Mumbai: Tickets for the January 2025 concert in India by the British rock band Coldplay sold out within minutes of going live Sunday on the ticketing platform’s website—so much so that the website crashed due to massive traffic.
Later, the platform announced the addition of a third day to their concert in India. If the sell-out tickets weren’t enough, the clever marketing gimmick of adding the third day boosted the buzz around the concert.
The Google trends show the search for ‘Coldplay’ peaking twice daily, first at 12:10 p.m. on Sunday and then a smaller spike at around 1:45 p.m. In that order, the highest search traffic came from Goa, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. The huge demand for Goa is attributed to its hippie culture and the Goan lifestyle, which majorly stresses the consumption of good international music.
In Maharashtra, the highest traffic naturally came from Mumbai, the city where the band is set to perform. Mumbai is considered a highly bipolar city with extremes at both ends of the financial capital. The maximum city’s status as the economic capital of India also adds a lot of value to the demand.
In Karnataka, the maximum traffic came from Manipal, a major student hub and a young crowd of music enthusiasts.
In no time, memes based on the concert’s sell-out within minutes made their way to social media, healing the fans who couldn’t grab a ticket as they found solace in self-deprecating humour.
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What led to such unprecedented demand for the concert?
First, the band’s fan following has increased dramatically, largely due to the influence of audio and video streaming and social media. Fans who discovered the band through these mediums have developed a loyal following, with YouTube providing a gateway to the band’s captivating live performances.
Interestingly, the band’s best live performance was almost twenty years ago in Toronto, Canada, as part of their Twisted Logic Tour, a memory that still resonates with many fans.
Second, it is the young crowd entering the workforce in urban sectors with high-paying jobs and little to zero financial liabilities. The FOMO (fear of missing out) around such events is huge; a case in point is the sale of the iPhone 16 and the recent Diljit Dosanjh concert tickets in India.
The itch to click a picture at the concert, even if it is at the lowest-priced stand, and post it in Instagram Stories makes one completely shut off rationality and chase a trend no matter how damaging it can be to one’s finances.
FOMO comes mainly from the colonial hangover and the aspirations for everything Western. India, being a musically rich land of Carnatic and Hindustani music, has had many genius musicians. Case in point: sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who even collaborated with George Harrison of The Beatles. But seldom do homegrown artists get such an overwhelming response to their craft, or if they do, it’s because of the Pizza effect.
Another reason behind the mind-boggling demand is the expansion of the Indian economy. When Michael Jackson performed in Mumbai in 1996, he saw a turnout of 35,000 roaring fans, again a completely sold-out concert for its time owing to the opening up of the Indian economy. The King of Pop had made its way to the deepest interiors of the country, that too in the absence of smartphones and the Internet. This growth is a testament to India’s increasing global influence.
From 35 000 to a crowd of 80 000 in Coldplay’s last concert in Mumbai in 2016, the average Indian has come quite far and is willing to burn a hole in their pocket just for an instant burst of dopamine, social media clout or purely for the love of craft, perhaps.
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–IANS
