Dice CEO Phil Hutcheon on a Decade of Fighting Dynamic Pricing in the Ticketing Industry and Why the Mid-Market Is Its ‘Superpower’

variety.com:

Ellise Shafer When Phil Hutcheon started Dice in 2014, the CEO sought to answer one basic question about the concert industry: “Why is it that one of the best experiences that you can go to starts off in such a crappy situation?” In the decade since, the hours-long queues, added fees and bloated prices associated with buying tickets for live music events have only gotten worse — just ask anyone who tried to score a seat to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour or Oasis’ upcoming reunion shows.

But not on the Dice app. The London-based ticketing software company prides itself on a transparent pricing model, features to prevent scalping and a social media-like algorithm that Hutcheon says makes going out easier than ever.

Plus, Dice works directly with artists to ensure that they’re booking shows at the right venues — and at a fair price. “[We’re] just taking that pain away from them, where they don’t have articles about how they’re exploiting fans,” Hutcheon says on this week’s episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast, recorded from Dice’s swanky East London HQ. “If they use Dice, it’s gone.

It’s a safe place for them to do it.” Because upfront pricing is, as Hutcheon touts, “in our DNA,” he says the company has “never had an artist approach us to do anything like that.” He cites a quote from essayist and statistician Nassim Taleb as one of the company’s key principles: “Ethics changes laws, not the other way around.” “People are very emotional about music, which is why these [ticketing scandals] become really good headlines,” he says. “If you found out that an artist deliberately jacked up the prices or did these things, it’s like a betrayal.” But it hasn’t been easy competing with huge companies like Live Nation and its.