Olivia Dean has secured her fans a partial refund from Ticketmaster and AXS after slamming the services as “exploitative” over their resale prices.
The Grammy nominee —who has quickly become one of the most exciting new artists in the industry —was outraged last week when resale tickets for her North American tour, which boasts sold-out concerts around the world, were priced at 14 times their original face value.
“Live music should be affordable and accessible and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER,” Dean said. She added that Live Nation, Ticketmaster and AEG “are providing a disgusting service” and that the “prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes.”
In a statement shared to her social media Thursday, Dean said Ticketmaster and AXS have agreed to refund the difference to anyone who has paid over face value for a ticket, and that they’ll cap all future ticket resale prices to face value for the North American run of her tour.
“Every artist and their team should be granted the option to cap re-sale at face value ahead of on sale, to keep the live music space accessible for all,” she wrote. “The secondary ticket market is an exploitative and unregulated space and we as an industry have a responsibility to protect people and our community.
“Thank you for your patience and I’m looking forward to seeing all you real humans at the show.”
According to BBC News, Michael Rapino, CEO of Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment, said about the news: “We share Olivia’s desire to keep live music accessible and ensure fans have the best access to affordable tickets. While we can’t require other marketplaces to honour artists’ resale preferences, we echo Olivia’s call to ‘do better’ and have taken steps to lead by example.”
The platform has, historically, given other artists the power of capping ticket resale prices —both Hayley Williams and Chappell Roan did so with their respective tours —but it is unclear if Dean’s team was able to exercise that.
It comes after the U.K. government announced plans last week to ban reselling concert and sports tickets above face value in a bid to curb ticket scalping. “For too long, ticket touts have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices,” said culture secretary Lisa Nandy. “They’ve become a shadow industry on resale sites, acting without consequence.”
The British government expects the move will save fans a combined 112 million pounds (about $146 million) per year. Coldplay and Dua Lipa are among the vocal supporters of the move.