The secondary ticket market is dominated by scalpers who use bots to buy tickets in bulk and resell them at inflated prices, making it difficult for genuine fans to attend events at reasonable prices. This harms fans, artists, and venues alike—fans pay more, artists lose control over their audience, and venues face reputational risks when events are filled with resold tickets. One way to address this could be a verification system that ensures only dedicated fans can purchase tickets.

How Fan Verification Could Work

The idea involves requiring potential ticket buyers to answer artist-specific questions before purchasing. For example, questions like "What was the lead single from the artist’s second album?" or "Name the city where they played their first headline show" could act as a gatekeeper. Since scalpers and bots are unlikely to know such details, this would filter out bulk buyers while allowing real fans to purchase tickets at face value. The system could be integrated into ticketing platforms or work as a standalone tool for event websites.

• For fans: Ensures fair access to tickets without price gouging.
• For artists: Helps cultivate an audience of genuine supporters.
• For venues and ticketing platforms: Reduces no-shows and improves event reputation.

Implementation and Challenges

A simple MVP could involve partnering with a mid-tier artist to test the system for a single concert, using a basic web form with 5-10 questions. Over time, integration with ticketing platforms via APIs could automate the process. Challenges include:

• Casual fans: Might struggle with niche questions, so offering a general sale after a verified pre-sale could help.
• Scalper workarounds: Dynamic or rotating question pools could prevent answer databases from being compiled.

Compared to existing solutions like Ticketmaster’s random Verified Fan system or Dice’s mobile-only tickets, this approach adds a merit-based layer to ticket access, making it harder for scalpers to exploit the system upfront rather than after tickets are sold.