When tickets for two Coldplay concerts in Mumbai, India, went on sale last month, about 13 million people visited an online ticketing platform to vie for around 90,000 seats. Within minutes, the show was sold out and the platform had crashed, only for the tickets to later be offered on other sites at steeply marked-up prices.
In a country of 1.4 billion people, it is not unusual for demand to far outstrip supply for many things, from government jobs to public services. And as music fans in many places around the world are painfully aware, tickets to shows by popular artists can sell out in seconds.
But what doesn’t usually happen is a rush to judgment on social media that something nefarious must be going on — and even a call to the police to lodge a complaint.
In this case, even though Coldplay added another concert date and BookMyShow, the online platform selling the tickets, imposed a cap of four tickets per customer to avoid bulk buying, the police in Mumbai have questioned a senior BookMyShow official and twice summoned another high-ranking representative about the episode.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the company, and BookMyShow officials said the website and app had malfunctioned and crashed because so many people had trying logging on at the same time. The company said on X that “scalping and black marketing of tickets was against Indian law,” and a BookMyShow official said in a statement that “any tickets bought from unauthorized sources will be at their own risk and may likely be invalid or fake tickets.”
What is clear is that some can’t believe their bad luck.
“I was frustrated and angry,” said Ishan Agarwal, an engineering student in Delhi who, despite logging in from his laptop, two phones and an iPad, failed to get a ticket.
Amit Vyas, a lawyer who attended Coldplay’s 2016 Mumbai concert, lodged a complaint with the police after failing to get a ticket to the band’s coming shows.
He accused BookMyShow of colluding with “black marketeers” and defrauding the public by blocking out legitimate users.
“These guys really ruined it all,” Mr. Vyas said by telephone from Mumbai, referring to the ticket sales company. “I really wanted to watch the show.”
Coldplay’s three concerts in India are part of the band’s Music of the Spheres tour, which began in 2022 and has grossed about $1 billion in ticket sales on four continents.
Mumbai tickets that were originally $30 to $416 have been advertised for resale on other platforms for upwards of $11,000, according to Indian news media reports, and the furor on social media has prompted a local opposition leader to write a letter to the chief minister demanding an investigation, given that tickets were available only at “exorbitant prices.”
Those who did manage to book tickets to the Mumbai shows through BookMyShow said they felt ecstatic.
Joshua Porter, an advertising professional based in Delhi, said he had hoped to land a seat ever since hearing rumors on social media last year that Coldplay planned to play in Mumbai.
He booked a ticket for about $83, even as many of his friends came up empty-handed.
“To be honest, it was a dream come true,” Mr. Porter said. “It was a nice feeling.”
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