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Time to Declare War on Aftermarket Ticketing?

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It's hard to wage a morality war against high-priced concert tickets, especially when fans are voluntarily paying through the nose. But concert ticketing—especially aftermarket ticketing—is oftentimes a shady affair, one that could be bad for the longer-term health of this sector. And, for festivals that rely on their brand name and reputation to attract repeat attendees and even lifelong followers, it's a problem worth solving.

Which is why a new collective of British festivals has decided tomove in a new, 'ethical' ticketing direction. The UK-based Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has just launched 'The Ticket Trust,' a site that will sell aftermarket festival tickets at face value, while prohibiting the kind of nosebleed mark-ups and scams we've grown to hate.

The Trust includes names like Bestival, Secret Garden, and Creamfields. “We are a group of promoters, artists and music industry professionals embarrassed by what we see happening to tickets to our events—the exploitation of fans pockets!" the group declared in a statement. “This is the promoters' and artists' answer to the secondary ticketing market which seeks to make big profits—taking hard earned cash away from the fans, the musicians, and the live events we all love."

For starters, that means that aftermarket tickets must be mailed to the Trust for verification before any resale takes place. That eliminates a huge percentage of scams, though the larger benefit comes from price control. That is, a focus on maintaining face value helps to block profiteering, though in reality, an aftermarket transaction can happen anywhere (online or off, depending on various factors).

Beyond AIF, the question is whether this makes sense for the broader concert industry—morality arguments aside. Megaliths like Live Nation aren't exactly rescuing babies from burning buildings, but they are managing to improve profits by jacking prices—at least on the biggest tours. In fact, during the first half of this year, the top 50 worldwide tours hiked prices by 14 percent, watched attendance dip by 5 percent, and—get this—improved revenues by 11 percent according to Pollstar stats.

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