Live Nation's Ticketmaster CEO Writes Open Letter Commending Ticket Resale (Feature)
Monday, 05 September 2011
Written by Dave Ball
As a website that provides a price comparison service for event tickets to our customers, Stereoboard has long campaigned for the secondary sale market to be understood, embraced and also to warn ticket buyers against the various scam websites which appear every time a major UK tour goes on sale (see our Ticket Scam List).
Recently, Live Nation's Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard posted an open letter to fans on the Ticketmaster blog explaining the reasons that ticket resale is important to the market and should be supported by fans while also going through the benefits it offers as well as details of how they are constantly striving to improve the service they provide in this market.
This is of course a topic we’ve written about on Stereoboard regularly over the past 12 months, including features on the significant problems raised when venues attempt to ban secondary sales (link 1 - on ticket ID restrictions and link 2 - the hassle of ID checks).
Mr Hubbard’s blog explains the reasons that the secondary market needs to be considered as an essential arm of ticket sales, stating that around 20% of all tickets sold by Ticketmaster in the US make their way onto the secondary market. Hubbard says "Ticket reselling is happening, and it is here to stay. When done right, ticket reselling is a legitimate distribution channel that meets the needs of real fans. If we ignore resale as an industry, it will continue to exist in an uncontrolled, unsanctioned world and the bad parts will only get worse."
This is a key point and one Stereoboard addressed in a previous article written when an argument about capping resale tickets at a percentage of face value, proposed by Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, surfaced (Stereoboard rejects proposal to cap resale ticket prices). As mentioned in this and previous articles, we at Stereoboard want all fans to receive a fair chance to purchase tickets to the events they work hard to pay for. However, we also want all fans to have the chance to purchase legitimate tickets and if that means, someone willing to pay over the odds doing it through a legitimate resale website then that is far better than them turning up at the venue, cash in hand to take their chances with a ticket from a street tout.
The situation is muddied by the fact that many people who are attempting to find solutions are occasionally mis-directed, another point raised in Hubbard’s blog "Fans are often misled or duped by resellers who don’t operate with the fans’ best interests at heart. In fact, we’ve recently seen legislation introduced by the so-called fan freedom group that would actually make it easier for the unscrupulous scalpers to snatch up huge quantities of tickets. Further, there are pervasive marketing practices used in ticket reselling that we, and others, believe are dirty and only trick fans."
Possibly the most relevant point made in the blog post is Ticketmaster's stance on people’s freedom of choice to buy and sell tickets "Not everyone likes buying or selling in the resale market, and not every venue or artist wants to participate - that’s okay. It’s all about choices – and if fans, venues and artists choose to get involved in resale, we believe it should be done fairly." This is maybe the most vital part of the argument for or against secondary sales. They will happen, no-one can deny that, so allowing people to make their choice safely is the best thing any of us in the live music industry can provide. This is why Stereoboard's price comparison provides links to websites offering legitimate tickets, both primary at face value and reputable secondary resale sites. It provides fans with all the options to make the most appropriate choice - for you as an individual.
There will always be people who are unhappy with both primary and secondary sales. Many fans believe tickets are over-priced on the primary market, and fees on top of the ticket prices are excessive, yet many events still sell out in minutes. This appears to be supported by the fact around 50% of tickets on secondary markets sell at or under face value. However, for many large and in-demand events people are willing to pay well over face value and make their own choice to do so. What we hate to see are figures like those on Take That’s tour where thousands of people were unwitting victims of professional scam websites.
Encouragingly though, in his last paragraph Hubbard states Ticketmaster are still working to stop the ‘bedroom touts’ buying tickets enmass for the sole purpose of making a profit on the secondary market. This is the best situation for everyone as it will provide a true supply and demand marketplace at both levels.
Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard’s blog post can be read in full here: blog.ticketmaster.com.
Check out Stereoboard's recent short film, 'Access All Areas', which follows the experiences of a group of friends, who opt to go 'off road' obtaining their tickets, to blag their way backstage at a major gig and suffering dramatic consequences...
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