When Stick Figure announced its Sacred Sands Summer Tour, the Massachusetts-born reggae band decided to do something different. Stick Figure gave ticketholders the option to request a refund for any reason, a revolutionary concept amid the hyper-competitive post-pandemic live music market. With the biggest tour in the band’s history in the rearview, Stick Figure is now sharing the results of its economic experiment.
“Traditionally, ticketing companies don’t offer refunds, and that’s not fair,” Stick Figure wrote in the tour’s announcement in February. “We believe in looking out for our fans and understand that life can be unpredictable. That’s why, for this tour, we’re thrilled to announce that if you can’t go to the show for any reason, Stick Figure will refund your ticket up until ten days before the show at each of these headlining shows.”
The band’s refund policy had few stipulations: refunds must be requested more than ten days before the show, the offer only applies to headlining shows (no festivals or supporting dates), and no refunds for tickets bought on resale sites or for tickets that have been listed on third-party sites. In the announcement, Stick Figure admonished the concept of scalping, which the band was trying to cut out, “We will be offering absolutely NO REFUNDS to scalpers. We do not support the concept of buying tickets with the sole purpose of taking advantage of fans by reselling those tickets at higher prices.” Putting some skin in the game, Stick Figure’s management Ineffable Music Group later noted that the band announced its refund policy without discussing it with promoters. If promoters wouldn’t fulfill the refunds, Stick Figure would pay them.
Across 16 concerts including two nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Stick Figure sold 135,446 tickets of which 750 were refunded. That amounts to 0.55% of all tickets, with a value of $77,852.24 refunded, according to Ineffable. In a press release, Ineffable noted that since this tour was largely sold out, the band and promoters resold almost all refunded tickets. Post-tour surveys further indicate the experiment was a success, with 82.3% of ticket buyers stating that the refund policy made them feel absolutely more comfortable buying tickets. Just 2.8% of respondents said the policy did not make them feel more comfortable, 8.3% said they were indifferent, and 6.7% said they were somewhat more comfortable.
“We believe that if this practice were more established, the percentage of refunds would increase,” Ineffable concluded. “Our post-tour survey of ticket buyers indicated that over 65% of buyers were aware of the refund policy. This suggests that the percentage of refunds might go as high as 0.85% of total tickets. If over 85% of your potential ticket-buying audience is more likely to purchase a ticket with this refund policy, there is a strong case to be made that losing less than 1% of tickets later is still worth the overall boost in consumer confidence.”
From this analysis, Ineffable made several conclusions for a “win-win” scenario for both artists and fans. Sellers should allow refunds up until 7–14 days before the show, sell tickets at market price with resellers abiding by certain rules (no speculative ticket selling, etc.), and use distribution services to send tickets to other marketplaces and undercut gouging by tracking face value pricing. By adopting these practices, artists can actually sell tickets at a slightly higher price since these policies are essentially ticket insurance baked into the retail price. By adding the security of the universal refund policy, sellers ” will increase consumer confidence and drive more early ticket sales, which limits risk for bands, venues, and promoters.”
This approach encourages fans to purchase tickets early rather than waiting until the last minute since they can always change their minds, which is beneficial for artists and promoters who rely on presales and advance ticket sales to fund the upfront costs of production and gauge attendance. Festival promoters have attributed the recent influx in event cancellations to the trend of consumers buying their tickets at the last minute, while the trend itself has been exacerbated by the growing number of last-minute cancellations, resulting in a vicious spiral for the live entertainment industry. Stick Figure’s strategy of offering refunds provides a cure for these worrying developments.
With the Sacred Sands Summer Tour behind Stick Figure, the band’s only date left on the calendar is Slightly Stoopid‘s sold-out Closer to the Sun destination event in Riviera Maya, Mexico December 11th–15th. Stay up to date on Stick Figure news via the band’s website.