This is for anyone that has been left frustrated while waiting to buy gig tickets.
We’re entering the festival season now, and while many of you will have secured your places at the summer’s hottest events, many more will have been left on the sidelines.
If you’ve ever been patiently waiting by your computer screen for the chance to buy tickets for a really in-demand gig, you’ll know that they usually disappear like a fart in the wind.
Well, ex-Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard has shed some light on the reason why tickets for the really popular gigs seem to vanish in record time – and it’s not solely due to the crazy demand from fans.
In an interview with The Ringer, here are four factors that he feels can take tickets away from the genuine fans.
1) Tickets never go on sale when you think they do
You think that the portal opens at 9am, but in reality, tickets are being sold before that. Pre-sales will always cater for smaller groups like corporate sponsors, radio stations, fan clubs, venue email lists, promoter email lists and other groups that get a chance at decent seats before the “general on-sale” happens.
Hubbard believes that there’s another massive problem with this feature. Touts have infiltrated these groups using fake emails, addresses and names because they want to buy tickets and sell them on for inflated prices.
2) Damn the entourage
The recent report also discovered that less than half of all tickets on sale are actually made available to the general public.
Where do they go then? Well, bands and singers usually hold a fair few tickets back for their “hangers-on”. Basically, these tickets are reserved for anyone that’s with the band. They could be a girlfriend/boyfriend, family member, promoter, dog etc.
3) Skulduggery is at large
In a surprise claim, the ex-CEO believes that promoters have deliberately sold tickets to touts themselves, before they’re even made available to the general public. Why do this? Well, this would mean that promoters are free to openly charge more money by selling tickets on second-hand websites for inflated prices.
It also makes eliminates them from looking like the bad guys.
4) Damn robots
Yes, there are ticket bots and they’re specifically designed to be your competition when it comes to purchasing tickets. Algorithms and specifically-designed programs can navigate the purchasing process in a time that’s much quicker than you.
The report also claims that the ‘Captcha’ phase is also outsourced to somebody else that’s sitting in front of their computer screen.
Best of luck getting tickets!
