Do Ticket ID Restrictions Beat Touts Or Penalise Fans? (Ticketing Feature)
Monday, 30 April 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
Purchasing tickets through alternative means is no new phenomenon, in fact it’s almost second nature. You miss out on regular sales and you immediately ask around, turn to eBay or secondary ticketing sites. The ticketing climate has had its fair share of slamming in the press – Channel 4’s ‘The Great Ticket Scandal’ has caused many music fans to boycott various means of sale. But what is there to do? Many bands now take it upon themselves to ‘stop touts’ – but is it really just down to them?
Recently, Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem took to their Tumblr blog to discuss the issue, where he says, “We’ve been made aware of this current ticket issue about people having too high a limit per person, which scalpers take advantage of. [...] Right now, we’re trying to come up with a system to let the people who want the pre-orders of tickets to have a fair chance to get them at a fair price. But it has to be for real fans who actually want the tickets, not scalpers who buy them to sell to real fans.”
The system they hope to implement is currently uncertain, but the thought process is clear: Bands need to find a way to benefit fans and stop touts from getting hold of huge batches of tickets.
Using the Gaslight Anthem’s summer show as an example, we can come up with a few viable ideas to combat overpriced re-sales. They announced a one-off London show at Koko, which isn’t the smallest venue but it could never fit everyone who would likely want to go. One-off shows – especially around festival season – cause many to travel further afield to see their favourite bands. When you consider this, Koko would be an intimate and exciting show to be at – but one that will leave many fans without a ticket.
There are a few options. One, they could upgrade to a bigger venue. This would take away from the intimacy of the show, of course, but could lower the general demand by offering more tickets. Alternatively, they could add more dates. Sure, some fans may go to more than one show but it could offer more tickets and opportunities to the ‘real fans’ they speak of to dodge extreme prices. There may be less demand, but likely still people selling spares; does it necessarily mean they’re touts?
To add in personal experience with small shows, I will avoid touts unless absolutely desperate. As a big fan of The Used, I could not afford tickets to their extremely intimate club tour and – with only around 300 tickets available, they sold out almost immediately. After deciding I must have a ticket, I asked around. The first online tout was selling them for around £10 over the original price, which is relatively modest considering the demand. Compare this to the friend of a friend who wouldn’t sell for less than £40 since it “wasn’t worth his time otherwise” and “he’d get that much outside the venue”. More ‘friends of friends’ had tickets to sell but wouldn’t budge on price (which bemuses me seeing as they’re friends of friends), then a tout online had a bulk left that he had given up on selling and sold me two for the equivalent price of one and a half tickets.
Generally when supply of tickets doesn't meet demand, touts have the blame placed on their shoulders for the inevitable 'scarcity of tickets'. This is not excusing them in the slightest; people who purposefully buy tickets with the intention of re-selling at ludicrous prices deserve the slating they get, but ‘they’ are not the only re-sellers.
As the ‘Great Ticket Scandal’ uncovered, many well known promoters and management have been selling tickets directly through the secondary market. In fact, a great number of the best tickets going at a premium price were those allocated by people close to the band. Perhaps a more appropriate query would be how to get these tickets sold to fans at face value - rather than disguised as previously sold tickets coming from ticket resellers.
Added to that, we’ve all had a friend who had to bail on a show last minute and left you with a spare ticket. What do you do? You re-sell. Admittedly, many of us are of the stance that we’d sell for face value or there about, covering our cost and no more. Alternatively, people can get greedy. It has been seen time and time again that a fan with a spare will wander up and down lines to sell it, but barter for a higher price. They could be a diehard fan of the band, but still the lure of gaining an extra tenner out of a situation is too much to resist.
The point is simple: Bands are concerned that some of their fans are being screwed over with the purchase of tickets and want to find a way to combat it. The issue is that their goal is solely ‘targeting touts’, when in reality they’re just one stakeholder among many in the grand scheme of ticket resale and event promotion.
Methods have been tried and tested in the past, but many have just caused more trouble than there was to begin with.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' promoters Kilimanjaro Live implemented a system where you had to arrive with the credit card used to purchase the tickets as well as the receipt, for the band's Autumn 2011 UK tour. Theoretically, it had its merits of course, but in reality it didn’t stop resale and left fans in a worse position - while interest in the events waned and many of the shows failed to sell-out.
For event's where ID restrictions are implemented by the organisers, not everyone looking to buy a ticket would know of these card stipulations. Fans could blindly buy a legitimate ticket online, at a non-market driven price, only to be turned away at the gate because they are not in possession of the card used to purchase the tickets. You could queue all day to get barrier, but your friend gets stuck in traffic or has to work and both tickets were bought on the same card: you have to decide whether to go in and leave your friend unable to get in or sacrifice your barrier spot to go meet your friend. Perhaps you can’t go at all – it’s not uncommon for things to clash nearer the time – you’re left down on money because unless you’re willing to lend your card out to a potential buyer, you can’t easily re-sell them.
This is a key example of the flaw in thinking: this theoretically could combat extortionate resale, but in reality it does the complete opposite - just check out the resale prices of Radiohead tickets! Even if all the tickets went to fans, there are still many factors able to complicate their entry into the gig. The issue is finding a real balance, one that doesn’t hinder fans simply for the sake of stopping tickets from being re-sold.
This system was also tested with an Alicia Keys gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall and it caused chaos. People re-sold their tickets; fans bought them and were met with problems upon entry - with some complaining about gestapo-style tactics by the security staff at the venue. Added to that, the gravity of the shows in question means it takes a ridiculous amount of time to actually get everyone inside the venue. In terms of a Chili Peppers gig, where there’s likely to be tens of thousands of people there, it seems implausible to hand-check every ticket, receipt and card to verify each gig-goer is the original buyer. It's a ludicrous system!
It seems most bands are united in wanting to combat touts or ticket speculators, preferring their fans aren’t screwed over by people looking to make a quick buck from music lovers. The problem is there are too many factors outside of mere 'touting' that needs to be dealt with. Most attempts theoretically benefit fans who buy their ticket initially, but stomp out any chance of fans who missed the initial sale to gain entry. Not to mention the fans that couldn't afford their face value originally, not being able to pick up a bargain if supply eventually outstrips demand and ticket prices plummet. So how does this problem get rectified?
It’s easy to speculate, but it’s a lot more difficult than you’d imagine. Every idea has its pros and cons, most of which cause an issue to the fan rather than the touts. What has to be said though is bands like The Gaslight Anthem, who want to make sure that genuine fans are getting to the tickets first, are on the right track, and it’s good that they’re taking a stand for the benefit of those who love their band. The only issue is finding a feasible way to work, it’s not an issue of black and white i.e. ‘Stop touts, fans will benefit’. Should presale's be scrapped to ensure everyone has equal access to tickets when they go onsale? Only time will tell if the industry manages to find a good system to solve the problem, or whether there's even a problem that needs to be solved in the first place.
Check out Stereoboard's 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...
What do you think about ticket touts and ensuring genuine fans get first access to tickets? Let us know your thoughts below.
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