A source of much consternation but often viewed as a necessary evil, the secondary ticket seller sites like GETMEIN! and Seatwave often used by desperate fans to buy overpriced tickets will soon be shutting down in Europe thanks to a move by Parent company Ticketmaster, with rumors being stoked that something similar could happen in the US. _______________________
Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0
Everyone hates paying the inflated prices that secondary ticket sellers charge, but many customers feel they’re a necessary evil. If you want a seat, especially a good one, they’re probably the only game in town. But that may not be as true in Europe soon as Ticketmaster  announced  it will shut down its GET ME In! and Seatwave sties in October. According to the Ticketmaster blog: “We’ve listened and we hear you: secondary sites just don’t cut it anymore and you’re tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit. All we want is you, the fan, to be able to buy tickets to the events you love. We’re excited about making ticketing simpler.”
While that sounds like a grand gesture to its customers, Ticketmaster and other secondary retailers are under much greater pressure and scrutiny in Europe these days. The introduction of stricter rules for secondary sites in the UK designed to better protect fans from falling victim to fraud and paying highly marked-up prices had much to do with the closures. Resellers are now required to disclose the original price of the ticket, as well as quote the ‘unique ticket number’ (UTN) to a buyer so the consumer can identify the ticket’s seat, standing area or location. The Advertising Standards Authority also banned several pricing practices by secondary ticketing providers, including not telling buyers the total prices of the ticket up front as well as how the tickets will be delivered and the fee for doing so. No one likes to overpay or be gouged, and that’s what many feel is happening with secondary ticketing (they’re not wrong). While some positive steps have been taken in the UK and Europe to harness the practice, you wonder whether something similar will ever happen in the U.S. I guess we can dream, but don’t hold your breath.

Ticketmaster To Shutter EU Secondary Ticketing Sites - Could US Be Next?

GetMeIn and Seatwave are gone, but Viagogo and StubHub will snap up touts
Last modified on Fri 17 Aug 2018 10.28 EDT
Taylor Swift performs in Atlanta, Georgia. She and other artists have experimented with dynamic ticket pricing.Photograph: John Shearer/TAS18/Getty Images
Ticketmaster’s decision to shut down its ticket resale sites – GetMeIn and Seatwave – has been greeted with widespread approval. The two websites will be replaced with a system allowing fans to sell unwanted tickets at face value, albeit with Ticketmaster collecting a 15% commission. This, the company says, will help reduce the number of touts charging huge mark-ups for tickets they have harvested in bulk , including from Ticketmaster’s own systems. But there is reason to be sceptical – both about Ticketmaster’s apparent altruism and the impact that closing secondary ticketing sites will have on the cost of live music. For a start, GetMeIn and Seatwave will be no great loss to Ticketmaster. According to the latest accounts filed with Companies House, GetMeIn made a post-tax profit of just £1.4m in 2016, while Seatwave lost £3m. The chief cause of such lacklustre financial performance the is parallel success of controversial rivals StubHub and Viagogo , which will snap up any touts who were still using Ticketmaster’s secondary outlets. There is also a question hanging over the scale of Ticketmaster’s commitment to reasonable prices. Its premium Platinum service uses “dynamic pricing”, adjusting prices according to demand, much like airline seats or Uber rides, but in a far less competitive market. A leading market share in ticketing – coupled with parent company Live Nation’s global sway as a promoter and venue operator – gives Ticketmaster significant pricing power. In the case of Platinum, the company reserves some of the best seats in the house and, when the event “sells out”, drip-feeds them into the market at inflated prices. Paul McCartney’s upcoming UK tour appeared to have sold out within minutes. Seats at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, which had been on sale at £65, were later released via Platinum for more than £500. Ticketmaster says Platinum “takes touts out of the equation” because it makes top-quality seats available for a premium, but still for less than touts were charging. But research by the Guardian found that in many cases, secondary sites are offering nearly identical tickets to those available via Platinum, but for less money. The company refuses to say whether Platinum customers get exclusive access to the best seats, or could end up sitting next to somebody who paid normal price. Labour MP Sharon Hodgson said Ticketmaster had “serious questions to answer about their business model”. “To find Ticketmaster blatantly overpricing tickets that they deliberately hold back in order to do so shows just how broken this whole market is.”
To be fair to Ticketmaster, the use of Platinum requires consent from the artist, who pockets the difference and must weigh up the risk of alienating their fans. Stuart Galbraith, founder of Ed Sheeran’s promoter Kilimanjaro Live, said: “I’m not a fan of Platinum because I don’t think there’s any added value for the customer but it’s down to the individual artist’s choice.”
He said fans of artists who have experimented with dynamic pricing have seen the price of some tickets increase substantially. “For Taylor Swift and Jay-Z or Beyonce, you got prices that were £350 or £380. “For some artists, and Ed is an example, it was one price throughout at £75 or £80.”
The choice may be in the hands of artists but Ticketmaster executives have been quick to blame artists who try to keep prices low for encouraging touting. Yet the company is a leading voice in an industry that has been too slow to develop technological solutions such as the digital ticketing systems offered by firms such as Dice, which offer ways to combat touting without capitulating to upward price pressure. Even if Ticketmaster’s withdrawal from secondary ticketing has no immediate positive effect on fans, it may at least sharpen the minds of lawmakers, regulators and businesses that still work with Viagogo and StubHub. Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
Adam Webb, spokesman for music industry campaign group FanFair Alliance, said: “While it’s true that large-scale touts will continue to use StubHub and Viagogo, those two sites are currently under significant pressures. “Also, by January 2019 they must become fully compliant with UK consumer law, and disclose details of any individuals listing more than 100 tickets per year. “Viagogo is under even heavier fire. It’s a toxic brand, and facing enforcement actions worldwide, including from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and National Trading Standards. Those actions cannot come soon enough. “There will also be increasing demands on Google to stop taking their advertising . If that happened, it would arguably be the most significant change of all. “Without their misleading dominance of paid search, Viagogo would likely be dead in the water.”
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Well done Ticketmaster for closing resale sites, but it ain't over yet

Ticketmaster closes Get Me In and Seatwave in a bid to combat touts
The site is launching a fan-to-fan ticket exchange where you can buy or sell at the price originally paid or less
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Ticketmaster has announced it is shutting down its secondary sites Get me In and Seatwave. The sites, which allow you to offload unwanted tickets, will be closed in a bid to combat touts. The announcement states: "That’s right, we’ve listened and we hear you: secondary sites just don’t cut it anymore and you’re tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit. "All we want is you, the fan, to be able to safely buy tickets to the events you love. "So, we’re launching a fan-to-fan ticket exchange on Ticketmaster , where you can easily buy tickets or sell tickets you can’t use through our website or app, at the price originally paid or less. "The new Ticketmaster website will be rolled out in October in the UK and Ireland, and across Europe early next year. But from today, there will be no new events listed on GET ME IN! or Seatwave. "We’re excited about making ticketing simpler. All you need to think about are those incredible experiences you’ll never forget." Read More
Andrew Parsons, managing director of Ticketmaster UK, said: "Our number one priority is to get tickets into the hands of fans so that they can go to the events they love. "We know that fans are tired of seeing tickets being snapped up just to find them being resold for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action. "Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan. We're excited to launch our redesigned website which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place. "Our new Ticketmaster ticket exchange lets fans sell tickets they can't use directly through their Ticketmaster account, for the price originally paid or less." Read More
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Ticketmaster closes Get Me In and Seatwave in a bid to combat touts

Controversial secondary ticketing sites will be replaced by fan-to-fan exchanges
Last modified on Mon 13 Aug 2018 04.08 EDT
Ed Sheeran is among the artists who have protested against tickets being resold on sites such as Seatwave for inflated prices.Photograph: Richard Isaac/Rex/Shutterstock
Ticketmaster is to shut down its two resale sites, GetMeIn and Seatwave, amid persistent criticism of so-called “secondary ticketing” platforms used by touts . The ticketing company, owned by global promoter and venue operator LiveNation, said it would replace the two websites with a fan-to-fan exchange selling tickets only at face value or below. The move leaves Viagogo and StubHub, both of which were raided by the Competition and Markets Authority last year in a probe into breaches of consumer law, as the last two major resale platforms. Bravo Ed Sheeran for taking on the rip-off 'secondary ticketing' touts | Adam Webb
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Secondary sites have been criticised for making it easy for professional touts to charge huge mark-ups for in-demand artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran , after harvesting tickets for face value prices at the expense of fans. After the sites close down in October, fans will be able to resell tickets on Ticketmaster for no more than the original price plus booking fee. No new events will be listed on the sites from 13 August. Fans buying tickets through Ticketmaster will be given clear information about whether they are purchasing resold tickets. The Ticketmaster UK managing director, Andrew Parsons, said: We know that fans are tired of seeing tickets being snapped up just to find them being resold for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action. “Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan. We’re excited to launch our redesigned website which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place. How can Viagogo get away with charging such big fees? Read more
“Our new Ticketmaster ticket exchange lets fans sell tickets they can’t use directly through their Ticketmaster account, for the price originally paid or less.”
While many of the people using these sites are genuine fans who cannot attend an event and want to recoup their money, in recent years the practice has become increasingly dominated by a relatively small group of “armchair” touts . These traders use a variety of methods , some exposed in previous Guardian reporting , to harvest hundreds of tickets before genuine fans can get hold of them. Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, welcomed Ticketmaster’s decision to close down GetMeIn and Seatwave. Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
“Ticketmasters move to close down their secondary platforms and concentrate resale efforts on their primary site is a welcome move,” he said. “By ensuring that real fans can legitimately and securely resell a ticket, they have put the interests of artists and fans above the touts. “ I hope that other primary ticket providers will follow suit and tell the touts that their time is up.”
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Ticketmaster to shut Seatwave and GetMeIn resale sites

Dua Lipa performing with a group of dancers during the Champions League Final. Image: katatonia82/Shutterstock
Ticketmaster is shutting down its two resale sites, which it says is part of efforts to minimise touting. Ticket touts have long been a scourge of live music fans, with the problem getting worse and worse with each passing year. Fans have criticised secondary sites where touts can charge extortionate prices for some time now. Today (13 August) Ticketmaster said is closing down its two resale sites, Seatwave and GetMeIn. Head of Ticketmaster UK, Andrew Parsons said: “We know that fans are tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action”. Both Seatwave and GetMeIn will cease operations in October. Criticism of resale sites
This now leaves StubHub and Viagogo as the last two remaining resale platforms standing. Fans and music promotors say secondary sites are allowing touts to charge huge mark-ups on tickets, many of which are already expensive to purchase in the first place. Seatwave in particular came under fire when tickets for U2 concerts in Dublin appeared on the platform. The tickets were listed for thousands of euro after selling out on Ticketmaster within minutes. Ticketmaster launches ticket exchange tool
Once the sites close down in the autumn, fans will be able to resell tickets on Ticketmaster for the original price and booking fee, but no more. From today, no new events will appear on Seatwave and GetMeIn. Parsons added: “Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan. We’re excited to launch our redesigned website which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place.”
Incoming legislation may have played a part
In July of this year, the Irish cabinet agreed that the resale of tickets for large concerts and sporting events for more than face value will be banned under new legislation. The new rules will apply to events taking place at “designated venues” which hold 1,000 people or more. The Government made the decision due to the negative impact these resale sites were having on the ability of fans to obtain tickets to popular events. Taking aim at so-called ‘armchair touts’, the rules will also ban the use of bots to buy more tickets than permitted by concert organisers. The legislation brought forward by TDs Noel Rock and Stephen Donnelly being reviewed. The hope is it will be replicated in other European countries.

Trouble for touts: Ticketmaster pulls the plug on ticket resale websites

Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) provides cloud-based customer service software. Zendesk takes customer communication from anywhere - websites, emails, phone, Twitter, Facebook, and chat - and turns it into a ticket. Support teams see everything in one place; customers use the channel they prefer. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Zendesk

LONDON , UK -- November 21 , 2012 -- Ticket marketplace Seatwave has revealed a new customer service portal following a collaboration with cloud-based customer service software provider , Zendesk , Inc. .

Seatwave Unveils Revamped Customer Service Portal with Zendesk.

Peekspy is a technology company that produces 3D technology that allows users to drill down to the seat level when choosing their seat for an event.In March 2012, Peekspy was acquired by StubHub. The valuation of Peekspy was undisclosed. Other terms of the deal were not released.

Peekspy

MTV Networks Company, operating as a subsidiary of Viacom International, is a provider of music-oriented programming services that focuses on youth-oriented programming. The company also provides online entertainment and pop culture content, including music, music videos and performances, news and interviews, movies, video games, and ringtones. In addition, MTV Networks offers social-media portals, music-oriented networks, and original and acquired programming; and entertainment and educational programs, Websites, and broadband services for the kids.

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Trilantic Capital Partners

Seatwave

Versa

Wolters Kluwer

Metrological Group

Julius Baer Group

ComQi

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WonderBill

Take Eat Easy

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Yahoo!

Monster Worldwide

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Seatwave, formerly Stockholm Interactive, is an online marketplace where fans can buy and sell tickets for concerts, theatre, sports and just about any other live event.

Dead

Name	Joseph Cohen
Firm	Trilantic Capital Partners
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Other Seats	Seatwave

Name	Work History	Title	Status
David van Hoytema	Versa, Wolters Kluwer, Metrological Group, TNT, and Julius Baer Group	Founder	Former
Ajay Chowdhury	ComQi, and IDG Ventures Europe	Chief Executive Officer	Former
Louise Mullock		Chief Executive Officer	Former
Claire Martin	WonderBill, Take Eat Easy, King Digital Entertainment, Yahoo!, and Monster Worldwide	Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer	Former
Aksel van der Wal		Chief Financial Officer	Former

Name	David van Hoytema	Ajay Chowdhury	Louise Mullock	Claire Martin	Aksel van der Wal
Work History	Versa, Wolters Kluwer, Metrological Group, TNT, and Julius Baer Group	ComQi, and IDG Ventures Europe		WonderBill, Take Eat Easy, King Digital Entertainment, Yahoo!, and Monster Worldwide
Title	Founder	Chief Executive Officer	Chief Executive Officer	Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer	Chief Financial Officer
Status	Former	Former	Former	Former	Former

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