Hotter than Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, it could be a Cruel Summer for Taylor Swift fans that fall victim to ticket scams as they are desperate to get their hands on a ticket for the Eras Tour.

Swifties who missed out on a ticket in the original release, which almost broke the internet, are reportedly paying up to 4000% of the original price for resale tickets to avoid missing out.

The hysteria surrounding the tour makes it ripe for scammers, who can take advantage of what fans are willing to pay to get in on the hype.

While it is inevitably great publicity for Taylor Swift, she doesn’t derive any benefit from eye-watering resale prices or worse from her fans falling victim to a ticket scam.

It all makes Taylor Swift less accessible to her followers, something which is unlikely to be her goal – she has already made her tour available to her global fan base for less than twenty dollars a ticket through the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tours” concert film.

While there are often tell-tale signs from scammers that might stop you from committing to purchase bogus tickets or otherwise, if you do purchase a bogus ticket, there may be ways to get your money back, but there have been countless reports of fans being left out-of-pocket and ticketless.

Is there something Taylor Swift could do to Shake It Off?

NFT tickets: Enter stage left

A non-fungible token or NFT is a blockchain-based digital record of ownership and authenticity. The token is non-fungible because its digital identity is unique, and it cannot be replicated on a one-to-one basis.

NFTs are enabled by Web3, which is an evolution of the current internet (known as Web2.0). Web3 is moving ownership of user content from the big tech companies back to the creators.

NFT tickets are, just as the name suggest, tickets in the form of an NFT. What sets them apart from “traditional” tickets (often verified by way of a barcode or QR code that is easily replicated) is that authenticity and ownership can, in theory, be objectively proved by reference to the record on the blockchain.

You can verify that the ticket someone purports to sell you is a genuine ticket and therefore not be left disappointed at the turnstiles.

While NFTs have, to date, most widely been associated with digital art and collectibles like Crypto Punks and Bored Apes, use cases go far beyond this as we see a shift in the concept of ownership.

In fashion, luxury brands have started to use NFTs to combat counterfeit goods by verifying the authenticity of genuine products, for example LVMH (the multi-national conglomerate that owns brands such as Prada and Louis Vuitton) has used the Aura blockchain to authenticate ownership of its products through issuance of NFTs to purchasers.

NFT tickets can similarly be used to combat counterfeit ticket sales.

The value in an NFT ticket may extend beyond offering the holder access to the associated event.

NFT tickets can allow artists to access a share of the resale value of tickets, through royalties enabled via a smart contract used to facilitate the ticket sale, function as collectible memorabilia, enable them to engage with fans long after the end of an event, and they can also be used to gather data on attendees.

Popular music festivals such as Coachella and Way Out West have already started to integrate NFTs in their festival experiences in the form of access passes (albeit not for general admission) and memorabilia, as have a number of artists who are offering holders of their NFTs free entry into concerts.

Artists and NFTs: Is there a blank space to fill?

Although the use case for NFT tickets in the music industry has been established theoretically and there have been examples of their use by artists (Ticketmaster launched their NFT ticketing platform in April 2023 for example), the majority of festival goers and gig attendees are unlikely to have a blockchain wallet and may not have the knowledge and understanding of what a NFT ticket is or why it might be more advantageous than a traditional form of ticket.

Albeit, the same was likely said of electronic tickets using QR codes when the move was made from paper tickets.

Engagement with NFT tickets would also inevitably bring with it a raft of legal considerations, such as:

• Consumer protection – issues around transparency for customers as well as processes for refunds and cancellations;
• Intellectual property rights – the NFT does not necessarily confer ownership of the underlying intellectual property, so terms need to be clear on what IP, if any, are transferred with the NFT ticket. Use of the ticket’s digital content (e.g., images / video) should also be established to avoid IP infringement;
• Data protection – compliance with UK data protection law is important if NFT ticketing involves the collection and processing of personal data. There may also be issues around storing personal data on the blockchain, given its immutable nature;
• Securities and financial regulation – NFTs might be considered securities in certain circumstances, triggering Financial Conduct Authority regulatory requirements. Anti-money laundering requirements may also need to be complied with, particularly if NFT transactions are significant in value; and
• Cross-border issues – as NFTs are global in nature, there may be challenges with determining the appropriate jurisdiction and governing law for certain contractual arrangements, as well as for disputes.

Before NFT tickets become the mainstream there will need to be wider spread interest and adoption, further advancements in blockchain technology (in particular, in relation to scalability and interoperability) and collaboration between tech companies, ticketing platforms, event organisers, and artists.

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Big brands have explored NFTs’ utility as part of customer engagement strategies such as brand awareness and loyalty initiatives; such concepts are equally relevant to the music industry.

With artists such as Taylor Swift increasingly taking ownership of their music and how they connect with their fanbase, and Web3’s philosophy to allow creators to directly engage with their consumers and create the content that is unique and special to them – it certainly seems like it could be a Love Story…