Olivia Dean has decried the concert ticketing industry as "exploitative" and "rife with inequality," following her recent partial refund success with Ticketmaster and AXS on behalf of her fans. The star's ire was ignited when resale tickets for her North American tour were priced at a whopping 14 times their original face value.
In an open letter to ticketing companies last week, Dean called the practice "disgusting" and "vile," urging them to "do better." In response, Ticketmaster announced that it would cap future resale rates for Dean's tour and was in the process of "refunding fans for any markup they already paid to resellers on Ticketmaster."
Michael Rapino, CEO of Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, shared Olivia's desire to keep live music accessible and affordable. "While we can't require other marketplaces to honor artists' resale preferences, we echo Olivia's call to 'do better' and have taken steps to lead by example," he said.
Dean, who has emerged as one of this year's biggest breakout stars with four songs simultaneously charting in the UK's Top 20, responded by urging the music industry to ensure live music remains "accessible for all." She stated on her Instagram story, "The secondary ticket market is an exploitative and unregulated space, and we as an industry have a responsibility to protect people and our community."
She further emphasized that every artist and their team should be granted the option to cap resale at face value before tickets go on sale, to keep the live music space accessible for all. "Thank you for your patience, and I'm looking forward to seeing all you real humans at the show," she concluded.
While Ticketmaster and AXS do give artists the ability to cap ticket resale prices, it appears that option did not come into play when Dean's tour initially went on sale. In the UK, the government recently confirmed plans to make it illegal for tickets for concerts, theatre, comedy, sport, and other live events to be resold for more than their original cost. This move was prompted by an open letter from some of the biggest names in music, including Coldplay and Dua Lipa, urging the prime minister to cut the "extortionate and pernicious" prices that some fans were being charged. They said the move would "restore faith in the ticketing system" and "help democratize public access to the arts."
Dean echoed these sentiments in a follow-up message on her Instagram page. "We are very serious about everything we do but live is a sacred space we have crafted over 10 years," she wrote. "We lose money on nearly every show but feel passionately it is a worthy investment to create a moment for people to connect and lose themselves for an hour. We always do our best to make those spaces safe and accessible to everybody. Touts steal from artists and they steal from fans. They create inequality and hysteria. Capping resale at face value is your right, and we have a duty to encourage a fair resale market." She concluded, "It's not every day that you feel heard and understood, so today is a good day."
