Live Nation is bringing back one of the oldest collectors items in live music — the ticket stub — as an NFT collectible.
For decades tickets to concerts and events were printed on special thermal paper that were difficult to counterfeit but easy for ticketing companies with specialized printers to print and distribute en masse. Fans would keep a small portion of the ticket — the stub — showing their seat location, and a few would end up in scrapbooks and stacks of stubs in a shoebox. But by 2010 thermal tickets were mostly a thing of the past, replaced by print-at-home and mobile-only tickets.
Now, in an industry first, Live Nation is recreating the collectors item through Live Stubs digital collectible NFTs which will also show the unique section, row and seat of each ticket purchased.
Live Nation is launching the platform for Swedish House Mafia’s “Paradise Again” tour, which opens in Miami on July 29, 2022, with tickets now on sale. Fans will be able to view, share, gift, trade, and even resell their NFT stubs on Livenation.com. Just don’t try to use the NFTs to try and get into the show, company officials explain in a press release — “these are collector items and will not replace the digital tickets needed to physically enter the show.”
“Our Live Stubs product brings back the nostalgia of collecting ticket stubs while also giving artists a new tool to deepen that relationship with their fans and we can’t wait to see what the creativity of this community dreams up as it grows,” says Michael Rapino, Live Nation president and CEO, in a statement to Billboard. “Special thanks to Swedish House Mafia for kicking it off for their upcoming tour.”
Live Stubs will automatically be given for free to fans who purchase a primary ticket to tour stops that are promoted by Live Nation and in venues powered by Ticketmaster’s digital ticketing platform.
