Hey!
I turned my summer out-of-office notifcation off this morning and packed the boy off to the first day of high school.
I’m going to give you a quick, “old school” type newsletter this morning with a few things you may have missed over the summer…
Let me know what you think of the Oasis on-sale! Join our Slack Channel!
What is going on?
Oasis tickets went on-sale on Saturday…the first shows in over a decade.
Fans ended up in online queues for hours and were shocked by the prices with some tripling from the initial on-sale price.
Why does it matter?
Consumer protection is much stronger in Europe.
Regulators in England will investigate the Oasis on-sale. They will look to see if consumer protection laws were broken.
Why are people up in arms?
Pressure tactics work.
We’ve talked about before, dynamic pricing can help maximize your yield.
It can also hurt your brand because your fans can feel like you are taking advantage of them.
On the secondary market, we see “drip pricing” happen regularly.
In Europe, Live Nation CEO, Michael Rapinoe, says they are in the “infancy stages”.
I call dropping the final price on your fans at the checkout screen “surprise pricing”.
It may work.
It may not be illegal.
But it is unethical.
The issue with the pricing, technology, and nature of these on-sales is that the artists, technology providers, and other partners in the value chain are attempting to “have their cake and eat it too”.
If you are going to maximize your revenue per touchpoint: cool!
Own it.
If you are going to offer up your tickets at a price that seems reasonable to you and doesn’t capture the full market value of the ticket: cool.
Just know that you may open a door for the secondary market.
You have to make considered choices.
Me, Myself, and I?
I’m going to put together a more complete post about this because many of you have been asking me what I think.
There was no Pearl Jam show at Tottenham, but I did visit the SECUTIX offices.
We hit on some of my favorite topics like:
Why I think data is reactive.
Discounting.
Fan focus
More! MORE! MORE!
I had David and Michael McDermott on ‘The Business of Fun’.
Stephen came back to the podcast to discuss some updates with Project Admission.
The big point is the integrated experience and the integrations Project Admission has achieved over the last few years.
For me, the ease of use and the way that Project Admission is additive to your current ticket solution is a big W.
The importance of this conversation comes down to Angela’s viewpoint that the arts shouldn’t look at support as a handout.
Her POV is hardcore:
Value
Community asset
Run these organizations like a business
We also talk about how creativity and the arts flows into our lives in every way.
I’ll be back with more ideas, observations, and news…
Do me a favor. Share this post with someone that should read this.
Hit reply!
Let me know what is on your mind!
Dave