Do Consumers Even Want NFT Tickets?

This blog is not to be interpreted as a scathing of NFT ticketing nor NFTs themselves but more my own recent cognizance that physical memorabilia is increasingly becoming something of the past.

The problems with ticketing currently

Using a blockchain based solution to solve industry wide problems in the ticketing space is actually a rather sagacious way of doing it. Physical and digital tickets are plastered with plentiful problems that have plagued the industry for generations. Whether it be the physical item getting lost and damaged or the increased number of fraudulent tickets on secondary and sometimes primary markets – but the headache doesn’t stop there.

With many tickets being wound up on black market sites and Facebook groups at mountainous prices, the event managers and artists have a limited understanding about the demographic of attendees. No email addresses, no age range, no previous knowledge if they have ever been to an event before. These issues hold artists back from engaging with their fans and vice versa.

The solutions NFT ticketing can offer

Introducing a ticket, which is a digital token represented on blockchain, removes all scepticism around fraudulent tickets and imposter marketplaces as the validity of the ticket can be authenticated using a public blockchain explorer. What makes NFTs so special chiefly in regards to the ticket and live music space, is that payments can be made to all parties involved, instantly.

The ticketing platform could have a built in smart contract so that when the buyer makes a purchase to attend the event it results in the event organisers, the marketplace, the artists, the record label all being paid out in a single secure and efficient transaction. Performing artists make the majority of their income off live performances and can now have their payout time reduced significantly as they can be paid at the point of sale.

But why would I want an NFT ticket?

I’ve been to countless live shows, festivals and events through out my life, both purchasing tickets from well known merchants and also via online chat rooms; whilst also reselling tickets at elephantine prices to willing buyers in my early teens.

But what do NFT tickets solve for me as an attender? I trust Eventbrite and Ticketmaster implicitly. I have never lost a ticket or got it wet and all tickets nowadays are QR codes anyway…

What do NFTs actually do for the consumers that they don’t already have? Do we even want added fan engagements or loyalty points or discounted merchandise? Or are artists and event organisers just forcing this on us purely for monetisation purposes?

With blockchain based solutions coming to the ticketing industry with already very popular providers like GETT Protocol getting impressive traction and other ticketing sites popping up daily – my request would be to make the ticket have an artistic design to it.

Who wants to collect a QR code with a bit of text?

You could even take the artists’ tour poster and use that or create a simple generative collection; anything to give the consumer a reason to collect the ticket and accept it as an NFT.

Physical is better than digital.

Now my bias against NFT tickets and digital tickets is clearly oozing out and that’s because admittedly I am a prolific collector of physical memorabilia. I have kept all of my football tickets, concert tickets, first betting slips even plane tickets and ultimately, I have to admit that the physical item offers so much more to me than it’s digital counterpart.

But why?

Its real…

Looking at a crumpled ticket from a champions League football match I went to from 5 years ago and seeing the discolouring in the corners of the ticket, the UV-light damaged security code, the crumbled edges and tears scattered throughout brings back all the memories of that moment over half a decade ago.

Physical memorabilia are time machines.

They are handheld portals that take you back to one’s own adolescence and remind us of our maturity and allows us to relive notable memories.

Digital memorabilia doesn’t offer this in the same way.

But can digital images be historic?

Now, upon closer inspection and speaking to collectors of an older age I was reminded that images and jpegs back in 2005 and even 2015 look completely different than they do today. With industry guidelines on UI recommendations, graphic improvements and design innovations, tickets, at first glance, can clearly be recognised from a certain era.

Font changes, old logos and styles remind us of age and offers a glimpse back in the past. However it can never quite replace the feelings evoked from physical tickets.

What Algorand can offer to NFT tickets

With recent ARC contributions to the Algorand ecosystem, a metadata standard referred to as arc-19, which was created by NFD founder Patrick Bennett allows the image of an NFT to be changed. This could be perfect for tickets from live events as the attendees could add a video or a photo they have taken from the event and upload it to their NFT ticket’s display picture. What better way to cement your experience at an event by linking it to your ticket. This could perhaps prove to be a valuable ticket, even after the event, and create a secondary marketplace for NFT tickets despite the show taking place weeks prior…

Imagine you capture a viral moment from a concert and upload it to the NFT ticket’s display picture, that could be an interesting historical moment to own.

In conclusion

There are undoubtedly issues and solutions that NFTs can bring to tickets that I have missed out, however my argument is referring to my own personal nostalgic relationship with physical memorabilia that digital collectibles just can’t quite offer.

Yet, unfortunately as everything becomes digital, if the only piece of memorabilia I can collect is an NFT, of course I’ll take one, if at a reasonable price though.