Fans of Seventeen, known as Carats, are furious with the exploitative ticket sales method of the group’s upcoming Seoul concert, ‘Follow to Seoul‘.
First, issue arose over the high price of the concert tickets, which range from 198,000 KRW ~ 154,000 KRW (~ $110 ~ 150 USD). This is on top of the price that most fans will pay to purchase an official fan club membership (22,000 KRW), the only way to gain access to the fan club pre-sale. In particular, the high price of some of the farthest seats at the dome, including the third and fourth floor, greatly angered fans and observers.
Then, Pledis Entertainment took a step further by introducing its official fan club pre-sale lottery, which incited greater anger.
In order to earn a chance at the pre-sale, all official fan club members must enter this separate lottery. Only those who are chosen by the lottery at random will be given a chance to participate in the fan club pre-sale.
However, those official fan club members who are successfully chosen during the lottery must then pay for their ticket before being assigned to a seat. The fans will no be able to verify which seat they will be paying for until after payment. After payment, if a fan wishes to cancel the purchase, they will face a cancellation fee.
A general public sale also suggests that some seats will be reserved for the general public sale without being released during the pre-sale; however, traditionally many fans will not risk their chances with a general public sale when there is a fan club pre-sale.
It was pointed out that this “lottery” system, a popular system in the Japanese music industry, has been employed by HYBE Labels for artists such as TOMORROW x TOGETHER since last year. For Seventeen, it seems that their Seoul concert in July will be the first time trying out the lottery system.
Fans are strongly rebuking the “exploitative” ticketing method with comments like:
“Why would anyone pay for a seat without knowing where they’ll be sitting..?”
“150,000 KRW for fourth floor of Gocheok Sky Dome?? Who would pay and go to that??”
“I see, so HYBE doesn’t want fans to go to the concert, they want to ruin Seventeen.”
“This company has been poisoned with greed.”
“The fact that you have to pay before you can see where you’ll be sitting, and if you don’t like that seat, you have to pay another fee to cancel… ridiculous.”
“Why is HYBE always doing everything like the Japanese?”
“If other companies start following this rat hole of a company…”
Meanwhile, Seventeen’s ‘Follow to Seoul’ concert will take place on July 21 at 7 PM and on July 22 at 6 PM at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.