why technology has not yet solved this

Today tickets for Bad Bunny concerts went on sale. What should have been a happy day for fans It has become a nightmare. Many complained in networks of the error messages In the browser, the endless virtual linesthe Forced interruptions of the process or the worst, the messages of “exhausted entries” –or error– when They caressed success In that mission impossible.

We are in 2025 and one would expect technology to have fixed this. And yet, he has not done so. What is happening?

SALE BY ARRIVAL ORDER = Frustration. Traditional ticket sales systems work under an old and theoretically simple principle: the first one that arrives is the first to buy it. In computer science this is known as the FIFO (First In, First out) system for the implementation and management of queues, and has no major mystery. Or at least, not until you try to apply it to the sale of macroeventos tickets. Then, disaster.

Too much demand. We have experienced it today when tickets for the concerts of the Bad Bunny world tour have come to sale. The demand has been colossal and has exceeded the offer, which has caused the service that managed the direct online sale has collapsed. Error messages were constant, and many users saw how they had to wait endless virtual lines And the process was interrupted at totally random times without them being able to do anything. When virtual tails reach figures of 15,000 users – for example, there are much more crazy– The system ceases to make sense. It is not useful or operational.

He “Scalping“At the agenda. This stock market It is applied too In these scenarios and refers to the technique of buying tickets with bots and other systems that allow the limits imposed on entries for inputs for human users. Ticketmaster even created the Fan-To-Fan system As a controversial official controversy blessed by the system that Tickemaster, of course, takes its commission. It is estimated that Ticketmaster and Live Nation They control 70% of the business of the sale of tickets.

And more problems with resale. There is an entire economy Around pages like Viago or Stubhub, which They buy mass tickets and then try to resell at greater price. The German Heavy Metal Rammstein Group went to court When demanding Viagogo, a company with which they have been fighting since 2018 for this issue.

It happened with Renfe tickets. In April 2022 Renfe offered bird tickets to 15 euros. The promotion was striking, so I threw myself to the browser of my PC to try to take advantage of some of the options they gave me. After achieving access to virtual tail to buy one of those tickets, I met 166,321 people in front of me and an estimate of waiting time for an hour and a half. Half an hour later there were 144,115 people in front. The alternative was to use Renfe’s mobile app, but the process made it clear that these types of problems are constantly presented.

The raffles work. In popular events such as Cycotourist march QH (Quebrantahuesos) The fans who want to sign up must first register as QH users, something that gives access to a raffle granted by the dorsals. It is a very reasonable solution to events with a demand greater than the supply. It is the method that also FIFA has used for years To sell tickets for football World Cup matches.

The solution exists, only that it does not apply (much). It is a good example of a relatively simple system to solve the problems that have arisen with Ticketmaster on numerous occasions. The process would be as follows:

1. Open a pre -registration to enter the raffle of entries. Leave it open for a prudential time of, for example, two weeks. There would be no careers for entering the pre -registration or being the first, because that would give exactly the same. Therefore, server overload risks are minimized.
2. During that pre -registration the user must overcome Captcha challenges, double verification against email and storage of some credit card data. With this, the participation of bots in the process is greatly prevented.
3. Payment of a symbolic commission for the pre -registration. Another very powerful measure to avoid the participation of bots. There should also be a limit for the number of records that can be made per person/mail/payment card.
4. From there the draw is celebrated, which is granted X inputs from the number Y Registry. If there are 1000 tickets available and there are 10,000 pointed users, an example would be for the draw to come out number 6,713. The records from 6,713 to 7,712 would get their entrance.
5. The winners could register in their account and buy the entry into a certain period. If not, that entry would be offered to the next one who could not obtain it after the draw, and so on.

There would be no frustration, just bad luck. The draw or lottery process is much less frustrating. Of course there is the possibility that you do not get the entrance, but a system like this would avoid the great problems of the current direct sales mechanism that has proven not to be effective.

But they do not decide the sustained. There is another big additional problem, and although there are solutions such as the proposal, who decide how entries are sold and buy are artists and promoters, who can go to alternative solutions.

Concerts on demand. For example, Announce additional dates of concerts by surprise. It is a peculiar idea: it is thus possible to announce a limited number of concerts to measure demand, and from there adjust the offer keeping the number of events (if they can be replicated) programmed or changing it according to said demand.

In Xataka | Taylor Swift has canceled the sale of tickets with Ticketmaster. It is the confirmation that the current system is broken