Credit: Colin Lloyd
A new study by the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) found that ticket resellers generate an average total profit of $41,000 per show. Here is the latest information on these statistics.
The NITO study focused on tickets sold and resold for 65 random shows by artists represented by its members. It sheds light on predatory resale practices and price gouging that consumers feel at the ticket office. The venues covered in the study ranged from 1,500 to 20,000 venues. A single show from the study brought resellers gross profits of $365,000 from just 2,491 tickets at an average resale price of $210 for tickets with an average face value of $65.
According to NITO, it was found that a significant number of tickets were purchased from resellers even when tickets were still available from the main ticket provider. This is because SEO optimization may place the ticket reseller ahead of the primary ticket seller in the search results. In addition, NITO found that some consumers are willing to pay a higher price if they buy directly from the main point of sale – rather than buying through a reseller first.
NITO examined The Cure’s recent tour and compared secondary ticket sales in states that allow resale restrictions to those that don’t.
In California, which allows resale restrictions, the number of tickets resold and reseller profits were 92% to 99% lower than in states like New York, Illinois and Colorado, which do not allow resale restrictions. The open resale laws in the latter states drastically limited the effectiveness of fan-to-fan exchanges and resulted in fans being exploited despite artists’ best efforts. The average ticket resale for The Cure in Chicago was 396% over face value.
For a popular country artist who tours stadiums and regularly lowers ticket prices to allow more fans to visit, 7,767 tickets were sold in the secondary market for gross sales of $2,318,610.42. This artist’s average ticket price is $72.16, and tickets have been resold for an average of $298.52, a premium of 313%. The artist wanted to keep the prices low for the fans, but in the end only the ticket resellers benefited.
Most tickets sold on the secondary market are sold by predatory ticketing professionals who have access to technology that often ensures they can buy the best tickets before fans do. The secondary ticket sites use their excessive profits to push their ticket listings to the top of search results, confusing fans and stifling official ticket sales.