That’s rock & rolled over
Metallica’s tour promoters force venues to abandon blitz on touts STUB OUT THE TOUTS
TOUTS made a killing on Metallica’s UK tour after their promoters forced a U-turn on a ticket crackdown.
Venues had promised to block entry to any fan with a ticket not bought in their name to discourage people from buying from “scalpers”.
But tour promoters Live Nation – who own two of the big websites used by touts – ordered them not to follow through.
That allowed an estimated 1000 fans to get into the SSE Hydro in Glasgow on Thursday with resold tickets.
And it meant Live Nation sites Get Me In! and Seatwave did not have to refund fans who had been ripped off with touts’ huge mark-ups. Industry investigator Reg Walker, of The Iridium Consultancy, said: “This is the most blatant conflict of interest we’ve seen in the UK ticketing industry.
“Fans have paid vastly inflated prices for tickets due to a failure to stop touts harvesting them in bulk.
“The only winners are touts who are breaking the law to make millions from fans, and sites like Stubhub, Viagogo, Get Me In! and Seatwave, who make profit whenever the touts sell on tickets.” This month we told how Metallica fans who bought tickets from tout sites had been warned by venues they would not be valid for entry.
The Hydro and other venues had planned to insist on fans producing ID to match their ticket. Metallica themselves had claimed they backed moves to stop the touts and Get Me In!, Seatwave and rival Stubhub delisted tickets for Metallica gigs.
But fans still paid more than £1million above face value over five UK dates once surcharges and commission had been added.
Many tickets are sold for a profit by criminals who harvest hundreds at a time using software. Live Nation’s move protected their profits.
Metallica have refused to address claims that their promotion deal allows Live Nation, whose Ticketmaster site is the first point of sale, to do as they please with tickets.
Bosses of the Hydro were adamant the ID checks would be in place on Thursday “in line with any instructions by the promoter”.
We asked Live Nation, Get Me In! and Ticketmaster for comment but received no reply.