The 1975's Matty Healy criticises artists that charge for meet and greets

The 1975’s Matty Healy has hit out against musicians that charge their fans to partake in meet and greet sessions.

For as long as there have been concerts, there has been no greater way for a fan to get to know their idol than with a meet and greet.

As gigs have become a highly-lucrative venture for some acts, these meet and greets have become a selling point for expensive tickets, as the most dedicated fans fork out the cash to get up close and personal with their favourite musicians.

Last year, The 1975’s manager, Jamie Oborne, revealed that the band would no longer be charging fans for this experience on their forthcoming tour dates, noting that such an event will “have no charge associated with it.”

Now, frontman Matty Healy has echoed this sentiment, criticising musicians that charge their fans for these personal encounters.

“Who came up with payed [sic] meet and greets?” Healy questioned on Twitter this morning. “Did they think ‘Surely there must be something else we can monetise……..OH! Human connection!! They’ll eat that up!'”

“Meet your fans or don’t,” he added. “Don’t only meet them if you’re getting payed [sic]. Honestly what are you doing.”

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As Matty Healy continued, one fan noted that paying for meet and greets is useful for “lower, up-and-coming artists,” causing The 1975’s frontman to counter this, blaming major labels for normalising the behaviour.

“You can’t be big enough for people to want to pay to meet you whilst not being big enough to pay for touring,” he explained. “Its a paradoxical excuse for making MUSIC EXLCUISVE [sic]. ‘Rich kids, you line up on the left. Poor kids, just fuck off’.”

“I think the problem is that a lot of artists don’t understand how brutal it is, because MAJOR LABELS have normalised it,” he concluded. “So MAJOR LABELS should change it.”

“They should make all fans pay in cash – directly to the artist. They should literally hand over the $200. Would soon stop.”

Of course, Matty Healy’s sentiments come just weeks after Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein hit out at low streaming service payments, noting he’s forced to do meet and greets to make a liveable wage.

“The thing that sucks the most about [the music industry] is that everybody steals music,” Doyle explained. “You spend a fucking hundred thousand dollars to make a record and all of these fucking scumbags are just fucking stealing it.”

“And then they want more, and then you’re a dick because you’re doing a meet ‘n’ greet for 50 fucking bucks to make up for it, which you don’t want to do,” he concluded. “You think I want to meet all these fucking people? I don’t.”

“When I’m done, I just want to take a shower and go to bed. I just worked, so…”

In related news, The 1975 are set to make their return to Australia this year when they bring their A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships tour to local shores for a series of high-profile dates.