Don’t play the Albert Hall:
Ed Sheeran has objected to plans by the Royal Albert Hall to sell dozens of seats at the prestigious London venue to investors, some of whom sell them on for inflated prices.
Currently, 319 people own 1,268 – almost one in four – of the Royal Albert Hall’s seats on 999-year leases. A bill going through parliament would grant the hall’s governing body the power to sell an extra 52 seats to investors.
Sheeran is “vehemently opposed” to the practice of these seat-holders selling their unwanted tickets at inflated prices, a letter from his aides said.
The star’s team has “worked tirelessly to get his tickets into the hands of his genuine fans at the intended price”, the letter said. It criticised “unscrupulous sites where tickets are listed at many times over the face value”.
This is not just us being trite.
Of course, we all know that the Albert Hall was actually financed by the debenture holders. The return on the capital put in being those free tickets associated with the seats and boxes that were financed. There’s even a market in said debentures.
But the wider point is important. For one of the glories of a free market is that we, as both producers and consumers, have choice. We can, if we should so wish - which usually means if we think the issue is important enough - change our behaviour so as to reward or punish any specific set of either producers or even consumers. By agreeing to purchase from, or agreeing to supply to, that is.
This does not only extend to mere matters economic. We are able to impose our ethical and moral beliefs and preoccupations in exactly that same manner. In fact, we have a duty to do so. For it is exactly by changing our own behaviour to accord with our ethical and moral preoccupations that we impose them upon the economic world around us.
We’ve the freedom and liberty to do so therefore we should do so. Even if that freedom leads to us thinking that it’s not an important enough issue for us to do anything about.
If Ed Sheeran doesn’t like the way the Albert Hall is run then don’t play the Albert Hall. London has a number of places that will host a popular beat combo after all. And here’s the trick at the end. If Ed’s not willing to change his behaviour in this manner that he obviously can then the issue’s not that important to him, is it?