I was reading about the upcoming Taylor Swift concerts and the scandal where the servers broke down and scalpers were able to buy a lot of the tickets.
This got me wondering, what is a good way to handle ticket sales?
First I thought about just giving a pretty big time window where you can register, and then the tickets are distributed randomly among those registrered. That would take care of the servers breaking down. But then the scalpers could just register many times.
Is there any other way of doing this than requiring some form of id?
Another way of doing it is of course to sell the tickets at market rate in the first place, but that would probably turn away a lot of fans and make concerts only for rich people.
Would it work to make the tickets non-transferrable? Having your name on the ticket and requiring an an ID to get into the venue (with maybe up to four others, for a family situation) would kill the scalper market, I would think.
Another idea, assuming we’re trying to democratize the ticket-buying process, might be to charge a flat rate for all tickets and randomize the seat selection - you have as much chance of getting front row as you do the second balcony, with the only guarantee being that you’ll be seated next to the people you’re buying with.
Of course, part of the problem is that Ticketmaster is actively participating in the scalping business at this point.
I don’t think there is a solution here. Enough people are willing and have capacity to pay a premium for a limited luxury item that prices go up and availability/access gets more difficult. You can’t technology your way out of wealth inequality.
If a bazillion people want tickets, and there are only 1/100 of a bazillion available, a lot of people are going to go without.
Anti-scalping strategies break down as the space between primary market and secondary market prices widens.
I get a non-transferable airline ticket, can’t see why non-transferable concert tickets wouldn’t work.
It would be trivial to have a system whereby you can still get a refund from the original seller if you can no longer use it, and they can then sell them on at their original value.
About non-transferable tickets - is there any way with them for me to use my credit card to buy tickets for my kid to attend an event without me? Most of the proposals I’ve seen for non-transferable tickets require either
Having the credit card used to purchase the ticket or
having the name on the ticket and requiring ID.
I’m not going to give my 15 year old my credit card and a 15 year old is not likely to have ID.
It might be easy as far as technology goes to have a system where you can get a refund from the original seller - the question is why would the seller be willing to do that? They have more work and there is no guarantee they will be able to resell the tickets for the original price. They often resist giving refunds when the event is rescheduled and I can’t see a way ( in the US) that they could legally be required to give me a refund because I can no longer attend
This from a typical “I may be old, but I got to see all of the good bands” guy:
I don’t think it can be fixed. For one thing, the model for how performers make money has changed completely in the past 25 years. Streaming songs pays an artist virtually nothing. Live performances make the money. Consider that in the early 1970s, a decent concert ticket cost just a little more than a vinyl album. (Want to see Yes? Tix are $3.50, $4.50, or $5.50, with a $0.50 charge by the record store where you bought them.) Performers toured primarily to generate album sales. Today, the tours bring in the lion’s share of the money and most performers don’t really care about “democratization” of ticket sales…just show me the money. Because of this, Ticketmaster doesn’t give a flip. They can add ridiculous service charges, allow bots to harvest the best tix, and basically be a**holes without a care in the world.
Can any government agency (Federal or State) effectively change this? I doubt it. Again, Ticketmaster is not just a ticket-selling agency…they are also often the promoter and the owner of the venue. Force Live Nation to make tickets freely available through an alternate ticket-seller and…you’ll still have expensive hard-to-get tickets.
I really don’t have any hope at all that things will change. Fortunately, modern music sucks and I really don’t care that much. Many thanks to Dr. Luke and Max Martin for that. /s
Just an additional note. When I referred to Live Nation, I meant to describe what would happen if Ticketmaster was broken up into separate entities by fiat of State or Federal agency.
how likely is it that 15 year olds go unescorted to venues? Or just upload a photo of the person named on the ticket which can be appended to the ticket and can be checked. They do that when I buy a ski lift pass.
They might say that, if you give up your ticket they will put it back in the system and if it gets sold again they will refund you (perhaps less a reasonable admin fee)
Might not be likely where you live but not uncommon where I do. In fact parents not accompanying kids to the actual event is so common most of the venues have a FAQ entry that there is no parent waiting area- there would be no mention of such an area if the parents were actually attending the event.
Sure they could - but why would they when the current system lets them keep your money without doing anything?
I think a 15-year-old is likely to have a photo ID issued by their school. But of course that would be less standard and more easily faked than something like a driver’s license.
Has nobody here ever purchased tickets for a group? People drop out at the last minute, and you have to scamble to find someone who wants to go AND is willing to pay what you paid. Having your name or someone else names on a group of tickets is not feasible.
I went to many concerts from the 70’s through now and I stood in line and got good seats so I bought extra for friends I knew wanted to go and I wanted to go with. About 80% of them showed, so I almost always had an extra 1 or 2 that needed sold. Sometimes by literally standing in front of the venue and holding them up. I was not making a profit.
I have also taken groups of kids. Often they would show up with an extra friend, and we had to deal with people outside for an extra ticket. People are complicated.
Snd companies buy big blocks of season tickets for employees and to give out to customers. They dont know who is going.
lots of reasons, offering a good service, making customers happy, having a resale scheme that makes you a little more money and drives the scalpers out of business, minimising no-shows and empty seats (which drives down the profits at the venue)
Then they lose their money, What are they expecting to happen? Again, if they buy a flight with their name and id attached to it would they think it reasonable to drop out at the last moment and expect not to be out of pocket in some way?
Might make them less likely to drop out at the last moment if they know they are going to lose their cash.
Or, they may tell you earlier, That gives them chance to find another person and change the name and photo on the ticket (for a small fee of course), or resell through the ticket provider and get most of their money back.