Feature
BLOCKCHAIN
NEVER THE CHAIN Could technology that makes it possible to track the entire lifecycle of a ticket finally put an end to fraud and unregulated resale? These five ticketing startups hope so, writes Jon Chapple.
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lockchain (or the blockchain, depending on your preferred terminology) is the music-biz tech buzzword of the moment: a digital ledger, originally developed for use by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, in which all transactions are recorded permanently and publicly. While much of the press around blockchain and the music industry has focused on implications for the online streaming of recorded music – citing the benefits of ‘smart contracts’ wherein the owner(s) of songs will be paid automatically for their usage – the technology also has numerous applications in the live space: not least in ticketing, where a handful of pioneers are taking advantage of the trackability of paperless tickets to wrest
control away from touts and hand it back to artists, managers and promoters.
AVENTUS London-based Aventus Systems recently welcomed two new high-profile backers – both of whom will be familiar to those working in live music – as advisory board members, attracted by the potential for blockchain technology to eliminate unauthorised ticket resale. Michael Waterson, the British economist who led a government-commissioned review of the UK secondary ticketing market, and Bernie Dillon, formerly a VP at Hard Rock International/Hard Rock Live, and now director of Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Live, have lent their support to the Aventus platform, which promises to be the
14 • INTERNATIONAL TICKETING YEARBOOK 2017
“revolutionary global standard for the fair, secure and transparent creation, promotion and sale of tickets that is not controlled by any one entity.” “My investigation into the event ticketing industry, particularly in music, brought home to me how a structure has grown up that leads to consumer confusion and frustration, alongside a range of dubious practices,” says Waterson. “Technologically, the problems are challenging, but, to me, Aventus has a comprehensive approach to their solution. Provided there is sufficient industry buy-in, Aventus can be a real force for positive change.” Aventus’s initial coin offering (ICO) – a type of crowdfunding campaign for cryptocurrency-based start-ups – is planned for September 2017. The company