By Bird Lovegod

Published 31st Mar 2023, 09:02 BST

There’s a supply and demand issue for the biggest concerts and most famous musicians, and this is inevitable and a semi welcome problem for the bands and for whoever is selling their tickets. What it means in practice is bots buying tickets for inflated resale, and ticket platforms selling on a ‘surge’ basis, so the fewer tickets there are, the more they cost.

Many bands are more than happy to rake in the fortunes, and vendors are happy to maximise the profits. But it does seem like there’s a clear opportunity for bands to sell their own tickets, keeping total control over the pricing, and everything else, and in doing so also being able to have a walled garden of their own fanbase, ticket sales, and also music sales, and of course merchandise. The fanbase, in one place. That's the vision. Here’s the opportunity spelled out. A tech company could happily create a platform that can be white labeled and provided to bands, from the mega stars to the smallest newcomers.

A platform that fans register on, and become members of, and then are able to buy directly through. They can buy tickets, which can be priced however the band chooses, and also enter competitions, and engage with others in the community.

There’s a supply and demand issue for the biggest concerts and most famous musicians, and this is inevitable and a semi welcome problem for the bands and for whoever is selling their tickets, says Bird Lovegod

The platform could go as far as enabling fans to download music, to vote on best tracks, engage in the creative process, design album visuals, share their own covers of the bands songs, and do anything else that fans would want to do. The platform would cut out ticket sale sites entirely. It would be a one stop shop, to watch the latest interviews with the performers, purchase downloads of the music, or purchase special editions of CDs or tapes or t shirts or whatever else comes to mind.

Once all the fans are in one place there’s no limit to how the platform can enable them to interact with each other and with the artists.

Established bands have the advantage that they don’t need to be discovered, the fans already know them. Newer bands do benefit from being on multiple channels, Youtube, Spotify, and so on, but could, and perhaps should, be aiming to shepherd all those fans into their own specific platform. The platform then contains the fanbase, and enables value to pass between fans and artists. A dedicated platform for a dedicated fan base would be a significant revenue driver, bringing all the fans into a single platform where they can be offered any number of collectable and limited edition items and chat with each other, share photos and stories and so on.

Of course many bands want to just get on and make music, and this is why, as artists, they have often been vulnerable to commercial exploitation. But accepting this, the platform could offer a level of service whereby it’s run on behalf of the band, leaving them to make music, play, and create content, if that’s what they do. I think this would work, as a Software as a Service, because it adds value to the fans, generates new income for the band, and disintermediates the ticketing and streaming platforms, putting the control into the hands of the artists, enabling them to take the power back. Worth exploring.

Bird Lovegod is an entrepreneur and Christian commentator

Let the music play, without ticket sale sites - Bird Lovegod