Spotify Can Help You Avoid Overpaying For Concert Tickets - But Only If You're A Super Fan

There's nothing worse than going to buy tickets for a concert to one of your favorite artists only to find all of them sold out and being resold online for double or even triple the price. Ticket resellers have become the bane of many concertgoers in recent years, and we've even seen members of the U.S. government call out how Ticketmaster handles ticket sales and the problem with resellers. However, Spotify may have a new solution, as the music streaming platform has announced a new feature called Reserved.

According to Spotifys's breakdown for the new feature, Reserved is a partnership with Live Nation that is powered by Ticketmaster. Starting in June, the streaming service will allow fans to purchase up to two tickets before the general sale goes live. Sounds like a pretty solid deal, especially for those who love going to concerts. However, there is a big catch.

Spotify says that eligibility for Reserved will be based on a "wide range of signals." This range includes shares of songs, saves, the number of times you've streamed songs by the artist, and even your location. So, you'll probably need to be something of a super fan if you have any hopes of taking advantage of the system.

The real kicker to note here is that once Spotify finds you eligible for Reserved, you will have a very limited time to respond. After your eligibility is established, Spotify sends you an email, and the notification appears on your search page, the artist's page, your now playing view, and your live events feed. The company also says that it will send out a push notification about the tickets, but you'll need to keep your notifications for events and live concerts turned on so you don't miss them.

After the notification has been sent out, then your window officially opens to claim your tickets. You'll have "around a day" before the held tickets are redistributed, so you'll need to act fast. However, just because the tickets have been reserved does not mean that the seats you want or the show that you want to attend has been. As such, Spotify recommends acting as quickly as possible to avoid missing your chosen concert and seats.

Of course, after you have selected your tickets through Spotify, you'll be directed to Ticketmaster to complete the purchase. You'll want to make sure your Spotify account and Ticketmaster are connected beforehand, just so you can avoid any extra headache in the process. Spotify also notes that you may end up in a queue before you can finalize the purchase, so make sure you don't close out too quickly.

Beyond the fact that the selection process for Reserved super fans is vague, Spotify also notes that the functionality is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers who are at least 18 years old. Additionally, the actual length of the window available to purchase your claimed tickets can vary depending on the campaign. If you don't claim the tickets within the time allotted to you, they'll automatically be handed off to the next eligible super fan.

It isn't surprising to see Spotify pushing out another feature to help make Spotify Premium feel more like a good investment to users. The company has released some other big additions over the past two years, including new perks for audiobook listeners and adding lossless audio to Spotify Premium last year. With the added benefit of being able to be eligible to receive early access to ticket purchases for some live concert, the company is also getting its foot in the door with the live market of the music industry. Thankfully, because the system appears to choose the eligible fans automatically based on their own listening habits and Spotify usage, there's less chance of resellers getting their hands on these reserved tickets.