StubHub and Ticketmaster Debate Paperless Tickets On CNBC

The decision by the Miley Cyrus organization to use paperless tickets has been the talk of the music world the past week.  Earlier this week Stubhub president Chris Tsakalakis told CNBC that the new technology could negatively affect the secondary ticket market which his company is one of the leaders.

Both Tsakalakis and David Butler who is president of Ticketmaster North America debated with CNBC host Dennis Kneile about how easy the paperless technology will be for fans to use.

“I don’t think a lot of parents are going to like having to hand over their credit card, and not be able to gift these tickets or even transfer them or give them to someone else if they’re not able to make the event,” said Tsakalakis.  ”So, I think there will be quite a few customer problems with people trying to get into the event, especially as all 11,000 tickets will be based on credit card entry.”

Butler stated that recently AC/DC and Metallica have used the paperless system for their tours and it has been a success.  One of the biggest complaints for Cyrus doing this is that a majority of her fans are of a younger demographic and a lot of them don’t have their own credit cards which need to be used for identification and a proof of purchase.