Twickets launches in Aus, sets sights on the US and Europe

Having been the cause of bubbling outrage among concert promoters in Australia, and the world, for over a decade now, the secondary ticketing business may have just met its match locally with the launch of fan-to-fan platform Twickets.

On Wednesday, we reported Mushroom’s Frontier Touring had teamed with face value ticket resale company Twickets to help launch an official method of selling tickets on to new fans at cost price.

Today, the UK-based Twickets has officially announced the launch of its Australian operations at Twickets.com.au.

Having vocally opposed the secondary market – which has seen tickets to Midnight Oil and more recently Ed Sheeran skyrocket into the thousands on sites like Viagogo – Frontier has been waiting for a fan-to-fan ticket reseller to enter the market for some time.

Dion Brant, COO of Frontier Touring said: “The last excuse used by scalping sites to justify their existence is that they ‘provide a service to legitimate fans stuck with unwanted tickets.’

“We know this is really a cover for misleading and dishonest profiteering at the expense of fans and artists.  Partnering with Twickets to provide a service where real fans can sell unwanted tickets in a transparent and fair way removes all legitimacy from other resale sites.”

The local operation is headed up by Danny Hannaford, former Head of Ticketing at UK promoter Global Live.

Speaking to TIO, Hannaford said Twickets is the go-to site for face-value ticket exchange in the UK.

“We do that by partnering with artists, local promoters, primary ticket companies, venues, and festivals. We intend to do the same here and in many other territories.”

Twickets has also partnered with local promoter Handsome Tours and is offering its service to fans wanting to sell on their tickets to see Stormzy. The London MC has already sold out four of his seven ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ Australia dates.

Hannaford hinted to TIO that Twickets’ plans to roll out the service in the US and mainland Europe could happen in just a few weeks time.

“We have had a great reception from the industry in Australia so far, and will have a lot more news to share in the coming weeks. By providing a face value alternative we are already doing damage to the profiteering sites by driving traffic away from their websites.

“No one wants to pay over the odds for a gig but for hot shows sometimes they haven’t had a choice. Now genuine fans who have a spare ticket or can no longer make the show are able to pass on the tickets at face value to other fans who weren’t so lucky the first time around.”

Twickets Australia is also offering legitimate resale tickets to Rag’n’Bone Man, Sigur Rós, DJ Shadow and Laura Marling.

Twickets launched in its only other location in London in 2015. Its founder Richard Davies (Good Technology, Future Platforms) is a digital entrepreneur and one of the UK’s leading mobile app developers.

Twickets UK has received over 1.2 million from close to 900 investors since its launch. They include: Chris Wright (Chrysalis Records’ co-founder), Ian McAndrew (Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood), and Tony Wadsworth (ex Chairman of EMI Records), Closer Artists (James Bay, George Ezra) and Modest Management (One Direction, Niall, Little Mix).

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.