UK mobile ticketing platform DICE setting up shop in Australia

UK mobile ticketing platform DICE is launching in Australia this year.

It is expected to find a ready response at a time when the live industry and authorities are trying to solve the secondary market ticketing issue.

Its website lists vacancies for a head of music and a technical support engineer, but it is believed one role has already been filled.

It plans to begin operations in Sydney and Melbourne this year and has already set up an office in Sydney.

The Australian plan was confirmed by chief revenue officer Russ Tannen in an interview with Music Business Worldwide while discussing its expansion plans into more US cities.

Set up in London 2014, the DICE app’s model allows customers to search, browse and buy tickets for gigs, concerts and festivals curated by company executives and media identities.

The tickets come directly from promoters, venues and labels.

It also recommends unknown acts. Spotify and Apple Music integration allows fans to listen to 30-second track previews within the app.

Once the tickets are bought, they exist on the customer’s smartphone as a QR code with date, time and location of the event.

They can also add themselves on the waiting lists for sold-out shows.

Buyers who can no longer use their tickets sell them back to DICE, which will then contact those on the waiting lists.

None of their tickets end up on secondary ticketing platforms, DICE stresses.

A reservation feature lets a customer arrange to put aside tickets for friends

DICE then contact the friends directly and gets them to pay after confirming they want the tickets.

This cuts out the original user having to fork out money upfront for friends, or get stuck when they decide they don’t want them.

The Australia launch will come around the time of expansion in Canada and South America.

Tannen told MBW: “It just feels like there’s never been a better time for us to really, really launch.

“A lot of that is based on how the market seems to be reacting to secondary and touts (scalpers).”