Spotify rewards superfans with exclusive ticket access – Is “Reserved” the way out of the ticket war or a marketing ploy?
Pre-sale codes, refreshing the website every second, spending hours in the queue and despite the best internet connection – disappointment. The fight for concert tickets is currently becoming increasingly complex and competitive. Professional secondary sellers use bots to buy large quantities of coveted tickets in a matter of seconds, leaving real fans with little chance. The resold concert tickets then appear on the resale market – significantly more expensive than before. Now Spotify is introducing a new feature: Is “Spotify Reserved” a peace offering in the ticket war or just good marketing?
Stream as a ticket
Among the 0.01% of global Taylor Swift listeners on Spotify and proud of it: soon the streaming provider’s statistics could be good for more than the annual posting in the Instagram story. Spotify announces “Reserved” – a feature that gives hardcore fans the opportunity to buy tickets to their most listened to artists before anyone else. How to qualify for this? Stream, stream, stream. On its website, Spotify explains that the exclusive tickets are offered to selected accounts based on streaming behavior, music sharing and other activity on the platform. The prerequisite is a Spotify Premium account and that there is a real person behind the account. The offer should be available for 24 hours and is valid for 2 tickets. “Spotify Reserved” is initially in the test phase in the USA, but it could soon be available in other regions.
Who gets the tickets?
Spotify admits it itself: There are more super fans for many artists than there will be tickets available. So how do you choose? Regionality plays a role – Reserved will primarily offer tickets to accounts whose preferred location in the live events feed matches the artist’s tour stops. However, access should then be possible to all tour locations and price categories, regardless of your own region. That’s why Spotify recommends setting this preferred location; In addition, app notifications should be turned on so as not to miss the 24-hour window.
Only those who stream a lot are fans?
There is an understandable concern behind “Spotify Reserved”: Real fans should continue to have access to their stars’ concerts – not just those who have the most money to spend on expensive resale tickets. But the new feature also attracts significant criticism: On the one hand, the concept excludes all users of other streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer, as well as all fans without a premium subscription on Spotify. At the same time, the ticket contingent in official sales is becoming smaller and smaller through pre-sales such as “Spotify Reserved” as more tickets are allocated in advance.
In addition, already privileged users would particularly benefit from “Spotify Reserved”: Anyone who works a 40-hour week and also has other responsibilities and duties has less time for streaming – and therefore lower chances of getting Spotify Reserved tickets. This criticism leads to the actual fundamental question: Can true fanhood be measured by pure streaming numbers?
It remains to be seen how the new Spotify feature will be received and whether the platform will take the criticism seriously. “Spotify Reserved” cannot single-handedly end the ticket wars: Ultimately, it combats a symptom – and only for Spotify Premium subscribers. Because the resale problem still exists. In any case, it is good marketing for the provider itself, which is probably aimed at increasing usage figures and more premium subscriptions.
