Coldplay concert tickets in India skyrocket amid high demand and reselling frenzy

Imagine having 900,000 rupees ($10,800; £8,000) in India. Would you buy a car, go on a world tour, purchase diamond jewellery—or splurge on a Coldplay concert ticket?

The British rock band is set to perform three shows in Mumbai next year as part of their Music of the Spheres world tour. But after selling out within minutes on the official ticketing platform, BookMyShow (BMS), tickets are now being resold at astronomical prices on secondary markets.

Originally priced between 2,500 and 12,000 rupees, the concert tickets were fiercely contested, with over 10 million people vying for just 180,000 seats. Fans faced hours-long waits in digital queues, site crashes, and, to their frustration, discovered that tickets were being sold on reselling platforms at prices up to 900,000 rupees—well before the official sale had even concluded.

Similar incidents have occurred recently, including at Oasis’ concert in the UK, where resellers charged £350 for tickets originally priced at £135. But even in comparison, Coldplay’s resale prices are staggering. To put it in context, Madonna’s VIP passes for her Celebration tour were priced at £1,306, while Beyoncé’s best tickets for her Renaissance tour sold for £2,400.

The exorbitant resale prices have reignited a conversation around ticket scalping in India, where individuals use bots and automation tools to bypass queues and purchase multiple tickets for resale. Fans have criticized the official site for not doing enough to prevent this or for turning a blind eye to the problem.

BMS, however, denied any connection to ticket resellers and cautioned fans against buying tickets from “unauthorized sources,” warning they could be fake. Nonetheless, skepticism persists, especially since similar complaints were made during ticket sales for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s concerts, where tickets were resold at inflated prices shortly after selling out on the Zomato Live platform.

Ticket scalping is illegal in India, and experts suggest that while it’s happening, some legitimate ticket-holders may also be using reselling platforms to profit from high demand.

One such fan, Dwayne Dias, a graphic designer, was among the lucky few who secured four tickets for Coldplay’s Mumbai concert directly from BMS at 6,450 rupees each. Since then, he’s received offers as high as 60,000 rupees per ticket. “I could sell all the tickets, cover my travel expenses, and watch the band in South Korea instead,” Dias says.

The rising demand for international concerts in India is no surprise. The live music business has seen rapid growth in recent years, generating around 8 billion rupees in 2023, with projections to increase by 25% by 2025. Industry veteran Brian Tellis, co-founder of the Mahindra Blues Festival, says concerts have become part of India’s cultural fabric. “It’s a mix of bragging rights, conformism, and being part of the scene,” Tellis explains, noting that while true music lovers exist, many are drawn by the hype. As India becomes a booming market for international music, artists like Ed Sheeran, Alan Walker, and Dua Lipa have performed in the country, with more lined up. Yet, concert tickets have shifted from being heavily sponsored to increasingly reliant on sales, driving prices up.