Adele Scalps The Scalpers
Love this. From a New York Times article by Ben Sisario:
Adele has broken sales records with her new album, "25," but little noticed outside the concert business has been her war against ticket-scalping.For her world tour next year, Adele has teamed up with Songkick, a site that specializes in ticket sales through artists' websites and fan clubs, to manage thousands of her tickets and prevent as many as possible from ending up in the hands of scalpers.
For Adele's tour -- which sold out in Europe, and for which tickets went on sale in North America on Thursday -- Songkick said it sold 235,000 tickets through her website, Adele.com. By tracking the customers who tried to place orders, the company said it was able to block 53,000 sales to known or likely scalpers.
According to one estimate, Songkick's efforts saved Adele's fans more than $6.3 million in markups on secondary ticketing sites.
"By selling the highest number of tickets we were able to through our own channels, and working with Songkick and their technology, we have done everything within our power to get as many tickets as possible in the hands of the fans who have waited for years to see her live," Jonathan Dickins, Adele's manager, said in a news release.
In Britain, Songkick said it sold 40 percent of Adele's tickets. But the company's control is more limited in North America, where for some shows it handled as few as 8 percent of the available seats. When tickets to the North American shows went on sale Thursday, fans on social media complained about technical problems online and tickets that appeared to sell out in minutes.
StubHub, one of the largest secondary ticket markets, alerted customers to the availability of Adele seats on its site, with some tickets listed for as much as $11,000.
Isn't the solution to the problem easy? Require real names when purchasing, print the names on the tickets, and check ID when entering the concert. Scalpers will be out of luck.
The only disadvantage is that you can't spontaneously decide who to invite, or pass the tickets on to a friend if you're sick. That seems like a small price to pay. Plus, of course, you have to actually check ID at entry, or it's all for nothing.
a_random_guy at January 3, 2016 1:35 AM
What - are we against free enterprise all of a sudden?
Consider two sold-out shows: one had 10,000 tickets sold at an average of $65 each, with no scalping. One had 10,000 tickets sold at an average of $75 each. Scalpers enacted "surge pricing" (the best thing ever if a Über driver is doing it) and dumped the last tickets as the stage lights came up.
The scalpers don't prohibit anyone from getting a ticket. What they actually do is personally assess demand at the scene.
Funny how, when price controls promise you something more cheaply, all of a sudden they're a great idea...
Radwaste at January 3, 2016 4:46 AM
Funny how, when price controls promise you something more cheaply, all of a sudden they're a great idea...
There's nothing wrong with limiting purchases of your merchandise. You see this all the time at businesses. Staples sells a box of paper for $20 and notes "Limit of two to a customer."
This is different from surge pricing during Uber.
Amy Alkon at January 3, 2016 6:06 AM
I have to agree with Radwaste on this one - your position is contradictory. Ticket Scalpers are Hidden Heroes:
https://mises.org/library/ticket-scalpers-are-hidden-heroes
"Scalpers are hidden heroes at events. They take personal, financial, and legal risk in order to provide a critical service in the hopes of earning a profit from their labors. Many of the aspects of scalping that people decry are, in reality, a direct product of the prohibition placed on the service. The prohibition raises prices, reduces supply, and limits competition. In addition, in the absence of the prohibition of scalping, buyers would have legal recourse against unethical scalpers who sell counterfeit tickets.
Scalpers bravely defy ill-conceived laws. In doing so, they provide a service to the communities in which they operate. Though it is probably not their intention, they serve as warriors for the free market. They fight against the notion that people must be protected from free, uncoerced exchanges. The scalpers are as critical to a successful event as the food vendors, the gatekeepers, and the janitors. They should be afforded the same legal rights as everyone else."
Snoopy at January 3, 2016 6:20 AM
No folks, scalpers and Uber surge pricing are NOT the same. You are mistaken by comparing apples to oranges; here's why.
Uber is responding to a demand created by the market. period. If you don't like it there are alternative choices to Uber. Uber isn't forcing less drivers to be available to jack the price up. In fact, wouldn't the surge pricing makes more drivers available? Who doesn't want to be paid more?
Scalpers are often creating the fake demand by purchasing and, thereby, withdrawing tickets from the normal market so they can raise the prices. Since they are limiting the number of tickets available Adele fans (or who ever fans) MUST go through the scalpers. There isn't an alternative to their tickets, like alternatives to Uber, since they now hold the majority of the tickets.
I don't go to shows at all, so I'm not sure how these things really work. But, I think Amy has the right idea - limit the number of tickets one can purchase. This seems to work with other things to prevent a greedy middleman; which is what scalpers really are - greedy middlemen!
charles at January 3, 2016 9:42 AM
Being a "greedy middle man" only works if the tickets are mis-priced. Consider a show that is NOT sold out. In fact, a show that is not very popular. Scalpers who try to corner the market and raise the price will lose money. It only works if the show price is set below what people are willing to pay. Scalping is what in other markets is called arbitrage. I think the price of corn is going to be X in 6 months so I buy a futures price on it based on that guess. It has been clearly shown that arbitrage for commodities (corn, wheat, oil, steel) reduces volatility in the market.
Imagine also you have bought tickets and can't go. The same rules that prevent scalping mean that you are stuck with your tickets. Do we have a law that you can't resell your car once you buy it? Or onions? No, only tickets to shows and sporting events. Why are they special?
Craig Loehle at January 3, 2016 9:53 AM
Okay.
An airline tracks every seat, and sets the price of a last-minute seat at 5 to 10 times the price of one bought two weeks or more in advance.
Same seating. In this case, the high last-minute demand is met by the original seller. No issues there, solely because the vendor of an airline seat is invisible, possibly being a travel agent, possibly being the airline itself.
Returning to a concert or football game, the only complaint which is real is that someone other than the original vendor is selling a seat.
And the performer still sold those seats.
Radwaste at January 3, 2016 10:58 AM
I don't have a strong opinion on scalpers. But I do know that I don't like Adele's voice and have no idea why people think she's so great.
Truthfully her singing is mediocre by professional standards. She seems to have only one style of delivery, which is a mix between moaning and crying - she's like a female Sam Smith, though with weaker intonation.
Also are all of her songs about the same break-up? I haven't bought her album, but all of the singles seem to be about the same guy.
She's obviously a little nuts and has been obsessing about the same guy for about a decade now. It's not healthy.
pikachu at January 3, 2016 1:44 PM
Haha. I'm with Radwaste here. The most interesting thing will be if Amy responds.
Reminds me of when Jay Leno gave away tickets to his show and got pissed when the recipients didn't value as much as him.
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/03/jay-leno-dislikes-free-market.html
Abersouth at January 3, 2016 2:19 PM
The bestest part is this blog item is not long after she castigates other disphits for not understanding the free market with uber. I love it.
Abersouth at January 3, 2016 2:29 PM
Scalpers are free market. But so is Adele wanting to set terms and conditions on the sale of tickets. If you don't like the terms, don't buy tickets. (And yes, scalpers do sometimes lose money. If they over-price, they may wind up sitting on unsellable tickets, or having to dump them at deep discounts at event time.) And, Adele does not have a monopoly on entertainment. If tickets to her show are too expensive, I can go to a movie, attend a sporting event, go out to a club and see a local band, or just sit home and watch Netflix or listen to music.
"Being a 'greedy middle man' only works if the tickets are mis-priced. "
This, exactly. Let me tell you about something that is a lot more common in the sports and entertainment industries than most people realize. Performers and teams often want to make a pretense of making tickets "affordable for the true fans", so that they get to look like the good guys. But secretly, they are consigning blocks of tickets to scalpers. The scalpers sell the tickets at higher prices and then kick back a percentage. This way, the performer or team gets to have it both ways: they make money off of higher ticket prices, while maintaining the pretense that they are working diligently to keep prices low. When you pay a $40 "transaction fee" on top of the ticket face price to that online ticket agency, that is exactly what is happening. The scalpers who get busted? They're the ones who didn't play ball.
Cousin Dave at January 4, 2016 8:21 AM
I just had an experience with this. There's a concert coming up in San Francisco. Out of 1,000 seats, 150 were being sold with a meet & greet option. I really wanted one of those tickets, but by the time my turn in the on-line queue came up, they were sold out of those tickets. I wasn't surprised by this. I went ahead and purchased higher-priced meet & greet tickets through StubHub. I'm not mad at the scalpers because I had to pay more money. I actually mad at the people I see posting on the event page that something came up and they have to sell their meet & greet tickets for the same price they paid. I can understand a change in plans, BUT IF YOU WEREN'T 100% CERTAIN THAT YOU WERE GOING TO THAT CONCERT, WHY DID YOU BUY THE PREMIUM TICKETS? I could have purchased those tickets and not gone through StubHub if they hadn't gotten in my way.
Fayd at January 4, 2016 8:21 AM
And I'll add to Pikachu's observation. Adele basically has two songs: (1) she's broken up with a guy and she's crying about it, and (2) she's broken up with a guy and she's pissed about it.
Cousin Dave at January 4, 2016 8:23 AM
One more thing while I'm ranting. I'm not sure which is worse: the Britney Spears-driven trend that female singers should sing through their noses and sound like hamsters, or the American Idol-driven trend that female singers should shout and sing at the very tops of their voices, all the time.
Cousin Dave at January 4, 2016 8:26 AM
For $11,000, I'd expect Adele to do a concert in my living room and take me to dinner afterward.
Kevin at January 4, 2016 10:56 AM
Is the soul of a poor person more deserving than the soul of a rich person? That is, when something is rationed, is it unjust that it go to the people who can pay for it? Are their lives less deserving than the lives of the poor?
(A moment while I put on a raincoat and dodge rotten tomatoes.)
Adele's plan gives tickets to both the rich and poor at her idea of a "fair" price. But, that price is clearly too low to distribute her limited tickets to the people who want to and can pay for them. Some poor people can afford such a ticket, and some rich people get a deal. Also, there are some really poor people who can't afford even this "fair" price.
Adele may want to be charitable, but her approach fails. Even poor people might like to sell their tickets after seeing the high price they could get. Maybe sell the ticket, buy Adele's record, and also pay the rent.
If Adele really wanted to be charitable, she should sell her tickets at the highest prices possible. This would also cut out the dreaded scalpers. Then, she could give the "extra" money to the people she sees as deserving.
Who would those deserving people be? Would she request proof of poverty? Would it be more charitable to give discounts to selected fans, or to support water projects in Africa?
If Adele would stop being ashamed of earning too much money, she could support free markets, which would end more poverty than any charitable contribution. Instead, she implies that free markets are bad, and wants to impose her form of socialist control. Of course, she can do anything she wants with her talent and private business.
A free market puts tickets directly into the hands of the people who can afford them, at prices which balance demand. It is narcissistic for producers to ration their output only to the people who they consider to be most deserving.
(Ouch, a few of those tomatoes found their mark.)
Andrew_M_Garland at January 4, 2016 2:38 PM
If Adele would stop being ashamed of earning too much money, she could support free markets, which would end more poverty than any charitable contribution. Instead, she implies that free markets are bad, and wants to impose her form of socialist control.
1. Where did she say she was ashamed of earning too much money?
2. She's not imposing "socialist control" — quite the contrary. There are many ticketing companies, all of which likely would have wanted her custom, and she chose Songkick for her own reasons, just as one might select a restaurant based on price, taste, locality, ethos, whether the servers are cute or anything else. Free market in action.
Kevin at January 4, 2016 3:21 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2016/01/03/adele_scalps_th.html#comment-6404035">comment from Kevinshe implies that free markets are bad, and wants to impose her form of socialist control.
Socialist control is not what it's called when you decide who you're going to sell to. It's anything but.
Here, from my Apple computer's dictionary:
Amy Alkon at January 5, 2016 4:40 AM
The scalpers don't prohibit anyone from getting a ticket.
Actually, they do prevent people from getting face value priced tickets, when they buy up hundreds of tickets through their connections with TicketBastard and the ilk.
drcos at January 5, 2016 11:59 AM
drcos - note airline practices cited above. Why is this different because the airline changes "face value" based on demand and time?
Do you also protest at the grocery store when they mark a price higher when supply is reduced?
Radwaste at January 11, 2016 8:26 AM
Leave a comment