“Seatwave to become official reseller for all current and future Grand Union Management artistes”
LONDON, ENG (Seatwave) July 18, 2008 – Seatwave, Europe’s largest fan to fan ticket exchange, today announced a landmark partnership with the leading music management company whose roster includes The Enemy, Seasick Steve, Reverend and The Makers, Mongrel and Boy Kill Boy to become its official ticket reseller. In the first deal of its kind fans of the bands will be able to pick-up tickets they bought from other fans via Seatwave.com directly from the box office at the gig.
The agreement with Grand Union Management places Seatwave as the official fan to fan ticket exchange for all current and future artists represented by the management company. By working together, Seatwave and Grand Union Management are giving fans the best possible experience and greater security by guaranteeing ticket pick-up on the night. Fans will still benefit from the highest level of consumer protection offered by Seatwave including their TicketIntegrity and TicketCover guarantees.
Seatwave will benefit from the official endorsement of Grand Union Management but above all its the fans who will reap the rewards of the increased level of service resulting from Seatwave, Grand Union, promoters and venue all working in unison.
Joe Cohen, Founder and CEO of Seatwave welcomed the deal: “We are delighted to be working with Grand Union Management to bring transparency to the industry and ultimately a better service for fans. This partnership marks the first step in our approach to helping to resolve the challenges that face our industry.”
David Bianchi, MD of The Grand Union Group, said: “The secondary ticketing market is as old as the ticket market itself and up until now has had no accountability. The ability for our clients to earn fairly from the secondary market represents not only another income stream, but hopefully the beginning of the end of our artists’ fans being ripped off outside shows.
Earlier this year the Government indicated that it will not intervene in the secondary market for live music enabling the industry to find its own solution. This deal is evidence that the primary and secondary markets are working together to develop a forward thinking framework for the way the industry can work to provide a better service for fans.
Furthermore, this deal quashes the proposal from the Resale Rights Society (Dec 2007) that would have seen the creation of a scheme that would collect a fee from each ticket resold in the UK and returned to the artist. Seatwave’s partnership with Grand Union Management shows the industry is flexible enough to come up with fair and effective solutions.
About Seatwave
Seatwave is Europe’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events. The company was launched in February 2007 by Joe Cohen, ex Ticketmaster and ex match.com and early stage Venture Capital firm, Atlas Venture. Seatwave has more than 250,000 tickets on sale at any one time, 10 times more than eBay.
Seatwave guarantees that tickets come only from legitimate sources and will represent them accurately and honestly. Seatwave operates two types of customer protection. TicketintegrityTM guarantees that buyers will receive the tickets they ordered and in good time for the event. If not Seatwave refunds 150% of what was paid. All tickets bought on Seatwave are also covered by TicketcoverTM. This provides for a full refund if an event is cancelled and even covers buyers for a range of circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance. The company is based in London. www.seatwave.com
