Earlier quoted context omitted.
willingness to stand in line for a ticket probably correlates well with fandom
How does willingness to pay more money not correlate with fandom?
Willingness to pay is not the same as ability to pay.
Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
331–340 of 378 posts
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
> no value add to the market. Markets are more efficient than you give them credit for. If there was no value-add it wouldn't happen. The value-add is that the scalpers take the risk and hassle off of the artist/venue. They can instantly sell out and then get back to worrying about the actual performance. Selling the tickets at their fair market value initially sounds good in theory, but then you have to spend weeks…
Yeah, it's just arbitrage. They're just profiting from the difference between the cost of the item and what people are willing to pay for an item. Simple market economics, right? As should be obvious: Since it can be explained by capitalism and we even have a nice neat concise word with which to describe it, then there's nothing to hate there. /s > It's much the same as why wholesalers sell to Walmart for pennies on…
> They instead buy truckloads of tickets at retail prices
Clearly that's not true. Retail charges what the consumer is willing to pay. If the tickets were sold retail there would be no consistent arbitrage opportunity.
There may have been some point in history where artists tried to sell retail, which may be the source of your confusion, but nowadays these tickets are purposely sold below retail value so that they can sell out fast to the retailers, removing the risk at the origin.
Smaller/lesser known acts still have to focus on the retail market as there is no middleman willing to step in and take on the retail role, which may also be the source of your confusion, but that isn't the segment of the market we're talking about.
> Scalpers provide zero value to the transaction.
Aside from the value of knowing that all the tickets are sold, which is of enormous value. It is estimated that it costs around five million dollars to put on a single Taylor Swift performance. At that scale, things get scary fast if you find out that tickets still aren't sold at the last minute.
Markets are pretty efficient. It wouldn't happen if there was no value in it. Why would an artist give up the profits captured by the retailers if there was no value in having a retailer? They wouldn't, of course. Even if they have no personal need for even more money, that is money that can be used to better serve the fans. It is not given up lightly. It is given up because it is worth it.
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#333Honestly, this could turn out to be a really great thing. When artists become popular, they often complain that the people they are making their music for, their biggest fans, tend to be the people least able to afford the concert tickets. The artists are often totally willing to set aside a chunk of tickets at a much cheaper price, but they need to be able to guarantee that these tickets aren't just purchased by sca…
Way back when I used Spotify, I felt they should go this way instead of dabbling with (fake) podcasts, pivot-to-video, audiobooks, and slop music. All of that stuff is a distraction from my core subscription model: listening to music from artists that I love, and finding new artists to love! Much better to lean into something complementary to that core model.
To keep the spammers out, limit the model to paid accounts. And just let Spotify provide the incredibly useful service of carving out a chunk of tickets for the biggest (Spotify) fans of every artist. It's hard to hate on it as someone who doesn't use Spotify -- after all, they're reserving tickets for proven fans. I hope Bandcamp and other streaming services do something similar so non-Spotify listeners can benefit and we can really squeeze the scalpers out.
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know how naive the actual wording is, but fighting these kind of resells is an arms race. If for instance they allow reselling the ticket at the same price, processing fees could be exempted from that calculation. So charging the nominal price, but with enormous fees that go to the seller's pocket in a roundabout way will work. If processing fees are caped, the seller can request payment through a middle item…
Except you are losing yourself in technicalities, technicalities which court will not care about. Most judicial systems (including UK) are based on both letter AND spirit of the law : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_and_spirit_of_the_law Most courts will not convict your only for your actions but for the intention that fulfilled your actions. That's also why in most countries, murder and attempted murder will ha…
Enforcement of small-scale commerce is hard, black markets exist, people will go advertise on shady sites if they have to.
Imagine you've instituted this ban, and some concert has face-value $100 tickets that now have $400 market value. The reality isn't going to be "there's now lots of $100 tickets available on StubHub", it's going to be "StubHub has no tickets, and some shady black-market website has tickets available for $400 with no consumer protections".
That said, I'm not totally against this world, since all of these inconveniences will add friction and make it less attractive and profitable to buy and scalp lots of tickets. But since I often find out about concerts kind of late, I'm also happy that there's tickets available for me at any price. I'd probably end up going to fewer concerts if we killed the legal resale market.
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never understood the issue with scalping and reselling tickets for a higher price. At all. And I've read a bunch of opinions here and on other forums and articles. None make any sense to me. It's a good that's being resold for profit. Not an essential one like rare medicine during a pandemic. I think some artists want to appeal to the poorer people so pricing their tickets higher or letting the free market work out…
You're letting middlemen profit from providing zero value to society. Artists don't benefit. Fans don't benefit. Scalpers benefit. It should be obvious we want a system that is optimally beneficial to artists and fans rather than middlemen.
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Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not a direct answer to your question but go to see local bands. The ticket prices are way better and so is the crowd and the show.
My 12 year daughter REALLY doesn't care about the local band scene. Avoiding mass media culture is alright for weirdos and nerds like us that can get in line physically for NIN tickets because of feelings and nostalgia, but that is not viable for 90%+ of people.
As a parent, you have an opportunity to help her experience music on a different level. I know that is not a trivial thing to do, I have teenagers in my life too.
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really want (would you even be able) to be engaged in a distinct fan club / community for every artist you listen to? I'm pretty average in how much music I listen to, and that'd probably be several dozens just for the "big" bands
So you aren't a "biggest fan" of _everything_ you listen to, that seems pretty much in line with the expected meaning.
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Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#338So all that needs to happen now is that The Doors will do another tour and I am in!
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#339It seems like a step in the right direction to combat scalpers. I've wondered though... Why not have a non-transferrable ticket system? If you can't go then you return your tickets to the pool and if they sell you get your money back.
Non-transferable tickets suck for their own reasons. Someone in a group gets sick or otherwise can't make it? Their seat is now either empty, or their ticket goes back to the pool. They can't give that ticket to someone else. That's a big deal for a whole slew of reasons. Let's pick just one reason and run with it. Five 11-year-old-ish girls want to go see Olivia Rodrigo. These kids haven't ever even been inside an a…
This is a pretty niche problem compared to the every-ticket-of-every-big-show scalper problem. This affects Also, solvable. Everyone needs an ID that matches ticket or to be accompanied by someone with an ID that matches a ticket purchased in the same transaction (cap number of non-ID tickets per ID ticket, don't let people appearing over 30 in on a non-ID ticket). Then, when buying tickets, allow specifying a named alternate for each ID ticket in case the person can't make it.
Re: Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds like what fan clubs and artists run communities are built for. Does Spotify putting itself as a middle-man help much, considering the artist has become a big enough operation to have to care about the issue in the first place ?
In an ideal world, the artist's own mailing list or fan community would be the canonical place for this, because it's closer to a direct relationship
Subscribing to a mailing list is not a relationship at all.