Live events are nothing without fans: are Ticketmaster killing the ‘golden goose’?
Corona virus has left most areas of society in positions of struggle, one of these being the live event industry. In an unexpected move, reports emerged that the global, multi-million ticketing agency, Ticketmaster, had changed their refunds policy — a move that is set to leave thousands of people worldwide out of pocket.
The original policy meant that where an event was postponed, rescheduled or cancelled, the ticket holder could get a refund, but it was updated to only include cancellation. Ticketmaster UK have said that all customers are entitled to a refund, but there is no clarity for the rest of the countries under the company.
While the industry is arguably on its knees, seeing months of live events being cancelled, the average member of society can look to these wealthy companies and hope not to be let down by them unless there really is financial uncertainty. In 2019, the company saw a revenue increase of 10%, taking the quarterly revenue to $3.2 billion. An amount which isn’t even likely to be cut in half due to the losses from this period of uncertainty.
Economic uncertainty is rife, Ticketmaster will be losing out on a lot of money, but relatively speaking it will not make a dent into their profit. Many rescheduled events are likely to sell more tickets once they have been refunded, so whether Ticketmaster actually lose out on serious amounts of money or not will only be clear once all rescheduled shows are played out.
But what about the artists? The musicians, comedians, actors and dancers who have all been forced out of work. While popular acts such as Billie Eilish who have had to postpone shows are likely able to cope financially for a few months without their main form of income, it’s another story for smaller acts.
It’s not out of the question to assume that some artists will not be able to perform again. Many small bands have been pushing to get sales of merchandise and music in order to keep themselves afloat. Live events have, for years, been how acts make their money, but organisations such as Help Musicians have been doing their best to push for government support whilst offering funding to musicians themselves. Merchandise sold at live events is often key to being in a financially stable band, but ticketing companies denying the returning and refunding of tickets will prevent more of these sales taking place.
As well as those at the forefront of live events, the ones behind the scenes, the photographers, reviewers, bar staff and more are left without work and risk seeing a fall in the amount of work they see — the chain reaction of shows not being able to run large tours is inevitable.
The live events industry is likely to have taken a hit bigger than ever before, and it may be years before it returns to a sense of normality. Cuts and compromises are being made throughout, but it is important to note many wealthy artists are donating thousands to charities involved at the front line of fighting the virus — something that makes the actions of Ticketmaster all the more questionable.
