Friday, March 26, 2010
Concert Promoters Replacing Paper Tickets With Smart-Chip Wristbands
Fast Company: "Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, is on the case of paper tickets. The firm has been trialling smart-chip wristbands in an attempt to cut down on ticket fraud, and it is expected that the promoter will roll out the scheme at British festivals this summer."
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7 comments:
"Although this can only be good for gig-goers" I smell bullshit here. Firstly, it's almost certain that this plan will come with some DRM scheme - we'll be limited from giving a ticket to a friend, or reselling it if we change our minds, and it'll certainly be less interesting to put up on the wall. Furthermore, I expect that in addition to the all of the 'convenience' fees we pay now (for a very inconvenient system) there will be another, inflated, high margin, fee for these electronic tickets. Worse yet - enterprising people manage to make fraudulent paper tickets, even with the bar code, I have no doubt that they will manage to make fake electronic ones too. In fact, there are probably more people in our world who can crack a digital thing than make a convincing paper ticket.
I recall seeing bar codes added to tickets in order to make sure nobody can copy a ticket and use it a second time, this isn't taking things all that much farther since the bar code uniquely identifies the ticket and thus the purchaser, the difference instead comes in the use. With RFID technologies added to something you're expected to wear they can now track where each concertgoer is in the venue, if you're in your seat (or close to it) or in another seating section, or even to suck out additional revenue in "transfer fees" to let you sell your ticket to someone else.
I think this is a not-so-subtle indication that maybe the ridiculous ticket prices and ticket systems aren't working. I don't think this is a good solution for the issues that have been plaguing the live concert business since the mid 90s. With all the use of technology these days, especially with identity theft and the like, I don't know that I would rely on a chip in this wristband to hold all of this information about my purchase and where I'm supposed to be. Not to mention that if people can make fake driver's licenses that scan with barcodes and computers to display fake information, I'm not so sure this will last very long before scalpers produce these in their basements and sell them for 300% with your personal info on them.
While I know that this is the direction that all things are heading, I believe that this would not help to solve many of the problems with concert ticketing.
First, there is no way to eliminate the fact that people will create false tickets, whether they be paper or electronic.
Second, with these "high-tech" solutions to a bar code, come the inevitable "high-tech" prices.
Third, what if the system goes down? What would happen to all of these "high-tech" wrist bands that become useless.
I look forward to seeing how this pans out and what the concert industry decided to do.
In Korea, also most concerts use wristbands. I think it is really useful especially in concert because after intermition audience have to keep papper ticket but usually in concert it is easy to lose ticket.
This sounds expensive. While paper tickets are relatively inexpensive to print, putting a unique RFID chip into wristbands is a complex process. Although it is a good idea in terms of ticket fraud, I think Tom is correct in his assumption that the barcodes on tickets solved this problem. The idea that these wristbands can be used to purchase food and drink, etc, as well is still a little scary to me though. Going to a concert will become a pool of personal information for someone to steal right out of the air with the correct equipment.
I feel that this smart-chip wrist band is great technology. It helps concert promoters and fans from being taken advantage with counterfeit ticketing. Some of the problems that I see are that it seems like it would take a lot of money to get this system up and going. Another problem is that people might not like to wear it at all. Another question is, can these be sent in the mail, this was not addressed in the article. This is an advance in technology but I wonder how it truly works. I wonder how easy this would be to copy this new type of ticket or in time this too can be copied. I am looking forward to seeing this ticketing system in action.
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