Original article published on Financial Times (10/12/18) by Anna Nicolaou and Fan Fei
Taylor Swift's use of dynamic ticketing solutions to deter scalpers for her Reputation tour appears to have paid off, with the tour having accumulated more than $50 million that otherwise would have gone to resellers. Swift agreed to use Ticketmaster's Verified Fan platform, which was advertised as being able to identify true fans and filter out scalpers. Fans register their interest for a show on the online platform, and Ticketmaster uses artificial intelligence to authenticate their data and assigns them a ticket-buying code. According to Ticketmaster, just 5 percent of tickets for the Reputation tour wound up on the secondary market, versus 30 percent for Swift's 2015 tour. Once half the tickets were sold via Verified Fan presales, Swift lifted prices for wider general sale to match their "market value." It remains uncertain whether other acts will follow her example, with a large amount of unsold tickets for many of her stadium shows seen as worrisome. Some artists also have been reluctant to raise ticket prices out of fear of alienating fans.
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