A Study to Explore How the Internet Has Impacted Ticketing for Live Music Concerts, From a Consumer Perspective.

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to explore how the Internet has impacted ticketing for live music concerts from a consumer perspective and in doing so, identify how concert ticketing could be improved for consumers. This dissertation comprises five chapters which document the research process undertaken to achieve this aim, which are: Introduction; Literature Review; Methodology; Results, Analysis and Discussion; Conclusions and Recommendations. By conducting a critical review of relevant literature, the researcher identified the following key themes to underpin this study and aid the questionnaire and focus group design: online pricing and distribution, recorded music and the secondary market. The questionnaire was distributed online, collecting quantitative and qualitative data from a non-probability sample chosen by self-selection, producing 100 complete responses. The 25-minute focus group collected qualitative data from six participants – also from a non-probability sample chosen by self-selection and convenience. Here, the quantitative data was analysed using Qualtrics and Microsoft Excel whilst a thematic method was used to analyse the qualitative data. Stemming from analysis, the researcher was able to make conclusions about how the Internet had impacted concert ticketing from a consumer perspective. Most prominently, the majority of consumers prefer to purchase tickets online, expressing that overall, the Internet has improved concert ticketing due to the level of convenience it provides. Although interestingly, most consumers still prefer to use physical tickets received by post as opposed to e-tickets. However, a major issue identified was the technical issues experienced online – which prevent many fans from securing tickets. Furthermore, most consumers highlight negative views towards the secondary market. They suggest it makes it harder to obtain tickets on the primary market whilst exploiting customers to make unfair profits, and therefore, it should be regulated to protect consumers, artists and organisers.