Madonna tickets and the secondary market

By Petrina Crockford

In an industry first for a major artist, Madonna has publicly embraced a secondary ticket broker, UK-based viagogo, as one of the channels for fans to obtain tickets.

The Sticky & Sweet Tour is the singer's first under her $120 million deal with Live Nation, and viagogo will be the authorized secondary ticket reseller throughout Europe, with the exception of Germany and Italy. Live Nation and viagogo already work together in the Netherlands. Madonna has also signed a deal with StubHub as the official fan-to-fan ticket exchange in the U.S.

Under the Viagogo deal, Madonna will sanction the sale of some primary VIP and premium tickets on the website, along with the reselling of secondary tickets. Madonna will officially endorse both Viagogo and StubHub in promotional tour materials and advertising. Viagogo lists itself as an “official partner” of the tour on its webpage.

Though terms of the deal were not made public, the Wall Street Journal reports that Viagogo is paying a flat fee to Live Nation and Madonna and StubHub will pay a fee plus a percentage of revenue on ticket sales.

“Rather than dealing with someone to go see Madonna in Wembley who might be wearing a hoodie on a street corner, you can now come online viagogo and actually know you’ll get the ticket that you bought,” said Eric Baker, CEO of viagogo, in the Reuters video below.

Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet” tour is promoting her new album, “Hard Candy,” which was #1 in 37 countries. The tour kicks off in August in Wales and ends November 26 in Miami.