⁷The 1975 frontman’s latest tweet brings up a good question we never bothered to ask. “Who came up with paid meet and greets?”
Read more: The 1975 is coming back to Manila this 2019
In his tweet, Matty Healy voices out his concerns on paid-meet-and-greets. “Did they think ‘Surely there must be something else we can monetize…OH! Human connection!! They’ll eat that up,” he tweets. “MEET YOUR FANS OR DON’T”
Since last year, the 1975 has been doing meet-and-greets for free. Their manager Jamie Oborne revealed this on Twitter last year when a fan asked him how much they charge for meet-and-greets. Glad to know The 1975 practice what they preach.
Charging someone to meet you is confusing and exploitative if you think about it hard enough. Will the practice go away any time soon? Probably not. But it is something that other performers should consider.
Like honestly, why are paid meet-and-greets still a thing? Monetizing human interaction like this isn’t the best decision. Just look at Buzzfeed’s Avril Lavigne $400 meet-and-greet photo compilation. Sweetie, I’m cringing from outer space.
On a more positive note, we hope they’ll have meet-and-greets in their Manila show. We’ll lineup as fast as Matt can say “we’ll never monetize meet-and-greets ever.” Trust and believe.
Still from TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME MV