Tickets to the Future

The atypically friendly nature of this year’s panel should have been the first clue that something big was about to happen in the world of ticketing, with news of the Live Nation / Ticketmaster merger leaking just days later.

While previous ticketing discussions generally took a turn toward catfights, panelists joked that they might as well sing “Kumbaya” during this year’s meet-up, as the line between friend and foe just didn’t seem as clearly defined as before.

Viagogo’s Eric Baker acknowledged just how much the ticketing industry has changed over the past year, citing the continued acceptance of the secon-dary market.

“Obviously, I think secondary tick-eting has become pretty mainstream,” Baker said. “Every league and every team has its own. ... StubHub’s done a lot, eBay has as well. As a result, Ticketmaster has entered the secondary ticket market and bought TicketsNow.”

Live Nation’s Greg Bettinelli noted another shift, as companies have begun to see customer data as just as valu-able, if not more so, than the value of the tickets themselves.

“Early secondary ticketing was all fan-focused. Nobody knew anything about the industry, it was just the fact that there was supply and demand out there and no one was creating an opportunity for them,” he said. “I think now we’re working to create transparent buying and selling opportunities. Now we’re spending as much time talking about the data as we are about the money.”

Derek Palmer of Tickets.com agreed.

“The real shift over the past couple years has been from the dollar to the data,” he said.

Moderator Wayne Forte of Entour-age Talent Associates moved the conversation back to ticket resales, bringing up the age-old question of whether the “secondary market takes away some of the opportunities for real fans who can’t afford to get into the event when the price of the ticket is driven up five or six times.”

However, StubHub’s Chris Tsakalakis questioned the logic behind that statement.

“There’s a sense that how fervent someone is as a fan should somehow conquer the laws of economics,” he said. “That just doesn’t happen. The reason that a broker might go and buy as many tickets as they can is because they see an opportunity to buy low and sell high (or at least higher than what they bought it for). If the price of a ticket is set at below market value, you can be sure that the person who is buying that ticket may not actually be the person who goes to that venue.”

Dave Butler of Ticketmaster Entertain-ment acknowledged that while secondary ticketing is here to stay, that doesn’t necessarily mean primary ticketing needs to be edged out of the market.

“I do think there is still an oppor-tunity here not to see all the benefit be just in the hands of the secondary market and for the talent, the promoter and the venue to participate in it,” he said, citing artists that have gotten creative with platinum seating, paper-less ticketing and all-in pricing.

Palmer went even further with the idea of all-in ticketing, stressing that he believes the “years of everyone making money off service charges are over.”

Panelists speculated that, given the numer-ous changes the secondary market has seen over the past year, the primary market could be the next segment to see a change.

“I think with the power shifting to the rights holders, you’re going to see ubiquitous distribution,” Baker said. “Tickets are going to be everywhere.

You as the rights owner want to have as wide a distribution net as possible. … The days of the sole source channel controlling that distribution is gone.”

Tsakalakis envisioned thousands of outlets where the same tickets are available, similar to sites such as Orbitz.com.

Palmer summed it all up, noting that with increased competition and specialization, ticketing companies will have to be more nimble and more responsive to market pressures to survive the next 10 years.

“If live entertainment is the greatest thing in the world, we have to provide that same type of experience to the people who do business with us,” he said.

- Reported by Dana Parker-McClain, Pollstar
- Photos by Jason Squires and John Shearer