Blog

It’s not only Taylor Swift fans and the US government who aren’t happy about Ticketmaster. The UK government is set to look into the company’s dynamic pricing model after millions of Oasis fans scrambled for tickets to the band’s reunion tour over the weekend.

Once fans got through hours-long queues to make their purchase, some found that the price of a standing ticket was suddenly 2.5 times more expensive — in one case, going up from £135 to £337.50 ($177 to $444). Ticketmaster often gives customers just seconds to decide whether to complete a purchase once tickets are in their cart, so they don’t have much time to determine whether such a hefty price increase is worth it.

Many fans didn’t manage to buy Oasis tickets before they sold out on Ticketmaster. So, if they really want to see Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage together for the first time in 16 years, they may have to resort to resale sites where some touts are trying to sell tickets for nearly $8,000 each.

The chaos and complaints about the dynamic pricing model caught the attention of Lisa Nandy, the UK’s culture secretary. Nandy said it was “depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favorite band live,” according to The Guardian.

“This government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queueing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales,” Nandy said. “Working with artists, industry and fans, we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.”

Before the Labour Party won July’s general election, leader Sir Keir Starmer vowed to cap resale ticket prices for music and sports events. The government announced it would hold a consultation into the secondary-ticket market this fall and the issue of dynamic pricing will now be factored in.

Ticketmaster doesn’t set prices itself. The company said that’s a decision for event organizers. In other words, the promoters. But artists have a say as well. Swift, Ed Sheeran and The Cure are among the big names who have opted not to use dynamic pricing on recent tours. However, Bruce Springsteen caused a stir in 2022 when he said he’d use the model.

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster is in hot water Stateside. In May, the Justice Department and dozens of state and district attorneys general filed an antitrust suit in an attempt to break up Ticketmaster owner Live Nation, claiming it held an unlawful monopoly over the live entertainment industry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-uk-government-will-investigate-ticketmasters-dynamic-pricing-model-after-oasis-chaos-195446622.html?src=rss

Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and make its return trip to Earth uncrewed in just a matter of days, but it apparently still has a few new mysteries left in it to throw at the team before it departs. On Saturday, astronaut Butch Wilmore alerted NASA’s Mission Control about an unexplained “strange noise” coming from a speaker in the spacecraft, which you can hear in an audio clip of the conversation shared on a NASASpaceflight forum by meteorologist Rob Dale (spotted by Ars Technica). It starts at around the 45-second mark, ringing out on a steady beat. “I don’t know what’s making it,” Wilmore said.

NASA has since said that the sound has stopped in a statement to SpaceNews’ Jeff Foust on Monday, and attributed it to an audio configuration between the ISS and Starliner. It was just speaker feedback, according to the space agency.

The noise was a bit of a head-scratcher over the weekend. After confirming with Mission Control on Saturday that they could hear the sound too, once Wilmore brought his mic over to the speaker, the flight controller in Houston said, “It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping.” Wilmore then let it play for about 20 seconds more before wrapping up the call. “Just to make sure I’m on the same page, this is emanating from the speaker in Starliner,” Mission Control asked, “you don’t notice anything else, any other noises, any weird configs in there?” The astronaut noted at the time that everything else seemed normal.

“The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback,” NASA said in its explanation to Foust on Monday. “The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system.” The incident had no impact to the crew or Starliner’s departure schedule, it added.

The Boeing spacecraft has been docked with the ISS since early June, and engineers have since had their hands full trying to get to the bottom of the issues that arose during its first crewed flight. When Starliner finally heads back to Earth on September 6, it’ll be leaving its crew — Wilmore and NASA astronaut Suni Williams — behind on the ISS, where they’ll continue to work for the next few months while they wait for a ride home from SpaceX in February 2025.

Update, September 2 2024, 2:30PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement and explanation from NASA.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/now-theres-a-creepy-sonar-like-sound-coming-through-one-of-starliners-speakers-184751210.html?src=rss

After the country’s Supreme Court ordered internet service providers to block access to X, the platform was largely unavailable in the country by Sunday night. The only ways to access X since then have been through VPNs (for those willing to risk huge fines) and Starlink, the satellite internet service that’s also run by X owner Elon Musk.

The president of Brazil’s telecom agency, Anatel, said that Starlink refused to comply with the court order until officials released its frozen assets, The New York Times reports. Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice who has been on the warpath against X, also blocked the local bank accounts of Starlink, which is a SpaceX subsidiary. Moraes, who has accused X of disseminating hate speech and disinformation, is said to have done so with the aim of collecting $3 million in fines levied against X for ignoring his orders to block certain accounts.

Starlink petitioned the court to unblock its assets but the court dismissed the request. Musk called the Starlink account freeze “illegal,” arguing that SpaceX and X are separate entities while claiming he owns 40 percent of the former.

There are around 250,000 Starlink customers in Brazil. The service has proven popular there in rural areas and among Indigenous tribes in the Amazon. Starlink pledged to provide free internet access to its Brazilian customers while its accounts in the country remain blocked.

If Starlink maintains its stance on X, Brazil could revoke the internet service’s license. If it continues to operate after that, officials could seize equipment from 23 ground stations. The gear helps Starlink improve the quality of its satellite connections.

Meanwhile, a majority of a Supreme Court panel upheld the X ban, which Moraes issued after Musk defied several of his orders, at a trial on Monday. X will have the right to appeal the decision. The panel also approved an order by Moraes to fine anyone caught using a VPN to access X in Brazil a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian Real (around $8,900).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/starlink-is-refusing-to-comply-with-brazils-x-ban-181144912.html?src=rss