Scalp Bots Leave Metallica Fans Without Tickets

Mar 22, 2019 @ 6:08am

Although tickets for Metallica’s upcoming show with the San Francisco Symphony don’t officially go on sale until Friday, diehard fans were given first dibs in a special pre-sale Thursday morning. Yet in spite of the opportunity, only a small portion of the early birds ended up with worms as the available tickets sold out in minutes.
While neither Metallica nor Ticketmaster has commented on the unexpected blowout, the empty-handed fans seem to agree on the identities of the responsible parties: scalp bots. The idea that computer programs snatched up the tickets so scalpers can sell them at a profit isn’t without merit — within minutes, they began surfacing on resale websites like StubHub.
“How are we supposed to compete with ticket bots?” one fan tweeted. Another complained, “Pre-sale, my arse!”
The one-off show is set for September 7 at San Francisco’s Chase Centre Arena.
What can be done to eliminate the scalp bot problem? What’s the most you’ve paid for a concert ticket?