Trying to get a show ticket refund or even selling one last-minute is a hassle we’d all rather like to avoid. Now, thanks to the mobile app Dice, music fans will be given the first-ever no-hassle ticket refund policy. At any time before a show, the ticket purchaser can be refunded in full while the returned ticket is offered to other users on the waiting list.
“If someone can’t make a show they either don’t turn up or are forced to put their tickets on secondary ticketing platforms,” Dice CEO and founder Phil Hutcheon told Music Week. “Those tickets are often snapped up by speculators and sold at insane prices. We believe a fan shouldn’t be allowed to sell their tickets for more than they paid for it, but they have the right to get a refund. By being 100% mobile we make it super easy for fans to do exactly that.”
The new solution will also ensure that tickets are going directly to fans, rather than scalpers or anyone else looking to exploit ticket sales. By using Dice, show promoters can easily track their inventory, refunds and waiting lists to ensure tickets are going to whom they should be going to.
Phil Hutcheon and the digital product studio ustwo, based out of London, England, developed Dice in 2014. The app is available for iOS and Android users, but unfortunately right now the app is only live across various cities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including London, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds, New Castle, Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin. In 2014, it was named one of the Guardian’s best apps of the year, and also received an award for Best Ticketing Company from the 2016 Music Week Awards.
Other features of the app allow users to browse and buy tickets for upcoming shows that have been curated by an editorial team. The app then integrates with Spotify and Apple Music to allow users to listen to 30-second track previews from any show’s artists. Purchased tickets then reside on the users phone as a QR code to be shown at the event’s venue. To date, the app has allowed more than 600 artists to sell tickets directly through labels, promoters and venues. Such artists include Taylor Swift, Jack White, Alabama Shakes and others.