Oasis announces North American tour, aims to avoid Ticketmaster ...
Oasis appears to be taking additional measures to ensure tickets for the group's 2025 reunion tour get in the hands of loyal fans and not scalpers.
Shortly after announcing North American tour dates, the band said it will not be participating in dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing occurs when a ticket seller adjusts the cost of a ticket in real time based on live demand.
“It is widely accepted that dynamic pricing remains a useful tool to combat ticket touting and keep prices for a significant portion of fans lower than the market rate and thus more affordable,” the band said in a statement posted on X on Monday. “But when unprecedented ticket demand ... is combined with technology that cannot cope with that demand, it becomes less effective and can lead to an unacceptable experience for fans.”
Additionally, to access presale for the North American tour dates, fans must complete a short questionnaire to keep the sale “fair and fan-focused.” The form asks fans to share how many Oasis concerts they’ve attended and requires them to correctly answer a question about when the band last played in North America.
The band's announcement comes after the U.K. government scrutinized Ticketmaster and its dynamic pricing model in relation to the sale of Oasis concert tickets. Earlier this month, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into Ticketmaster’s compliance with consumer protection law.
Fans of the band had expressed their anger at the difficult process trying to secure tickets for the reunion tour, specifically lamenting that Ticketmaster was selling tickets at roughly twice the price of the original face value.
Consumers around the world have long complained that the practice inflates the prices and prevents fans from seeing their favorite artists. Some music fans feel that fandom and devotion should be considered when granting ticket sale access.
In its statement Monday, the band said the choice to opt out of dynamic pricing was made "to hopefully avoid a repeat of the issues fans in the U.K. and Ireland experienced recently."
Ticketmaster has faced scrutiny in the U.S. as well, particularly after a disastrous sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2022. It prompted a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year, in which senators examined Ticketmaster’s dominance in the ticketing industry.
The Justice Department filed suit against the site and its parent company, Live Nation, earlier this year. Live Nation said that the Justice Department’s allegations were “baseless” and that its actions would prove counterproductive.
Representatives for Ticketmaster and Oasis did not immediately respond to requests for further comment Monday.
Oasis in August announced its first tour since the band split 15 years ago. Brothers and bandmates Liam and Noel Gallagher have not performed together since getting into a fight backstage at a Paris music festival in 2009.
The tour will start in the U.K. and Ireland in July 2025 before moving to North America in late August. The band will play in Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City and East Rutherford, New Jersey, during its North American leg. Presale begins Thursday and general on-sale begins Friday.
Oasis said in a news release that it plans to take the tour to "other continents outside of Europe and North America later next year."
Daysia Tolentino
Daysia Tolentino is a culture and internet reporter for NBC News.