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Frustrated Adele Seeks To Stop Concert Ticket Scalpers

By Anna Johansson
Published on: 03:25 PST, Dec 18, 2015

You’ve probably heard that Adele’s North American tour has sold out, but you may not have realized that she and her team are on a mission to stop concert ticket scalpers. She’s frustrated by those who seek to make a profit off her hard-earned career, and as a result, she and her team are cracking down.

The concert business’s largest and most widespread plague is and probably always will be ticket scalpers. This refers to those who purchase tickets in bulk and then seek to sell them illegally for their own profit on eBay, Craigslist, and similar sites. Sometimes, ticket scalping happens through what looks like a reputable ticket agency, when in reality, the site’s architects obtained tickets illegally through the original ticketing source.

In an effort to stop these illegal ticket sales, a frustrated Adele has actually teamed up with a company called SongKick. This ticket-selling website has the ability to manage thousands of tickets at a time with technology that seeks to prevent concert ticket scalpers as much as possible.

“By selling the highest number of tickets we were able to through our own channels, and working with Songkick and their technology, we have done everything within our power to get as many tickets as possible in the hands of the fans who have waited for years to see her live,” said Jonathan Dickins, Adele’s manager.

Adele is arguably the most popular international artist right now. With her return after a three-year hiatus, she's already broken records for single downloads and video watches. It's no wonder that her tour sold out in just minutes. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Adele is arguably the most popular international artist right now. With her return after a three-year hiatus, she’s already broken records for single downloads and video watches. It’s no wonder that her tour sold out in just minutes. [Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

For Adele, who’s North American 25 concert sold out in less than 45 minutes, ticket scalping is a major concern. She used SongKick to host many of her ticket sales. This website sent out tickets to multiple sites, including Adele.com, where it sold 235,000 tickets. Through this process, SongKick reports that they successfully stopped 53,000 sales to scalpers based on their intel.

It’s estimated that these efforts have saved fans a whopping £4 million pounds, which is the equivalent of $6.3 million. You read that right. It saves fans millions, not the company. When tickets are obtained and sold illegally, it forces the concert business to raise their prices in order to cover the costs. As they say, ticket scalping is not a victimless crime.

Hosting her ticket sales through SongKick is a relatively new endeavor for Adele and her concert team. In Britain, SongKick will host 40 percent of her tickets, but for her North American tour, it held only 8 percent of her tickets.

Many of these tickets went to StubHub, where users reported difficulties. The biggest issue was tickets listed for exorbitant prices ranging from $1,000 to a whopping $11,000. As popular as Adele is, her tickets aren’t worth quite that much. Fans shared their frustrations over the ticket purchasing issues on Twitter.

There was also, of course, a wide number of followers simply saddened by the lack of tickets available, particularly since some ticket websites crashed at one point. Of course, they went to Twitter to share their frustrations.

Adele’s concert tickets are some of the most sought-after tickets of the year, but it turns out that some may not be lucky enough to get their hands on them for this tour. Adele and her team simply urge their fans not to support the concert ticket scalping business for the convenience of everyone involved.

[Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images]

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