It may be the year of the reunion, but the concert tickets that are going the fastest are for Miley Cyrus. Cyrus, best known as the TV character and pop singer Hannah Montana, announced a North American tour back in August. Now that tickets have gone on sale, they've been nearly impossible to get. Some of the venues -- and these are large venues we're talking about -- are selling out in as quickly as 4 minutes.

 

The Senior Vice President of AEG Live, which is handling Cyrus' tour, compares it to the Beatles:

 

We knew it was hot, but we had no idea it was this crazy. It's like the Beatles.

 

The problem, naturally, is that scalpers are taking advantage of the situation. Scalpers have been snatching up many of the tickets and selling them for 4-5 times face value online. Because Hannah Montana's fan base is young children, and young children are very good at convincing their parents to buy them stuff, many parents are giving in to these scalpers. One ticket for the Charlotte, NC show sold for $2,565. The average ticket is going for $214, which is more than Justin Timberlake ($182), Beyonce ($193), or The Police ($209).

 

These prices aren't surprising, considering Hannah Montana's popularity. Also, whereas adults always take cost into consideration, a lot of teens don't think about prices since their parents are footing the bill. A 13-year old girl doesn't care if a Hannah Montana ticket is $214, because it's not her money.

 

However, these ticket scalpers need to be stopped. If I were President, I would make online ticket scalping a federal offense carrying the death penalty. I'm not joking. This would be my second act as President, right after I built a giant bubble-dome over the Middle East. There's nothing worse than seeing someone buy tickets with no intention of going to the show, only to turn around and sell them for 3x the value. Biggest d-bag move ever. Now, if you want to see a show, you either have to be on Ticketmaster the minute tickets go on sale, or you have to be rich (or have connections). And sadly, there are businesses based around doing this. How long until scalping carries over into other areas of life? It's already happening with video games; soon, you won't be able to buy groceries because some dude will come in and buy up the entire produce department, then scalp lettuce in the parking lot.