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Getmein - hypocracy and lunacy in a single venue Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Whilst emailing some friends about the possibility of going along to one or more of the concerts being held at Excel alongside the British Motor Show, I saw a Google ad for Getmein, the ticketing secondary market that was acquired by Ticketmaster.

If you recall, Ticketmaster had been vociferous in its opposition to secondary markets, strongly arguing to the UK Parliamentary select committee that such exchanges were wrong on numerous grounds, citing profiteering and exploitation of fans amongst them. Evidently, these views have been dropped now that it owns several such exchanges.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the gigs I was interested in and saw tickets were indeed listed on Getmein for the events at prices, including a 10% mark-up for Getmein, up to £82.50. Yet the primary market, in the form of See Tickets, was offering the same tickets at £30, including their £3 fee.

Since listings are free on Getmein, silly priced sale ads can be posted on Getmein with no downside and only upside if someone gullibly buys at an inflated price - or put another way if an ignorant fan parts with more money than they need to.

Don't worry, I'm not performing an about face on secondary markets, but simply noting the hypocracy of certain companies and the lunacy surrounding the opaque nature of the ticketing market.

Most noteworthy was the accompanying T&Cs on the See Tickets booking page.

All tickets purchased on this site are governed by our terms and conditions. In particular, we draw your attention to the fact that all tickets are for personal use only and cannot be resold under any circumstances. Resale or attempted resale is grounds for seizure or cancellation without refund or other compensation. The Event Partner and its affiliates, successors, or assigns may enforce these terms in accordance with the provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (the Act).

So Ticketmaster seems to be complicit in breaching such conditions, a matter that it presumably understands.

Separately, the US division of Ticketmaster is now issuing paperless tickets citing consumer convenience and the disruption to touts as being major reasons for their introduction. Unfortunately, this has met a considerable consumer backlash, in the main because they have continued to charge the same high level of fees despite the evident savings from paperless ticketing and because people recognise it has damaged their ability to transfer the tickets should they need to.

Labels: Getmein, secondary markets, ticketing, Ticketmaster

posted by John Wilson @ 11:09 PM Permanent Link ,

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Madonna knocks bricks out of a crumbling wall Thursday, May 15, 2008

Last week the news emerged that Madonna is endorsing secondary trading of concert tickets, and has negotiated directly with the market operators to get a slice of the action. StubHub will be able to trade tickets for her North American concerts, while Viagogo has been given the rights to be secondary ticket partner in Europe, as well as handling VIP packages and all premium tickets.

Having sold her touring rights to LiveNation last year, this represents a major endorsement of secondary markets by one of the world's largest promoters and blows a hole through the "moral" arguments that were advanced by some parts of the live music industry, who condemned such market as scalping or touting. Similarly, it leaves the recently formed industry association that was advocating a revenue tax on secondary markets completely wrong footed.

I've already heard it said that Madonna is an exceptional case and most artists won't be able to negotiate the same deals with secondary market operators, but this applies equally to the situation most artists face with promoters who underwrite tours [primary market].

Live Nations endorsement follows the complete about face by Ticketmaster, who acquired two secondary market operators a mere six months after appearing before a UK Parliamentary Select Committee to advocate such markets were plainly wrong. The hypocrisy isn't unique to them - effectively, many industry incumbents have been arguing it is wrong purely because they don't profit from it, which is a very difficult matter from it being wrong in principle.