Just like with Taylor Swift’s performances, tickets for the concert of pop phenomenon Olivia Rodrigo will be sold through a registration and lottery system. Why does it have to be so complicated?
Dieter De Cleene September 14, 2023, 6:57 p.m
Olivia Rodrigo will come to the Antwerp Sportpaleis on May 22, 2024, and anyone who would like to be there will have to make a little effort. To get a ticket, fans must register in advance and create an account with Ticketmaster, the company that sells the tickets. This is possible until September 17 at 11 p.m. The lucky ones will be randomly selected from those registered to gain access to the sale on a first-come, first-served basis.
They receive a unique access code the day before the sale, and then it is a matter of logging in on time and biting their nails. “This system was chosen at the express request of the artist,” says Lotte Dermul of Live Nation, of which Ticketmaster is a part. “We only have an advisory role in this.”
Why so much fuss? According to Ticketmaster, the system ensures that more tickets reach real fans and that all fans have an equal chance of receiving a ticket. According to event expert and I Love Techno founder Peter Decuypere, there is something to be said for this. “If you just sell those tickets, there are always people with bad intentions who use bots to steal tickets and then sell them at exorbitant prices,” says Decuypere. “Even if you try to log in with five devices at the same time, as a fan you can never compete with such a bot. Pre-registration and linking to an account helps keep bots out.”
Of course, anyone hoping to make a profit from a popular performance can also try to get tickets without a bot and then sell them for many times over. Tickets for Taylor Swift were offered for thousands of euros. But according to Ticketmaster, pre-registration still deters some of those rogue people: the share of resold tickets would fluctuate around 5 to 10 percent, compared to 20 to 30 percent with regular pre-sales.
According to Decuypere, the system also fits perfectly in a time when performances are increasingly becoming impressive spectacles that you must have attended, and the attendees post videos and photos on social media afterwards. “Such a complicated process creates extra buzz in advance and makes an event even more special.”
Sense of injustice
Taylor Swift fans laughingly described the hunt for a ticket as ‘The Great War’, referring to her song of the same name. Technical problems during sales and nagging uncertainty drove many Swifties to despair. A lottery that determines who can compete for a ticket: it may seem fair, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that way to fans. “The fact that you have no control over your chance to participate, nor insight into exactly how the draw is made, leaves many fans with a feeling of injustice,” says cultural management professor Annick Schramme (UAntwerp).
As with Taylor Swift’s concerts, some of the tickets will also be sold via dynamic pricing, where the price depends on the number of applicants. This practice is already common for hotel rooms and airplane tickets, for example, but according to Decuypere that comparison is not valid. “If a flight becomes too expensive, you can choose to book tickets at another time. Of course, that is not possible for a concert.”
The reasoning: thanks to dynamic pricing, the money that would otherwise end up in the pockets of usurers on the black market now ends up with the artists themselves. In a press release, Rodrigo also announced that part of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to her Fund 4 Good, a global initiative that promotes women’s rights.
Earlier this year, dynamic pricing was experimented for the first time in our country at Beyoncé’s concert. Some tickets were sold for more than three times the normal price. These price differences and uncertainty about exactly how much a ticket will cost also cause bad blood among music fans. “You can say that this is a way to sabotage the black market, but it is of course also a way to exploit to the utmost what fans are willing to pay,” says Schramme. “You can still ask questions about that.”
Live Nation benefits from pre-registration in another way. “Live Nation is a vertically integrated company,” says Katia Segers, media professor at VUB. “The company controls the entire chain: management of artists, venues, marketing and ticket sales. By letting people register and encouraging them to install a geolocation app, the company collects a wealth of information. What do people like, how far are they willing to travel, how much time do they spend on our platforms… In short: who are our customers and how can we get them to spend as much as possible on their idols?”
Will such a complicated procedure become the new normal? “Concert organizers are searching,” says Decuypere. “The reality is that for big names the demand for tickets far exceeds the supply. Of course they want to make a lot of money, but they also want fans to be satisfied and keep buying tickets.”
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2023-09-14 16:57:36
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