In the latest edition of TicketNews TV, correspondent Kim Crandall reports on the latest issues to affect the ticketing industry, including Ticketmaster’s decision to allow customers to resell their paperless tickets. See the video below.
Ticketmaster has long touted paperless ticketing as convenient and secure, while critics have pointed towards the lack of transferability of paperless tickets. Now Ticketmaster customers can resell their paperless tickets through Ticketmaster’s officially sanctioned fan-to-fan marketplace, TicketExchange. But, due to selling caps on how much a fan can charge, the move can result in a loss.
In other news, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation will replace tickets with digital wristbands for some upcoming UK music festivals. The wristbands will carry a digital smart chip personalized to each customer. The ticketing experiment is intended to combat ticket counterfeiting and crack down on the secondary market. According to Pollstar, the chips will be embedded with RFID technology, which would allow Live Nation to acquire an unprecedented level of fan data. As a result, the UK-based Association of Secondary Ticketing Agents (ASTA) is opposing the paperless experiment, citing potential breach of fan privacy.
On the concert front, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have top selling concerts. Justin Bieber’s 2010 North American tour will include stops in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Lady Gaga’s increasing popularity forced her to add more stops to her tour. Among the cities added: Vancouver, Boston, Philadelphia, and Denver. The all-female music festival, Lilith Fair, will return this summer after ten years. The line-up includes Kelly Clarkson, Mary J. Blige, and Norah Jones.
Crandall also reports that Broadway ticket sales were up 1 percent in the first quarter of 2010, over the same quarter last year. Five shows led the way in terms of tickets sales: Wicked, Lion King, Addams Family, Billy Elliot, and Jersey Boys.
Finally, TicketNews parent company TicketNetwork will host its summer Ticket Summit conference and trade show July 14-16, at the Venetian Hotel Resort Casino Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.ticketsummit.org.
Launched in 2009, TicketNews TV is a fast-paced, monthly Web-based newscast that covers various aspects of the the ticketing industry, focusing particularly on the secondary ticket market. More episodes of TicketNews TV, as well as videos about parent company TicketNetwork, can be found by clicking here.
