The ticket tout. Surely one of the most universally despised personas of our current society. Up there with bankers, politicians, bigots and Piers Morgan, the tout scours the net for those hard to get tickets, denying honest fans the opportunity to see their heroes on the stage and re-listing tickets at double or triple the retail price on other sites.
In recent years sites like eBay and Gumtree have made efforts to crack down on this loathsome way of life. Ticket outlets look to be making babysteps to combat the issue as well with U2’s recent Belfast show requiring photo ID or a valid credit card to be produced alongside an e-ticket. The touts are still lurking out there destroying folk music, indie music, all music really.
Justin Bieber’s Dublin shows sold out in minutes this morning and already tickets are listed on other sites for upwards of £200 each.
Alright, we wouldn’t pay £20 to see Bieber but that’s besides the point.
In a timely message in the run up to Christmas and in advance of their 2016 touring schedule, Mumford and Sons issued a statement on the subject this week.
We’ve worked so hard over the years to keep our ticket prices reasonable – we want all of our fans to be able to come to our shows. We’ve also done everything we can to keep our tickets from finding their way on to re-selling sites. Many tickets on secondary sites are being sold by touts who are simply in the business of ripping off the fan by charging an extortionate amount for sold out shows. The activities of these touts are very sophisticated: they hire coders to try to break the software of the ticket companies that we hand-pick to sell our tickets in the first place (Primary Ticket sellers); they use multiple identities to buy several batches of tickets from the same ticket seller; and (contravening UK law) they pose as individual consumers when they list tickets on these services with no mention of seat number or row, when actually they’re businesses with no intention of going to the shows buying tickets in bulk to sell on. It’s our hope that secondary ticketing companies root this out to stop it happening on their sites, and that they shut it down.
Winston Marshall, Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett and Adam Tudhope (Manager)
Read the full statement, what the Mumford boys have done and what you can do over on their website.
Sure, we know that sometimes you’ll buy someone a ticket as a gift and they will have other commitments. Sometimes people get ill and have to miss a show. Sometimes certain editors of certain sites get a little intoxicated in Manchester and need to swap a seated Gaslight Anthem ticket for a standing one. These are all real life issues that require a bit of selling or swapping.
Check out sites like Swap My Ticket or Ticket Swap UK and don’t let the bastards get you down.