Industry News

Pixies use Songkick to put boot into touts

Iconic US rock band the The Pixies are to sell half of the tickets for their European shows via Songkick in an attempt to stall touts.

Songkick is a website aimed at music fans that uses technology to limit multiple sales and thus stop the harvesting of tickets.

The Guardian newspaper reports that tickets for the band’s gigs at London’s O2 Brixton Academy have appeared online for more than £800, compared with their face value of £32.50.

“Our fans mean an awful lot to us,” Pixies frontman Black Francis told the Observer newspaper. “The fact that any of them would be taken advantage of by rogues and scoundrels trying to fleece them with wildly inflated ticket prices is simply not acceptable.”

Richard Jones, the band’s manager, is to speak at an industry summit in London, when figures from the music world will discuss how to beat touts.

Meanwhile, Chance The Rapper has taken thousands of tickets off touts ahead of his Magnificent Coloring Day Festival later this month.

The rapper tweeted a picture of nearly 2,000 tickets that he is making available to fans for the Chicago event after reclaiming them from people reselling them for profit, according to the Fact website.

Posted in Industry News