Ticketmaster’s decision to shut down its ticket resale sites – GetMeIn and Seatwave – has been greeted with widespread approval.
The two websites will be replaced with a system allowing fans to sell unwanted tickets at face value, albeit with Ticketmaster collecting a 15% commission.
This, the company says, will help reduce the number of touts charging huge mark-ups for tickets they have harvested in bulk, including from Ticketmaster’s own systems.
However, there is reason to be sceptical – both about Ticketmaster’s apparent altruism and the impact that closing secondary ticketing sites will have on the cost of live music.
For a start, GetMeIn and Seatwave will be no great loss to Ticketmaster. According to the latest accounts filed with Companies House, GetMeIn made a post-tax profit of only £1.4m in 2016, while Seatwave lost £3m.
The chief cause of such lacklustre financial performance is the parallel success of controversial rivals StubHub and Viagogo, which will snap up any touts who were still using Ticketmaster’s secondary outlets.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
