Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

Fantastic article. Really easy to understand.

Side note: this is actually a great advertisement for server side rendering! If they didn't do all this client side rendering, exposing data in JSON APIs, then I doubt this reverse engineering would have been possible.

> I remember a time when printable tickets were ubiquitous. One could print off tickets after buying them online or even (gasp) in-person, and bring these paper tickets to get entry into the event when you arrive

I go to 1-2 concerts a month so I'm well aware of how scummy TM is, but the problem with PDF tickets is that people sell fakes or sell the same ticket multiple times. I know multiple people who've been scammed this way. I get not wanting to use your phone for everything, but the changing barcode isn't just technology for the sake of technology, it's actually there to solve a problem.

> PDF tickets work even if your phone loses internet connection

So do the digital barcodes if you add them to your phones wallet.

TM even sends you an email before every event that says:

>> If you haven't already, download the Ticketmaster app or sign into your Ticketmaster account via mobile web. From My Events, tap view then add tickets to your phone's wallet for easy access at entry.

TM's help page for the Mobile Entry tickets also says (https://help.ticketmaster.com/hc/en-us/articles/978659778561...)

>> We encourage you to download your tickets to your digital wallet before you leave for your event. This ensures that you can always access your tickets.

> If you bought the ticket off the event’s official ticketing agency (not a sketchy reseller), you know for sure that they’re real.

The problem is that that isn't how the real world works. Ignoring the massive scalping problem currently happening (that TM is complicit in) sometimes plans change or people learn about events after the initial sale. Personally, any time I have to buy or sell through a reseller, I use StubHub, but I know plenty of people who don't want to use them as they charge high fees and they aren't much better than TM from a moral stand point.

Also, I get the impression that if TM locked all tickets so that they could only be resold on TM, the author of this article would have a problem with that.

This is not only a truth of the world we currently inhabit, it has always been a truth, of all the worlds we have inhabited. Power and greed go hand in hand for a reason and the struggle to find the balance is, and will always be present.

IOW the true solution to scamming is to raise prices so high that only the extremely wealthy can afford them, regardless of how accessible the actual concert/act/group/promoter wants the show to be.

The "real" solution here would be for Ticketmaster (or whoever) to actually make a ticket non-transferrable somehow, and then allow for tickets to be transferred directly through the original website for at most the original ticket price, and refund me the money.

For example, if I have a $200 ticket and I can't make it and want to sell it, I can post up a link to the original ticket seller's website (in this case Ticketmaster) where someone else can go buy it, and, if they do, I get a refund of the amount they paid. I can say how much I'm willing to accept (full price, $150, whatever) and someone can go buy "my" ticket, potentially at a loss if I'm willing to accept it. Ticketmaster can make money on these tickets by charging a non-refundable processing fee or whatever to everyone (the original buyer and any subsequent re-buyers). They make a tidy profit, everyone gets what they want.

The only complications are

1. making the tickets non-transferrable but also work offline is a difficult technology problem 2. Ticketmaster is an unregulated monopoly and thus has no incentive to behave in the best interests of the market or its customers when they could rake in millions more by screwing everyone except the scalpers

Perfect SAAS opportunity.