Touts out
David Pollock reports on the phenomenon of music fans putting pressure on politicians
to outlaw ticket touting.
hose who managed to
secure tickets amidst the
stampede lot" this year's T in the Park might he disheartened to hear that the lirst hatch ol‘ thirty thousand tickets l'or .luly 2007‘s cycnt sold ottt in little oyer an hour. and demand for the rctnaining lorty-l‘iye thousand is expected to he just as high when they are released in l-‘ehruary.
Yet tans w ho are all too willing to spend a tnorning hitting the redial hutton in the hope of getting to 'l‘ —r or any other high-demand concert eycnt will he dismayed to learn that many ol‘ the tickets intended l‘or puhlic sale haye already l‘allen into the hands of touts.
li\actly how many is unknown. although the day alter the on-sale date. the Daily Recon! reported that more than a hundred tickets were posted on e—Bay within minutes ol‘ the first allocation heing sold. with some going up eyen hel‘ore the on-sale time. and
others heing ol’l‘ered tor a tee ol‘
£500 against the original £97 cost.
.-\lthough resale of tickets e\plicitly for profit is not a new issue on the agenda for the liye music industry. the explosion of e- Bay as a sales outlet has meant that promoters. ticket agents and
8 THE LIST QC c'tii- 3
wag “We
the general puhlic are more acutely aware than eycr ol' how methodical and. in many eyes. mercenary the touting htisiness is. In response to the increased prominence of the prohlem. the .\'.tllz' launched a 'Stamp ()ut the lotus campaign ahead ol' this summer's l'estiyal schedule.
"the hig trigger l‘or its was the hundreds ol‘ letters and emails we receiyed from readers.‘ explains the .\".lll'.”s Paul Stokes. ‘complaining that they couldn't get tickets l'or hig eyents like 'I' in the Park. hut that they would see them on online auction sites at inflated prices hours alter the eycnts went on sale. ’l'outing isn‘t
just a couple of guys outside a
Venue any more — it‘s a husiness you can run from home.‘
.-\s well as canyassing the opinions ol' their readership and sympathetic hands. the .\'.\lli haye approached the gosernment ahout
the issue. The Department ol‘
(‘ulture. Media and Sport at Westminster has in fact been holding regular ‘tout summits‘ on the issue. the latest of which will happen later this month.
‘\\'hat we originally wanted was legislation against touts.' says Stokes. ‘hut that haan happened.
Hundreds of 2007 T In tho
In; any
which is odd when it has tor sport and the Olympics. What they are trying to do is influence the
industry into haying a code ol~
practice. hut we want to impress upon thetn that this has to he designed in the l'ans' hest interests. rather than as a PR- lriendly compromise.’
Stokes does point out that e-Bay and other online sites aren't doing anything illegal hy allowing tickets to he sold. although he does say that reader response indicates that people l‘eel more aggrieyed hy online touting than the traditional sort. ‘()ur suryey shows that people are prepared to giyc details like their name and address when they huy oyer the phone.. he says. 'to ensure that tickets go to tans and not touts.
'.»\ good returns policy for people who genuinely wanted to offload their own ticket would he good. hut we'd also like [U see promoters huild in measures w herehy a customer proyidcs II) when they huy a ticket. Then it a ticket appears on an online outlet a week later. it can he traced hack to the person who bought it.‘
What do you think? react@list.co.uk
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