Along came AC\DC ticket sales last Friday, and along came Ticketmaster and its complete lack of ability (or perhaps lack of willingness) to provide proper customer service.
If we actually manage to get on to the queue, there’s no guarantee we’ll stay there before the site can’t cope and kicks us off. Some customers have even accused Ticketmaster of using bots to buy tickets in bulk for resale at inflated prices.
Ticketmaster, for its part says it’s put measures in place to prevent the use of bots to buy tickets and has increased transparency around fees. (Doesn’t stop them charging fees for doing basically nothing.)
The company has also invested in technology to improve the ticket-buying experience for customers, like the Verified Fan programme, which tries to make sure that tickets go to genuine fans rather than scalpers.
Still, from the feedback I was getting in here last Friday, they still can’t make a website work. Unlike a ticketing site called DICE based in London. It was set up ten years ago by a guy who actually worked in the music industry as well as being a high-powered techie.
New Ticket ‘Discover’ Feature
It can handle huge volumes and has various cool little features like a ‘Discover’ feature that recommends upcoming gigs and events just for the customer.
The CEO founder says, “If you treat fans well, they buy more tickets, and go out more often. We’re investing heavily in building even more technology and this year alone we released over sixty new features for fans, venues and artists”.
As an indication of how DICE could disrupt the ticketing market, they’ve just pulled in €60m from an investment company that focuses exclusively on music and music-related businesses.
That investment company says, “DICE did the impossible: they made buying a ticket fun, and by doing that, they became much more than just a transaction provider. DICE is for the most important consumers in music: people who love to go to shows”.
Well, I downloaded the app yesterday and I love it. Fees are really tiny, split between the site and the artists, and the price you see is the price you end up paying. So far, the only local event I can find is the DLT event in March in the Bernard Shaw (now in Drumcondra) but hopefully DICE and sites like it will put manners on Ticketmaster.
Still, when you’re up against a company that, this time last year was worth $18.3 billion, you know what they say: “It’s a long way to the top when you wanna rock and roll”.
