The event ticketing market is dysfunctional. Scalpers and ticket touts have been reaping enormous profits by purchasing tickets with bots and reselling them to consumers willing to pay a heavily marked up price. This is a market that needs a revolution in order to see more money going into the hands of the performers and artists. Queue - blockchain technology.
The problem with scalpers is that they add no value to the product. They are self appointed middlemen who got market advantage by purchasing tickets early and quickly. Many scalpers employ the use of ticket bots and perhaps more unsavoury methods to acquire large volumes of tickets to resell.
The market is clearly out of whack as the consumers are willing to pay 100% plus premiums on the event. This communicates that the tickets are underpriced already; often performers want the tickets underpriced so they can 'give back' to their fans and create revenue from other sources such as increased album sales. Therefore we should, if the artist wishes, leave the tickets underpriced.
So, the problem of ticket touts reselling because they have a speed advantage needs removed. The blockchain can create and distribute tickets that cannot be resold or passed on as each ticket can be coded with the end consumers details. The technology can trace if the tickets have been resold or even reallocated.
Importantly, in honest cases, such as illness, tickets could be reallocated but at the same cost or with a small transaction fee, but not an enormous mark up benefiting the touts.
This technology can go further by rewarding true fans. Artists can reward their most loyal fans as it will be clear which fans have attended the most events by the database of information built up about them in the blockchain.
There are some players entering this market place. Aventus and Blocktix both offering ticketing services that claim to resolve the current ticketing market issues.
Aventus focuses on reaching audience, reducing fraud and eliminating the ticket touts. They are also focused on reducing costs for the artists and performers.
Blocktix offers this and some further value added services. They offer the ability to incentive the audience and rewarding the customer with credits.
These players will have an early market advantage, but I would be very certain the the likes of Ticketmaster will be looking into this technology at this time. I would even harbour a guess that these early movers will be bought up by a current ticketing giant!
