We apparently now live in a world — OK, a country — where artists have to stay in an active dialogue with Ticketmaster to ensure that their fans don’t get priced out of shows. Today, the Cure’s Robert Smith tweeted that Ticketmaster would promise partial refunds to counteract its “unduly high” fees for the band’s upcoming North American tour. “AFTER FURTHER CONVERSATION, TICKETMASTER HAVE AGREED WITH US THAT MANY OF THE FEES BEING CHARGED ARE UNDULY HIGH, AND AS A GESTURE OF GOODWILL HAVE OFFERED A $10 PER TICKET REFUND TO ALL VERIFIED FAN ACCOUNTS FOR LOWEST TICKET PRICE (‘LTP’) TRANSACTIONS…,” Smith tweeted today.

Smith continued: “AND A $5 PER TICKET REFUND TO ALL VERIFIED FAN ACCOUNTS FOR ALL OTHER TICKET PRICE TRANSACTIONS, FOR ALL CURE SHOWS AT ALL VENUES; IF YOU ALREADY BOUGHT A TICKET YOU WILL GET AN AUTOMATIC REFUND; ALL TICKETS ON SALE TOMORROW WILL INCUR LOWER FEES… I WILL KNOW IN A BIT – AND LET YOU KNOW – WHAT SHOWS HAVE TICKETS LEFT FOR SALE TOMORROW… ONWARDS X”

Soon after, Smith added: “SO… ‘VERIFIED FAN’ SALES HAVE NOW ENDED – A NUMBER OF TICKETS FOR ALL CURE SHOWS (EXCEPT LA + DETROIT… A MISCOMMUNICATION? sigh… ) WERE HELD BACK FOR ‘GENERAL’ ON SALE FRIDAY 17TH AT 10AM LOCAL TIME – LINKS WILL BE POSTED IN A BIT… GOOD LUCK X”

When the Cure first announced its North American tour, the band promised “no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets on this tour.” The band also explained that the tickets for the shows wouldn’t be transferable, aka if you buy one, you can only sell it for face value. In an effort to keep ticket prices reasonable, the band also agreed to Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan plan, which is designed to keep scalpers and bots from snapping up all the tickets but can make the task of buying tickets more complicated.

On March 14, after registered fans were seeing remarkably high fees, Smith tweeted more about the band’s US ticketing strategy (which was intended to avoid scalping and reselling), acknowledging that no matter what the band does it’s still not easy for fans to buy tickets. “WE KNOW IT IS A FAR FROM PERFECT SYSTEM – BUT THE REALITY IS THAT IF THERE AREN’T ENOUGH TICKETS ONSALE, A NUMBER OF FANS ARE GOING TO MISS OUT WHATEVER SYSTEM WE USE; AT LEAST THIS ONE TRIES TO GET TICKETS INTO THE HANDS OF FANS AT A FAIR PRICE…”

Smith’s latest statement is below.

UPDATE: On Friday (3/17) Smith weighed in on another snafu: