Olivia Dean has urged other artists to challenge their business partners in the live sector about ticketing policies. It follows Dean’s social media protest over the touting of tickets to her US shows on Live Nation’s Ticketmaster platform, which resulted in fans who paid hiked up prices getting a refund.
Ticketmaster was quick to respond to Dean’s protest, first by confirming it had capped prices for the resale of her tickets on its platform and then to announce the refunds.
That was also quickly followed by a statement from Live Nation head honcho Michael Rapino. Which either tells us something about Dean’s rapidly rising status in the US, or about Live Nation’s current sensitivities around the ticket touting debate, or possibly both.
“Capping resale at face value is your right and we have a duty to encourage a fair resale market”, Dean subsequently told other artists in a new post on social media.
“We are often made to feel we don't have a choice”, she went on, “but there is always space to ask why and it is always your right to say no!” Alluding to Ticketmaster’s response to her protest last week, she concluded, “It’s not every day that you feel heard and understood, so today is a good day”.
The rules around ticket resale on primary ticketing platforms like Live Nation’s Ticketmaster and AEG’s AXS differ from country to country. In the UK, fans can only resell tickets via Ticketmaster at the price they originally paid for them, while AXS allows a mark-up, but no more than 10%. However, in the US, by default there is no cap on resale prices on either Ticketmaster or AXS unless an artist requests it.
Despite Dean’s clear position on ticket resale, price caps were not put in place when tickets for her US shows went on sale on both platforms. That prompted a social media post from Dean telling both Live Nation and AEG “you are providing a disgusting service”. Allowing touts to resell tickets for her shows for profit on the primary ticketing sites was “vile and completely against our wishes”, she went on.
She then concluded, “Live music should be affordable and accessible and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER”.
Both Ticketmaster and AXS quickly responded to Dean’s protest by announcing they were no longer allowing touts to resell tickets for her shows at a mark-up. Ticketmaster then issued another statement announcing it was also “refunding fans for any mark-up they already paid to resellers on Ticketmaster”.
The mark-up on the resale was actually charged by a tout rather than Ticketmaster itself, but the ticketing company said it was willing to take a hit on the refund. “Ticketmaster does not receive the mark-up on those tickets”, it said, but “is stepping in to absorb this refund cost for fans”.
Rapino’s subsequent statement on the matter said, “We share Olivia’s desire to keep live music accessible and ensure fans have the best access to affordable tickets. While we can’t require other marketplaces to honour artists’ resale preferences, we echo Olivia’s call to ‘do better’ and have taken steps to lead by example”.
Live Nation bailed on for-profit ticket touting in Europe back in 2018, which is why people can only resell tickets within the Ticketmaster UK platform at face value. However, it has remained much more involved in ticket touting in the US, although it has evolved its secondary ticketing services over the years, in particular by allowing artists and promoters to cap or restrict resale on its US platform.
The live giant has also become much more supportive of late regarding proposed new regulation for ticket touting within the US, with Rapino even floating the idea of a 20% price cap.
That may be because Live Nation recognises that many artists oppose for-profit resale. Or it could be that Ticketmaster is best positioned to offer a capped resale service. Or it could be that Live Nation would rather US lawmakers regulate resale than its core primary ticketing business. Take your pick!
Either way, given Live Nation’s evolving position on secondary ticketing in the US, it’s not surprising it was quick to respond to Dean’s criticism last week. The fact it’s also fighting a lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission accusing it of colluding with ticket touts may also have been a factor.
Of course, as Rapino notes, while Ticketmaster and AXS already give artists control over the resale of their tickets, that’s not the case for secondary ticketing sites like StubHub and Viagogo. Getting price caps in place on those platforms will require a change in the law.
Which has already happened in some countries, and is now the official intent of the UK government, which plans to outlaw any mark-up of price on touted tickets. Whether the US will ever regulate in that way country-wide remains to be seen.
