Twickets talks Oasis, Eras and future of resale
Twickets founder Richard Davies has spoken to IQ after the firm was named as the official ticket resale platform for Oasis’ 2025 UK & Ireland reunion tour.
The fan-to-fan resale site has previously partnered with both Liam and Noel Gallagher on their respective solo shows, as well as acts including Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Adele, Queen, Take That and Stormzy.
Strict anti-touting measures are being put in place for the Oasis shows, with tickets permitted to be resold for no more than face value and booking fees. Davies says he is thrilled the band’s representatives Ignition Management opted to partner with Twickets on one of the most anticipated tours in British history.
“It will be the biggest tour we’ve ever worked on,” says Davies. “There’s no two ways about it; it’s fantastic, so I’m delighted and very thankful. It’s great they’ve taken the bull by the horns and made a statement about resale this early – before tickets have even gone on sale.”
On top of the initial 14 dates, Oasis have already announced an extra three shows for Manchester’s Heaton Park (16 July), London’s Wembley Stadium (30 July) and Edinburgh’s Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium (12 August), amid “phenomenal” interest in the Gallagher brothers’ first gigs together since 2009.
Ticket prices for the concerts, which go on general sale this Saturday and are being promoted by SJM Concerts, Live Nation, DF Concerts and MCD Productions, were released today. Tickets for most shows are priced £65-185 (€77-220), excluding fees, with premium options also available, while tickets for the Dublin dates start at €73.
“Generally speaking, most of our transactions and trading are done within the last week before a show”
Given the predicted demand for tickets, Davies expects to see a shift from Twickets’ usual sales pattern.
“Generally speaking, most of our transactions and trading are done within the last week before a show,” he explains. “It has always been that way really, because people’s plans change last minute and they just need to get some money back, but I think Oasis will break that rule a little bit.
“What I think will happen this weekend is that people will rush to buy tickets and then find their mates have also bought them for the same night, so they won’t need as many as they first thought. So we’ll perhaps see a bit of activity immediately and in the next week or so.”
Davies also comments on the unusual activity seen on the site relating to the recently concluded European leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
“Twickets averages about 3-4% of the total primary tickets sold being listed for resale,” he says. “For some tours – for example Arctic Monkeys or Foo Fighters – we’ll get up to 5% as those artists are very conscious of ensuring fans don’t get ripped off. As a result, they make it clear to their audiences to trade at face value only.
“For Taylor Swift, well under 1% of primary tickets found their way [to Twickets], which is pretty unique. An important point here is we’ve encountered more attempted listings above face value than for any other tour since we started. In fact, they represented the majority of listings we’ve received. But obviously those were turned away, which goes a long way to explaining the low volume of trading.”
“We’ve been profitable every year since the pandemic and have grown in terms of revenue”
Founded in 2014, Twickets has received funding from management companies of artists such as One Direction, Arctic Monkeys, 5 Seconds of Summer and Royal Blood. The revenue model sees buyers pay a standard booking fee of 10-15% of the ticket price, and Davies says the firm is now firmly back on track following a sticky spell during Covid.
“The last two or three years have been fantastic,” he reports. “The pandemic came on and we thought, ‘We could be in trouble.’ Luckily, we relied on the furlough scheme but sadly had to let some people go and we got 2% of our usual revenue through the door for the year. I still don’t know to this day who the 2% were, trading tickets in a pandemic, but we got a few, so we had a tiny amount of revenue, but we survived.
“Having come through the other side, we’ve been profitable every year since and have grown in terms of revenue. Last year, we grew 60% and this year, it’s going to be more like about 40% year-on-year. We’ve benefited from the backlog of shows that have taken place since the pandemic, so that had a big impact. But generally speaking, there’s been an acceleration in terms of word of mouth.”
He continues: “We may well invest further into mainland Europe and try and increase our presence there. But for now, the international side of our business is more about supporting our UK and US partners that are on tour.”
Twickets has recently expanded into theatre, working with LW Theatres and Ambassador Theatre Group, and also launched a partnership with personal safeguarding app Help Me Angela.
“We’re looking at partnerships to spread the word about us, but also about others that we feel are doing an interesting job and a complementary job as well – one that helps our audience,” says Davies. “It was an important campaign to support and make people aware of.”
“We were very much part of that initial campaign to bring about change”
Meanwhile, Davies says he is “very confident” that the UK’s new Labour government’s pledge to introduce new consumer protections on ticket resale will be followed through.
“I’m hoping it will be in time for the Oasis tour,” he adds. “[MP] Sharon Hodgson has done an incredible job over the years in driving this campaign, as have FanFair Alliance, and they’ve really made incredible progress to ensure that Labour included a cap on resale as part of their manifesto. So I fully believe that will be actioned now. I don’t know any timings, but I’m hopeful it will be sooner rather than later.”
In conclusion, Davies is happy that Twickets has played its part in helping to effect change in the resale market.
“With FanFair Alliance, we were very much part of that initial campaign to bring about change,” he says. “I think there’s a different mindset now. Up until we came along, Viagogo, StubHub and others were saying, ‘Resale can’t work unless we allow an uplift in the ticket price. It’s just not financially viable.’ Hopefully we’ve shown that isn’t the case, and that it can be a viable proposition to cap at face value.
“We’ve had others come to the market since that are following that model as well, so hopefully we’ve had a positive impact.”
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Twickets reveals next steps after record quarter
Twickets founder Richard Davies has revealed to IQ that the company’s revenues from international territories have doubled from pre-pandemic levels.
The face value or less fan-to-fan resale site is coming off its best-ever quarter in the midst of a huge summer for live music in the UK. In excess of 300,000 tickets were listed on the platform from May to July, with gross revenue up 140% compared to the same three months in 2019, with single tickets making up 40% of sales.
According to the firm, 74% of ticket sales now come in the first 48 hours post-listing, while two-thirds of tickets sold are within a week of the event itself.
“Post-pandemic there’s been a very positive impact on resale activity, as reflected in our recent results,” Davies tells IQ. “With so many more events scheduled –and rescheduled – coupled with fans changing their own plans, we’ve seen a real surge in trading.
“With the majority of tickets listed on secondary platforms coming from ‘brokers’, fans have come down on the side of our ethical approach to resale.”
The company says that 1.5 million unique users visited the Twickets platform during the three-month period, while a record 18,500 alerts were set up for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, which takes place at Wembley Stadium on 3 September. Twickets is the benefit show’s official resale partner and will be donating its fee from the event.
“Growth has been particularly strong in mainland Europe”
Established in 2011, the London-headquartered company works with more than 300 live entertainment partners in the UK including venues, artists, promoters, festivals and ticketing companies, and confirmed a link-up with the UK’s Music Venue Trust earlier this year, with a number of significant new partnerships to be announced soon.
Backed by several high-profile managers, agents and promoters, Twickets also has local operations in the US, Spain and Australia, with further overseas expansion plans on the horizon.
“Revenue from international territories has doubled since pre-pandemic levels, and growth has been particularly strong in mainland Europe,” says Davies. “As a result, we’re now focused on building a local Twickets team in key territories there, notably Germany and France.”
The firm, which has previously partnered on tours by artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran, used the downtime inadvertently provided by Covid-19 to enhance its services.
“We invested a lot of time re-engineering our apps during lockdown, and have subsequently witnessed a large increase in adoption rate,” says Davies. “Over 70% of users now access Twickets through mobile.
“Furthermore, the introduction of an ‘events happening near you’ feature in the app has increased last minute purchases by those seeking inspiration for a local night out.”
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Music Venue Trust confirms Twickets partnership
The UK’s Music Venue Trust (MVT) has confirmed a partnership with capped ticket resale marketplace Twickets.
Established in 2011, Twickets works with more than 300 live entertainment partners in the UK including venues, artists, promoters, festivals and ticketing companies.
“We are delighted to become a partner of MVT,” says Twickets founder Richard Davies. “This is a key development for us as it further embeds the business as the legitimate face of resale, working to bring fairness and transparency to event-goers everywhere.
“Our goal is always to improve the ticket buying experience”
“Our goal is always to improve the ticket buying experience, and we look forward to collaborating with all members of MVT to prevent blatant profiteering in the secondary ticket market, which not only harms fans but damages the industry as a whole.”
A charitable organisation, the MVT was founded in January 2014 to help protect, secure and improve music venues in the UK.
Mark Davyd, MVT founder and CEO, adds: “We are really pleased to welcome Twickets as one of MVT’s partners. Their mission to enable fans to resell tickets they can no longer use for the price they paid or less aligns well with MVT’s goals to keep tickets out of the hands of touts and in the hands of genuine grassroots gig going fans. Customers can buy from Twickets with the reassurance that they are supporting grassroots music venues across the UK.”
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IQ 107 out now: Industry heads map the road ahead
IQ 107, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite monthly magazine, is available to read online now.
In the January 2022 edition, industry leaders from around the world share their thoughts about the state of the industry and the recovery of the sector, over the coming weeks and months.
Elsewhere, the IQ news team looks back at the trends, deals, events and, of course, the Covid restrictions that made the headlines during 2021.
On page 34, IQ Magazine editor Gordon Masson explores the benefits that blockchain technology can offer the live music industry.
For this edition’s columns and comments, Wayne Forte details the process behind producing his critically acclaimed Mad Dogs & Englishmen documentary, and Richard Davies urges the industry to adopt a more strategic approach in its efforts to beat ticket touts.
And, in this month’s Your Shout, Dan Steinberg (Emporium Presents), Rob Challice (Paradigm), Mark Davyd (Music Venue Trust) and Nick Hobbs (Charmenko) describe their best moments of 2021.
As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.
However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ for just £5.99 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:
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SJM Concerts partners with Twickets
Twickets has been appointed the official resale partner of SJM Concerts’ Gigs and Tours.
The partnership with SJM, one of the UK’s leading concert promoters, will provide a fan-friendly resale option for all tickets purchased through Gigsandtours.com, allowing users to list tickets for sale via Twickets’ website or mobile app at no more than the price originally paid.
Launched in 2016, Twickets has since served as the official resale platform for leading artists including Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons and Elton John. It now attracts more than three million users to its ticket marketplace every year.
“Providing a safe, secure and easy way to resell tickets is best practice”
“We continue to strive to not only offer our customers an efficient and straightforward purchasing experience, but also help them when things don’t go to plan,” explains SJM Concerts’ Matt Woolliscroft. “Providing a safe, secure and easy way to resell tickets is best practice and yet another step Gigsandtours.com is taking to innovate and improve concertgoing.”
Twickets founder Richard Davies says: “The UK is in the midst of a market shift away from rip-off secondary ticketing platforms and towards consumer-friendly resale services. I am proud Twickets is at the forefront of this change, and delighted we can bring our expertise in resale to such an important player in the UK music scene. Our goal is always to improve the ticket buying experience, fill venues and keep customers happy.”
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