Queen + Adam Lambert Make A Stand Against Overpriced Ticket Resales
It seems like progress is finally being made in the fight against ticket bots and the inflated resale market. Queen + Adam Lambert recently announced an official partnership with UK-based Twickets, a peer-to-peer online reseller that only allows face-value prices. The group’s websites and social media direct fans to use the service to sell any extra tickets for the shows, so that others can buy them for reasonable prices. It’s a godsend for those that missed out – tour tickets, priced between £69 and £79, sold out within hours and are listing for about ten times as much on secondary services.
Twickets is currently not available in North America, but the concept could very well make its way here soon – well OK, it attempted to land in Toronto, but the lite version that simply retweeted fans didn’t exactly go anywhere. Here’s how it works. Ticket sellers aren’t charged by the full UK site at all to list tickets, so it’s a painless way to get rid of extras if plans change. On the other hand, buyers are only charged a 10% fee by Twickets – much more reasonable than the exorbitant mark-ups resellers like StubHub often have. The website offers all kinds of protection for both buyer and seller, so there’s less risks involved than through classifieds listings like Kijiji or Craigslist. And it’s not just for concert tickets, either! A quick scroll through of the front page shows tickets available for cricket matches, live podcast recordings, orchestral performances, comedy tours, and more.
A special landing page for the Queen + Adam Lambert tour is available to make things easier for fans, but unfortunately there’s no equivalent set up for the North American leg. It seems that the UK is a few steps ahead of the US and Canada in this regard. The use of ticket bots was criminalized in a bill that passed in April, whereas Canadian governments are still figuring out a solution in the wake of an uproar over scalping during The Tragically Hip’s 2016 tour.
If you want to know more about how Twickets works – or want to see an example of a system that will hopefully be implemented in North America soon – check out the website’s About section. Queen + Adam Lambert aren’t the only artists to have partnered with the service. Adele, Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Pixies, Mumford & Sons, and more have also made similar efforts to aid fan-focused resell markets – so hopefully North American musicians will also catch on, too.
Queen + Adam Lambert UK Tour:
