The secondary ticket market is a thorn in the side of many people, but perhaps no one is more thoroughly unhappy with that particular marketplace than musicians who gain nothing when tickets to their shows are sold at higher than face value prices. As far as we know there has never been a service that aimed to bring artists into the secondary ticket market, but that now seems to be changing thanks to a recently announced partnership between BandPage and StubHub.
Before you get too excited, StubHub is not offering to cut artists in on the money earned from reselling tickets to their performances. Instead, StubHub will soon begin integrating the BandPage platform into their site, which will allow artists to sell VIP packages, merchandise and other offers on one of the biggest catalogs of tickets for live events in the world. BandPage has found that online marketplaces typically have conversion rates as much as five times higher than what most artists see in their own online stores, so even though artists won’t get more money from their live show ticket sales they may be able to move a few more shirts or records as demand for their events continues to rise.
According to our friends at Hypebot, Switchfoot, George Clinton and OK Go will be part of a pilot program that tests this new integration. The promotion is expected to launch early this month.
“Being able to offer an upgraded experience like a VIP or merchandise at the moment they are checking out not only helps increase sales for musicians through a brand new channel, it helps improve the overall ticket purchasing and concert-going experience for these valued customers,” said Bruce Flohr, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Red Light Management and manager for Switchfoot.
Additional details of the partnership:
- StubHub will show fans the available items for sale in musicians’ BandPage Stores as they proceed through the checkout
- StubHub will also leverage insights into musicians’ biggest fans and reach them directly through email with highly targeted offers
- BandPage will empower musicians with the ability to curate their profiles across StubHub, including StubHub Music, a new mobile concert discovery app for iOS that scans user’s iTunes and Spotify libraries to alert them when their favorite artists are performing at local venues
- Musicians will be able to control their profile picture, bio and more on these properties directly from their BandPage Profile
Most the artists I have met would rather sites like StubHub not exist at all, but in a world where secondary ticket markets are allowed to operate this new partnership seems like the best opportunity for artists to get in on the financial action spawned by demand for their fast-selling live performances. Some may choose to not participate on grounds doing so is akin to saying you’re okay with people charging your fans above face value prices for tickets, but if that is going to happen either way I see no reason any smart artist would not try to leverage the situation for their own personal gain. After all, the only reason these sites thrive is because of demand for the artist, so it only makes sense that the entertainment industry find a way to lend some kind of olive branch to the people who make it possible for that market to exist.
Whether or not this partnership lasts remains to be seen, but I for one am definitely curious to see how, or even if it has an impact on the way majority of artists view the secondary ticket market. What do you think?
