Extreme Listening Mode!

There’s a tradition in Scotland at big football matches that people will sell tickets outside the venue to supporters who haven’t managed to pick one up before matchday. The strange thing is that the seller makes no money on the deal. Tickets are sold for face value, and anyone attempting to sell them for more than face value is liable to end up with a sore face (as is anyone who attempts to purchase one for less than face value.) This is done as an unpaid service to fellow supporters, is self-regulated by a sense of decency and very rarely needs to descend into violence. The main motivating factor behind it truly is helping out other supporters. However, this is not the model followed in the world of concert-going. Any attempt to buy a ticket outside a sell-out gig for face value is likely to result in a Nelson Muntz-style ‘ha ha!’ followed by disappointment.

Why is it that concert tickets are so much more valuable? Well, with the exception of certain special matches – league deciders, cup finals etc – then there isn’t the unique element of a concert. A band might never visit your town again, whereas a football team is likely to be playing there every two weeks. But there is also the ‘belonging’ factor. With the exception of perhaps emo acts, people seldom feel the sense of communality about liking the same music as they do when supporting the same team. There isn’t the ‘mob’ mentality, with all of its good and bad points – to consider.

Similarly, it could be simply that gigs are that bit more free – there’s over a century of established football norms and behaviours, and any deviation from it is swiftly and mercilessly rebutted. With concerts, there are no real rules – well, not ones people religiously follow anyway.

In the end, ticket scalping comes down to a moral choice; do you want to be another version of the Scouse tout you see at every gig? Do you want to do the right thing? Or do you believe that the free market is the free market and the tickets are worth what people are willing to pay for them? Of course, that sets up another discussion – if it is okay for you to set the price by that criteria, is it not similarly justifiable for TicketMaster to do the same?

There are more questions than answers. I’ve scalped and been scalped, sold for face value and bought for same. In the end, it’s a matter of personal choice. The game exists, it’s simply a question if you are willing to play or not.

Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | football, gigs, music, orange peel, scalping, ticket touts, tickets