Scalping Tickets in the Digital Age

Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support Representative and editor of the weekly newsletter

I am a big fan of the T.V. show, "Flight of the Conchords, so after hearing rumors that this season would be the show's last, I was more eager than ever to catch them live.  Unfortunately I couldn't get online until late in the evening, and by the time I got to Ticketmaster the seats were sold out.  Ticketmaster informed me tickets were still available through "Ticketnow," a resale company owned by Ticketmaster.  Here, the cheapest tickets I could find were being sold for three times the original price.  You snooze you lose, right?

Now, I've been going to concerts for a long time and I am no stranger to the scalping process.  If you want good seats (or any seats at all) and hope to pay anything close to face value, you might end up finding yourself sleeping in a tent on the sidewalk by the local box office in the pouring rain.  However for those of us who need to keep our jobs, that may not be an option. I am aware of sites like StubHub where people make their living buying and immediately reselling tickets for hot shows.  But for a company that already makes money from 11 types of "convenience" charges to also own an additional store where you are encouraged to scalp the tickets you just bought from them is just wrong.

Many of you have probably already heard the populist anger over this, with many big-name musicians getting behind the bullhorn.  Bruce Springsteen, The Smashing Pumpkins, and David Byrne are among the artists who have spoken out against Ticketmaster's latest antics, demanding their fans be reimbursed in full or part of the drastically increased prices.  Ticketmaster is facing a U.S. Senate judiciary committee investigation and $500 million in class action lawsuits in Canada (in Ontario it is illegal to resell tickets for higher than their original value).  Will anything come of the angry threats and pleas for justice?  It depends on whether or not scalping is illegal, which can vary from state to state and gets complicated when transactions take place online.

You'll be hard pressed to find much online defending these resale companies, but at the very least it is interesting to hear them try to justify themselves.  In an article from Canadian Business Magazine, a StubHub official makes this argument:

"Do you call the beer vendor at the ball game a beer scalper or the restaurant that sells you lobster at the 'market price' a shellfish scalper?  Of course you don't, though those entities are selling a consumer good for a markup over what they paid for it.  What makes tickets any different?"

Author Andy Holloway gives his own reasons for why he finds this statement bogus, but I would like to add that once Ticketnow and StubHub start including butter sauce, Old Bay and cartoon lobster bibs with every order they can charge me whatever they want.

Bob Lefsetz wrote an article about something we're likely to see a lot more of in the future - artists teaming up with retail giants and selling tickets exclusively in store.  Bon Jovi and Wal-Mart have recently struck up such a deal.  That's awesome for them, but won't that make it even harder for people who actually want those tickets to get them before they're gobbled up and regurgitated on StubHub?

Trying to think of solutions to this problem gives me a headache.  How can you tell what a person's intentions are when they buy tickets?  Do more safeguards to protect against scalping just mean more fees from services like Ticketmaster?  Are there any specific theories you have or examples you see as signs of hope for the future?  Share your thoughts here.

Comments

[Calysta Rose]

I rather liked the idea Trent Reznor talked about here: http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,548515

Wouldn't putting names on the tickets, and requiring picture ID at the gate, solve the problem some? Given that people are having to go through security to get in anyway it shouldn't slow the process down much.

[JAYEL PEEZODEE]

Thats all good, 4 sho nuf...just an idea, you may wanna also promote a way for tunecore artist who are currently working on an album to be able to utilize the service of other tuncore artist, rappers or musicians to assist in whatever way is desireable, on that particular track or tracks. With the use of , cakewalk, and pro-tools etc...time and space is not the limitation it once was when major label artist collaborated....maybe tunecore could insure the integrity, and trust that allow artist to feel secure about sending a track to someone they have never met, and still be compensated.....just a thought...I know alot of details are missing but , over all I know yall feel me on this... like a wheel tunecore would be the hub that connects all the spokes allowing things to move in harmony...
be cool !
PEACE !
******
SEARCH PEEZODEE ON YOUTUBE....