In 2012, Bruce Springsteen fans were shut out from buying tickets to his Wrecking Ball tour. Scalpers used high-tech bots and computer programs to produce enough extra traffic to freeze computer screens for many trying to purchase tickets. The end result was immediate access to tickets on secondary ticketing sites at prices ranging from $143 to upwards of over $8000. Flash forward to 2017, Bruce Springsteen is taking on those scalpers for his new Broadway show.
Bruce Springsteen began his Broadway show in October 2017 to sell-out crowds. The intimate acoustic performance brings in classic Springsteen hits and stories from his life without the backing of his band. Bruce describes it like this, “My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music (newyorktimes.com).” The artist also says he specifically picked Broadway for this show because the old theaters were the right venue to present what he had in mind. While the show is not typical for Broadway, Springsteen’s solo project has extended its run twice now and sold out each time.
Frustrated with scalpers getting more tickets than his fans, Springsteen decided to use Verified Fan through Ticketmaster. The verification program has fans register ahead of time and verifies that they are fans rather than scalper bots. Once verified, fans are given a code which unlocks the opportunity to purchase tickets (ticketmaster.com). According to Ticketmaster, “#VerifiedFan was designed to separate actual, human fans from bots and scalpers. The system aims to thwart bad actors who are in the business of taking away tickets from fans just so they can resell them. Our technology analyzes every registrant to make sure they are real people interested in going to the show.” By doing this, Bruce Springsteen is ensuring more of his fans see the show rather than scalpers selling tickets at higher prices for a profit. It also ensures a repeat of the 2012 concert does not happen.
Verified Fan isn’t without its glitches or complaints from fans. During the initial selling of tickets in August, many fans were put on standby after registering and never received their code to purchase tickets, but secondary sites were selling tickets for upwards $2500 per ticket (observer.com). Some speculate this to be due to a few reasons. First, Springsteen’s show initially was a short run and increased in popularity over time making tickets hard to come by. Second, many other Broadway shows release six months worth of tickets at a time and have no problems using Verified Fan. Third, the show is not in a big arena rock setting. The Walter Kerr Theater has a seat capacity of only 975. Additionally, the tickets posted on secondary sites at the time were most-likely speculated prices rather than real tickets for purchase. It may have its glitches, but Verified Fan has decreased scalping with Springsteen on Broadway: only 3-5% have gone to secondary ticket markets. While it doesn’t completely get rid of the scalping, it has opened up more tickets to true fans.
Scalpers will continue their attempts to purchase tickets and resell them for higher prices, but artists like Bruce Springsteen are taking the initiative to prevent this process from dominating ticket sales. While the software isn’t perfect, it has reduced the number of tickets going to scalpers and that is a win for fans of any artist.
~Jenna Jakes, WOGB
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