Ticketmaster failed; is their tech solely to blame?
Let’s change the way tickets are sold instead of the technology.
Taylor Swift’s massive clout was able to bring to light Ticketmaster’s flaws, not only to mainstream media, but also to high-ranking government officials. The problems for fans have been around for years and for numerous artists. Yes, Ticketmaster should improve their technology. They should plan for bots. They should have server capacity ready for a day like Taylor Swift presale. Thinking through all of this, and having been in Ticketmaster’s queuing system as a customer, I can’t help but wonder:
Why MUST we sell tickets in such a surging manner?
Why can’t we create a system to not require such a sudden influx of traffic?
Instead of opening the floodgates at 10am, let’s spread the sales over a matter of hours, days, or even weeks if needed. Create a pool of verified fans, then issue a lottery system for a date/time to buy tickets.
I’m not in the entertainment industry, but if I had to guess why this trend of opening at a specific time is to create hype. It gets people excited to be ready to get their tickets. Perhaps there’s a cash flow or planning factor as well. But I believe any tour that is going to sell out for certain, especially Taylor Swift, doesn’t need the added hype of a specific time for all fans to purchase.
As a fan of live music, I find purchasing tickets incredibly frustrating. What if I’m not available to allocate an hour of my morning on the set date to sit in a queue and hope I get a good seat? Why must I pay a massive markup to scalpers on secondary markets (sorry StubHub).
While we can point fingers at Ticketmaster for failing to handle an expectable surge in traffic, I believe artists should come together to work on a more equitable and extended period ticket sale system. The technology can then be built to support it.
The flow is simple:
- Create a pool of fans (not bots)
- Randomly assign a purchasing day and time within a multi-day timeframe. Spread the times out through each minute.
- Fan buys best available or desired ticket at their time slot.
Sometimes there is a need to handle large influxes of traffic, such as breaking news stories on a website. But in this case, why not slow things down and make everything easier and less stressful for all. During step 2, I would allow for fans to put their times up for trade if they are unable to make their assigned time.
The hardest part here is how do you create a true verified fan base. How do you get your tickets into the hands of those who sincerely intend to come see the show and out of the hands of those looking to flip tickets for a profit. Any ideas?
