Consumers not only like choice, they expect it. If you buy something, you should be able to do whatever you -- legally -- want to do with it. The seller doesn't have the right to tell you what to do with your purchase. If you buy a Ford Focus, you have the right to drive it, park it, or sell it, and Ford doesn't interfere in any of these things.
So it seems strange that the live entertainment industry wants to take away consumer choice. I'm specifically referring to paperless ticketing.
Here's how paperless ticketing works. When a fan goes to purchase entry to an event, they don't get a physical ticket or even an electronic file they can print out. Instead of a ticket, the fan must bring the credit card they used to make their purchase and a valid form of identification. The credit card then gets scanned at the gate, and if the credit card matches the transaction, the fan gets in.
Paperless ticketing may seem convenient for the fan, but the way it's done today, it takes away the fan's choice to transfer or resell a ticket they've purchased in any way they want. Why is this? First, paperless tickets often are sold without the ability of the buyer to give them away or resell them. So let's say you buy a paperless ticket to a concert when they first go on sale, often many months in advance of the event -- then your plans change as the concert gets closer, and you can't go. Or, as happened last year with U2, the band cancels its original tour due to illness and reschedules for a later date which you can't make. Under the current paperless ticketing system, you will be out of luck as you will be prohibited from giving away or reselling those tickets.
Maybe you want to buy some tickets for your niece as a gift. Under the current paperless ticketing system, you can't do that either, unless you plan on accompanying her to the concert. Or, let's say you can't go, and you hear of someone in your office that wants to attend. You'd be willing to sell them the tickets for what you paid for them -- but you'd also be restricted from doing this as well.
While transfer and resale of tickets are sometimes allowed, there are restrictions there too. Most prominently, the fan will only be able to sell the ticket via the company that issued it in the first place. That means that if someone bought a ticket to the John Mayer concert last year and couldn't use it, they could only resell their ticket on Ticketmaster's website and only then if they sold it at the original face value.
That may sound like a fair deal -- but what happens to all those extra convenience and shipping fees the fan paid via Ticketmaster? Frankly, the fan is left holding the bag for the extra costs, which can sometimes equal up to 15 percent of the face value of the tickets.
Of course, the reason I care about all of this is because my company, StubHub, is the market leader in the so-called secondary ticket market where tickets are resold. We are a marketplace, facilitating the open exchange of tickets between buyers and sellers, and it's a model that consumers love, precisely because of the convenience and choice it offers. We couldn't have been successful over the last 10 years if fans did not choose us for their ticketing needs.
Unlike the primary ticketing market where fans have only one choice of ticketing company -- often Ticketmaster -- when they buy from the box office, there is plenty of choice in the secondary ticket market. If a fan doesn't like what they find on StubHub, they can choose Craigslist, TicketNetwork and the secondary ticketing sites run by Ticketmaster: TicketsNow and TicketExchange. That level of competition is why we at StubHub are always focused on improving our service. We pride ourselves on providing the highest levels of customer satisfaction among all ticketing companies, primary and secondary.
Just as fans appreciate having choice for where they buy their event tickets, they also appreciate having choice in what they do with those tickets. In fact, based on independent research conducted by Wakefield of 1000 event-goers 18 and over, 95 percent believed that a ticket to an entertainment or sporting event is like any other commodity they purchase and own -- once you buy it, you have the right to use it yourself, give it away or sell it.
Given this, why is the current method of paperless ticketing still in place? Because companies in the live entertainment industry believe that artists and sports teams, not fans, should have the choice of what fans do with their tickets after they purchase them. These companies include ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation Entertainment, who keep telling fans how convenient paperless ticketing is, without telling them what rights they're losing in the process.
Luckily, there's a way for all fans to fight back by supporting an organization that is working to preserve and protect our rights and interests as live-event fans called the Fan Freedom Project. I encourage all fans to check out the site to learn more about ticketing issues and to voice their opinions.
Hypocritical Artists and Secondary Ticket Sales
Is Ticketmaster Trying to Eliminate Secondary Ticket Sales ...
Game on: Secondary ticket sellers score | Hartford Business
Concert Tickets Get Set Aside, Marked Up by Artists, Managers ...
Nick Giammusso, VIPSeats.com
Paperless ticketing is a headache and takes away the ticket holders control of their own investment.
Why?
I have been on both sides of the fence. I have worked as a Concert Promoter and Director of Event Ticket Sales at the old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, NY and I am currently the President & CEO at VIPSeats.com a national ticket brokerage with offices in beautiful Western New York.
I truly feel Paperless Ticketing is a headache for the consumer. We started VIPSeats.com after realizing that a hole existed in the marketplace. We were blown away by the number of ticket holders that wanted to sell or give away their seats and others that wanted tickets that were not available at TicketMaster or the venue's box office.
You have to wonder why any individual or organization would want to take away the liberty of being able to transfer or sell event tickets. Owners and Players exist because of Fans that pay big money for tickets. Shouldn't these same Fans have the option to sell for profit or be able to transfer their seats with ease?
Give me a break! These same sports owners and players can't even agree on how to split billions of dollars of revenue and now they want 100% control of the ticket resale market too??
Jeff Kline, Veritix
Paperless ticketing has been embraced by consumers in the airline and hospitality industries for many years. The same can now be said for the live event space. Our company, Veritix, offers paperless ticketing option Flash Seats, which provides for the safe and secure sale and transfer of tickets. Our technology has been used by over 3 million fans for live events Our customers give us a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating, and on average, fans using Flash Seats attend events 7 percent more frequently than fans using paper tickets.
Mr. Tsakalakis incorrectly states that consumers are unable to purchase tickets as gifts or give them to others to use when plans change. Flash Seats allows for the instant and secure ability to buy, sell, and transfer paperless tickets from a computer or mobile phone. Paperless tickets prevent counterfeit or stolen tickets and provide the ultimate convenience for fans.
Mr. Tsakalakis fails to acknowledge in his blog that many tickets listed on Stubhub are in fact from professional resellers that sell tickets they don’t own. When brokers buy and sell tickets on Flash Seats, consumers are guaranteed that the seller holds the right to that ticket, and that it will be delivered instantly. Many brokers use Flash Seats to buy sell and transfer tickets and consumers have embraced and accepted the paperless ticketing alternative for its proven safety and convenience.
Flash Seats is clearly meeting fan demand for a safe and convenient paperless ticketing system.
Scalpers still sell paperless tickets all the time... just at higher prices and on less reputable ticket networks. If you look, for example, at Adele's concerts you there are plenty of tickets available for her paperless show at the Greek Theater in LA.. Only at MUCH HIGHER prices than her show in NY, where paperless tickets have been banned.
There is nothing anyone can do to stop ticket brokers. It has been going on since the first caveman-wrestlemania and would continue if made illegal... only the transactions would become riskier.
There are technologies available now to transfer and sell paperless tickets. And people then have a choice. They also do not have to pay 1000% markups for tickets at places like Stub Hub.
I actually never thought about the resale value, I was already pissed off with the fees and the whole buying process.