Looking for remedies to speculation on concert tickets that vanish and reappear on secondary ticketing sites at tenfold prices.
In the midst of controversy over Oasis tickets, who incidentally just added two dates in London by changing their ticket sales process in an attempt to satisfy the demand of those who were unable to buy a ticket and have passed the responsibility for the choice of dynamic pricing onto managers and promoters, the emerging pop star Chappell Roan has announced that he will cancel tickets bought by scalpers and bots for the October 1 concert in Franklin, Tennessee. He will then resell them to real fans, although the process is not immediate.
The concert, Roan explains in a video posted on X, sold out very quickly. “Tippers and bots bought all the tickets,” says the pop star. After checking, they decided to “cancel all the scalpers’ tickets we could find.”
Roan will be reselling “a limited number of tickets to make sure they end up in the hands of people who actually want to come to the concert, who are fans.”
Tickets (maximum two per person) will be sold on demand. You must go to a special site, apply through your Ticketmaster account, enter your credit card information and wait for confirmation of your eligibility to purchase. If you are considered eligible, it is not specified by what criteria, you will receive an email by the evening of September 6th. At that point your credit card will be charged (sales are final and no refunds or exchanges are possible).
For Roan, “it's the best and reasonable solution for me and my team. I know it's a bit of a mess and it's inconvenient, but I'm very, very angry about the ticket scalping and I think people deserve to come to my concert. It's a big problem, but we're addressing it. I can't wait to see people who deserve to be there, it means a lot to me.”
Franklin ♡‧₊˚ We scrubbed and canceled scalper tickets for my show this week and are releasing a limited number of tickets to you. Go to https://t.co/AJkuCJDc5W to request tickets now!!! pic.twitter.com/IvTiRrHU5s
— Chappell Roan (@ChappellRoan) September 4, 2024
The cases of giant artists such as Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Oasis have reopened the issue of scalping and speculation, which with digitalization and the arrival of the secondary market has assumed gigantic proportions.
On one hand, there are those who think that a concert ticket is a service like any other and that the price should be set by the market, possibly also through secondary ticketing. If there is someone willing to buy a concert ticket for 1800 euros that costs 180, it means that the price is not high, but fair. On the other hand, there are those who are convinced that it is an ethical issue, that music fans must be protected from speculation.
Both Roan and Oasis have identified the selection of requests as a procedure for extraordinary cases. That is: the transaction does not take place immediately, but after the identity of the buyer has been verified, in order to eliminate or limit the action of bots. Will it work? And then, is it possible to apply this method to large tours? And finally, when the controversy over Oasis tickets has died down, will the defense of the fans' interests continue?
