For many years, concertgoers have faced difficulties securing tickets to see their favorite artists. These challenges often stem from scalpers and the high prices of resale tickets. In response, Spotify has announced a new initiative called “Reserved,” designed to alleviate these issues for the most devoted fans of specific artists.
The streaming company unveiled “Reserved,” a program that identifies highly engaged listeners of an artist and reserves two concert seats for them. Unlike the current option of presale access for fans of popular artists, these tickets will be specifically held for the chosen users instead of merely granting presale queue access.
“We’ll identify real fans based on factors like streams, shares, and other Spotify activity, and will also monitor the activity of Premium users to ensure these are real human fans and not bots,” Spotify stated.
No additional fees will be charged for using this feature. Identified superfans will have 24 hours to purchase the seats reserved for them. However, there are conditions. Fans must be legal adults with Spotify Premium accounts. Moreover, offers are applicable only for shows within their local area. The number of available seats is limited, which means reservations are not guaranteed.
This engagement model resembles the system employed by Taylor Swift during her 2018 “Reputation” stadium tour. Swift used the Ticketmaster Verified Fan system, allowing fans to improve their presale queue position by streaming her music, watching videos, purchasing merchandise, or engaging with her on social media. Fans have expressed a desire for a return of this system after issues with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan presale for the “Eras Tour” in 2022.
Spotify’s move occurs amidst widespread concerns in the live entertainment sector about high ticket prices, resellers, and Ticketmaster’s market dominance. Recently, Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, settled an antitrust case with the Justice Department, which had accused it of anticompetitive behavior that increased fees due to limited ticketing service options.
The settlement aims to lower prices and increase choice by allowing companies like SeatGeek and StubHub to offer tickets through Ticketmaster’s platform. Ticketmaster will cap service fees at 15%, divest up to 13 amphitheaters, and reserve half of its tickets for nonexclusive venues, according to the Justice Department.
Apart from obtaining tickets, fans also encounter high face-value and resale prices. Some artists, including Harry Styles, Oasis, and Ed Sheeran, have taken action by canceling scalper-associated tickets to offer fair prices to fans. Even the face value remains high for many, as discussed by experts with NBC News.
Various ticketing platforms, like Ticketmaster, display unsold seats as “blue dots,” and a rise in concert cancellations has been linked to what experts term “blue dot fever,” though artists seldom acknowledge it. The Pussycat Dolls openly addressed this issue when they canceled most of their North American reunion tour dates, offering refunds through ticketing platforms.
“After taking an honest look at the North American run, we’ve made the difficult and heartbreaking decision to cancel all but one of the North America dates,” the group stated.