What a foul expression “secondary ticketing” is. It’s the terminology used to refer to those sites that let the “fans” resell their tickets.
Sites such as Seatwave and Viagogo allow you to buy and sell tickets safely and securely. They’ve grown out from the eBay ticket selling business. But are they really for the “fans”?
Seatwave calls itself the “fan to fan ticket exchange” while Viagogo offers “real tickets for real fans.”
But this is just formalised touting. Undoubtedly you have more recourse to buying duds and fakes than perhaps you would on eBay, but the sites would have you think that they’re doing the fans a service.
They’re not. They’re letting everyone become a tout.
Case in point: Michael Jackson.
Jacko is about to embark on what we are told will be his final UK (or at least O2) tour, and more dates are being announced by the minute. At time of writing, there are 28 dates available.
Tickets are selling briskly even during the “presale” period open to people who’ve pre-registered their interest or are O2 customers. The general sale doesn’t even begin until Friday via Ticketmaster.
Tickets have only been on presale for a day or two, yet a cursory glance at Seatwave reveals hundreds of tickets already on sale. Goodness – haven’t a lot of fans been buying tickets and then realising they’ve inadvertently bought more than they need, or perhaps their purchase clashes with a holiday?
Of course they haven’t. The “fan to fan” ticket exchange is allowing “fans” to sell on their tickets for several hundred pounds – well above the top price of £75 that’s being charged.
Viagogo, if anything, is worse. That’s because it’s the official secondary ticketing outlet. The official site has a link to Ticketmaster and Viagogo for each date. Ticketmaster is there for “pre-sale tickets” while Viagogo is the outlet for the “fan to fan ticket exchange.”
What this really means is that the promoters/Jackson is getting some of the backend of that secondary sales.
It’s really annoyed promoters/artists that they’re not getting a piece of that backend, and suddenly secondary ticketing outlets are allowing it.
I’d like to know whether Viagogo, as was the case for the upcoming Madonna tour, is actually selling a batch of tickets that were never made available for public sale at all.
If an artist wants to essentially auction tickets to the highest bidder, then that’s fine, but be honest about it. Say something like “all the best tickets will be sold to the highest bidder.”
But of course an artist who says that is a brave man or woman.
Another option is the premium package with hotels, top seats, pre and post drinks, and perhaps even “meet and greets”. But at that’s all up front. If one of my favourite groups does that I might think: wow what a great opportunity to meet my favourite artist – something I’d never otherwise get the opportunity to do. Or I might think: cash in…
Of course “live” is where the action is these days. And given the decline in recorded music sales, maximising that revenue is fine. But be honest about it.
Secondary ticketing really is no better to me than the guy outside the venue. I might have slightly more of a guarantee that the ticket is genuine, and I’ll happily concede that internet rip-offs are a massive problem.
A recent Word Magazine podcast addressed this to an extent and mentioned that the FT’s Undercover Economist Tim Harford had addressed this problem recently and had summised that from an economic point of view, artists simply weren’t charging the market prices. If they were, then many tickets for a concert series like this would be in the multiple hundreds of pounds.
I guess that the airline ticketing model is an interesting one with elastic pricing adjusted according to demand. Of course, there’s not a great market in me selling my 1p Ryanair flight on to someone else the day before the flight who might otherwise have to pay £100. Airlines tend to charge if you want to change a name, and they probably wouldn’t be happy with me putting my ticket on eBay.
But if an artist is honest, then perhaps these foul sites wouldn’t exist.
[UPDATE] I see that the Michael Jackson site now titles the two ticket purchasing options as “Ticket Option 1” and “Ticket Option 2”.
I’d still be very curious to learn the details of this deal – especially as there are now upwards of 50 concerts being sold.