Cover News Reporter Qin Yi
Since last year, the performing arts market in major cities across the country has been recovering, and concerts have been held in droves. At the same time, negative comments from consumers about the concert also followed. Among them are consumers’ opinions on the opacity of concert ticket sales.
Damai.com shows that tickets for Miriam Yeung’s concert in Chengdu on April 20 have been sold out.
Take the Miriam Yeung concert to be held in Chengdu on April 20 as an example. The tickets for this concert on Damai.com show that they are sold out, but the Ferris Wheel app shows that there are still tickets, but the ticket price is nearly a year more expensive. times. Furthermore, Li Zongsheng’s concert to be held in Chengdu on May 19 is sold out on Damai.com, but there are still tickets available at multiple ticket prices on the Ferris Wheel app, and the prices range from hundreds of dollars higher.
Where do these tickets, which are much higher than the official price, come from?
insiders revealed that the source of tickets for each platform of
is from the organizer
"We usually sell concert tickets on Damai.com and Maoyan." In response to doubts, the cover news reporter interviewed staff of several concert hosting companies, one of which Company staff said that because the above-mentioned platform has a wide user coverage, it has become the first choice for concert company ticket agents.
A staff member of another company told reporters that the sales platform mainly makes money from the sale of tickets. To put it simply, every time a ticket is sold on the platform, a certain amount of profit can be obtained from the host company. This is also true. During the hosting of some popular concerts, the platform will strive for exclusive agency rights with additional benefits and conditions.
At the Ferris Wheel, there are tickets for Miriam Yang's Chengdu concert, and the price is much higher than the ticket price.
So, where do the tickets for other platforms come from? The cover news reporter called the customer service center of the Ferris Wheel app. When answering the phone, the customer service staff said that the tickets available on the platform are sold by ticket holders, and the specific source is unknown.
"Actually, all the tickets for the concert are from the organizer, and the tickets for other ticket sales platforms are also from the organizer." A staff member of a concert hosting company revealed to reporters that usually the organizer only sells some tickets on platforms such as Damai.com. Tickets, and the rest of the tickets are yourselves. In this way, on the one hand, you can pay less commission on ticket sales, and on the other hand, you can have more free pricing power.
Consumer dissatisfaction:
Buying tickets is like opening a blind box. Thousands of tickets cannot be selected for seats.
The opacity of concert tickets is not only reflected in the sale of tickets, but also in the selection of seats. An interviewee said in an interview with a cover news reporter: "You can choose seats for movie tickets, but you can only accept arrangements for concert tickets that are dozens of times more expensive. It's like opening a blind box. This is unreasonable."
" For concerts that are "hard to get a ticket," tickets can range from hundreds to thousands, which may not necessarily provide an ideal viewing experience. In recent years, there has been a lot of news about buying pillar tickets and big screen tickets for concerts. How are the seats for the concert determined? The above-mentioned staff told reporters that the seats for a concert are basically randomly determined, and the specific seats can only be determined a few days before the concert starts.
On the Ferris wheel, some concert tickets can be booked based on seats.
However, the cover news reporter checked the ticket booking app and found that on Damai.com, Maoyan and other platforms, they can only be booked based on the face price. However, on the Ferris Wheel app, certain concerts can be booked based on the face price or seats. However, for some concerts, the front row ticket price is even three times the face price.
Tickets booked by seat are usually expensive. For example, tickets for Miriam Yeung's concert show a price of 3,531, but the face price is 1,098 yuan.
Lawyer's point of view:
Strengthen ticket source management. The specific number of tickets for public sale
Concert ticket sales are not transparent, the performance market is not standardized, and the problem of ticket scalping has occurred many times before.
In September 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Large-scale Commercial Performance Events to Promote the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Performance Market", requiring large-scale performance events to implement a real-name ticket purchase and real-name admission system , each performance can only purchase one ticket per ID, and the identity information of the ticket purchaser and the attendee must be consistent. Performance organizers are required to establish a refund mechanism for large-scale performance events, set reasonable tiered refund fees, and protect ticket buyers’ legitimate rights to refunds. At the same time, the number of tickets sold by the performance organizer to the market shall not be less than 85% of the approved number of audiences. For the remaining 15% of tickets, personal information should be bound 24 hours before the performance to achieve "real-name binding and real-name admission." Performance organizers should clearly indicate their authorized ticketing agencies and guide consumers to purchase tickets through legal channels. Inform consumers of ticket purchase, admission and refund rules.
Han Sifang, a partner at Shanghai Zhonglian (Chengdu) Law Firm, said that judging from the current concert market, tickets for many popular concerts are hard to come by, and consumers do not know exactly how much a concert will sell. tickets, or in other words, how many tickets will be released during each round of ticket grabbing for the concert. He believes that the management of ticket sources should be strengthened. When implementing the requirements of the "Notice", performance organizers can also be further required to clarify the specific number of tickets for public sale in the market to avoid the breeding of illegal activities in the shadows.
At the same time, he said that if the performance organizer itself participates in reselling or illegal touting of tickets, it has been suspected of violating Article 52 of the "Public Security Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China" and can be subject to administrative penalties such as detention and fines. This has also been cracked down on in recent years. key targets for remediation. For consumers, purchasing tickets sold through so-called "ticketing" or special channels is very likely to cost a lot of money, but in the end they cannot get the tickets and fall into the situation of "lost money".
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