Singer Rene Liu performs during a concert in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, on July 15 (XINHUA)

This year, concerts have become immensely popular in China and brought sizable economic benefits to host cities. Going to another city to see a concert has become a new fashion among young people.

A recent example is pop singer Jay Chou's four-day concerts in early September in Tianjin Municipality in north China, which attracted an audience of 185,000, of whom 62 percent were from other cities. The concerts generated 3 billion yuan ($411 million) of consumption in the city.

The national performance market continued an upward trend in the first half of the year, driven by strong supply and demand. According to the China Association of Performing Arts, 506 large concerts and music festivals were held during the period across the country, generating ticket sales of about 2.5 billion yuan ($343 million).

In Beijing alone, there has been at least one concert by a famous singer every week since March and most singers have put on more than one concert. From January to July, Beijing hosted 29 concerts, with a total of 456,000 tickets sold and 407 million yuan ($55.8 million) of revenue generated, up 103.5 percent and 304.9 percent respectively from the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.

Fans who failed to secure a ticket for rock band Mayday's concert at the National Stadium in Beijing wave light sticks outside the stadium to cheer for their idols on June 3 (XINHUA)

Crackdown on scalpers

As the market has heated up, it has also become increasingly difficult to grab a concert ticket.

Tickets for Chou's upcoming Shanghai concerts on October 12-15 sold out immediately after they were put up for sale on three online ticketing platforms on September 12. More than 110,000 tickets were made available on the Damai, Maoyan and Piaoxingqiu platforms. On Damai alone, which offered around 70,000 tickets, 4.84 million users expressed interest in purchasing.

Demand far exceeding supply is the main reason for the difficulty purchasing tickets, but the problem is being compounded by the activity of scalpers.

Scalpers are also pushing up the price of seeing concerts. For Chou's September 7 concert in Tianjin, scalpers sold tickets originally priced 2,000 yuan ($274) for 25,000 yuan ($3,425).

In addition to grabbing tickets online or from individuals who buy a ticket but can't attend, scalpers also buy tickets directly from concert organizers. Large concerts require high investment and carry the risk of low ticket sales, and pre-selling tickets to scalpers at a higher price helps mitigate this risk.

To crack down on ticket scalping, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security on September 13 issued a circular on strengthening regulation and management of large commercial activities and promoting the healthy and orderly development of the performance industry.

The circular required organizers to ensure that the number of tickets for large commercial performances available to the public should be no less than 85 percent of the total, an increase from the previous 70 percent. Large commercial performances are defined as those with over 5,000 attendees. According to the circular, the personal information of the remaining 15 percent of ticket holders must be registered 24 hours before the performance.

The circular mandated concertgoers provide identity information both at the time of ticket purchase and when gaining admission to large performances. It further stipulated only one ticket for one performance can be bought for one identity, and the identity information of the ticket purchaser and the person attending the event must be consistent. The regulations are expected to make it difficult for scalpers to buy and sell tickets as tickets now have to be registered with real names.

Refund mechanism needed

However, the new regulations have not so far completely stemmed out scalpers mainly because of the high demand. In the weeks since the circular was released, scalpers have already found a new way to circumvent the rules—securing tickets with concertgoers' identifications. Concertgoers are now giving their personal information to scalpers and paying them extra if the latter succeed in grabbing a ticket. The pay for securing a ticket for Chinese pop group TFBoys' concert in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, in August ranged from 5,500 to 10,000 yuan ($753 to 1,370) on top of the original ticket price, based on the position of the seats.

In addition to directly increasing ticket supply, relaxing refund policies is also called for.

At present the rules for concert ticket refunds are varied and decided by organizers. Some organizers don't allow ticket refunds and those that allow refunds have strict time requirements and deduct a service charge. For instance, Hong Kong pop singer Jacky Cheung's upcoming concerts in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, in October allow fee-free refunds within 24 hours after a ticket is sold. Refunds are permitted after 24 hours of and within 15 days of purchase and incur a 20-percent service charge.

However, under the new rules tying tickets to identities, those who have genuine reasons for not attending a performance but who are ineligible for refunds are unable to sell or even give their ticket to someone else.

Industry insider A Yu told China Newsweek that "Relaxed refund policies mean those who fail to buy tickets can check ticket sale websites for returned tickets rather than turning to scalpers," adding that this helps to squeeze scalpers out of the market.

However, there is voice against ticket refund from concert organizers. Tian Jingquan, CEO of Jingqi Feifan Film and Television Co., which organizes performances, told Southern Metropolis Daily that he doesn't agree with setting up a ticket refund system. "If ticket refunds are allowed and 60 percent of tickets were sold in the first 10 days but 40 percent of tickets are refunded 10 days before the performance, should the organizer cancel the performance when all staff members and artists are ready?" For large concerts which require high investment beforehand, flexible refund policies increase pressure on organizers.

The circular said a ticket refund mechanism should be established, and a reasonable tiered policy for service charges to ensure consumers' rights to return tickets will be implemented.

(Print Edition Title: Doomsday for Scalpers?)

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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