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Scalping is killing the joy of the big music festivals and music events in Australia (Photo: Live Earth Crowd © Dan Boud)

As the Southern Hemisphere once again rolls into summer, the season of the festival descends upon Australia. The familiar, and the unfamiliar, bands and music acts line up to tour down under and be part of great festivals such as the Big Day Out, Homebake, the new years eve festivals of The Falls Festival, the Pyramid Festival and many more. Add to this the year round traffic in big name acts that venture to the arse end of the world for a tour and a holiday in a sunny clime and the summer in Australia is a music lovers paradise. Or it was.

Ticketing for big name events, be it Kylie playing her pop at the big venues, the all day festivals such as Big Day Out or the multiday festivals such as the Falls Festival, has changed markedly. Where once fans would spend overnight, days and even weeks camped out to guarantee tickets, these days those queueing up are lucky if the first half dozen get tickets before the event is completely sold out. How? Via phone and web sales. The very method that makes purchasing tickets easier has also made it harder to get tickets to shows that fans desperately want to see. While the first generation of web sales barely rated a mention, they are the overwhelming majority of sales for the big name events. The problem now is that there is no queue - it’s a free for all, and whereas it once was effort that ensured you got your ticket, these days it now comes down to chance.

A Progression of Ticketing Sales Techniques

The Queue for Tickets

The queue for tickets (Photo: Eiffelturm Schlange licensed under Creative Commons from BenJTsunami)

Originally the volume of sales per unit of time was low due to the requirement of being at a physical location and having a physical transaction occur.

The Phone Sales

The telephone (Photo: Red Telephone Box licensed under Creative Commons from Ian Britton)

Telephone sales increased the volume of sales that could occur simultaneously, limited by the capacity of the telecommunications system to take simultaneous calls, and also reduced the effort required to obtain tickets by moving the queue to your nearest telephone outlet - most likely down the hallway at home. This still took time to complete, however, the system made things easier. Automation of these systems further reduced the friction in the process and increased the volume of tickets that could be sold in a given amount of time.

The Wonderous World of the Web

The World Wide Web (Photo: world wide web licensed under Creative Commons from Lutz Schimpf)

Web sales have further eroded the effort required to obtain tickets for events by dramatically increasing the number of sales that can occur simultaneously and reducing the effort required further.

The result of this technological change in sales is obvious. It is now inefficient for fans to stand in line or try the telephone for large concerts, as web sales are taking the vast bulk of tickets due to the tiny amount of time it takes to complete a transaction and purchase tickets.

The Rise of Scalping?

eBay - helping scalpers with their business (Photo: Ebay Side licensed under Creative Commons from Ryan Fanshaw)

Whether or not the “business” of scalping is on the rise I cannot answer. If it is not, it is definitely becoming both more visible, thanks to the popular route of using eBay to onsell tickets, and more lucrative, simply look at the profit margin of tickets being sold on eBay. Further to this is the number of people who purchase a ticket or two extra to sell (scalp by any other name) to “pay for their own ticket”.

The Problem with Ticketing Agencies

I am not going to hold my barbs back about the ticketing agencies, nor promoters. The process of selling tickets and not accepting a return for 100% of the sale value ensures that the practice of onselling of tickets will be supported within much of the music community. Everyone undoubtedly knows a friend, or a friend of a friend, who had to sell a ticket to concert X or festival Y due to some legitimate reason that had come up. For those in that situation there are very few ticketing agencies I know of that accept 100% refunds on those tickets.

New Ticketing Ideas

A number of festivals, both locally and overseas, have recognised the negative publicity that can surround ticket sales that end up in the hands of scalpers over fans. Two such festivals that spring to mind are the United Kingdom’s Glastonbury Festival, and Australia’s Splendour in the Grass at Byron Bay. It should be noted that the promoters of The Big Day Out series of festivals is attempting to reduce the prevalence of scalping, though their measures to date have been little more than a staggered release of tickets.

Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival (Photo: jazz stage Glastonbury festival licensed under Creative Commons from Geek lawyer)

Glastonbury is a massive annual festival in the UK that draws the top acts globally. With a massive increase in popularity of the festival, the organisers come face-to-face with the negative publicity surrounding large volumes of tickets landing in the hands of scalpers.

This year saw Glastonbury adopt the approach whereby all purchasers had to pre-register with the festival site to obtain their non-exchangeable tickets - including submission of a passport photo which was security printed into the ticket. Additionally there were a portion of tickets issued only to those arriving by coach in an attempt to reduce the volume of private vehicles at the event. Despite this tickets still sold out in record time - lasting only 105 minutes before the festival was sold out. The registration system was more successful than many thought it could be - with a ratio of almost three people to each available ticket.

Splendour in the Grass

Byron Bay’s annual Splendour in the Grass attracts many international acts. 2007 saw Bloc Party head out from the United States (Photo: Bloc Party licensed under Creative Commons from Jason Argo)

2005 saw the tickets to the annual festival in Byron Bay sell out in less than two days (considered long these days). The promoters, rightly or wrongly, were heavily criticised on blogs, discussion boards and eventually the media for the lack of time available to obtain tickets. 2006 saw a new ticketing arrangement, where the following process was put in place for ticket sales:

• Tickets are only available via the festival website;
• When purchasing tickets, name, age and address of the person buying the ticket must be submitted and will be printed on the ticket itself;
• These tickets will be sent via Australia Posts’ Registered Post three weeks prior to the event;
• Tickets must be picked up at Australia Post offices where photo identification must be presented; and
• At the gates of the festival photo identification must be presented and matched to the details on the ticket.

The first year that the system was in place, 2006, saw the camping tickets sell out in three hours and the remainder of the general admission tickets were gone in two days. 2007 saw the system work more efficiently and the first release of tickets were sold in around five and a half hours.

A Proposal for a Reducing Scalping of Tickets

The future success of festivals and headliner concerts rests with the ability for fans to get tickets from ticketing agencies, organisers and promoters or the bands themselves rather than the racketeering scalpers. The method that I am proposing would sit comfortably with either organisers/promoters or a ticketing agency working in conjunction with event staff.

Ticket Volume

While it is always nice to get tickets with friends, a strict limit of one ticket per person should be established. While this may appear unfair, with complaints including the limited access to payment services, it severely hampers the method scalpers employ to make their purchases viable - bulk buying. Reducing it down to the individual increases the effective resistance that is put up to the viability of scalping.

Identification

Despite seeming more than a tad “Big Brother” employing the methodology seen at Glastonbury and Splendor in the Grass, where tickets were issued to people with their details on the ticket, should also be implemented. At these festivals ticket details were matched to the person, using suitable identification such as drivers license, passport or other forms of identification to ensure that the person presenting the ticket was the person who purchased it. Additionally, photo identification can be used as an additional measure, assisting in the speeding up of the throughput of people into the event grounds and allaying concerns about queues at the entrance gates.

The proposal made here is that these details are required to be pre-registered, either on the promoter/organiser’s website or with the ticketing agency’s website, depending on the method of sale. Registration for those who do not have website access can be made via a written request or at the usual “participating outlets” currently being used by agencies and organisers. Both registration details and a photo would thus be required prior to any ticket sales commencing as a condition of sale.

Delivery of Tickets

Splendour in the Grass’s method of ticket delivery is definitely one that will again force inefficiencies into the scalpers business process. Sending via Registered Post closer to the actual event date and requiring photo identification to pick up the tickets also increases the security of the process and reduces the profitability for scalpers.

No Fault Refunds

The biggest excuse that is employed by people is that they have a ticket (or tickets) that they no longer need, for whatever reason. This is where tickets should be able to be fully refunded with no questions asked. That is the refund shall include the booking fees and other add-on costs. This should be available up until the date of the event, and last minute tickets made available via a registration process through the promotor/organiser/ticketing agency’s website on a first-registered first-offered basis.

Thoughts…

I’m always keen to hear feedback on ideas, but please attempt to be constructive. “That’s a crap idea” won’t wash without giving solid reasoning as to why it’s crap, and better yet alternatives to the processes outlined above in reducing the levels of scalping that currently occur with tickets to the big festivals and events.