How ‘Dynamic’ Pricing Spread From Plane Tickets to Concerts

Anyone who has searched for a flight or an Uber ride is probably used to seeing the advertised price change before they actually come to book it. But this phenomenon of “dynamic” pricing is not widely known to apply to concert seats. Fans of Oasis discovered it on Saturday, when the cost of tickets for the British rock group’s comeback tour more than doubled in the space of a few hours. UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said it was “depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans,” and promised to examine dynamic pricing as part of a government probe into ticket selling. Here’s how dynamic pricing works, and why it’s become so widespread.

Also known as yield management and surge pricing, dynamic pricing is a modern adaptation of the old rules of supply and demand — only applied in real-time thanks to technology. Instead of re-evaluating prices yearly or quarterly, companies can now adjust them almost instantly to make sure they secure the highest price that buyers are willing to pay at any point in time. In the case of the Oasis concerts, basic standing tickets were initially advertised at around £150 ($197), but rose to £355 after a few hours as fans rushed to the ticketing websites.