The secondary ticket market has always been an issue for rock bands, but it wasn't until the '90s when a major battle between Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster brought the issue to the national forefront. The prevalence of the Internet has magnified things over the past two decades, and we appear to be coming to a legal head in the UK as reps from One Direction, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead and other groups are calling for change.
The coalition of managers and organizers published a letter to The Independent this weekend that stressed how much they are being affected by current practices.
"As representatives from the live event industry, responsible for putting on shows ranging from international sporting fixtures and world class theatre to intimate gigs, we are committed to ensuring that event-goers have the best experience possible at a fair price," the letter read (via NME). "The way that the secondary ticketing market is allowed to operate at present can seriously undermine that effort. It's high time the government stopped sticking up for secondary platforms, and decided to put fans first."
StubHub, Seatwave and Viagogo are just a few of the secondary ticket markets these managers have an issue with. The latter company responded quickly.
"We are in favour of making information clearer on our website and have made a number of commitments in our recent discussions with the government," Viagogo's statement read. "However, publishing the original seller's identity is unnecessary because all tickets come with the Viagogo guarantee, while publishing specific seat numbers allows rights owners to cancel tickets which are being legitimately resold. Anyone can see that is not in the consumer's best interests."
The site pointed to independent research from ComRes, which shows "76% of British consumers believe a ticket is their property to resell if they wish. 77% would prefer to use a guaranteed secondary platform, while over a third would be willing to pay more than face value for a ticket."
We'll see if legal action is taken in the near future, but sites like Viagogo will likely need to do more than make vague promises.
