A new AudienceNet/Music Ally consumer survey has revealed just the depth of public concern in regards to mass scale ticket touting that takes place on secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo, StubHub, Get Me In! and Seatwave. The survey was commissioned by FanFair Alliance, a music-based campaign who are passionate about combating industrial-scale online ticket touting, with support from UK companies - including See Tickets.
Rob Wilmshurst, CEO See Tickets, said:
"Touts aren’t just responsible for massively inflating prices, they are also as the research shows chipping away at the public’s confidence in the live music industry. Buying a ticket for an act you really want to see should be exciting but touts are turning this into a fraught, overpriced and desperate experience for a lot of people. We firmly back any action to combat touting and have made our stance on this very clear by offering customers of Seetickets.com the use of an Ethical Resale site where tickets can only be resold at the price customers paid or less with commissions below everyone else’s."
The findings of this survey show that a huge 80% of the British public consider secondary ticketing to be a "rip off", and those who do purchase above-face-value tickets on secondary platforms are far less likely to spend money on other live events, at-venue purchases (food, drink & merchandise), and recorded music; creating a significant "value gap". Evidence collected by FanFair suggests that the vast majority of secondary ticket listings at high-demand music events are made by "professional" third-party traders and, therefore, the UK's ticket resale market is so huge that it's valued at £1bn per annum, of which £500m can be attributed to music events. By comparison, 2016 UK revenues from licensed streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube amounted to £274m.
Consumers struggle to distinguish primary and secondary ticketing sources, FanFair Report, page 13.
Other key research findings include:
• 52% of respondents said it was difficult to distinguish between authorised primary ticket sellers and unauthorised secondary sites
• 43% of respondents said Google was their first port of call to search for tickets. This is despite previous FanFair research showing that secondary sites systematically pay to top search rank-ings. Viagogo has drawn particular criticism for advertising itself on Google as an “official site”
• 58% of respondents said they supported the concept of face value resale
• 82% of respondents said that secondary platforms should be more transparent and show more detail about the identity of those re-selling tickets
• The vast majority of respondents support precautionary measures to prevent ticket touting, including the provision of authorised resale services (87%), limiting ticket purchases (80%), and personalised tickets with ID checks (75%)
What are See Tickets doing to combat this?
In order to make a stand against ticket touting, See Tickets launched their ethical, ticket resale site Fan to Fan, in which fans who have spare tickets can safely, securely and conveniently list their tickets for resale at no cost. These re-sold tickets will only be allowed to be sold at the original selling price, or less, with an added 5% booking fee; therefore creating an alternative, ethical environment in which consumers can confidently engage with.
If you'd like to find out more, read the rest of the report here.
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