A novelty in the field of mobile ticketing has landed in our digital reality. We’re talking about Dice, the new platform dedicated exclusively to events and concerts. There are already many other tools to buy tickets online, that is true, but Dice presents interesting new features that no other platform offers. But how does it work? What are the benefits it offers? In this article we have tried to analyse all its features, also taking a look at the phenomenon of secondary ticketing and how Dice proposes to fight it.
Founded in the United Kingdom and arrived in Italy just a few years ago, Dice aims at revolutionizing the world of ticketing for events, festivals, and concerts, offering an easy-to-use, immediate, and safe tool, in stark contrast with the current ticketing platforms. As Dice’s founder and CEO, Phil Hutcheon said: “people tend to hate ticket companies, so what if we created a brand that people really loved?”
But Dice has not seen an increase in popularity only among users, but also among the various artists who want to promote their own events through Dice.
Let’s see in detail what differentiates it from other ticketing platforms.
Table of contents
What it is and how it works
Dice is a novelty when it comes to buying tickets for concerts or other events. Founded in England in 2014, it expanded in other countries such as the US, Spain, France, arriving in Italy in 2019.
It is a mobile-only platform, as all operations – from event search to the ticket purchase, – are carried out via smartphone.
Once you have downloaded and signed into the app, on the main screen you can find all the concerts, festivals and shows suggested by the algorithms based on personal tastes or the proximity of the event. Once you choose the event you want to attend, the purchase of the ticket is very simple: just select the amount you want to buy and proceed with the payment.
Nothing ground-breaking so far, so what is its unique selling point?
The peculiarity of Dice is to issue a QR code after the purchase of the ticket, which will be activated only two hours before the start of the event. A way to avoid the problem of secondary ticketing.
In addition, if for any reason you no longer have the opportunity to attend the event, Dice makes it possible to resell the ticket within the platform, making it available to those who, for example, could not buy it. In fact, those who find sold out events, can place themselves in a waiting list and buy tickets that are resold, directly from the app. Thanks to this procedure, it is not possible to soar prices as it often happens in the secondary ticketing market.
The target audience
Despite being a mobile-only platform, it is not only used by young people. Dice is for those who always want to stay updated on events, locally or worldwide.
That’s not all: it does not present only large-scale events with important artists, but also minor ones, such as parties in small clubs or festivals, highlighting an increasingly concrete effort to promote also films, film festivals, exhibitions and shows. Its goal is to become a reference point (digital and physical), in international culture.
The fight against secondary ticketing
As already mentioned, Dice wants to be the answer to secondary ticketing problem, a widespread phenomenon that very difficult to control. How many times have we waited, excited to buy the tickets of our favourite artist only to see them disappear in front of our eyes within a few seconds of sales opening? And how many times have we found these same tickets sold on other websites at twice the original price? This is what secondary ticketing is all about: individuals or agencies buying tickets massively from the main ticketing sites to put them on the secondary market with higher prices in order to make a big profit.
This phenomenon has been known for a long time and affects especially events that attract a large audience. For instance, think of the Coldplay concert in 2016, which went sold out in a matter of minutes, leaving a lot of people empty-handed; or about the golden era of One Direction, for which getting a ticket for any date was a war between fans and scalpers.
Although the major ticketing platforms have tried to contain the problem, by introducing nominative tickets and limiting the number of tickets that can be purchased per person, the phenomenon has never been permanently eliminated.
To give it a rest, Dice thought of a QR code ticket, which is only activated two hours before the event starts, in such a way that it cannot be taken away from the platform by others with the purpose of reselling it in other platforms at an increased price.
Moreover, the fact that event waiting lists exist and users can easily resell the ticket, makes sure that all transactions related to the purchase and sale of tickets remain withing the app, ensuring greater transparency, avoiding crazy price increases, and reducing the risk that undesirable agencies or private individuals can buy tickets for pure speculation.
Advice on tailor-made events
Another peculiarity that characterizes Dice is the introduction of an algorithm that suggests users which concerts and events are scheduled according to their musical tastes. In fact, as soon as you sign in, the app will ask if you want to connect your account to your favourite music streaming service, such as Spotify or Apple Music.
The algorithm processes the data on number of plays, favourite artists, and the most listened music genre to suggest to the user concerts or tailor-made events. On the main screen the user will find all the customized suggestions, selected by Dice. The use of algorithms to suggest concerts is not new, but it has been used by less popular platforms so far, with a less central role in the use of the app.
The success story of Kanye West
Many international artists have relied on Dice to promote their events or concerts, including the famous American rapper Kanye West.
Over the past few years, Kanye West’s Wyoming ranch has been the scene of some of the most important moments in the rapper’s career. In 2018, the property hosted numerous artists, influencers, and members of the press at the first listening of the album “Ye”. To provide the same listening experience to his fans, Kanye created the “Project Wyoming Events,” a series of concerts to allow fans to listen to his album just as it happened in his ranch: outdoors, around a bonfire, but with a stadium-quality sound.
Kanye’s team and 1AM agency started a partnership with Dice to sell tickets for the Brooklyn, Miami, and Chicago events. Dice’s involvement meant that scalpers could not actually get tickets for the events and then resell them, thus ensuring fans a much more relaxed purchase experience. In fact, Dice tweeted: “warning: tickets for the Kanye West events are totally non-transferable. Some chancers are attempting to sell their tix but they can’t. If you try and buy them, you will lose your money and won’t get in”.
Summing up
Dice is a relatively new app, which still has a long way to go (and partnerships to sign) before it can really establish itself in the Olympus of ticketing platforms.
The path taken by Dice already offers important and interesting premises, first and foremost, the possibility to crush the secondary ticketing market.
In addition, the fact that the app shows events based on musical tastes and user localization, certainly makes it easier to discover concerts, festivals and parties that we otherwise would not have considered.
So, as we witnessed with major events such as Kanye West’s ones, we can only hope that more and more organizers decide to rely on Dice, increasing its popularity internationally.
What do you think of Dice? Do you think it could be the future of ticketing? Tell us your opinion in the comments and contact us to discover more about our digital communication and marketing services.
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