Sunday, 27 March 2011

Tickets – The Secondary Market

Hitting the headlines this week, in the wake of the announcement of the Reading and Leeds Festival line-up, was the issue about secondary ticket sales, and the ticket touting business, which is a very lucrative and profitable area for would-be rogues, taking advantage of the true fans out there.

I have, on a number of occasions, been forced to pay over the odds to go to a show which has sold out, and for which I was unable to secure a ticket at the time of release. Life throws up plenty of hurdles when it comes to gig going. Holidays, work, nights out, uni, deadlines, girlfriends, etc, all of which can stop you being able to buy a ticket on release. In some cases, you just might not have the money to pay for tickets when they go on sale (which can be an expensive business at the best of times) and therefore you have to wait. For the shows that sell out quickly, true fans are then forced to look elsewhere to gain entry into the shows they want to go.
Ebay has been a haven for hard to source tickets for many a year, but in many cases, you will have to pay in excess of the market value, to stand a chance. Most people put tickets on there at an inflated price to begin with, and then as the demand steadily increases for big name acts, the price only rises as people battle it out for the right to win the auction. I got entangled in this web of bidding once, and found it to be one of the most stressful experiences ever.

As an avid gig goer, I have a healthy awareness of the touting industry surrounding concerts, particularly at the Academy venues in Manchester. Without fail, I have always been able to get gig tickets from touts, although at an often inflated price. Sometimes I have been able to get away with buying tickets for little more than what I would have paid online, and on other occasions, I have been forced to pay over the odds.

As a fan with a desire to get into these shows though, you end up paying it regardless.

After the dash to get Reading and Leeds tickets last Monday, there were a lot of reports about proposed measures to deal with this industry, and to stop genuine fans getting ripped off. As usual, the majority of festival tickets were snapped up minutes after going on sale, and within minutes once more, were being listed on sites like Seatwave and Ebay at inflated prices. This happens across the board, pretty much for every high profile show going, and is infuriating. I, like tonnes of others, have been unable to get tickets for shows before, and then seen the tickets online for more than market value.
Measures intent on stopping this have been discussed, with the powers that be running the country suggesting a cap of a 10% increase on market value on secondary ticket sales being enforced legally. That would therefore make it illegal for touts and secondary sellers to charge huge sums, and they could then only make a 10% profit on anything they sell.

The man behind Reading and Leeds Festivals Melvin Benn has agreed with it and thinks it is a good idea, whereas the idiot behind Seatwave has, naturally, come out against the suggestion. He says it is a persons right to sell the ticket for whatever they want. That is completely absurd.

Personally, I don’t think that even this suggestion is acceptable. Sure it is a good start, but there are betters way of eliminating the “ripping off” of genuine fans, and the honest gig goer.

Glastonbury print pictures onto their tickets of the person who bought them, in their bid to stop touting and the secondary market. The technology is clearly there, and there seems to be no good reason to me why that couldn’t happen on every ticket across the board, no matter how big or small the show. That would then give fans a fair chance of getting tickets. My thoughts on the subject are that each person should have their headshot printed onto their own ticket, with each being non-transferable. If people are unable to go for genuine reasons, they should then return the ticket to the place of purchase, and then get a full refund, allowing their place to be given to anyone on a shortlist of people who were unsuccessful in getting hold of tickets the first time (i.e. if the show sells out).
At least then, if people did miss out on tickets, they would not have to pay over the odds online or to touts, as it would be impossible to source tickets anyway, and they could stand a genuine chance of getting a legitimate ticket if people returned them. Sure there may be occasions when people don’t get hold of them, but at least there are plenty of chances up to the day of the show that someone may be unable to go. Sometimes they may be unsuccessful, granted, but they would certainly not get ripped off either, and it would be less of a bitter pill to swallow knowing that they were just unlucky to miss out to genuine fans, rather than greedy secondary sellers, only interested in making a quick buck. That to me would be, by far, the best solution, and in one foul swoop would eliminate the touting industry.

To me ticket printing is clearly the future, and the technology should be embraced, to give genuine fans the chance to go to gigs and not pay silly money. For now though, a cap of 10% would be a good start. . .

. . . and anyone who suggests that it is a bad idea (i.e. Mr Seatwave) is an absolute tool who has clearly never had to pay over the odds for a show as a genuine fan, and whose opinion therefore is worth nothing on this topic.

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