NFT Ticketing - insights from top 7 hits on YouTube

I ran an “NFT Ticketing” query on YouTube. I expected quite a bit more torque from the top hits. The rough notes from the interviews are in the body of the post and the essential selection is next.

Essential selection

• It appears there may be a funding problem that keep incumbents afloat. Event organizers / bands are short on money. They borrow - from ticket brokers(?) think Ticket Master - against the future revenue from the event. The GET protocol attempts to solve for this.
• NFTs is an instrument to monetize event organizers. New business models for perpetual revenue are attractive.
• All speakers hit key talking points on the benefits of NFT ticketing: disincentivize scalpers, eliminate fraud, KYC as ticket transfers happen, ticket stubs as art, community engagement before, during, and after the event with further monetization, and track record for the future.
• All of the speakers talked about perpetual royalties. None of the speakers talked about lack of royalty enforcement at the smart contract level. It was common knowledge before this topic became popular.

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The notes are presented in the order the search results appeared to me on Jan 3, 2023. Notes to self are [in brackets].

Josh Katz (source) NFT ticketing 'further enables' users into live event experiences: Yellowheart CEO

• NFT is a programmable contract.
• Anytime where you have a middleman, there is an opportunity.
• Yellowhart is doing NFT ticketing for TAO Group: nightlife & hospitality operator
• Ticketing has been stagnant
• Now can build communities around experiences
• What about sports tickets to NFTs? It’s the future. Also an industry that never evolved.
• Football as an example: hang out with people, before, during, but after? Not so much.
• Ticket is an entry into the community and interaction. To do commerce. To evolve live experience. Ongoing reach to the consumers to monetize afterwards.
• Membership to grow the NFTs. Started with PFPs. Now community building & utility. Open doors, commerce.
• On ticket fees: yes, may come down
• On fraud. If a wallet bought 12 and doing nothing with it, it’s flagged. De-incentivize scalping by putting a royalty to put 50% of resale back to the owner [not possible with ERC 721 or 1155, requires custom smart contract]
• On bots. Take TM out of equation? No, it’s enable TM to give a better experience. Transparent experiences for fans [but TM doesn’t want transaprency].
• TM right now releases 20% of the tickets and then try to maximize the revenue through secondary marketplaces, their own or 3rd parties.

LeewayHertz (source) - What is NFT Ticketing ? | How does NFT work for Ticketing?

Give story to the ticket. Give memories of past evolves.

Problems:

• black market for tickets
• ticketing bots, buy tickets in bulk and sell on secondary market
• event organizers don’t know who bought the ticket on the secondary market
• fake tickets - loss of money and disappointment

Solutions with blockchain:

• Store on blockchain. Sold digitally.
• Store on a wallet
• Event organizers can mint tickets.
• NFTs can be coded with maxes and mins
• Buyer pays to ticketing company, and it mints to a wallet.
• NFTs go to a marketplace for re-sale.

Benefits:

• Prevent fake tickets and scams
• Authenticity
• Can have non-transferrable
• Can track ownership
• Costs are smaller than traditional
• Minting is fast
• Perpectual reveneue - a collectibles, as rewards, for prizes.
• Perks and organizers
• Can create stories of event
• Can distribute easily

Little Might (source) - How NFT's Can Change Ticket Purchasing

• secondary sales are expensive. May pay x4 the price. The artist doesn’t see it. Scalping is a problem. Fans spend less money on merch.

Solution: NFT platform

• Concert Tickets are like NFTs. Mint. Put in wallet. Can see transfers. If scalper, put rules [in smart contract] to give back to the artist. Or put money from scalpers, give back to fans, in a form of merch or special rewards.
• NFTs can be verified. Need to be platform specific.
• [the royalties argument is out if cross platform]
• Enable you to to transfer the ticket once or twice. Remove incentives.

Shawn Kanungo (source) - Interview with Anh Nguyen (Event Planner) - Non Fungible Tokens (or NFTs) - Why NFTs Will Impact the Events

• Implications on how we interact with event community.
• Adoption may be small. E.g., virtual
• Why is video always an afterthought?
• Event planning changed post pandemic. Event professionals now need to think about a long-term engagement.
• Feelings … you don’t remember the details of what the speaker said, but how you felt & emotion. Connect with the moment - NBA topshot.
• Imagine this … I was here … or you can buy when I was there. Flex because I was there in-person.
• Event professionals get paid via a fee. Change to the business model. E.g., digital highlight, first time we did this, if the thing gets traded, you can get royalty for that. The NFTs that you mint you can get royalty for the experience that you can paid.
• Every event in the future will be video recorded. So anyone can have that … what’s the value of the experience? Additional items.
• Create an experience. Events tie peoples’ emotions to an experience. With NFTs you can own it. Now you can monetize it. It has been hard to articulate the value of an experience. And now you can.
• Social tokens … people have a buy-in. People become your ambassadors.
• Marketing is the biggest stress. Best companies have fan market it. E.g., Tesla.
• Flexing your ownership / fandom is hard. On topshot there are leaderboards.
• There is a lot of pressure on event professionals due to timelines, thus recurring revenue is appealing. [interesting, but who owns the IP / content from the event]
• Dynamic NFTs … based on some event something changes. This is big for sports. Element of surprise is important to change the behavior at an event. How to keep people engaged.
• Build community year round. Through hybrid events. Small pieces.

How to get started

• Do something small. Play with NFTs. Get a wallet.
• Work with experts.
• Start with crypto events. Then to sports, then to boring events.

With tickets

• Organizers don’t get the full value of the tickets, due to scalpers, can be prevented.

Gary V. (source) How You Can Turn an NFT Into a Real-World Utility for Your Business

• NFTs are the social currency for the digital world
• Starting with collectibles and art … then representing other things on smart contracts
• Tickets: NFT tickets is a derrivative asset. Over time you can connect and do something with it. Tickets becomes an asset. If a ticket is sold as a collectible, a royalty can feed you later. Making money in perpertuity. [terms and conditions apply]
• Use the NFTs as a proof of what you have and where have you been.

The Future of NFT Ticketing - Panel at NFT.NYC 2022 (source)

Panelists: Joe Freire, Josh Katz, Maarten Bloemers, Tom Knight

Trends

• NFTs as a stub to trade.
• Monetize for resale - e.g., like topshot
• Mobile environment will help with transition to NFTs. Mobile applications are popular, people are familiar with that, gateway forward.

GET protocol

• to be sold NFTs as collaterized loan
• NFTs are a programmable container

Obstactles

• General public unfamiliar with the terms. Make it seamless.
• Yellowheart has their own wallet. To lower the barrier.
• Event organizers think it’s too scary. Political components as well.
• Model works now, why change it? Incumbants like it how it is.

Critical success factor

• more money in the pockets of event organizers
• It’s all about money - revenue
• people need to see the up side

Opportunity

• Monetize after the event

Other

• Ticket service providers are brokers. They don’t own the asset. Artists, venues, they own the assets. You can disintermediate it. They provide limited value added.
• The experience begins before and after the event to interact with a community. Extend the life of the event. Because the community can continue after the event.
• Kings Leon big moment. But band refuses to support the NFT holders. You have to commit to catering to the NFT holders for the long-term.

Piece of advice

• Find a niche.
• Have to believe.
• Just do it and wait.
• Keep consumer in mind. Keep the value add in mind. Draw consumer closer to the brand.

Industry lives on advances. If you democratize the funding you’re good.

Capture market? Venue specific approach vs. different verticals (e.g., sports). In the US venues control the ticketing process. Requires education.

NFT Use Case: Ticketing | The Unstoppable Podcast Clips

Shiv Sakhuja is a web3 content creator, developer, and co-founder of Magic Labs

• No fakes. Tradable. Creators can get royalties. Market pricing. Fragmentation. Event bright has some solutions.
• Plus having historical data for who bought the tickets. Plus the airdrop. Or tickets to future shows. Plus a badge.
• Tickets as a portfolio of the past. Tickets for everything.