Dispatches - The Great Ticket Scandal merely confirmed what we already knew

We've all done it: a big gig comes around that lots of people want to see, assuming you cannot get the time off work at short notice to go and queue for a ticket at the venue box office, you try to purchase the tickets online only to find that as soon as the tickets are officially on sale, the site crashes and by the time you get onto the site, all the tickets have sold out. 

If, like me, you've wondered why it is that within minutes of the concert selling out online, tickets magically appear on resale sites at inflated prices, you would be advised to watch the documentary shown on Channel 4 television on Thursday night. Investigators for 'Dispatches - The Great Ticket Scandal' went behind the scenes at two well-known 'secondary market' ticket sites, Viagogo and Seatwave. Working on the desks at the resellers' offices, what they found confirmed what many music fans have long suspected: ordinary fans are being pushed out of the way by 'professional resellers'. 

At Viagogo, one reporter working there learned that some promoters actually allocated tickets to the agency, even though the site itself claims to be a 'fan-to-fan' market; i.e. it exists to allow fans to buy tickets from other fans who cannot attend the event in question. The agency then sells the tickets on at inflated prices.  Worse followed when one agent working for Viagogo was seen actually purchasing tickets online from Ticketmaster, using a book filled with different credit cards for the purpose. Explaining that because Ticketmaster's policy forbids more than six tickets per address, we then learned that the staff were actually providing addresses for their own homes and those of relatives in order to circumvent the restrictions. When you think that there are teams of staff working at these places, all of whom hit the websites at once armed with bundles of credit cards, it becomes clear why it is ordinary fans are shut out of the game. 

Another reporter who had taken a job at Seatwave learned that the company was in regular contact with 'professional resellers'; these are companies whose job it is to buy up tickets for large events in bulk and then sell them on to Seatwave. With teams of professionals and the so-called 'fan-to-fan' secondary market working in such close harmony, it is easy to see why that big event always sells out in moments and why it is that the tickets appear again so soon at huge markups in some cases. 

Even if you are prepared to queue at the box office, it is not always a guarantee of a ticket. One lady queued overnight for a ticket to a major event, was first in the queue when the box office opened, only to find that she still could not get the front row. She discovered that the first few rows had been reserved for Viagogo, in spite of the fact that they claim not to own any tickets themselves. 

As a music fan who enjoys live concerts and has endured many scrambles for tickets, the revelations in this documentary were both unsurprising and disappointing. Granted, my own musical taste is not always with the mainstream and so I'm unlikely to be in the hunt for, say, Coldplay, but even so, I've experienced many times when it's been difficult to obtain tickets. 
In 2008 I queued up for several hours in order to get tickets to see AC/DC at Manchester's MEN Arena; the band themselves were attempting to combat scalpers and so restricted sales to just two per person - even so, their concerts sold out within minutes. Needless to say, they appeared online within the hour, with suitably increased prices.  It is irrelevant what your musical taste is, all fans lose out when large companies work alongside 'professional resellers' to shut fans out of the ticket sales until they can sell them on at a huge profit. 

The other thing that became clear to me was that all of this has little to do with the bands themselves - the promoters, agents and resellers all seem to be in this together. Interestingly, Viagogo attempted to obtain an injunction preventing this programme from being broadcast, which tells you all you need to know about their practices and how they would prefer the public not to know about them. 

The Dispatches programme will be available to view soon on Channel 4's website (UK only);in the meantime you can read an article published last year by This Is Money makes similar allegations against Viagogo.

Perhaps the old way of applying by post was better after all!

 

Until a band makes a song about ticket scams, this oldie from Queen will have to do!

 

 

Delain new album shelved - fans unhappy

The Dutch symphonic band Delain are due to issue their third album this year, entitled 'We Are The Others'. They've been working on it for a long time and had previewed three new songs in their live set last year. However an interview with keyboard player and founder Martijn Westerholt and singer Charlotte Wessels revealed that the record is unlikely to come out by the time the band return to play live shows in Europe this spring. The interview in full can be read here, but the salient part is that although their label Roadrunner is ready to put the album out, their parent company Warner is not, and according to the band, it is because of a decision taken at executive level. 

On the face of it, this makes no sense at all. To be honest, I'm a bit behind the times here - I always considered Roadrunner to be an independent label specialising in Metal releases; I wasn't aware that they'd been acquired by Warner (in actual fact, they'd taken a majority stake in Roadrunner back in 2006, and bought them out totally in late 2010). If what the band say is true, you have to wonder why a major would buy out a Metal label if they then decide they don't like what the bands on their roster are coming up with? 

There's already a Facebook petition gathering speed to get Warner to change their mind, but you'd think that a band with a growing following (especially in Britain) and two well-received albums out already would have little problem getting their third one released, especially with a tour already booked. 

The days of major record companies deciding what we all hear are over, or so I thought. The Internet took away a lot of their control over what the masses get to hear and the majors still are uncomfortable with that. An executive making a unilateral decision to bury a band's record will not be accepted in this day and age, especially when that band is extremely savvy at using the web to promote itself. Delain's singer Charlotte has a large Twitter following and a regularly-updated blog where she keeps contact with fans. 

I did wonder why it was that Warner would decide to shelve this record considering that their previous one ('April Rain') broke them to a lot of new fans, and although I can only speculate, my feeling is that they've decided that the new material isn't as accessible as before. The new songs aired last year hinted at a departure from that symphonic but catchy sound, maybe they were expecting another 'April Rain'. Of course, we'll only know how different it is when we hear it for ourselves! 

The other theory I have is that the major is focusing on Charlotte herself; again I can only speculate but with the massive success of Adele in the last year or so, maybe Warner see her as someone they can mould into a new star. Certainly her style of singing is unusual in Metal, sweeter than heard in many other bands of this type, and it's possible that record company executives think that if she were given more radio-friendly material she could become 'the next Adele'. Of course I've no evidence to support that theory but, if Warner did want to make a mainstream star of Charlotte then it would be better for them if she did not have a Metal 'past', as it were. Unluckily for them, with two albums under her belt, she already does! 

I did say in a review of the band's show at Leeds two years ago that they'd do well to hold on to her, but I thought that if she were to go solo then it would be on her own terms. She appears committed to the band for the forseeable future but it would not be the first time a record company would try to steer a singer down a different path in order to achieve huge mainstream success. 

Whatever the reasons for shelving the album, speaking as a fan I hope that the campaign does succeed and the record released for those people who want to buy it. Regardless of the album situation, the band will tour in May and intend to perform several new songs from 'We Are The Others', so it would only make sense for the record to be released. 

Of course, where major record companies are concerned, common sense doesn't always apply! 

Here's a trailer for the upcoming tour - if they're coming anywhere near you, go along! 

Charlotte Wessels blog

Delain on Twitter