I read today of the proposed move, backed by such luminaries as Arctic Monkeys, Robbie Williams and Radiohead, to apply a tax to the resale of gig tickets on eBay and suchlike, the argument being that excess money raised is then directed back towards the industry instead of into the pockets of touts.
What rot. This is merely the greed of a desperate music industry. As touts tend to sell at such hugely inflated prices anyway, such a tax (unless huge) is unlikely to deter these parasitic slatterns. How about disallowing the resale of tickets completely? The key issue here is that genuine fans should be able to see their favourite bands, without touts buying as many as they can get their hateful hands on and selling them on the web for exorbitant prices.
While I’m at it, let me reserve some bile for the people who actually pay inflated ticket prices; without this unprincipled, frenzied desperation there would be no problem in the first place. This merely supports the touts’ argument that this is a simple supply and demand situation and perpetuates their fetid existence.
However, it’s true that genuine fans unable to make the gig would be unfairly penalised if forced to pay a levy or legally prevented from reselling their ticket. This being the case, why not establish a decent refund policy so that these people are covered without the need for third parties? Or how about staggering ticket sales as practiced in Sweden? This way the majority of the tickets are sold as normal, but some are withheld until a week or two before the gig. As such, the availability of tickets at normal price thwarts the black market resale efforts.
This is an eminently solvable problem that will not be addressed by toothless “I demand my slice of the pie” levies, ostensibly in the interests of fans but achieving nothing.
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2222013,00.html
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2 comments:
I'd like to add to your comment on people that pay inflated ticket prices, namely this:
They are the equivalent of those panic-buying tossers that are seen buying out supermarkets of bread & water over Christmas - it's ONE FUCKING day with the shops closed, you retarded bastards! These are inevitably the people that shat themselves before the millenium turn, stripping tins of beans off Tesco shelves.
I tell you, these will be first against the wall, actually, the touts would be before them.
Concurred. Your comments made me think of those episodes of The Simpsons where society temporarily breaks down and mob rule ensues. We'll know we're in trouble when we see Sideshow Mel brandishing his cudgel at the forefront of the baying masses at Tesco.
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