people to like him, he wants people to idolize him. You don’t pay someone to boost your Diablo account to make friends.

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u/RandomRedditReader Sep 16 '26

To them it's the same thing. These people can never have genuine friends unless the other person has more money. Look at how desperate he wanted to be friends with Epstein.

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u/trisanachandler Sep 16 '26

He did have it for a while. Somehow.

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u/bobs_monkey Sep 16 '26

Once upon a time there really was the perception that he was making moves for the public benefit (since no one bothered to look up his earlier antics with eBay, PayPal, etc). And then he started speaking in public.

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u/Nina-Ninja123 Sep 16 '26

That was before he fired his PR team (probably fired them because they wouldn’t let him do any media interaction without supervision)

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u/trisanachandler Sep 16 '26

Pretty much. If he'd kept his head down, and actually delivered his promised tech, things would be different.

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u/Modo44 Sep 16 '26

Owning the presses is not so much about being liked, but about certain topics being or not being in the news at your will. Like quieting all the Epstein stuff they can, or making "Sleepy Joe" a powerful meme.

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u/bevelledo Sep 16 '26

At the end of the day we do vote with our wallets. Yea Kraft is much more immune to this than others, especially since he’s already amassed his wealth.

It starts by not supporting the patriots (the nfl team he owns), and if you’re using one of his companies products finding an alternative.

(Rand Whitney, International Forest Products, New Cindy, Unified2, Gillette Stadium, Patriot Place)

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u/FreakingAustin Sep 16 '26

Yeah I don’t think I’ve seen any coverage of this on tv

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u/Oneinterestingthing Sep 16 '26

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u/wocka-jocka-blocka Sep 16 '26

Astonishing how everyone seems to have forgotten that. Or, maybe not, since -- amazingly -- the charges were dropped. Because, Rich People.

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u/Groentekroket Sep 16 '26

Trump image, even after his first term, 6th of January and the shit around Epstein was still enough to get 1/3 of the US actively vote for him and 1/3 not even care enough. That’s because the people who vote for him or buy the shit from these idiots don’t give a shit.

That’s in the control of the people. The people should take a stance and not vote for the idiot and not buy Tesla’s from the other idiot. 

It could affect them if we want it enough. But most Americans don’t care enough to boycot. Take an example from Canada, even without a tarrif people boycotted US liquor because they were done being bullied and took a stance. 

Public image does affect rich assholes if people take action on that. 

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/hahayeahimfinehaha Sep 16 '26

At this point, nothing can hurt Robert Kraft. He's 85, a billionaire with a diversified portfolio which consists mostly of B2B operations, is friends with important people, was in the Epstein files, and has never faced a consequence in his life. What can the public realistically do to him? Not go to Patriots games I guess? But that's not even where most of his money comes from, that's just one of the few interests he has that even depends a tiny bit on consumer choices.

The reality is that most of these billionaires are untouchable, and all you can do is hit at the collaborators who lick boot.

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u/dwagent Sep 16 '26

I think this is why Ed Sheeran’s stance hits so hard. The average Joe/Jane can’t do much to send a message to billionaires…but someone with a platform as big as Sheeran CAN. If he had the balls to take a stand, HE could have gotten Kraft to take notice, at least. So the fact that he CHOSE to cower and slink away under the cover of “neutrality” feels like a total betrayal.

EVEN if he didn’t want to “get involved” in the “politics” (of genocide…?)…what about sending Kraft a message that money can’t silence speech? Today, it’s Palestine, but what’s next…? What else will the billionaires not allow in their stadiums? Of course it’s not just stadiums…they own all the airwaves and the media networks, so it’s not a hypothetical implausibility. It’s censorship—not by the state (directly), but by wealth class.

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u/OverlyLenientJudge Give us a Qobuz flair, dangit Sep 16 '26

Probably because the only major ways to boycott him are "don't attend shows at his stadium" (which applies mainly to a localized area) and "don't support his sports team" (impossible ask for the cult of football).

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u/mdp300 Sep 16 '26

I've been not supporting his team my whole life!

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u/RollTh3Maps Sep 16 '26

It’s hard to impact someone at that level as a “normal” person. We can, however, show artists that they shouldn’t do business with him and hope THAT impacts his life.

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u/StatuatoryApe Sep 16 '26

There was a guy, allegedly one of the Mario brothers, that found a good way to "impact" these people.

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u/Big_Toke_Yo Sep 16 '26

Are you registered to vote? Apparently just voting has a negative impact on billionaires lives. 

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u/Cosmicdusterian Sep 16 '26

Thus, why they are spending so much money to interfere with the act of voting thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts Supreme Court.

In a just world they would all be thrown in prison or forced to step down for actively destroying the American experiment of a representative government. Sadly, this is not a just world.

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u/randomrreeddddiitt Sep 16 '26

While true, Sheeran set himself up to be the punching bag on behalf of Kraft. If Sheeran refused to capitulate to Kraft's unreasonable demands and threats, and instead continued on to Boston to do the show, forcing Kraft to lock him out, all the attention and pressure and scorn would have been directed at Kraft.

Instead, Sheeran did Kraft's bidding, likely due to financial reasons and their own personal relationship.

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u/NlghtmanCometh last.fm Sep 16 '26

Technically it wasn’t even just Kraft. He was able to convince multiple other stadium owners to join him in banning Macklemore.

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u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek Sep 16 '26

If all the patriots fans cancelled their season tickets and refused to show up, the impact might amount to something that matters. But I just have absolutely no faith that anyone in Krafts orbit or his customer base will care at all.

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u/stabby- Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

You’re right. Unfortunately even in liberal MA, most of the football diehards and conservatives are a circle, not a venn diagram. They’re not going to care.

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u/caelynnsveneers Sep 16 '26

It’s okay, he’s 85. I think death is super scary for people who’ve spent their whole lives using money and power to cheat and avoid consequences. When you’re used to buying your way out of everything, you start thinking you can cheat death too. But that’s the one thing money and power can’t save you from.

I hope he’s one of those who put themselves in a cryo pod after death and then gets melted when the power goes out.

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u/SmakeTalk Sep 16 '26

I mean, what could be done to truly affect him besides tax his money away or forcing him to sell companies and whatnot?

He doesn’t care what we think of him, he only cares what the people in his circle think and they all probably think like him anyways. There’s only a few ways to negatively affect someone so financially insulated from the real world and they’re all illegal.

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u/ThaLunatik Sep 16 '26

Billionaires can do anything with no negative impact on their lives. It's why many of them are such sociopaths.

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u/binzoma Sep 16 '26

thays a bit backwards

in general to accumulate that much wealth, you have to be a sociopath and willing to screw over LOTS and lots and lots of people

money is 0 sum. theres a finite amount. a billion dollars has to come from somewhere

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u/tenaji9 Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Robert Kraft of the Epstein Files may not be punished . How odd

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u/Cashope Sep 16 '26

This is true but the way I see it multimillionaires such as Ed Sheeran assist in facilitating the billionaires’ control of our media and government. Perhaps the backlash against Ed will deter other ultra wealthy figures from doing the same. It sucks he has to take the fall when Kraft is arguably the real villain here, but ultimately he did make a shitty move and maybe more artists will take note and not be so willing to capitulate to the billionaires. That could be wishful thinking though.

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u/puttheremoteinherbut Sep 16 '26

Voting with dollars is a very effective tool.

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u/Raise_A_Thoth Sep 16 '26

It can be, when people are aware enough of am issue and the thing being rejected is something people can easily go without.

Concert? People don't have to go to a concert. If you have any sympathy now for Palestinians, OR free speech, then you have a decent motivation to sit this out.

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u/F430Scuderia Sep 16 '26

Especially for Ed, it would seem.

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u/cityofklompton Sep 16 '26

Sure, but these shows are probably already well into the green.

Also this article reads more like an advertisement (with Rolling Stone pitching their promo codes for discounts on every resale site mentioned, which I'm sure brings them some affiliate kickbacks.)

In short, the money has already been spent, Rolling Stone is simply capitalizing off the media frenzy to squeeze out a few more dollars by advertising that fans can get Sheeran tickets for a little cheaper now.

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u/MuptonBossman Sep 16 '26

Prices dropping faster than the artists that were supposed to support him.

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u/tdifen Sep 16 '26 edited 2h ago

lattice spool fence mumble cobalt echo bramble crumble opal murk wandering ember jolt glimmer.

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u/Affectionate-Panic-1 Sep 16 '26

Cheap is relative, but yah he wasn't an instant sellout but overall he was filling stadiums by event day before this controversy.

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u/tdifen Sep 16 '26 edited 2h ago

zephyr wandering hollow murk rusted tinder.

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u/cinnamonpinky Sep 16 '26

I just looked at tickets in my area and there isn't one even in the nosebleeds for under $100.

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u/Affectionate-Panic-1 Sep 16 '26

For nosebleeds tho?

You can barley see the artist at upper levels of NFL stadiums.

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u/tdifen Sep 16 '26 edited 2h ago

gully rift yonder loam bramble murk yonder cobalt purple rift static.

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u/PresidentSuperDog Sep 16 '26

Mick and Keef aren’t exactly known for journalistic excellence.

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u/Treewithatea Sep 16 '26

I mean hes pretty damn popular, perhaps hes more popular in other regions of the world than the US.

Taylor Swift in 2024 did 3 days in Gelsenkirchen Germany, Rammstein just after her did 5 days in the same Arena, also sold out. Different regions, different demand.

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u/mydckisvrysmol Sep 16 '26

Down to 65 dollars is a sad sentence

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u/IWasOnThe18thHole Sep 16 '26

Crazy that everyone is focusing on him and not Robert Kraft and the billionaires

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u/cabbageboy78 Sep 16 '26

while i totally agree, this does also hit them a bit. there isnt a lot of acts that can fill up those super stadiums that they all own + the insane ticket prices (as evidenced by all the tour cancelations the last few years), but yeah i also wish there was a better way to hit the billionaires where it hurts because with stuff like boycotting an artist its a lot more simple for a normal person than a multifaceted billionaire

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u/Put3socks-in-it Sep 16 '26

As long as the NFL exists, Kraft will be fine. Patriot home games do enough to fill his pockets

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u/cabbageboy78 Sep 16 '26

Bingo, and to back to my point about billionaires being multifaceted, as a new Englander who has known of Kraft for decades i couldn’t even tell you where his money outside of the patriots comes from to hit him where it hurts(going to Wikipedia rn tho lol)

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u/kobachi Sep 16 '26

We already know the billionaires are Inhuman and we already know we are individually hopeless to resist them. Ed, on the other hand, has enough wealth and power that he COULD have stood up to Kraft, but he didn’t. He’s a coward. Stop missing the point. 

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u/tenaji9 Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Robert Kraft of the Epstein Files

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u/scarletofmagic Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Yeah, Ed Sheeran gets the backlash he deserves while the root of the problem remains the same. People will just celebrate his downfall and move on to the next news cycle while Kraft and probably other shady stadium owners can just put a clause in their contract asking people to stop speaking out if they want to rent his stadium, and those artists will just quietly obey and no one will ever know. Evil billionaire got out unscathed after using his power to silence people with their financial and career

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u/ninjaluvr Sep 16 '26

People are still buying Teslas. They'll be back to loving Sheeran in no time at all.

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u/JunkDrawer84 Sep 16 '26

This is all manufactured hysteria. He’s almost done with this Us leg of the tour, and has dates in Mexico and South America. He’ll be fine

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u/Senasayori Sep 16 '26

His Latin American opener dropped out...

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u/SweetDemotion123 Sep 16 '26

There are enough amazing Latin American musicians who will open for Ed in gigantic shows for a ton of cash. Somehow, he'll survive.

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u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Sep 16 '26

https://www.edsheeran.com/#tour

So his next show is supposedly Saturday in Philadephia. What's he going to do, just show up alone and play an acoustic set sitting on a stool? Who would want to go see that?

And his website still shows the opening acts as-is. Isn't that false advertising?

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u/skyturnsred Sep 16 '26

I'm not a fan at all, but that's actually what this tour is, hence "Loop" - he's playing solo and using loop pedals. From my understanding, his backing band was only going to be on two or three songs.

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u/DJinKC Sep 16 '26

This is correct. We saw him in Santa Clara in July - the majority of the show is him playing solo with loops.

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u/TheCudder Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Can confirm. A band no one even knows comes out for a few songs. Same for the guest performance...the show is 80% + just Ed with his looping pedals and guitar, back and forth between a large "main" stage and a smaller stage placed in the middle of the crowd.

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u/Sdbrown099 Sep 16 '26

His Loop pedal has also dropped from the tour, citing it stands with Macklemore

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u/sweatpotato76 Sep 16 '26

Yeah, but all that pedal does is say the same thing over and over again.

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u/mwm5062 Sep 16 '26

I mean, that's basically what his show is... just him and his loop pedals .. he had the backing band for like a few songs a night from what I can see in the setlists

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u/Veronome Sep 16 '26

He headlined Glasto with just himself and a loop station and to be fair, he did a damn good job.

This in no way excuses his actions (or lack thereof) over the last few days- but the idea that Ed won't be able to put on a show is ridiculous.

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u/BullyMog Sep 16 '26

To be fair, some artists do that and the fans would LOVE it lol.

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u/Futant55 Sep 16 '26

A band I like is doing that right now but. It’s small intimate shows and not football stadiums, lol

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u/PNWook Sep 16 '26

I saw Manchester Orchestra last night and it was entirely stripped back - and INCREDIBLE.

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u/DJinKC Sep 16 '26

The touring band that has been playing with Ed on this tour plays like 2 songs.

The rest of the show is Ed playing solo.

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u/RT023 Sep 16 '26

You are very unaware of who ed Sheeran is LOL. He literally performs by himself basically every time, that’s his thing.

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u/Shaakti Sep 16 '26

That's kinda his thing

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u/grc207 Sep 16 '26

Ed built his career and brand on doing his own background stuff with a loop pedal. He can be his own band if necessary and I watched him do this for three hours straight once.

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u/JunkDrawer84 Sep 16 '26

Bruh. His general live show is him, a loop pedal, guitar, and a keyboard. It’s more unusual for him to have a band than it is to not.
He has no problem playing to a stadium audience or festival crowd all by himself.

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u/Ravevon Sep 16 '26

That’s how he got his start in music

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u/gopercolate Sep 16 '26

 What's he going to do, just show up alone and play an acoustic set sitting on a stool?

That’s his current plan, I suspect his team are reaching out to other artists to see if anyone’s available and wants to join him. 

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u/artyfowl444 Sep 16 '26

Multi millionaire stadium seller Ed Sheeran will probably be okay, casual audiences who aren't online as much will wanna see him regardless of what's happening. He actually does most of his set on his own anyway

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u/ECXL Sep 16 '26

Down to $65? God fuck the tickets industry. Kurt Cobain found it insane that Madonna was selling her tickets at $50 when he was selling them for under $20. Can't believe people pay this money

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u/mads-80 Sep 16 '26

$20 in 1990 is equivalent to $51 today, so it's actually not that far off.

Also the costs involved in producing (and transporting) a stage show like the ones audiences expect for a pop musician like Madonna, with dancers, costumes and staging, are considerably higher than those for a group of guys who perform in their street clothes and only bring their instruments. That's pretty simple math.

Different strokes, those audiences are not wrong for wanting to see a show like that nor is one show more virtuous or authentic for incurring lower production costs and therefore being possible to offer at a lower ticket price. It's all entertainment, and it's a pretty honest transaction: this entry fee for this show, and you decide if that unit of entertainment is worth the price of admission to you.

But yes, fuck today's ticket industry who inflate the prices beyond all reason or sanity.

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u/orionsfyre Sep 16 '26

There are better tours and musicians to spend your money on.

And if your that into Ed Sheeran, maybe just throw a blanket over your head, play the Beatles up-tempo, turn off the A/C and have random strangers bump into you every few minutes, it should be about the same experience.

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u/eddiewachowski Sep 16 '26

In "Yesterday" wasn't the only reason Ed Sheeran existed because he wasn't influenced by the Beatles? There was no Oasis in the movie for that reason.

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u/orionsfyre Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Yeah, that film is a real hype job for Eddy boy. He literally is a great artist who somehow exists without any of the foundational influences that has inspired artists for like 50 years.

I don't hate Sheeran, but his music is almost entirely inspired by singer song writers like Mccartney, Lennon, Oasis, and Tom Collins.

All artists sit on the shoulders of those who came before, and that's why not standing up for a fellow artist is so gross and offensive. Artists should support one another, even if they disagree on how and when to speak. He didn't have to agree with Macklemore, but he could have supported his friends right to speak out on an important issue, and not cave to the whims of a billionaire who apparently controls him like a puppet.

He didn't and now he's been branded, rightfully, a coward.

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u/JoySkullyRH Sep 16 '26

We need to move the dialogue away from
Ed Sheeran and to the billionaires that are killing free speech.

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u/howie_roll Sep 16 '26

Ed isn’t the bad guy here. Kraft and his billionaire cronies created this situation, let them deal with the fiscal fallout. Don’t let these assholes turn us on each other.

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u/robaroo Sep 16 '26

These idiots think that MAGAs “cancelled” cancel culture so they’re feeling more empowered to act out what they actually believe only to find out that cancel culture is still very alive and well. Yes, your actions have consequences. And no daddy diaper isn’t here to save you.

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u/bgva Sep 16 '26

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u/Working-Glass6136 Sep 16 '26

Yup. Kind of here for the schadenfreude but I couldn't name you one of his songs. But I really hate that billionaires are constantly attempting to control what we see and hear from behind the scenes. They have way too much time and money on their hands.

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u/Ill-Possible4420 Sep 16 '26

Ed shares plenty of the blame, but people need to find the right way to call out and blame Kraft.

He’s the issue here

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u/slightly_drifting Sep 16 '26

Imagine if he had not done this and got booted out of venues. 

Do you know how many other venues would eat that up in a heartbeat? 

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u/dookieshoes97 Sep 16 '26

That's the wild part. My local university would have rolled out the red carpet, made sure he had the stadium, arena, or amphitheater in a moment. We have had acts on his level consistently for decades, and we're less than an hour from Minneapolis. It would have sold out in minutes.

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u/Dianagorgon Sep 16 '26

I think people should wait to see if there are lots of empty seats at his concert on Saturday before they decide if this has had an impact on his career. This is probably going to be yet another instance of people on Reddit not realizing it isn't real life. If people want to show support for Macklemore they would start buying his music and his songs would be on the top 10 most streamed music on Spotify but so far that hasn't happened.

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