Sitting in the back of the
house, watching spinning turn tables and fast rapping my eyes never leave the
stage. Cheering loudly as Lin Manuel-Miranda walks onto the stage and begins to
sing. Almost unable to breathe because I was so captivated by the energy on
stage. My experience watching the musical Hamilton was an extremely captivating
and incredible journey. I knew from the moment that the lights went down that
this was no ordinary musical and something so spectacular that it could not be
captured in an audio recording. I had listened to the soundtrack of this number
one musical for months, but was not prepared for the emotional impact of the
production. The great artistic talent is one of the most amazing things about
the musical Hamilton.
Watching as ticket prices reach
nearly two thousand dollars, I was shocked by the huge scam that took place.
Not only were millions of people trying to purchase tickets getting scammed
into paying high prices, but the creative genius’ behind this show were not
getting the money that they deserved. These independent middle men using advanced
technologies are making billions, while the true artists and hardworking people
are not seeing any of this money. After seeing the immense greed and scamming
behaviors of these middle men, I am shocked that the artists are not making any
more money because of these high prices.
As someone who paid for
these scammed tickets, I had to decide between supporting these people trying
to scam me into paying way too much for a ticket and my immense desire to see
the show. In my mind paying $350 to see Hamilton was extremely worth it. I
probably would have paid $2,000 to see the show if I needed to. I loved Hamilton
so much, that nothing was going to stop me from seeing the show, so for me
paying a lot of money for tickets is fine. The problem is that the money that I
paid mostly went to support someone buying up all of the tickets in their
basement. Someone who has no appreciation for the artistry and genius of the
show, just someone who wants to make a lot of money.
Now I do see that economics is immoral and people make immoral decisions for their own economic benefit, but to me this seems ridiculous. Yes, there is a supply and demand issue. Yes, prices should be higher. But it is not the responsibility of a middle man to collect all of the extra money, the tickets should be priced higher so that the money goes directly to the artists.
Recently Hamilton has
increased their ticket prices to cost $850 rather than about $250 for premium
seats. This attempt to raise prices so that more of the money goes to the
artists was a great decision to be made. This increase in price means that more
money is going to the actors that star in the musical and the creatives that
created this musical. Personally, I think that all ticket prices should have
been increased to this extent. Right now Hamilton tickets in the balcony (the
cheaper seats) are all sold out, meaning that ticket scalpers have bought these
tickets and are trying to sell them at a much higher rate.
The ridiculous nature of
increased ticket prices means that when someone can pay under $500 for a
ticket, they are happy. I have a hard time coming to terms with this drastic
inflation of prices. When I saw Hamilton, there were two seats in front of me
that were empty. Since resellers are trying to sell prices at high rates, not
all of the seats are being filled. The artistic talent and creativity of
Hamilton needs to be celebrated, it shouldn’t be performing to empty seats.
Hamilton is a prime example
of ticket scalping. Although restricting ticket scalping would limit the free
market, there need to be some regulations in place to protect the artist. Hamilton
has made a lot of money since opening on Broadway, but Hamilton could have made
so much more money if they received the billions of dollars that ticket
scalpers made each week. Ticket scalping for the musical Hamilton seems
completely immoral because instead of money going to the artists involved, the
money is being given to someone who will continue to scam more people with overpriced
Hamilton Tickets.
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