LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — Metal icons Iron Maiden are partnering with Live Nation to take a crack at ticket touts during their upcoming UK arena tour.
“We do not want our fans being ripped off either by counterfeit tickets or through costly mark-ups on so-called secondary ticketing websites. These problems now affect the UK more than any other country outside of the U.S.A. We believe the most successful way to prevent this is by implementing Paperless ticketing. This proved highly successful in reducing piracy at our previous London shows in 2013 and on our North American tours since 2010. This is a simple procedure and goes a long way to minimizing the resale of tickets and reducing fraud by requiring the original cardholder purchaser to be present at entry," Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said a statement announcing the plan.
"We have been working with our UK promoter Live Nation and Ticketmaster to ensure that we can operate a Paperless ticketing system, in full or in part, at all the UK venues we’ll play in 2017. We are also instigating a number of additional measures which we believe will directly help our fans to access tickets in the fairest, safest way and at the intended price.”
The band's plan for the tour will see every venue operating at least partially on a paperless ticketing system, requiring that the credit card used to make the ticket purchase must be presented at the point of entry and ticket buyers will be limited to 4 per purchase.
As well, the band will be aggressive about canceling inventory that is being resold. Maiden says they have hired a dedicated team to monitor ticket presales and investigate suspicious activity. As well, in conjunction with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, that secondary ticketing sites are prevented from listing our shows and to invalidate tickets should any appear on these secondary sites.
I'm pleased that Iron Maiden are taking a principled position and standing up for music fans. I'd like to think the whole industry can learn from this initiative and use technology to put a stop to the industrial level of touting that has been a blight on the live music industry for so long," Nigel Adams MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Music said of the band's efforts.
The tour kicks off next year on April 22nd in Belgium. The First UK date will be May 4th when Maiden performs at Nottingham Motorport Arena. – Staff Writers
