A new system promises reserved concert tickets to a band’s biggest fans, and on paper it sounds like a fix for years of ticket buying frustration. Then you start asking how “biggest fan” actually gets measured, and the whole thing gets a lot more interesting.
There’s no clear number attached to what counts as top tier status, just streams and shares, which raises the obvious question of whether leaving a song on repeat for a week could be enough to qualify. Lifetime listening history versus this year’s obsession becomes a real sticking point too, with no clarity on which one actually matters.
A decade old news clip about how hard it’s become to buy concert tickets gets replayed here, and the fact that it still sounds exactly like today says something about how little has actually improved.
Topics: Spotify Reserved tickets, concert ticket buying, top fan status, streaming platforms, ticket buying frustration
Originally aired on2026-08-20
