A concert I tried to book about 2 years ago, was 'sold out' of general admission tickets the minute it went on sale, including several 'presales' but these 'special access' tickets were available for double the general admission price
This used to happen even back in the bad old days when the way to buy concert tickets was to use special phone banks in certain department stores. It was especially awful for suburban kids who would get their parents to drive them two hours to a city that had the right department store, then as soon as the clock struck 10am, they'd pick up the phone only to find out the concert was sold out.
Most large concerts have felt like a scam for as long as I've been alive. Maybe that's why I've been to so few of them.
True even in the early 1980s, when I somehow managed to call in and got two front row seats to Elton John at the Hollywood bowl by calling in right at 10 AM. The system was known to be rigged by then, and I had called straight into Ticketmaster. My victory was so unusual even 40 years ago that I didn’t actually believe it had happened until they let us into the seats.
This used to happen even back in the bad old days when the way to buy concert tickets was to use special phone banks in certain department stores. It was especially awful for suburban kids who would get their parents to drive them two hours to a city that had the right department store, then as soon as the clock struck 10am, they'd pick up the phone only to find out the concert was sold out.
Most large concerts have felt like a scam for as long as I've been alive. Maybe that's why I've been to so few of them.