American roots reggae band Stick Figure decided to conduct an experiment earlier this year when they went on sale with tickets for their Sacred Sands Summer Tour 2024.

Hoping to make their tour as fan-friendly as possible, band leader Scott Woodruff and managers Thomas Cussins and Marina Petros at Ineffable Music Group decided to offer refunds to fans who bought tickets to the tour but couldn’t make the show.

“Given that the tour included numerous large-scale amphitheaters with some of the biggest promoters in the world,” the band had to agree to cover the costs of the refunds themselves, explained Cussins.

Refunds are rarely allowed in the concert business and promoters have long been loathe to offer money-back options to fans, worried that a rush of last minute refunds could lead to heavy losses for shows that had previously been considered a sellout. But the problem with the “all sale are final” model, Cussins explained, is that fans might be hesitant to purchase tickets when they go on sale if they are worried about their availability months later.

A refund policy might make fans feel more confident about their purchase, explained Cussins who worked with Petros to develop the rules for Stick Figure’s first ever refund policy. In order for the band to recover the cost of the refund and sell returned tickets to new fans, the band required all refund requests be made up to 10 days before a show. In order to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of the refund policy, tickets listed on secondary market sites like Stubhub were excluded from the promotion.

“Enforcing this second rule was challenging, and some tickets intended for resale likely slipped through the cracks,” Cussins said. “However, on the whole, everyone acted in good faith and used this program as intended.”

The band ultimately sold 135,446 tickets for its 16-date Sacred Sands tour and granted 750 refunds, equal to about $77,852.24, or .55% of the revenue generated from 2024 tour.

“These numbers clearly show that this is a successful formula for a band,” Cussins explains. “As this tour was largely sold out, nearly all refunded tickets were resold. Even in the case of a less well-attended tour, this loss would be worth it based on the statistics from our post-tour ticket buyer survey.”

According to the survey, 65% of buyers were aware of the refund policy and of those who were aware, 82.3% said that the band’s refund policy made them feel more comfortable buying tickets.

“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,” Cussins concludes.

Based on their experience, Cussins noted that promoters, venues and artists could improve the ticketing ecosystem by offering refunds to “verified fans (not resellers) up until 14 days before a show, with the option to extend this to 7 days depending on stakeholder determination,” Cussins says.

That doesn’t mean taking an aggressive stance against resale, but instead allowing the practice “with a few guidelines to avoid abuse” like speculative ticket selling, where a reseller lists a ticket they have not already purchased. Abuse and price gouging can be limited through thoughtful ticket distribution practices and market monitoring, coupled with dynamic pricing models that keep prices affordable on the secondary market, Cussins said.

“Adding the security of a refund option,” on top of the above secondary market reforms, Cussins concludes, “will increase consumer confidence and drive more early ticket sales, which limits risk for bands, venues, and promoters.”