Here’s the ticket
Face scanners, airline-style sales and other concert ticket trends to watch for
On-sale codes, digital waiting rooms and sketchy Craigslist merchants.
Buying a concert ticket wasn’t always this confusing.
But even all of that may soon be as quaint as standing in line at a ticket window seems today. In the digital age, the race for efficiency and convenience have kept the concert industry — and its consumers — on its toes, making fans dance for the chance to see their favorite artists on stage.
Take Jukely, a subscription service that lets fans see a select number of concerts each month for a recurring fee. Not every concert is available on the service — its roster of concerts favors under-the-radar artists — but it’s slotted fans into 3,576 shows in Denver since it launched here in 2015.
Here are four other new trends in the live music industry that could change how you get in to your next show.
“Slow” ticketing
If you can’t stand the markedup prices associated with the secondary market, Ticketmaster has a solution. But you probably won’t like it.
At select concerts — i.e., Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour, com-
ing to Mile High Stadium on May 25 — the Live Nation-owned ticketing company has implemented a program that changes the face value of a given seat throughout its on-sale period. That means, depending on when you bought your ticket, you might have paid Ticketmaster more to see Swift this month than your seatmate. (Rolling Stone reported that a ticket to Swift’s concert in Chicago varied as much as $400 in three months.)
It’s a method the industry calls “slow ticketing,” because the emphasis is on long on-sale dates that can capitalize on market demand instead of selling out venues as fast as possible. While it’s not new — it actually traces its roots back to the 1990s with an Aeg-promoted Rolling Stones tour — it is, as the highprofile Swift tour suggests, catching on.
“The longer the tickets are on sale in the primary market at face value, that kills the secondary market,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of music industry trade publication Pollstar.
The thinking is, the secondary market is able to charge a higher price because that’s the “true” value of the seat. If tickets go on sale at comparably higher prices, fans will pay that price up front instead of shelling it out to second-hand peddlers. It’s an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach to battling price-gouging ticket touts.
“The artists and the promoters hate the secondary market because they don’t get a share of it,” Bongiovanni said. “This is an effort to capture more revenue.”
In 2015, her last shows in Denver, Swift grossed $2,868,991 over two concerts at the Pepsi Center, according to Pollstar. Using slow ticketing at the much larger Mile High Stadium, show promoters AEG Presents and the Messina Group are hoping to cash in far beyond that at this year’s show, which still has plenty of tickets available.
“The news media, probably egged on by brokers, have made a big deal about the show not selling out,” Bongiovanni said. “Taylor still has tickets available. But her grosses are going to be amazingly high.”
The rise of VIP
You’ve probably seen it at a music festival: A railing that cuts through the front of the crowd separating the VIP crowd from general admission.
For those who can afford it, VIP packages are a small price to pay to avoid the headaches of unruly crowds and the free-forall of general admission seating. For those on the outside, it can feel like classism.
In recent years, it’s become common for standalone tours to offer VIP packages for moneyed fans looking to get as close to their favorite artist as possible. VIP experience provider CID Entertainment has jumped on that trend. For Metallica’s 2017 World Wired tour, it presented a museum of the band’s memorabilia exclusively for 12 VIP customers per show, including play- able instruments featured in the band’s previous tours.
“It’s becoming a part of the fabric of the touring world,” said Dan Berkowitz, CEO of CID Entertainment.
Berkowitz traces the trend back to 2008, when a representative from Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh called him for a proposal on the artist’s 14-night run in New York City’s Nokia The- ater. “At the time, I didn’t realize I was setting the groundwork for what VIP would become.”
Berkowitz couldn’t pinpoint exactly why VIP packages have caught on in recent years. He suggested it could be a combination of older fans willing to dip into their savings to cut through the hassle of fending off crowds and younger fans taking cues from social media, eager to snag a selfie with their idols.
“Artists are getting more comfortable with it,” Berkowitz said. “The level of access they’re giving to their fans is unbelievable. Fifteen or 20 years ago, these experiences weren’t an option. When I wanted to get more information on Phish, I had to wait for their newsletter in the mail. And it was just tour dates.”
Face the music
In the not-too-distant future, catching a concert in Denver could resemble a scene from your favorite sci-fi film.
Last week, concert promoter Live Nation, owner of Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium and operator of the Marquis Theatre and Summit Music Hall, announced it would be partnering with (and investing in) Blink Identity, a biometrics organization specializing in facial recognition software. Paired with Live Nation’s Ticketmaster, the technology — which can acquire and match a likeness in half a second, according to Blink’s website — would essentially allow consumers to use their face as a ticket, gaining entry by passing by one of its bio-scanners. (It’s also a boon for security: The technology would potentially recognize bad actors trying to enter a venue.)
Not having to remember a ticket or fiddle with your phone at the venue is convenient, but the move has raised some eyebrows. Privacy advocates like Jay Stanley, a policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union who spoke to the Daily Beast on the subject, have argued that the database Blink would have to build to make this effective could be exploited for mass surveillance. It could also be potentially sold to a third-party for advertising purposes.
While some states like Illinois and Washington have laws against the use of facial recognition technology that’d be a barrier to the technology, Colorado does not. That might not matter, anyway.
“Companies who sell data tend to get in trouble with the FTC for unfair business practices
more than they get in trouble with state laws,” Derigan Silver, a law professor at the University of Denver, said in an email. “It will all depend on the terms of service you sign when you agree to let them use your face instead of a ticket. I would guess that they are going to bury some terms in there that allows them to use the information/sell the information to others.”
Whether Colorado could see face-scanning technology at concerts in the near future is yet to be seen; Live Nation did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ticketmaster communications director Ashley Dos Santos didn’t comment on specifics, writing that the company will be installing Blink technology in several Live Nation venues ”starting soon.”
Red Rocks revolutions
As Red Rocks looks to bank another 150 shows in its hallowed halls this season, the venue is bringing its ticketing system into the 21st century.
The biggest change is the venue’s new paperless ticketing system. Starting this season, fans can buy and redeem their tickets on the Flash Seats-integrated Red Rocks app. The aim is twofold: to reduce friction entering the venue and discourage scalpers.
“Through the first several shows, Flash Seats has speeded things up,” said Brian Kitts, Red Rocks’ marketing and communications director. “It also allows us to keep track of where tickets are going — who’s selling them and reselling them.”
This new technology has allowed Red Rocks to implement another big change concerning its disabled patrons. Starting this season, tickets in the first four rows at Red Rocks, including the Ada-accessible front row, will not be able to be sold or transferred to another customer. If you buy a ticket in an ADA section, you must provide credentials showing you need that seat, or else you may be relocated or refused a spot at the show.
So far, it’s worked. “There have been empty seats in those first rows through the first shows this season,” Kitts said. That might make promoters wince, but Red Rocks stands by the decision. “We would always err on the side of protecting a patron who truly needs that seat.”
Only about 5 percent of customers use paper tickets as it stands, although Red Rocks’ goal is to eventually go completely digital.
If reading that didn’t already make you feel old, paper tickets will officially become a novelty this summer, when the venue will start selling souvenir tickets at its shows.