The Real Cost of Sitting in the Front Row
Ticketmaster has recently announced plans to close its two resale sites GetMeIn and Seatwave, in an attempt to combat touts who exploit the sites to sell tickets at inflated prices. The closure of these secondary ticketing sites, which will come into effect from next month, is certainly a positive step forward for music fans, with the added benefit that, in place of the secondary sites, Ticketmaster will be introducing a fan-to-fan exchange platform that will allow tickets to be sold at face value plus 15%, or below. However, it appears that Ticketmaster will still continue to operate its Platinum Tickets scheme, whereby premium seats for live music events are sold directly from the artist via Ticketmaster for amounts considerably higher than face value, which – according to Ticketmaster – provides fans with “fair and safe access to in demand areas at market driven prices”. The concept that fans can have safer access to some of the best seats in a venue, without having to resort t...