State Champ Radio ticket scalping
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Four of the U.K.’s leading artists are among those coming together to call on the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to honour a pledge to protect fans from online ticket scalpers, also known as touts.
Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Radiohead and Sam Fender are all signatories to a joint statement published Thursday (Nov. 13), in which artists, managers and fan groups are asking Starmer to commit to resale price cap legislation in the U.K.
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In its manifesto for the 2024 general election, the Labour Party proposed policies for new consumer protections on ticket resales. This evolved into an industry consultation in January, which invited views from venues, promoters, fans and other parties on a resale price cap, considering options from face value to a 30% uplift.
On Oct. 5, seven months after the consultation closed, the U.K.’s culture minister, Ian Murray, confirmed that the current Labour government would press ahead with plans for a price cap on resale tickets — but the specifics of these plans have yet to be revealed.
Now, dozens of industry figures are calling for the Prime Minister to make the commitment to price cap legislation in the next King’s Speech, which is set to take place next spring.
In the statement, the coalition says new protections are needed to “help fix elements of the extortionate and pernicious secondary ticketing market that serve the interests of touts, whose exploitative practices are preventing genuine fans from accessing the music, theatre and sports they love.”
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It adds: “For too long certain resale platforms have allowed touts to bulk buy and then resell tickets at inflated prices, forcing fans to either pay above the odds or miss out entirely. This erodes trust in the live events sector and undermines the efforts of artists and organisers to make shows accessible and affordable. Introducing a cap will restore faith in the ticketing system, help democratise public access to the arts in line with the Government’s agenda and make it easier for fans to spot illegal behaviour, such as ticketing fraud.”
Alongside the aforementioned names, the list of signatories includes The Cure’s Robert Smith, New Order, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, PJ Harvey, alt-J, Aluna Francis, Bastille, Ben Howard, Brix Smith, Mogwai, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Nubiyan Twist. (View the full list below.)
With the statement on Thursday, the group of signatories joins consumer choice organisation Which?, the FanFair Alliance, O2 and the Football Supporters’ Association, along with organisations representing the music and theatre industries, venues, managers and ticket retailers, among others.
The statement arrives alongside a new investigation from Which?, which outlines the global touting operations targeting the U.K.’s ticketing industry. The group identified prolific scalpers in locations including Brazil, Dubai, Singapore, Spain and the United States, all of whom were bulk-buying tickets for live music and sporting events in the U.K. before relisting them at inflated prices on platforms such as StubHub and Viagogo.
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Examples of this practice included tickets for Oasis’ Wembley Stadium shows, which were listed for prices as high as £3,498.85 ($4,594.04) on StubHub and £4,442 ($5832.41) on Viagogo. Another finding showed that a seat for the recent Minnesota Vikings vs. Cleveland Browns NFL clash at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was listed for £3,568.39 ($4685.35) on StubHub.
Elsewhere, Which? also found multiple cases of speculative selling, which is when tickets are listed on secondary sites for double the price — even though the seller has not bought them yet.
In a press release, Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, said: “Today’s joint statement makes clear that artists, fan organisations and consumers reject the broken ticketing market that has allowed touts to thrive for too long. The Prime Minister pledged to protect fans and a price cap on resold tickets will be a critical step towards fixing this industry, but he must commit to this legislation by including it in the next King’s Speech.”
Webb concluded: “Further reforms are also needed to ensure sellers actually own the tickets they advertise before listing them, that resale platforms ensure the identities of sellers and key information about a ticket are verified and that the new rules are effectively enforced.”
Artist signatories: Alfa Mist, alt-J, Aluna Francis, Amy Macdonald, Andro, Bastille, Ben Howard, Brix Smith, Charlotte OC, Coldplay, Dana Margolin (Porridge Radio), Dua Lipa, Graeme Park, Howard Jones, Idlewild, Iron Maiden, Johnny Marr, Keane, Kelli-Leigh, Low Island, Mark Knopfler, Mogwai, New Order, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Nick Mason, Nubiyan Twist, Orlando Higginbottom, PJ Harvey, Quantic, Radiohead, Revenge of Calculon, Robert Mitchell, Robert Smith (The Cure), Sam Fender, SNAYX, Sweetie Irie, The New Eves, Travis.
Organisations: Fan Fair Alliance, Featured Artists Coalition, Football Supporters Association, LIVE, Music Managers’ Forum, Music Venue Trust, Musicians’ Union, O2, Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre, Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), UK Music, Which?.
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The Oasis Live ‘25 Tour kicked off its Australian leg last week (Oct. 31), and it continues to dominate music headlines as the shows roll along.
In a landmark move for Australia’s live music sector, Victoria’s government shut down bulk ticket scalping for Oasis’ recent Melbourne shows (Oct. 31, Nov. 1-4) at the Marvel Stadium by designating them under the Major Events Act 2009. The act allows the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events to formally declare events that then become subject to anti-scalping protections.Under this special declaration, it became illegal to advertise or resell tickets on platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub for more than 10% above the original face value; if they flouted these restrictions, scalpers could be fined between $908 and $545,000 (AUD). A subsequent report from the Herald Sun states that 180,000 tickets for the sold-out shows went to fans as a result of the government effectively shutting out scalpers.
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Oasis’ management applauded the news, saying it could set a new benchmark for fairness in the live music market. “It’s great to see Victoria’s Major Events Declaration doing exactly what it’s meant to — Viagogo can’t list our Melbourne shows — and that’s a huge win for real fans,” they told the Herald Sun.
“When the government and the live industry work together, we can stop large-scale scalping in its tracks,” they added. “We’d love to see other states follow Victoria’s lead so fans everywhere get a fair go.”
Before last week, Oasis had not performed in Australia in nearly two decades. After tonight’s (Nov. 4) final Melbourne gig, they’ll head to Sydney (Nov. 7 and 8), before performing across Argentina, Chile and Brazil, wrapping up proceedings in São Paulo on Nov. 23.
Earlier this month in the U.K., the country’s culture minister, Ian Murray, confirmed that the current Labour government will press ahead with plans for a price cap on resale tickets.
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An industry consultation that took place in January invited views from venues, promoters, fans and other parties on the proposed price, which ranged from no profit being permitted on any ticket to a mark-up of up to 30% of face value.
Writing in the Daily Record last month (Oct. 5), Murray said: “We asked a direct question — should the UK follow countries like Ireland, where resale profiteering is capped in law? The response from fans could not have been a clearer — ‘yes.’”
“So let me tell you what we’re doing,” Murray continued. “First, we will cap resale prices. No more outrageous mark-ups of 500% or 1,000%. We are examining a range of options, from face value to a reasonable uplift.”
UK Finance, which represents 300 financial services outfits including Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC and Barclay, has lobbied against the decision for fear of customers losing out in an unregulated market. Adam Webb of the Fan Fair Alliance, however, disputed these claims in an interview with The Times. “I would advise UK Finance actually speak to experts in those countries, rather than rely on the self-interested research of unregulated offshore websites who promote industrial-scale ticket touting and exploit British audiences,” he said.
Scalpers hoping to earn a big payout flipping Chappell Roan tickets likely just watched their profits vanish after the singer announced she was shutting down resellers charging outrageous markups for her Oct. 1 show in Franklin, Tenn.
The news was greeted with praise by fans who have watched the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s star rise to new heights this summer — as well as by questions from ticket buyers wondering how the singer was able to call a mulligan on tickets she’d already sold to ensure actual fans get to attend her show instead.
The answer isn’t totally clear — Roan’s reps did not respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment — but there’s enough information already available about the Franklin show to tell part of the story. It’s also worth noting that Roan isn’t the first artist to deal with scalpers trying to mark up fan-friendly $30 lawn tickets to as high as $900; in years past, major artists like Ed Sheeran and Eric Church, among others, have utilized the same strategy. And while not a perfect system, it’s still an impactful way to ensure that more fans have access to affordable tickets.
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In many ways, for a breakthrough artist like Roan, there are worse problems to have. Over the last year, thanks to the success of her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, her work as a supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo‘s Guts World Tour and her breakout performances this summer at Lollapalooza and Coachella, Roan, as some say in music business parlance, is the blowing the f— up. Now, as with any big star, scalpers are taking advantage.
In one less extensive example of this, tickets for Roan’s Oct. 2 show at Walmart Amphitheatre near Rogers, Ark., were originally priced between $30 and $80 when they went on sale in June. Now, they’re selling for $300 to $1,200 on StubHub and other secondary sites — though in that case, only a couple dozen tickets, out of 11,000 total capacity, appear to be listed on StubHub.
But in Franklin, there were dozens, maybe hundreds, more resale tickets on sale for the show at the 7,500-capacity FirstBank Amphitheater. Located just 20 miles south of Nashville, Franklin is a much bigger music market than Rogers, and the price gouging for tickets apparently prompted someone from her team to work with reps from Ticketmaster to find out who is scalping those tickets and take them away from those responsible.
Catching scalpers on Ticketmaster, especially after a sale has been made, isn’t particularly complicated. While there are laws governing ticket ownership and rights, in most cases ticketing companies treat tickets like revocable licenses, meaning they have the right to disable tickets that a fan purchased and refund them their money if they are caught violating Ticketmaster’s terms of service.
For example, many scalpers will try to buy up as many tickets as possible using multiple credit cards. That’s a violation of Ticketmaster’s “limit per order” policy, which limits the number of tickets that can be purchased per order based on the event and demand for tickets.
Ticketmaster prohibits users from using multiple IP addresses or email addresses when buying tickets, so if someone successfully completed a purchase of a Chappell Roan ticket but was later found to have used multiple email addresses or a VPN to hide their IP addresses, that could be grounds for their tickets to be canceled and refunded. It wouldn’t take long for a couple of Ticketmaster executives to comb through the transactions for a 15,000-capacity show and find purchases tied to bots with no IP addresses, or large purchases from newly-created accounts linked to free email services.
Once those transactions are identified, most are investigated and the purchases canceled. In Roan’s case, the canceled tickets were pooled and sold via lottery to fans who had to register in advance for a shot at buying them. Though it’s unclear how many tickets were canceled and reissued to fans, it’s unlikely that more than a few hundred tickets were involved.
While this practice is popular with fans and punishes amateur scalpers, there is an argument to be made that, in some cases, it enriches professional scalpers who are better at avoiding detection by reducing the number of tickets available on resale sites and in turn driving up the price for those tickets that aren’t taken down.
But the effort isn’t specifically aimed at eliminating all ticket scalping. Instead, it’s about randomly disrupting the predatory practices of scalpers targeting vulnerable shows by rising artists like Roan who don’t want to charge fans hundreds of dollars to see their concerts. And by focusing on high-margin shows where scalpers are set to make big paydays, artists like Roan really can impact the pocketbooks of professional ticket resellers and help keep more of their tickets affordable for fans.
A small percentage of Taylor Swift fans made huge profits reselling their Eras Tour tickets on sites like StubHub as professional scalpers mostly had to watch from the sidelines, according to data reviewed by Billboard.
The unusual dynamic underscores the challenges major tours face in combating scalpers — and the unintended consequences of efforts to keep tickets off the secondary market.
Swift’s touring team sought to keep tickets for the Eras Tour off the secondary market, according to Ticketmaster officials, and met with Ticketmaster executives to discuss how to best prevent mass ticket scalping. One option was that Ticketmaster could use its Safetix service to digitally lock tickets in place and prevent fans from transferring their tickets, effectively blocking all ticket buyers from reselling their tickets on sites like StubHub. But the downside was that, while many fans liked the idea of blocking scalpers, they didn’t like having their own tickets made non-transferable and found such restrictions inconvenient.
Ultimately, the tour decided to use Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform to screen out scalpers from the initial ticket sale, asking buyers to register in advance. Fans identified as legitimate fans were sent a code allowing them to buy tickets during the presale, which opened on Nov. 15, 2022, and subsequently crashed as millions of fans, scalpers and bots flooded the site.
Ticketmaster officials would later say the website meltdown was the result of a massive denial of service attack that disrupted the presale but didn’t defeat the security measures put in place to screen out scalpers from fans. As proof of its success, Ticketmaster announced that less than 5% of the approximately 5 million tickets sold for the tour ended up being listed on secondary markets.
It’s an impressive feat compared with other major tours in 2023 that took fewer steps to keep tickets off the secondary market and on average saw 20–30% of available tickets sold through StubHub.
While secondary tickets for tours like Beyonce’s and Coldplay’s were initially listed at major markups several times the face value, as more tickets moved through the secondary market prices dropped over time.
Swift’s Eras Tour saw the opposite effect. Eras tickets on StubHub were marked up 10 times face value, and then never dropped. The huge spike in price allowed resale sites, which collect a percentage of sales from both sellers and buyers, to make up the revenue it would have generated had they sold a higher volume of tickets, according to a StubHub rep.
Selling the tickets was easy, but getting them into the hands of fans proved difficult. StubHub noticed that orders for Eras tickets were experiencing an unusually high volume of delays and complaints from buyers. When company officials investigated the issue, they discovered that 83% of the Eras Tour tickets sold on its site were coming from new accounts with no record of past sales. The vast majority of those tickets are believed to have come from Swift fans, and they were making big bucks. A ticket with a face value under $150 could fetch $1,700, while tickets close to the stage were going for as high as $10,000.
While the outcome of the story is surprising, the fact that 83% of the available inventory of Eras Tour tickets on StubHub was sold by fans and not ticket brokers is a testament to how efficiently Swift and Ticketmaster were screening out professional scalpers, reducing their access to inventory to less than 1% of available tickets. While Swift would probably prefer that none of her tickets be flipped on the secondary market, at least she can take solace knowing that her fans, not professional scalpers, reaped most of the financial rewards.
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