I decided to write a
follow on from the No More Touts post I wrote a few days ago. Thanks
to everyone who's read and shared it! I never realised it would ever
go that far!
In the last post, we
were talking about ticket touts and the fan-funded show from the
perspective of the fans. We also talked about those who'd been the
victims of ticket scalpers. I come from a musical family. It's not
unusual to find jam sessions happening in our house. We have a small
home studio. Our garage is holds the legacy that my parents started
so many years ago. Cases packed with coiled cables stand beside tool
boxes. Beneath a desk is a crate filled drum stands. A book case has
become a leaning post for a guitar. Packets of strings and drumsticks
are piled in a corner. The studio is so small that we've recorded
drummers in bathrooms, singers in wardrobes, and guitarists out in
the garden.
 |
| We call it "organised chaos". |
I rounded up a few of the passing musicians for beer and
a chat about the secondary ticket market.
As musicians who are often paid to
play shows, what are your views on ticket touts?
Ticket touts are
pushing out the fans that have less money, turning concerts into
exclusive events that only those with a higher percentage of
disposable income can afford. Besides, why should fans pay over the
odds for tickets that were cheap enough in the first place? Cheaper
tickets mean that there are more people at a show. This is good for
smaller and newer bands, especially if they’re the opener for a
larger band.
Bands are being locked
out of the industry because of the secondary market. Some of us also
believe that touts are killing the music industry in some areas. The
touts tend to target popular bands (supply and demand). Some bands
may only visit a few cities and part of their reasoning for that may
be because of the secondary market. They know that the more shows
they play equals more tickets going to the secondary market. And
bands have costs too. We have travel, food, accommodation, crew that
we have to pay. Our costs aren’t anywhere near that of some of the
larger bands but, as you know, the bigger the band the more overheads
they’ve got to cover. Yes, if a show sells out, the band will get
paid. But what happens if a venue is only filled to a fraction of its
capacity? A lot of a band’s wages comes from merchandise. And even
if the venue is full what happens if the majority of those people
have bought their tickets through secondary sellers at an inflated
cost? They now have less money to spend on the artist they’ve come
to support.
This may sound greedy
on the part of musicians, but we think that many people would prefer
to be supporting the artists rather than the ticket touts making
hundreds of pounds more for a ticket that may have originally only
cost £40. We also want to see as many of you as possible at the
shows, something that won’t happen if you’re being held to ransom
by ticket touts. As musicians and concert goers ourselves, we're just
as angry as you are. At the end of the day, we’re here for you. Our
job is to make you happy and give you a good night out. And if you’re
happy, then we’re happy!
~~~
Ticketmaster has
admitted that between a fifth and ninety percent of daily ticket
sales come from botnets. While the use of botnets is banned in the UK
under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990,
there's nothing to stop the secondary ticket sellers from using human
power to grab hundreds of tickets using multiple credit cards and
addresses. This was highlighted in Channel 4's Dispatches from 2012
(The Great Ticket Scandal). Also highlighted in the
documentary were a number of other ways that the secondary ticket
sellers are able to get hold of tickets. This includes the promoters,
venues, and others within the industry.
Secondary ticketing
regulations by country can be found on Wikipedia (not the best
source, I know!):
There's also a petition
to get the UK government to readdress the regulations for the
secondary ticket market. If you're a fan of live events, you might be
interested signing:
Details on the campaign can be found by following the hashtag #nomoretouts or visiting www.foofightersuk.com
Twitter: @foofamilyuk
~~~
With thanks to Marcella
from Nashville Blues, and the guys from OpenView.
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