Resale Woes
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Most of the public believe that four of the main resale ticket sites are ripping off fans of live music, a new survey suggests.
Sites like StubHub, Get Me In, Seatwave and Viagogo allow tickets to be resold, often at a substantially higher price.
Research showed that more than half of people think tickets should be resold at face value. StubHub says the real issue is a ‘lack of transparency’ within the primary market and wants to see government action. The research comes from AudienceNet, for a campaign group FanFair. They spoke to 1,158 people for the survey.
The findings saw that a solid 81% of people ‘agree/strongly agree’ that the sites mentioned are ripping off fans. Nearly half the people buying tickets (44%) didn’t know the difference between primary and secondary sites and only 16% thought that these sites provided a valuable service.
Various artists have spoken out against the reselling of their tickets, with people like Ed Sheeran trying to avoid ticket touts using secondary services for his 2018 stadium gigs. Mike Kerr from Royal Blood said there was an ‘insane’ amount of profit being made during their first tour.
‘Kids were being ripped off, paying through the roof to come to our show. We want to make a fair deal with our fans where there’s a fair price to come to the show.’
FanFair Alliance has been campaigning against touts in the secondary market, with the campaign manager Adam Webb saying that UK audiences are ‘fed-up’.
Well, given that some secondary sites bump up the price to ludicrous amounts, it’s unsurprising that people want change in how tickets are sold or marketed.