Mark Fielding
Ticketing is a $72 billion dollar industry that has digitised like no other. But with that digitalisation has come a myriad of challenges: centralization, touts, fake tickets, bots and fan exploitation. 12% of ticket buyers get scammed on a regular basis, dynamic pricing has pushed prices beyond the reach of regular fans and new musicians and concert venues scramble for the pocket change that’s left over. Hell, these days it costs five grand to watch Neil Young pluck a goddamn fender.
But as the demand for events – both virtual and IRL – grows, can organisers, venues and rock dinosaurs use NFT tickets and blockchain technology to solve the challenges facing the industry? Can fans experience a smoother, safer, cheaper and more entertaining ticketing experience? Can we all get our goddamn sanity back?
Dynamic pricing – automatically raising and lowering the price of tickets inline with demand – in an attempt to beat ticket touts and bots (60% of ALL tickets are bought by automated bots) is great in theory, but a nonsense for fans of Harry Styles and Bruce Springsteen. When The Boss used dynamic pricing on a recent tour, prices exploded to over $5,000. The backlash was immediate and strong. NFT tickets remove the need for dynamic pricing, eliminate fake tickets and give artists new channels for marketing, community engagement and avenues for additional revenue.
Smart contracts are customisable before mint and immutable afterwards. Smart Contract 101. But that’s life changing. If your tickets can be permanently and undeniably ‘programmed’ with a secondary price that the most advanced ticket tout in the world can’t change, then what? With NFT ticketing, artists and event organisers don’t have to beat the bots and the touts, instead they make them ineffective and unprofitable. Even if bots buy the whole supply, they can’t sell them for more than face value – or the price set by the organiser. I think. Have I got that right?
What about fake tickets? As each NFT is unique and verifiable, if 10,000 tickets go on sale, event organisers and concert promoters can account for every one of them. Because smart contracts establish trust in a trust-less world, buyers can be sure the tickets they are buying on the secondary market are legitimate and reasonably priced. Using QR codes, venues can authenticate tickets on the door.
Not only can event organisers and artists use NFTs to remove fake tickets, overly-priced secondary markets and bots from the process, they can do so with a flourish, capitalising on an assortment of secondary advantages to make people feel special and add individuality to proceedings.
In days gone by, fans would buy a ticket and then forget about it until the night of the concert. With tickets going on sale one, or even two years in advance, NFT tickets are an opportunity for artists and event organisers to ramp up their community, interacting with ticket holders in a new and immersive way.
As well as airdrops, competitions and stories from the road, further utility could include token-gated Discord channels (or whatever web3 solution supersedes it) with behind-the-scenes interviews and video footage, artist interviews or a ‘day-in-the-life’ mini-documentary. Experiences that are simple to create but have a lasting impact on fans.
What about B2B? Companies could add further utility to team building, training, conferences and exhibitions. Dynamic NFTs could be used to authenticate completion of training courses, opening further training material, bonuses or rewards. An enterprise business hosting or sponsoring a global exhibition could use NFT tickets to give access to meet-and-greets, exclusive seminars and networking events.
An NFT ticket plugs into web3; it’s a gateway to increased security, tracking, trading and the addition of life-changing experiences and fan-artist and B2B interaction. Customisation and increased utility can be achieved with existing ticketing systems, but using NFTs makes it quicker, more efficient and more entertaining – the power of the latter should not be underestimated. People love to be entertained. Emails and paper tickets simply can’t compete on the same stage.
"When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat."
George Carlin
Dynamic NFTS can be programmed to update each time a fan attends a concert or match, buys merchandise or downloads an album. This loyalty could then be exchanged for cheaper tickets, exclusive merchandise, once-in-a-lifetime brand experiences or all manner of corporate, professional and business premiums.
Music and sport are synonymous with nostalgia and collectibles. POAPs (Proof of Attendance Protocol) are the web3 equivalent of a ticket stub, a blockchain memory of your attendance at an event. POAPs can be programmed to record details of the event, but they can also have their metadata changed after the event, adding to their collectability.
The NBA are good at experimenting with blockchain technology, let’s use them as an example. A fan goes to game four of the playoffs. It’s an iconic match, one that transcends the history of the game. The Chicago Bulls come from 10 points down with two minutes remaining, winning the game at the buzzer with a 40-yard 3-pointer. Fans receive a POAP, cementing their presence at the match to the blockchain, and that POAP could be updated to include the game–winning moment.
Barring strange occurrences, Ariana Grande isn’t going to use decentralized finance on her next tour. But DeFi is an opportunity for artists and event organisers to pre-fund concerts, experiences and bank roadmaps. A new rock band riding a wave of media hype? They could collateralise future ticket sales to fund studio time or a world tour. Combining DeFi and NFT ticketing is an advanced and new concept, and whilst not for everyone, it’s one that’s gaining traction and a utility we may write more about.
NFT tickets have the potential to change the status quo, to remove the centralised incumbents of the industry and create a fan-driven, safe and secure system; a system that works similarly to current offerings but with a vastly improved experience for fans. From improved access between an artist and fans, a more immersive ticketing experience, the tools to build a community, better loyalty programs and more entertaining tickets that double as digital collectibles, the reach of NFT tickets is vast.
Centralised entities are setting the prices, ticket touts are controlling the second hand market. Not the bands. Not the clubs. And not the fans. That might be about to change.