The Resale Rights Society, the new body launched last year by the artist management community to deal with the issue of growing online ticket touting, have said that sales of tickets to the upcoming Madonna UK dates illustrate why the online ticketing sector needs more regulation.
The RRS is referring to the previously reported fact that secondary ticketing website Viagogo is an "official premium and secondary ticketing partner" for Madonna's 'Sweet & Sticky' tour. Basically they are the primary sellers (direct from promoter to consumer) for premium ticket packages (eg those that come with hospitality) and an approved secondary seller (where they enable consumers to resell tickets to other consumers) for all other tickets.
The RRS says this is confusing, because consumers see the words "official partner" attached to Viagogo, and may go there first for standard tickets, even though the current resale price for Madonna tickets via the website is £196 while the primary seller of those level of tickets – Ticketmaster – still has tix available for £75. Meanwhile, all of Viagogo's secondary ticketing competitors are also reselling Madonna tickets (just without the official partner status) including the premium packages Viagogo is the official seller of – a £550 package from them is going for £999 on rival Seatwave. If you find all this a bit confusing, well, I think that is the RRS's point.
RRS chairman-designate Marc Marot said yesterday: "This sorry mess shows that even an artist as powerful as Madonna is not able to control the chaos in the ticketing market. Viagogo cannot have it both ways. They are either an official legitimate partner of the artist or they are attempting to take fans for whatever they can get. If they are an official part of the Madonna tour they should not be selling tickets in the secondary market when primary tickets are available for less than half the price from Ticketmaster. The live music industry risks sleep-walking into disaster if this kind of abuse of fans' goodwill is not resolved. There is a very real danger that music fans will simply walk away if there is not some kind of regulation of the market".
He concluded: "RRS is the best solution on the table and we call upon all artists, especially superstars like Madonna, and promoters to stand together to support what is clearly the most fan- and artist-friendly solution".
As previously reported, the Resale Rights Society has proposed a voluntary (ie not government enforced) regulatory system where the music industry gives ticket auction sites like Viagogo and eBay official recognition in return for them signing up to a set code of conduct and committing to pass a cut of their profits back to the artist community. The live music sector has given those proposals its support, though the secondary ticket sellers – while admitting some kind of code of conduct to protect consumers is a good idea – haven't been too keen on allowing the RSS to set that code, and certainly aren't all that keen on paying the live sector a levy.
As also previously reported, the government has called on the live sector to protect consumers over the confusing and arguably unfair nature of secondary ticketing sales, but some in the live sector say that is impossible because the secondary ticketing sites won't play ball, and it may require new laws to make them do so.