Tickets Cloud launches new smart ticketing tech
Cloud-based ticketing platform Tickets Cloud trialled an updated version of its crypto.tickets distributed ledger technology at electronic music festival Signal.
Tickets Cloud launched ethereum-based crypto.tickets in 2017, using the blockchain platform to sell tickets for a 6,000-capacity Kraftwerk concert in February 2018. The newest version of the technology debuted at Signal festival, which took place from 15 to 18 August in Nikola-Lenivets, Russia.
More than 2,000 tickets were transferred using the technology, increasing the data available to organisers by 15%. Festivalgoers were also able sell unwanted tickets through the platform, with organisers receiving a cut for tickets sold on for higher than face value.
Each ticket was distributed with a unique, dynamic QR code to a Tickets Wallet, available on Android and Apple smartphones. All transactions were recorded in a distributed blockchain registry, providing access to the ticket’s “history” and owner information.
“We wanted to save our customers from issues like fake tickets and scams happening around the resale of tickets, and we also wanted to streamline ticket purchase and admission, making it safe and convenient,” says Sergeev Fadeev, CEO and founder of Signal Festival.
“We like to implement new exciting technologies so we decided to experiment with smart tickets, and we were not disappointed,” adds Fadeev.
“We like to implement new exciting technologies so we decided to experiment with smart tickets, and we were not disappointed”
Festival organisers were able to send messages to attendees, notifying them of any schedule changes or sending greeting from artists. Data from the app allowed organisers to identify the most engaged fans, offering promotional opportunities for future events.
Over 250 valid ticket holders communicated with each other via a chat room, arranging meet-ups, exchanging gig photos and swapping performance opinions.
“Every festival, every musical event unites like-minded people, and that’s why we’re focused on the social component of our app,” says Egor Egerev, founder of Tickets Cloud and сrypto.tickets.
Tickets Cloud currently sells tickets using crypto.tickets technology to more than 30 local events in Russia and is preparing to launch the technology at its first events in Europe and the USA.
Crypto.tickets can be integrated with any ticketing system, with Eventbrite already offering the necessary integration, in addition to Tickets Cloud.
Speaking to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2018, Tickets Cloud founder and managing director of the Moscow Ticketing Forum, Katerina Kirillova, told IQ that crypto-tickets were the “antidote to illicit resale”.
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Rain fails to dampen spirits at From the Fields fests
Extreme weather tested Manchester, UK-based promoter From the Fields at Kendal Calling and Bluedot festivals this year, but did little to detract from the events’ best ticket sales to date.
Bluedot and Kendal Calling, From the Field’s biggest events, took place on two consecutive weekends from 18 to 21 and 25 to 28 July.
Both festivals were an “absolute success”, From the Fields co-director and Bluedot festival director Ben Robinson tells IQ. Bluedot, now in its fourth year, sold out in advance with a 30% increase in capacity.
“I think we’ve reached our happy size there at 16,000,” says Robinson, stating “we have no ambition to increase further.”
The longer-running, larger Kendal Calling also saw record sales, shifting 30,000 tickets and maintaining a capacity crowd throughout the weekend, despite “a lot of extreme weather”.
“Every stage went ahead as planned and the festival opened on time every day,” explains Robinson, commending the site crew on their efforts “against the elements”.
Taking place each year at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the gigantic Lovell Telescope, the fourth outing was a special one for Bluedot, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing.
“[The moon bounce] was the most unique thing I’ve ever seen at a festival and something you’d only find at Bluedot”
Audio clips recorded by headliners Kraftwerk, New Order and Hot Chip were used in a moon bounce, a radio communications technique that reflects waves from the moon back to an Earth-based receiver.
Robinson says the Bluedot moon bounce was “the most unique thing I’ve ever seen at a festival and something you’d only find at Bluedot”, which fuses music, science and technology.
The festival received a one-off license extension to 5 a.m. on the Saturday, allowing organisers to projection map onto the telescope and broadcast radio clips in real time with the original moon landing fifty years before.
According to Robinson, the “niche electronic programming” and music/ science combination – scientific speakers such as astronaut Helen Sharman and wildlife documentary presenter and biologist Liz Bonnin shared the main stage along with musical acts – attracts a “more specific audience” than Kendal Calling.
“Kendal Calling really feels like a broad cross section of the northwest of the UK,” says the From the Fields co-director. “There’s something for everyone.”
Orbital, Nile Rodgers and Chic, Manic Street Preachers, Doves, Courteeners and Tom Jones were among those playing the main stage over the weekend at Kendal Calling. Bristol punk rock band Idles were joined on stage by rapper Slowthai in a “truly unique” collaboration.
“There’s a real sense of community at both Bluedot and Kendal, and that makes people feel safe”
Despite their differences, both festivals provide a family-friendly environment, which Robinson puts down to “robust back of house services” and “good security and stewarding”.
“There’s a real sense of community at both Bluedot and Kendal, and that makes people feel safe,” says Robinson.
Both festivals have “landmark” years coming up in 2020, with Bluedot’s fifth anniversary and Kendal Calling’s 15th edition.
If this year’s Bluedot was about looking backwards at an iconic historical moment, says Robinson, next year’s festival will be a lot more future-facing. “The collaboration between music, science and tech gives ample opportunity to keep things fresh, as there are always new and exciting elements within those areas.”
Robinson describes the longevity of Kendal Calling as a “really bold achievement for us”, as the promoter confirms plans to continue the festival for the next ten years at least. Following “quite a muddy year”, the From the Fields co-director believes it is the right time to take a step back and look at “refreshing the site and design” in time for the festival’s anniversary.
Tickets for Bluedot 2020 are already available, with weekend camping priced at £168.75. Tickets for next year’s Kendal Calling go on sale on Friday at 10 am GMT.
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German astronaut performs with Kraftwerk from the ISS
Performing in front of 7,500 fans at Stuttgart’s Jazz Open Festival, German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk welcomed to the stage European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst. Currently stationed aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Gerst used a tablet computer complete with a virtual synthesiser to join the band in a performance of 1978 track ‘Spacelab’.
Before playing, Gerst took the opportunity to explain a little more about the ISS’s work and what life in the space station entails: “The ISS is a Man-Machine, the most complex and valuable machine humankind has ever built,” he says, after pointing out he is one of only six people in space, some 400km above Earth’s sea level.
“Here in the European Columbus Laboratory, the successor to the Spacelab, the European Space Agency (ESA) is researching things that will improve daily life on Earth. More than 100 different nations work together peacefully here and achieve things that a single nation could never achieve. We are developing technologies onboard the ISS to grow beyond our current horizons and prepare to take further species into spaces, to the Moon and Mars.”
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“A symbolic event”: Kraftwerk tickets sold on blockchain
Tickets for Kraftwerk’s upcoming show at the Kremlin will be sold on the blockchain, marking the first time the much-hyped distributed ledger technology has been utilised for a large headline show.
The German electronic music pioneers will play the concert hall (6,000-cap.) at the State Kremlin Palace (pictured) in Moscow on 13 February 2018. An agreement between promoter TCI and cloud-based ticketing platform Tickets Cloud will see fans given the option to buy a digital ticket, sold via the ethereum-based crypto.tickets blockchain platform, with admission to the show controlled by tearing a ‘stub’ stored on the user’s mobile device – eliminating the need to scan tickets.
“First, we had the paper ticket, then electronic, and now we are moving to crypto-tickets,” says Tickets Cloud/crypto.tickets founder Egor Egerev. “Kraftwerk became pioneers of an entire stratum of modern culture, and selling crypto-tickets to their concerts is a symbolic event.”
“First, we had the paper ticket, then electronic, and now we are moving to crypto-tickets”
Nikolay Sinitsin, TCI’s financial director, adds: “Technologies do not stand still, and the emergence of crypto-tickets solves the most pressing problems in the industry: counterfeits, fraud and scalping. TCI always tries to stay informed and is pleased to [embrace] new technologies that will help us and spectators feel safe and keep pace with the 21st century.”
Tickets start at ₽2,500 (US$42) and can be bought from kraftwerk2018.ru.
Following introductory features on blockchain by IQ and lawyer Joanna Morris, Tickets Cloud’s Katerina Kirillova recently explained how the technology is being used to combat some of the technical challenges associated with the modern live music business:
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Kraftwerk in Buenos Aires to go ahead
Kraftwerk’s 23 November show in Buenos Aires will go ahead as planned after a judge ruled in favour of promoter Move Concerts.
Lisandro Fastman clarified that the ban on shows where “synthesisers or samplers are the primary instrument”, introduced in April after five people died at the Time Warp EDM festival, applies only to “festivals, and not indoor concerts, such as Kraftwerk”, a Move spokesman tells IQ, while the Kraftwerk concert is classed as “a normal recital”.
“The judge clarified his ruling was only meant for festivals, and not indoor concerts, such as Kraftwerk”
The city last week said the show would not be allowed to go ahead as Fastman “banned all electronic music festivals”, despite the fact the concert is being held in the indoor Luna Park arena.
Move says it hopes to resume sales for the event – which is roughly 70% sold out – this week.
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Kraftwerk fall foul of Buenos Aires synth ban
The ban on electronic music festivals in Buenos Aires, initially believed to apply only to dance music/EDM events, may lead to the cancellation of an upcoming show by Kraftwerk.
The German electronic music pioneers (pictured) – whose ages range from 47 to 70 – have fallen foul of a temporary bar on events at which “synthesisers or samplers are the primary instrument”, introduced in April after five people died at dance music festival Time Warp.
A spokesman for the city tells Argentine newspaper Clarín: “After the Time Warp ruling, Judge [Lisandro] Fastman banned all electronic music festivals.
The ban applies to all shows where “synthesisers or samplers are the primary instrument”
“So, despite the fact [promoter Move Concerts] presented their paperwork with the necessary 30 days’ notice, we can not grant permission [for the event to go ahead].”
A spokesman for Move calls the decision “surreal” and tells IQ it intends to appeal the ruling.
Kraftwerk are scheduled to play on 23 November at the 9,290-cap. Luna Park stadium. The show is 70% sold out.
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