More than £60 million of revenues were generated by the so called secondary ticketing market in the second quarter of 2007 according to a UK based live entertainment research company called TixDaq.
As previously reported, secondary ticketing, essentially ticket touting, has increased greatly in recent years because of the ability to resell tickets for profit via auction websites like eBay, opening up touting to a much wider audience. Both politicians and the live sector have become increasingly concerned by the growth in secondary ticket sales, because it means that many consumers who do not get to official ticket sellers in time end up having to buy tickets at inflated prices from the touts. Promoters have introduced measures to try and make touting harder while politicians consider, albeit reluctantly, new rules to control touting. But in the meantime new auction sites like Viagogo and Seatwave, that specialise in ticket auctions, have launched, giving the whole domain of touting more perceived legitimacy.
With that in mind, and with the large amounts of revenues now being generated in online secondary ticket sales, TixDaq director Marc Marot says that the music business may now just have to accept the resale of tickets to their events as a reality. Music Week quote Marot as saying: "The music industry has buried its head in the sand on this issue for too long. The online secondary ticket market can provide fans with greater choice and better value. It is also clear that the industry stakeholders - including artists, concert promoters and venue owners - need not only to recognise this, but to embrace it by developing a commercial framework for participation".