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Ticket resales: Radiohead among artists pressing for slice of eBay pie
Posted: 05 Dec '07, 12:41
Not content with charging £42.50 for tickets to next summer’s UK tour, representatives of Radiohead have formed an alliance with those from more than 400 other artists aiming to grab back money from second-hand ticket sales.
The reps – whose clients include industry big-hitters like Robbie Williams, KT Tunstall and the Verve - have created the Resale Rights Society to lobby the likes of eBay, Viagogo and Seat Exchange for royalties.
“The secondary ticketing market offers benefits to music fans and the live music industry alike. It does not make sense to criminalize it,” says Resale Rights Society chairman-elect Marc Marot. “But there are real issues of consumer protection here, and it is unacceptable that not a penny of the estimated £200 million in transactions generated by the resale of concert tickets in the U.K. is returned to the investors in the live music industry. Where this trade is fair to consumers, we propose to authorize it by agreeing to a levy on all transactions."
Levy? Like box office booking and processing fees then, Mr Marot?
Marot, who manages Yusuf Islam and Paul Oakenfold and is former chief executive of Island Records, went on to implore the likes of eBay to work with the RRS, claiming they’d consistently claimed they’d welcome any such move.
Jazz Summers, chairman of the Music Managers Forum and manager of the Verve, concurred, saying “the industry needs to stand together and ensure that our artists and the fans are not exploited by operators of online ticket exchanges.”
Thanks to Gary Wolstenholme for the tip.
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So rather than putting pressure on eBay
to stop touting completely, they want a cut of any extra profit made? Where does the bit about the industry doing its best to stop exploitation of fans fit into that?
Bollocks to them
If I've bought something for £xxx and I sell it for £yyy, the profit is mine. The set the original price at xxx so balls to them.
Not that I'm condoning touting.
If they have a problem
with people selling their tickets on at a profit they should charge more for the fucking things in the first place to mitigate it. Then see how the artists like performing in half empty venues...
The solution is to stop touting altogether and not to try and take a slice of the pie. All that is needed is an official returns policy where people can get their money back if they can't go to a gig so someone else can then buy the returned tickets AT THE SAME PRICE.
Surely this will mean
that more people will buy tickets to re-sell on eBay, due to the fact that it is more 'acceptable' as artists will receive a cut. Therefore it will only increase the problem of tickets selling out in seconds to be re-sold at inflated prices.
I certainly can't see any positive effect for the consumer.
OBVIOUSLY
something needs to be done about this issue. But this really isn't the solution.
Unless the issue is just "we want more money". In which case yes, it's perfect
idiots
if this happened, then they would BENEFIT from touts selling tickets higher on ebay. do they think people are so stupid they cant see that?
Unless of course
the aim is to get eBay to refuse to pay anything (as it would be them who have to stump up the cash), defeat them in a massive court battle and have them decide it would be cheaper to ban the sale of tickets on the site rather than pay the costs?
i'm very
disappointed with this.
very disappointed.
especially considering Radiohead's previous stance on this.
i'm becoming more
disillusioned with them by the day
Jazz Summers?
Seriously?
The argument here seems to be
"We want to be paid twice for the same ticket."
This is ridiculous
Why should they get any extra profit from independant re-sales? Once the ticket has been sold for the amount set by the artist, then it's got fuck all to do with them once the transaction has been completed
I'd really like to see one of these bands try and explain how they can justify this
erm...
"Where this trade is fair to consumers, we propose to authorize it by agreeing to a levy on all transactions.""
The levy will be passed straight onto 'the consumer'. The point about a successful tout is that there is greater demand than supply, and so they can hike the price. Therefore there's no way a 'levy' will not be passed totally and completely onto consumers.
"the industry needs to stand together and ensure...the fans are not exploited by operators of online ticket exchanges."
lying cunts.
Radiohead in being there only for the money
shocker...
LOL
By doing this they're
implying that touting seriously affects the industry/bands etc in the same way as, say, downloading does. But it doesn't matter who buys their tickets, touts or not, the bands still get the money.
The only people that touts affects are the real fans who are unable to initially get tickets. And this is going to screw them over anymore.
Way to go for appreciating your fans. Surely they should be distributing tout profits back to the fans, as opposed to hoarding it for themselves.
I'm selling my VW Golf
Do you reckon Volkswagen will be in touch to demand part of the proceeds?
This is utterly disgusting.
Any respect I had for Radiohead is gone.
the VW Golf
analogy doesn't really hold water due to the supply and demand nature of concert tickets... unless your golf was a super limited edition one with go-faster stripes and wotnot.
It's actually a Radiohead special edition
ostensibly it's the same as any regular Golf, but I had to pay an outrageous booking/handling fee on top of the cost of the car itself.
Yorkenomics, innit?
As said above
I think there may be more to this than meets the eye. If these artists are successful and legally in the right, eBay would have to foot the costs, and it would probably be cheaper for eBay to simply ban the use of the site to sell on tickets than pay-up.
Maybe I'm being idealistic, but could this just be a way of trying to hit eBay, and subsequently alot of touts, where it hurts; their wallets?
If it was Propagandhi, Fugazi and Strike Anywhere
launching this then yes, I would be inclined to believe it.
But, Radiohead, KT Tunstall and The Verve?
LOLZ etc etc
If it was Propagandhi, Fugazi and Strike Anywhere
launching this, it would never work as they don't have the industry clout.
But yes, point taken. I still think that if this campaign is successful, it would probably be in eBay's interests to at least review their ticket touting policy.
why that ?
touts and ebay were sharing the profits.
Now touts, ebay and "artists" ( and their label ) would share the profits.
Make the buyers give even more money for a ticket ( if they can spend 200£, they can spend 250$... ) and everyone will have the same profit BUT the "artists" will get some too...
And everyone will be happy...
eBay profit from ticket sales as it stands
but if they are forced to give a large sum of money to artists, it may not remain that way
as I said :
make the buyer pay more...
That would take so much effort
I would have thought they'd be more likely to charge eBay some sort of lump sum (like a tax) at certain intervals
Surely what will happen:
- eBay charge a higher listing fee for eligible tickets, thus passing on the charge to the tout.
- if it's a Buy It Now, the tout increases the price to absorb this listing fee, passing the charge to the consumer.
- if it's an auction, the tout hides this listing charge as part of "postage & packing", and charges it to the auction winner.
eBay is thus seen to be co-operating with a newly formed Industry Body, touting tickets is legitimised, the end purchaser get pissed on. Again.
bad day for radiohead fans
all round really
ah man
this is like finding out santa isn't real. or that stephen fry ass-rapes kids. or something.
exactly
what themonroetransfer said. thats what will happen. The music fan is going to be the one getting fucked here by having to pay 3 million pounds to see radiohead instead of 2 million.
gash in a bag
the ironies of this...
situation are, like bart simpson's ironing, delicious. 'we'll give away our album for fuck all cos we're, like heroes or whatever, yeah?'
'then we'll charge £42.50 to play vast, stadium-sized shows...then we'll charge ten per cent handling fee...and then finally, we'll become part of a campaign that not only legitimises touting but actually means we get a slice of the dirty dollar our fans get ripped for'
the balance is not equal,my formerly talented yorke-friends...
an alliance with those from more than 400 other artists
Why's everyone singling out Radiohead for abuse? What about the other 399 artists whose 'representatives' are part of this group?
Well
only 4 are actually named. And the 3 that aren't Radiohead aren't, well, Radiohead.
2+2 still making 5 for you there?
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