Irish watchdog investigates Oasis ticketing
Irish watchdog the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has opened an investigation into Ticketmaster Ireland’s handling of the sale of Oasis reunion tour tickets.
The move follows a review of more than 100 complaints received by the CCPC helpline relating to the 31 August sale. The cost of some tickets for the band’s 16-17 August 2025 dates at Dublin’s Croke Park jumped from €176 to €415.50.
“The CCPC has reviewed more than 100 contacts from consumers who are very disappointed and frustrated about their experience of buying tickets for Oasis concerts,” says CCPC chair Brian McHugh. “While companies in Ireland are allowed to respond to market demand, there are legitimate concerns over how consumers were treated and we have decided that an in-depth investigation is necessary. If we find that consumer protection laws were broken, we will take action.
“The CCPC is grateful to consumers who have taken the time to call or email our helpline to share their experiences with us as their stories have helped us develop a picture of last weekend’s events.”
A statement from Ticketmaster Ireland says: “We are committed to cooperating with the CCPC and look forward to sharing more facts about the ticket sales with them.”
The situation mirrors that in the UK, where the Competition and Markets Authority launched a formal investigation into Ticketmaster last week
The situation mirrors that in the UK, where the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a formal investigation into Ticketmaster last week. The UK government has also announced it will be investigating dynamic ticket pricing amid the fallout, with the European Commission also set to examine the model.
A number of Irish politicians are also bidding to ban dynamic ticketing by tabling an amendment to existing legislation in the country. Unlike the UK, Ireland has outlawed the resale of tickets to large events at above face value since 2021.
“The 2021 Act protected fans from the experience of missing out on tickets and seeing those same tickets for sale on a secondary site for far more than they can afford or would be happy to pay,” said Jim O’Callaghan TD. “It now must be extended so we can protect fans from the experience of seeing ‘in demand’ tickets jumping significantly above the asking price that was initially advertised.”
Oasis, who are reuniting for their first shows since 2009, broke their silence on the ticketing row last week, denying knowledge that dynamic pricing would be utilised for the tour.
“It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used,” they said in a statement. “While prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management resulted in a positive ticket sale strategy, which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting, the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations.
“All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve.”
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Oasis announce extra Wembley Stadium dates
Oasis have added two further concerts at Wembley Stadium amid the ticketing controversy over their sold out UK reunion tour.
In addition to their 17 previously confirmed July/August dates across the UK and Ireland, the Gallagher brothers will now play the London venue on 27-28 September 2025 due to “unprecedented” demand.
According to the band’s team, the Oasis Live ‘25 Tour was the biggest concert launch ever seen in UKI, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries attempting to buy tickets for the group’s first shows since 2009. The European exclusive dates are being promoted by SJM Concerts, Live Nation, DF Concerts and MCD Productions.
In an effort to “make amends” for the frustrations experienced by many fans, a special invitation-only ticket ballot has been devised for the two shows, with applications open first to those who were unsuccessful in the initial on sale with Ticketmaster.
“Inevitably, interest in this tour is so overwhelming that it’s impossible to schedule enough shows to fulfil public demand,” says a statement. “But this ticket sale strategy will make the process far smoother for fans by reducing the stress and time it takes to obtain one of the hottest tickets of our time.”
The group have also issued their first public response to the dynamic ticket pricing row that erupted in the wake of Saturday’s onsale, saying they were unaware the system would be employed for the shows. There was widespread media coverage of fan anger after ticket buyers were offered tickets for more than twice the advertised face value after queuing for several hours.
“Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used”
“It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used,” adds the statement. “While prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management resulted in a positive ticket sale strategy, which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting, the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations.
“All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve.”
The controversy prompted the UK government to announce it will be investigating dynamic pricing for concert tickets as part of its consultation into the resale market in the autumn, with the Guardian reporting the European Commission is also set to examine Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model following the fallout.
Prime minister Keir Starmer commented on the row during today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
“It’s great that Oasis are back together,” said the Labour leader. “But it is depressing to hear of price hikes. I’m committed to putting fans at the heart of music and end extortionate price resales and we’re starting a consultation to work out how best we can do this.”
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Oasis onsale prompts investigation into dynamic pricing
The UK Government has announced it will be investigating dynamic ticket pricing for concert tickets, following a weekend of controversy over the blockbuster Oasis reunion shows.
There has been widespread media coverage of fan anger after ticket buyers who had queued for several hours were offered tickets for more than twice the advertised face value.
The new UK Government was due to launch a consultation into the secondary ticketing market in the Autumn, with widespread expectation that there would be proposals to limit resale to a little over face value. Now it has responded to the Oasis controversy by saying that it would be adding the use of dynamic pricing into the consultation.
In a statement to IQ, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy MP said: “After the incredible news of Oasis’ return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live.
“Working with artists, industry and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.”
“This Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales.
“Working with artists, industry and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.”
On Saturday more than 10 million people reportedly tried to access tickets to the first Oasis shows in more than 15 years, taking place next summer in Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff and London.
By the end of Saturday, all of the shows had sold out with reports emerging about the deployment of ‘in demand’ pricing with customers being given a very short period of time to decide if they wanted the higher priced tickets.
In Ireland, the Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) said the prices were “shocking” and involved “a kind of runaway inflation”.
Mr Martin told RTÉ on Sunday there was still time for “redemption” from the organisers.
“There are a lot, a lot of disappointed people out there from the perspective of what they would see as price gouging,” he added.
Ticketmaster, Oasis and the tour’s promoters – Live Nation, MCD Productions, SJM Concerts and DF Concerts – have not commented on the implementation of dynamic pricing on the shows.
However, Niels Henrik Sodemann, co-founder of Queue-it, the technology partner behind Ticketmaster’s queueing system, said the day went well from a technology perspective.
“At the end of the day, the only way all Oasis fans can be satisfied is substantially more opportunities for fans to experience them live”
“Although the public sale was on a Saturday, it was just another day in the office for us. Substantially more demand on a single customer on Saturday, but less than normal weekdays combined across our customers,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the only way all Oasis fans can be satisfied is substantially more opportunities for fans to experience them live. In times where many artists are struggling making a living, it is great to see that some of the lighthouses can bring dreams and enthusiasm into the industry.”
While dynamic ticketing is a commonly used tool in North America, it has been less frequently used in the UK and Europe to date. The practice hit headlines in the UK earlier this month following the presale for Sabrina Carpenter’s 2025 tour when tickets were advertised for £220 or more within minutes of tickets going on sale.
The above face-value prices for Oasis tickets has also seen one of the tour’s official resale partners, Twickets, lower its service fees after fans posted screenshots of fees in excess of £100.
Richard Davies, founder of Twickets, told IQ: “Due to the exceptional demand for the Oasis tour in 2025, Twickets have taken the decision to lower our booking fee to 10% + a 1% transactional fee (to cover bank charges) for all buyers of their tickets on our platform. In addition we have introduced a cap of £25 per ticket for these shows. Sellers of tickets already sell free of any Twickets charge.”
The UK Government consultation on ticketing will launch in the coming months, with consumer groups now seeking to link dynamic pricing in the primary sector with secondary market activity.
Dynamic ticketing was defended by Bruce Springsteen in November 2022 after tickets for his summer tour were advertised for $5,000 by Ticketmaster in the US. “I know it was unpopular with some fans,” he told Rolling Stone, “But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”
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ILMC 35: Industry heads tackle big topics
ILMC 35 kicked off with the traditional Open Forum session with this year’s host, Maria May from CAA, addressing a swathe of issues, while looking back on a monumental year for live music around the world.
May noted various statistics about the growth of the business in 2022, including the fact that ticket prices for Pollstar’s top 100 tours had increased by more than 10%, before posing a question to her guests about whether those biggest-selling productions should be doing anything to support the grassroots side of the business.
Obi Asika from United Talent Agency noted that the year ahead was looking like it would be the strongest he has ever had, reporting that his dance music and afrobeat acts were doing great business. And answering a question about the stadium business harming grassroots, he stated, “I’m more worried about the stadium effect on festivals. But I don’t see it as an issue; it’s just different.”
“We have to be brave and inclusive if we want to have new headliners”
When it comes to helping grassroots acts, he added, “We have to be brave and inclusive if we want to have new headliners.”
Q Prime Management’s Tara Richardson contested: “There’s a whole generation of ticket buyers who have skipped [going to] sweaty clubs because they have been stuck indoors during the pandemic.”
But she agreed that perhaps stadiums could support grassroots venues through sponsorship or some other system. “The record labels and publishers develop talent, but the live side seems to be the only part that does not throw money back toward grassroots,” she observed.
Addressing the issue of spiralling costs, Herman Schueremans of Live Nation Belgium admitted that most people in the business had not expected such big rises. “The bottom line is that it’s a thing of give and take – listen to each other and be nicer to each other,” Schueremans pleaded. Looking back at 2022, he reported, “By respecting people and paying part [of the money] in advance and the balance the day after show, it worked really well.
“You cannot avoid rising costs – you have to live with it and deal with it. It might mean we have to work harder but earn less. Making a profit is important, but it’s not the most important.”
“The live side seems to be the only part that does not throw money back toward grassroots”
On a related note, talking about all the various challenges that the live sector is facing, Asika pointed to the example of some of his African artists who have had all kinds of obstacles to overcome to establish careers outside of their own countries. “However complex it is, we can figure it out,” he said. “There are enough ideas and enough good people to figure it out – it’s part of the fun.”
Tackling the controversial topic of dynamic pricing, John Meglen from Concerts West noted, “Most shows do not sell out, but at the very high end it’s a very simple supply and demand issue [and] dynamic pricing is a business decision. If you sell a ticket for $100 but then watch it be resold for $500, the artist should be receiving that money, not the tout.”
Meglen suggested that blaming the ticketing system for any issues was a cop-out. “It’s up to us to set those business rules – we cannot be blaming the ticketing systems, he said. “We have an issue of pricing, and we have a resale issue. We need to make sure that the money [remains] in our business. If we’re getting market value for our tickets, the artists are going to earn more and it’s not someone outside business making the money.”
Q Prime’s Richardson drew comparisons with the price of theatre tickets when it comes to tour pricing, but also had a pragmatic idea on how the teams involved in tour planning could better handle the subject. “Maybe there needs to be a middle ground where we involve tour accountants before we route – and we have a plan A, plan B, and plan C for the tour and the production, depending on the ticket price.”
“We have an issue of pricing, and we have a resale issue”
The session also looked at how the live music industry can attract a more diverse workforce, with the speakers agreeing that more needs to be done – from the top of the business downwards – to make true and meaningful progress.
Engaging in a debate regarding the environmental impact of the live music sector, Schueremans revealed, “At Rock Werchter 2022 we recycled or recouped 95% of our plastic. It was a hell of a challenge, but we did it and we should not just be doing it as festivals, we need to do it at all shows.”
However, Richardson concluded that rather than beat up the festivals and tours, “We’d be better off having a huge industry lobby to do something about the six big companies who are contributing most to carbon emissions.”
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Endeavor-run biz acquires dynamic ticketing firm
WME parent company Endeavor has acquired Qcue, a software developer for dynamic ticket pricing in the live events industry.
Terms of the deal, which was made through Endeavor’s experiential events firm On Location Experiences (acquired in early 2020), have not been disclosed.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Qcue’s technology, which helps rights holders optimise ticket pricing and maximise sales based on market demand, will be integrated into On Location’s suite of hospitality offerings.
On Location offers corporate clients and others fans access to marquee events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four and New York Fashion Week. Its overall list of 150 entities also includes artists and festivals, such as Coachella and Bonnaroo, as well as unique experiences owned by On Location.
Qcue, founded in 2007, provides sports teams and entertainment outfits with ticket pricing, analytics, data visualisation, inventory management and efficiency tools.
“[The deal will bring] top-of-the-line dynamic pricing technology and a stellar team of ticketing experts in-house”
Its clients include Major League Baseball teams, college athletic departments and Australian Football League teams. The company will continue to operate out of its headquarters in Austin after the deal has closed.
In announcing the deal, On Location estimated that Qcue has made more than 35 million price changes, generating more than $300 million in incremental revenue for its partners.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Qcue, bringing top-of-the-line dynamic pricing technology and a stellar team of ticketing experts in-house,” On Location CFO Jon Lavallee said in a press release. “Together, we will optimise On Location’s approach to ticketing and pass that benefit on to our valued partners.”
Along with On Location, Endeavor also owns the IMG sports agency and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
The company posted a small profit of US$2.4 million in the first quarter of 2021 – the firm’s first since becoming a public company in April.
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‘Fans are resilient’: Across-the-board growth for LN in 2019
Live Nation exceeded expectations for both revenue and adjusted operating income (AOI) in 2019, according to its just-released full-year financial results, painting a rosy outlook for the year ahead, despite growing concerns of the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
The final year of the 2010s saw the concert giant deliver its ninth consecutive year of growth, with turnover up 7%, operating income up 19% and AOI up 14%, to US$11.55 billion, $324.8 million and $942.5m, respectively.
Revenue from sponsorship and advertising grew 17%, to $590.3m, with festival sponsorship having a particularly strong year, bolstered by the addition of Rock in Rio to the LN portfolio. Some 98 million people attended a Live Nation concert in 2019 – a 5% increase on the previous year – while Ticketmaster grew its AOI 11% and delivered 115m tickets in 31 countries worldwide.
Live Nation shares increased around 1.3% following yesterday’s (27 February) earnings call, though the price – in common with other live entertainment stocks – is still down on the all-time high achieved in February 2020, as the coronavirus continues to spook markets worldwide.
Responding to a query from analyst Brandon Ross, who asked how Covid-19 could affect Live Nation’s business in 2020, CEO Michael Rapino said while he expects to see further cancellations and postponements, there will be no decline in the appetite for live entertainment.
The business is real strong. The consumer still seems to be buying the tickets on a global basis”
“[W]e always talk about the resilience of the concert fan,” he said, “and, as of last night, we had a sellout in Australia on a festival [Splendour in the Grass]. The business is real strong. The consumer still seems to be buying the tickets on a global basis.
“So supply [and] demand will be there. We’re going to take this cautiously as we watch the markets and we assume a hotspot will flare up and a show will be cancelled here and there. But we’re confident that, long-term, the show will happen. The revenue will flow and the fan will show up.”
Rapino also revealed that average ticket prices for the promoter’s arena and amphitheatre shows have increased by double digits since 2017, with sales of dynamically priced Platinum tickets increasing 66% in 2019. Despite this, “concerts remain a great deal for fans relative to other live experiences: our average ticket for a concert at one of our amphitheatres was $46 in 2019, relative to about $75 for an NBA [basketball] game and over $100 for an NFL [American football] game,” said Rapino.
“In summary, 2019 was another strong year for Live Nation, building our global concerts business and driving growth in our high-margin venue, sponsorship and ticketing businesses,” Rapino says in a statement.
“Looking at 2020, we believe that our double-digit fan and show count growth so far this year, against a backdrop of very high artist activity across all venue types and markets, sets up our flywheel to deliver another year of strong global growth.”
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Lyte raises $15m for ‘post-primary ticketing’
Ticket exchange Lyte has raised US$15 million in a series-A funding round to further its mission of creating a “new category in live events: post-primary ticketing”, the company has announced.
US-based Lyte is a fan-to-fan ticket market that connects those no longer able to attend a sold-out event with those who wish to. Buyers can purchase tickets at a much lower price than those offered the secondary market, because Lyte uses dynamic pricing to keep prices below those offered by “third-party scalpers and shady marketplaces”.
Lyte’s ticketing partners include Eventbrite/Ticketfly, AEG’s Elevate Tickets, Live Nation’s Front Gate Tickets and Universe, and Patron Technology’s ShowClix, which it claims to empower to “own the secondary market” by capturing around 60% of the value that would otherwise be lost to third-party resellers.
The company additionally estimates it has saved fans $5.5m since launching in 2013.
Commenting on the new investment, which comes courtesy of Industry Ventures, Accomplice Ventures and Correlation Ventures, among others, Lyte CEO Ant Taylor says: “We made a foundational bet we could build a platform and marketplace that included and benefited all of the folks with financial and emotional investment in this industry: rightsholders, talent, enterprise ticketing companies, as well as fans.
“This raise is a validation of that bet. It’s a win for our partners and the future of the live events ecosystem.”
Other investors include Bernie Cahill and Greg Suess of Activist Artist Management, Chris Martin, the former CTO of Pandora, and internet entrepreneur Matt Mickiewicz, the co-founder of start-ups including 99designs, Hired and Flippa.
“Lyte puts control, revenue and insights into the hands of event producers”
Its ‘post-primary ticketing’ offer, according to Lyte, comprises “private label ticketing services offered to fans by the most iconic sports and entertainment brands, including Coachella, Mumford & Sons, Comic Cons in New York City and Seattle and scores more”.
Lyte’s clients include 50 festivals, 300 venues and several touring artists. The company is now focusing on non-US growth, as well as expansion into other areas of entertainment and sports.
“When our clients choose Lyte, they are choosing a platform that addresses the customer needs ignored by the traditional secondary market, and it does so in a way that is fair to fans, controlled by rights holders and which harnesses the best in yield management and marketplace science,” says Lawrence Peryer, Lyte’s head of business and corporate development. “Lyte puts control, revenue and insights into the hands of event producers, while providing a simple, safe and affordable fan experience.
“Combined with this funding round, the consortium of entities involved, our name-brand clients and legions of happy fans, Lyte’s platform is changing the face of ticketing while closing the door on the incumbent secondary players.”
“This important company milestone is just the beginning, and our clients and partners know it,” concludes Taylor. “We are creating a category that will challenge and overtake the incumbent secondary ticketing model. That is super-exciting.”
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DEAG acquires MyTicket, partners with SecuTix
In line with its recent strategy of eliminating all minority shareholdings, Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) has acquired the remaining 24.9% of shares in MyTicket from publishing company Axel Springer SE.
DEAG increased its shareholding in mytic myticket AG, the company behind its MyTicket.de and MyTicket.at ticketing platforms, last July, bringing its total holding up to 75.1%. The buy-out of Alex Springer, the publisher of Bild, Die Welt and Fakt, and the largest digital publishing house in Europe, means MyTicket is now 100% owned by DEAG.
“Many thanks to our partners from Axel Springer SE for working together to establish MyTicket AG in the start-up phase, and I look forward to continuing our close cooperation in the other areas as before,” comments DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “The market shares of MyTicket AG are growing strongly, and with MyTicket.de and MyTicket.at it has developed into one of the leading electronic ticket platforms.
“The transaction will enable us to further implement our strategic goals; the acquisition of the shares in MyTicket will enable us to increase earnings per share over the next few years. In addition, we will continue to expand DEAG’s ticketing business and intend to expand further internationally. After the introduction phase, with millions of tickets sold and hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers, the team can now implement the next phase of the growth course.”
“Both the repurchase of all shares and the upcoming ticketing software exchange are decisive steps for MyTicket in 2019”
DEAG has also announced a new partnership with Swiss white-label ticketing platform SecuTix, beginning this summer. SecuTix, which offers software as a service (SaaS) solutions for concerts, festivals, sporting events and more, will enable MyTicket to implement “the latest technologies, such as blockchain and dynamic pricing” in order to “be able to act in a customer-oriented manner and prevent a secondary market from forming”.
“Both the repurchase of all shares and the upcoming ticketing software exchange are decisive steps for MyTicket in 2019, in strengthening the company for future tasks and challenges,” says MyTicket CEO Moritz Schwenkow. “Furthermore, this will enable us to market the events of the DEAG family and new, innovative formats in direct communication with our customers in an even more targeted manner.”
Frédéric Longatte, CEO of SecuTix, adds: “We are very proud to be able to contribute to the continued success of MyTicket with [ticketing solution] SecuTix 360°. SecuTix has extensive experience in all genres that MyTicket offers on its portal. With our ticketing engagement platform, we are the ideal partner for MyTicket to offer promoters and events, be it sports, festivals or culture, a powerful solution for marketing and distribution.”
According to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2018, CTS Eventim – Europe’s largest ticket seller – is by far the market leader in Germany, with Ticketmaster Germany and MyTicket among its competitors.
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GUTS Tickets: Use dynamic pricing to raise funds for charity
Dutch blockchain ticketer GUTS Tickets has come up with a novel use case for its dynamic pricing solution: curing cancer.
In a blog post entitled Sell tickets — cure cancer (Or save the world in a different way), GUTS community manager Olivier Biggs posits that dynamically pricing tickets – the practice, common in the hospitality and travel sectors, of allowing prices to fluctuate based on market demand – could generate additional revenue for humanitarian projects, such as cancer research or “clean[ing] up the ocean”.
“Say that your tickets are normally priced at $50,” Biggs writes. “Using this dynamic system on (a selection of) your tickets, this will now become the minimum price and some tickets will now be bought for $60, others maybe even for $5,000. All of the intake above the $50 threshold will go to a charity of your choice, instead of going into the pockets of scalpers and frauds.
“This approach of dynamic pricing can be applied to all of the tickets up for sale, or to a certain section of the venue, or, if you prefer, to just a single seat in the front row.
“Your fans are fully aware about where their money is going if they choose to buy a dynamic ticket, along with what good their money is going to be doing.”
Several major ticket agencies are already experimenting with dynamic pricing for certain tickets – most prominently Ticketmaster with its Platinum passes, and more recently Ticket Pia in Japan.
“Dynamic pricing will ensure that the sweet spot where supply and demand meet is found”
Ticketmaster’s Platinum system was notably used for Taylor Swift’s Reputation stadium run – which recently became the highest-grossing concert tour in American history – as part of a broader ‘slow ticketing’ trend that places less of an emphasis on instant sell-outs and more on pricing tickets correctly.
While dynamic pricing is not without controversy – critics claim it amounts to gouging fans in the same way as touts, while some artists say they’re happy to leave ‘money on the table’ in order to keep ticket prices low – GUTS says donating the extra revenue to charity is the best of both worlds.
“Dynamic pricing will ensure that the sweet spot where supply and demand meet is found, and every seat in the house is filled,” continues Biggs.
“Instead of simply neutralising the inhumane threat of scalping, we turn it into a positive chain of events that helps others.”
Amsterdam-based GUTS held its first major onsale last September, selling 50,000 tickets on the blockchain for 36 shows by comedian Jochem Myjer.
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Pia bets on dynamic pricing with Yahoo partnership
Pia Corporation, the dominant player in the Japanese ticketing market, has revealed plans for a new company dedicated to rolling out dynamic pricing for concerts, sports and other live events.
Dynamic Plus – a joint venture between Pia, web giant Yahoo! Japan and leading sogo shosha (general trading company) Mitsui & Co. – will dynamically price “various tickets for concerts, sports, theme parks, events, etc.”, as well as for more traditionally surge pricing-friendly industries such as hospitality, delivery services and car parking.
An IQ investigation into dynamic pricing – in which prices are allowed to fluctuate based on market demand – in December 2016 discovered uncertainty around its potential applications in live music.
Barry Kahn, the CEO of Qcue, a leading developer of dynamic pricing software, said the practice is difficult in the US – where venues usually have exclusive agreements with ticketing providers – and expensive, so for that reason is more popular for long runs at a single venue. However, Andrew Parsons of Ticketmaster UK said he believes dynamic pricing is suitable for multi-venue tours, as opposed to just residency-style shows, explaining that the company can easily “manage it across multiple promoters and venues”.
Currently, Ticketmaster only dynamically prices tickets sold on its premium Platinum platform, although Parsons said he’d “love to think” there will be a time when the company’s GA tickets are sold in the same way.
“We will respond quickly to customer needs by automatically increasing and lowering prices”
At press time, it is unclear which tickets Pia – whose Ticket Pia platform is, according to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2017, Japan’s leading entertainment ticket agency, and which is soon to be a venue owner in its own right – is intending to dynamically price, but the company says it and its partners are upbeat on the potential of the new pricing strategy.
According to a news release sent to investors, Mitsui & Co. has been collaborating on a dynamic pricing pilot with a prominent Japanese baseball team since last year, and Pia has already conducted several “proof tests” and is “preparing for commercialisation”.
“We will respond quickly to customer needs by automatically increasing and lowering prices on the basis of our forecasting, and also contribute to the improvement of profits,” reads the letter.
“We aim to contribute to the healthy development of this industry.”
According to industry publication Live Entertainment White Paper 2017, the value of the Japanese live market as a whole decreased slightly in 2016 (the most recently available data), declining 2% on 2015 to ¥501.5bn (US$4.6bn), largely owing to a shortage of available large venues. However, even at 2016 levels, the market has doubled in value since 2001.
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