Ticketmaster is exiting the secondary ticketing market in Europe by closing down its resale sites GET ME IN! and Seatwave from October.
The websites will be replaced by a face value or less fan-to-fan ticket exchange, which will first roll out in the UK and Ireland, and across Europe from early 2019.
From today, there will be no new events listed on GET ME IN! or Seatwave.
Announcing the news online, a Ticketmaster blog said: We’ve listened and we hear you: secondary sites just don’t cut it anymore and you’re tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit.
All we want is you, the fan, to be able to buy tickets to the events you love. We’re excited about making ticketing simpler.
Live Nation acquired GET ME IN! in 2008 and launched it as Ticketmaster’s resale brand in the UK. The London-founded Seatwave was brought into the fold in 2014 and rolled out in markets across Europe.
The two brands joined the Ticketmaster Resale platform in Australia and TM+ and TicketsNow marketplaces in North America.
Andrew Parsons, Managing Director of Ticketmaster UK, said: “Our number one priority is to get tickets into the hands of fans so that they can go to the events they love.
“We know that fans are tired of seeing tickets being snapped up just to find them being resold for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action.
“Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan.”
andrew parsons, ticketmaster
“Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan.
“We’re excited to launch our redesigned website which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place.
“Our new Ticketmaster ticket exchange lets fans sell tickets they can’t use directly through their Ticketmaster account, for the price originally paid or less.
“Selling tickets through Ticketmaster is really simple: we do all the hard work and outline the maximum that can be charged for the ticket – and it doesn’t cost fans a penny to sell them.”
Ticketmaster’s move follows the introduction of stricter rules for secondary sites from the UK Government designed to better protect fans from falling victim to fraud and paying highly marked-up prices.
As of April, resellers were required to quote the ‘unique ticket number’ (UTN) to a buyer, if the event organiser specifies one, helping to identify the ticket’s seat, standing area or location.
In addition, sellers had to disclose the original price of the ticket.
In March, the Advertising Standards Authority banned several pricing practices by secondary ticketing providers for not making clear the total ticket price, not including the booking fee (inclusive of VAT) upfront and not making clear the applicable delivery fee.
“we are now much closer to a genuine transformation of the secondary market – where large-scale online touts are locked out, where innovation can flourish, and the resale of tickets is made straightforward, transparent and consumer-friendly.”
fanfair alliance
A spokesperson from anti-ticket touting lobbying group FanFair Alliance said: “After a long campaign to change the UK ticketing market and to put power into the hands of artists and their fans, the Fanfair Alliance warmly welcomes this move by Ticketmaster.
“While enforcement action is still urgently required to clamp down on rogue operators such as Viagogo, we are now much closer to a genuine transformation of the secondary market – where large-scale online touts are locked out, where innovation can flourish, and the resale of tickets is made straightforward, transparent and consumer-friendly.
“We look forward to the roll out from October this year and seeing how these changes work in practice.”Music Business Worldwide
