Continuing our exploration of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, here’s a few wonderings I had about fake concert tickets as I read a recent post on Ticketmaster’s Ticketology blog.
Ticketmaster’s Are those real post aims to share tips for fans to avoid counterfiet tickets. Most of the tips are helpful and it was interesting and heartbreaking to watch the videos they noted about a NY scalper who was caught scamming One Direction fans.
Yes, most of the tips are common sense and I would recommend reading them with the understanding that this is Ticketmaster after all and they don’t always have the best interest of the fans in mind.
And when they direct you to watch a video from Fans First Coalition just remember that Ticketmaster has been in a heated battle with rival Stubhub and as the NY Times reported last year:
This week a new nonprofit group, the Fans First Coalition, announced itself with a mission of protecting ordinary consumers from predatory ticket scalpers. The group appeared to have broad support from the industry, including prominent artists like R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Maroon 5 and Jennifer Hudson.
What fans might not know is that the coalition is financed by Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, and that it has grown out of a lobbying fight between Live Nation and StubHub, the biggest legal online ticket reseller, over control of the multibillion-dollar secondary ticketing market.
Muddying the waters further, there is another group with a confusingly similar name, the Fan Freedom Project, which also claims to represent the interests of consumers. But it is largely financed by StubHub, a division of eBay.
As we continue to see social media transform the concert industry and the fan experience, the most interesting tip on Ticketmaster’s list is the one about not posting pictures of your concert tickets on Facebook or Twitter.
4. Do NOT take pictures of your tickets and post them to Facebook or Tweet them. Scalpers take these images and make counterfeits.
This tip seems like the hardest for fans not to do because part of the concert experience is sharing the news that you’re going to the concert and part of that process is proud showing of the evidence with a photo of your tickets to family and friends. It sure makes takes some of the fun out of using the Stagepage mobile app and Pinterest to celebrate our emotional ticket memory moments
But Ticketmaster advises you to resist the urge to do so because that feeds right into the evil clutches of ticket scammers.
Scammed by Sharing on Social Sites?
That said, I wonder how many fans have actually been the victim of counterfeit because of posting pictures of their tickets to social sites? If you have a story to share about this, let us know so we can understand how this sort of thing actually happens and explore it more on a future episode of Live Fix Radio.
For me, I’ve never been the victim of counterfeit concert tickets directly, but indirectly I imagine that ticket scamming does raise the cost of tickets and I know that I’ve felt the impact many times in my wallet.
To wrap up this post, here’s a few links to more info I came across as I cruised around the interwebs to discover other aspects of our fake concert ticket exploration.
- Faketicketgenerator.com – I used this to have some fun and create the fake Live Fix Music Festival ticket above. Who knows we actually might have a festival like this someday. What fake concert would you create?
- DIY:: What to do with Concert Tickets – This fan takes a more creative and less controversial approach to copying concert tickets
Tips or Tricks?
Do you think these Ticketmaster tips truly shared in the best interest of the fans or is Ticketmaster posting these to drive fans to use their services?
What stories, tips and experiences do you have about fake concert tickets?
Share your concert experiences and thoughts in the comments below, or call the concert fan hotline at 773-609-4341, and we’ll include them in a future episode of Live Fix Radio.