Most event goers think that the formula should be simple, i.e. I want a ticket, therefore, I will buy a ticket directly from the artist or team.
In reality, there are many factors that are critical in understanding why that formula almost never works.
It’s a common practice for people to complain about hiked up ticket prices, events being sold out in a matter of minutes, lack of tickets to high demand events or scalpers using bots to snatch up tickets.
Did you ever stop and think why this industry is under such constant scrutiny? Are fingers being pointed out at the right places?
Without understanding the real dynamics and tactics at play in the marketplace, you will find it’s pretty difficult to make a smart purchase, which is important when you’re spending a couple of hundred euros at a time.
We will try and shed some light on some of the main issues and dynamics that affect fans in the ticket marketplace.
Knowing this, however, ticket companies have become experts at manipulating prices and purchase times. People aren’t always aware that the first option in their Google search isn’t necessarily the best or safest option, unfortunately.
Ticket companies also use different tactics to scare their customers into thinking that if they don’t buy tickets from that specific company, they will miss out on the opportunity on getting the lowest price. Instead of focusing more on customer service and value, these companies bank on the fact that most customers don’t have enough information to buy their tickets elsewhere.
Supply and Demand
A simple concept but ever so true, the ticketing market at its core is driven heavily by supply and demand, when artists or teams release tickets to the public to purchase on sale, from the get-go there is a limited amount that is actually available to buy.
If we look at the concert industry, it is estimated that for an in-demand concert such as a Justin Bieber show with a venue size of 20,000 seats, only 10% will be available for sale to the public on general sale. 20% will go to Fanclubs (usually at a cost to register), 40% will go to dedicated credit card pre-sales such as Amex, 20% to miscellaneous (guest lists, promotions etc.) and 10% will be either dedicated to VIP lists or scalped by the artist, promoter.
Furthermore, tickets that actually go to the general sale and presale will be heavily competed on by ticket brokers who know the ins and outs of where and when to look for tickets, they will have multiple credit cards, and registered emails.
Primary Market
The primary market is made up of the official direct sellers of tickets for concerts and events. For a sale to be considered primary, someone must be buying their tickets from a box office, a venue or team’s website, or a primary authorized seller. It is the first and most straightforward phase where a consumer is able to purchase tickets.
Some examples of primary authorized sellers are teams such as Arsenal or companies like Ticketmaster, or buying from a teams box office website such as Arsenal.
They make deals with the promoters or managers of an artist or team so that they can be the official sellers for that event.
While this is a good method because it guarantees a real ticket, many people opt to purchase their tickets in the resell, or secondary, market instead.
Resale Market
The resale market is also known as the secondary market. All of these terms describe any selling of tickets that aren’t coming from a primary market source.
There are websites created specifically for reselling tickets, like StubHub, Viagogo, and Twickets, but also websites like Craigslist and even Facebook where people post info about their tickets for a direct sale.
The old-fashioned resale method, which is still commonly used, is selling tickets directly from one person to another or outside of the venue of the event. Either from ticket traders that are out there to make a profit or by genuine fans that are unable to attend and are interested in recouping the cost of their tickets.
There are pros and cons to the resale market. It’s great if you are looking for tickets to an otherwise sold-out show or game, especially if it’s a last minute decision.
People can also find tickets that are way under face value from someone looking to get rid of the tickets that they have.
The flip side of this, though, is that tickets can also be extremely overpriced for high demand events and unfortunately it’s still possible to get a fake ticket here and there.
Market Cap
There have been many discussions about putting a cap, or a limit, on the prices of tickets and forbidding any type of reselling. Particularly in circumstances when secondary market sellers are buying huge amounts of tickets, marking up prices, and reselling them.
While this seems like a good idea, in theory, people will inevitably take to the black market in order to get a set of tickets off their hands that they no longer need and scammers will still find a way to keep scamming.
While people are right in thinking that something needs to change within the ticket industry in order to make prices more reasonable and fair, it’s a tricky problem without any clear solutions yet.
Drip Pricing
Another important aspect of Europe’s ticketing industry that all consumers should be aware of is drip pricing. This is something that we’ve all become victims of, whether we realize it or not.
Drip pricing is when an online seller adds in a number of additional fees during the checkout process. Their trick is to post tickets at low prices while tacking on tons of added fees at the end. For example, Ticketmaster charges for service fees, charge and order processing fees, resale surface fees, delivering prices, facility charges, and even fees to print your ticket.
Because of this, it’s important to realize when comparing ticket prices that the price you’re seeing is not necessarily the price you’re actually getting.
Closed Ecosystem
Due to the high amount of control that teams, artists, and big-ticket companies have in the market, they are able to monopolize ticket inventory. That means that they can manipulate the prices and availability of tickets, which is great for big companies, but not so great for customers.
If this closed ecosystem were able to open up, tickets could be distributed to fans more fairly and give people a higher chance of getting to attend events. With a more open market, tickets could be at competitive, lower prices and the entire process could become much more transparent.
With your new knowledge of how Europe’s ticketing industry works, you can now begin to search for tickets to your next big event. By using SeatPick to help compare prices from different sites and companies, you’re sure to find the best deals out there!
