Companies experiment with killing the ubiquitous bar code
TORONTO — When fans score tickets for events at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg in the future, they might notice the absence of a familiar feature: that ubiquitous zebra-styled inventory tracker bar that adorns almost every retail product imaginable.
The theatre’s operator, True North Sports and Entertainment, is testing a new Ticketmaster system that gives venues the option to omit bar codes that would usually be scanned to validate a ticket’s authenticity and grant entry to a concert or sporting event.
It could be an early sign that the days of the bar code are numbered as technological improvements allow companies to replace them with more secure digital tickets with codes embedded in a fan’s phone or a Wi-Fi connected wristband that lets them track consumers for both security and data-collection purposes.
Invented in the 1970s, the bar code was quickly adopted in many industries after companies realized it could expedite purchases and assist in tracking inventory.
Businesses that are already moving on from the bar code range from Montreal’s Osheaga music festival, which prefers scannable wristbands, to Amazon’s new, cashierless store in Seattle that uses various sensors to detect products customers have in their carts and automatically charge their accounts.
“The bar code’s going to go away,” Ticketmaster’s CEO Michael Rapino reportedly told an audience at a Goldman Sachs investor conference last fall, though he didn’t offer a timeline for the bar code’s demise.
His company has stayed fairly quiet about its experiments with ditching the bar code through Ticketmaster Presence — a program that allows venues to let fans scan e-tickets embedded with a digital token instead of a bar code and stored on their phone or smartwatch at selfservice terminals to gain entry to events.
Ticketmaster started pushing Presence amid its ongoing crusade against bots that buy up large portions of tickets within seconds after they go on sale online and fraudsters that dupe ticket buyers in the resale market by photocopying a ticket numerous times and reselling it to unsuspecting fans who are then denied entry at the door.
“That’s bad for everyone involved — venues, clubs, artists and especially the fans,” Justin Burleigh, Ticketmaster’s executive vice-president of product, said in an email.
A digital smartphone ticket is supposed to be more difficult to resell on sites and especially outside of concert venues.
“(With Presence) there has been zero instances of fraud so far and the tech is succeeding in getting fans into venues to see their favourite live events faster and more efficiently than ever.”
Presence not only directs fans to the shortest lines or parking lots with the most empty spaces, but offers a sales edge because it gives Ticketmaster access to data on eventgoers and their habits.