外刊双语：霉霉巡演门票火爆，一票难求，购票系统崩溃背后的原因？

原文标题：
Schumpeter
The other gig economy
熊彼特
另一种零工经济

What America can learn from Britain about the other gig economy
美国能从英国的零工经济中学到什么

[Paragraph 1]
IN AMERICA, IT has been a disillusioning few weeks for music fans.
近几周的美国，许多歌迷的理想幻灭了。

Though her “Swifties” are far too loyal to blame her, Taylor Swift helped botch the sale of a 52-night stadium tour by trying to sell more concert tickets in one go than had ever been done before.

泰勒·斯威夫特想一口气创纪录大卖巡回演唱会的门票，但她搞砸了。然而她的粉丝们太为她着迷，不会去怪她。

Bruce Springsteen, acknowledging that he had upset fans by selling tickets at prices as high as $5,000, offered no remorse. “If there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back,” he gruffly told Rolling Stone.
布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀承认，他以高达5000美元的价格出售门票，让粉丝们感到不安，但他并不后悔。他粗暴地告诉《滚石》杂志：“如果你在回去的路上有任何不满，可以退款。”

Bob Dylan, who sold 900 “hand-signed” copies of his new book for $599 apiece, was forced to admit that he used a writing machine for the signature instead.
鲍勃·迪伦以每本599美元的价格卖出了900本“亲笔签名”的新书，后来被迫承认自己用的是机器签名。

[Paragraph2]
Ms S. is unusual. Most frustrated concertgoers direct their ire not at the stars but at Ticketmaster, America’s dominant ticketing system, and the promotional colossus it merged with 12 years ago, Live Nation Entertainment.
霉霉与众不同。大多数沮丧的歌迷并不会对明星不满，而是对美国票务系统Ticketmaster和宣传巨头Live Nation娱乐发火。后两者在12年前合并。

In October, weeks before Ticketmaster’s systems crashed while millions of Ms Swift’s fans were buying tickets, consumer groups had launched a campaign called “Break Up Ticketmaster”, accusing it and Live Nation of operating a monopoly to “rip off” music fans.
10月，数百万霉霉的粉丝正在买票，几周后，Ticketmaster购票系统崩溃。消费者团体发起了一项名为“打倒Ticketmaster”的活动，指控Ticketmaster和LiveNation的垄断对歌迷构成“敲诈”行为。

Reportedly, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is revisiting the merger, first cleared in 2010, on antitrust grounds. Live Nation denies that it is anticompetitive.
据报道，司法部正以反垄断为由重新讨论2010年首次通过的合并案。LiveNation否认了那次合并案具体反竞争性质。

[Paragraph3]
Amid the genuine angst overhigh-priced tickets,and the overhyped politicisation of the matter, the brouhaha misses two points.
由于歌迷对高价门票的真实焦虑，加上此事的过度政治化，这场沸沸扬扬的喧闹错过了两点信息。

The first is that it is mostly the artists, not Ticketmaster, who set the cost of the tickets. They also give the green light to the use of dynamic prices, like those used for airline seats, that allows Ticketmaster to charge more when demand outstrips supply.
第一点：大多数门票价不是由Ticketmaster定的，而是由艺术家们定的。艺术家们还批准了动态价格机制，就像航空座位的动态价格，当需求大于供应时，Ticketmaster的门票价格会上涨。

The second is that a big part of the price inflation comes from secondary resellers (ie, scalpers or touts) who use bots and other means to acquire batches of tickets.
第二点：价格上涨很大一部分原因是由于二级转售商（即黄牛或票贩子），他们使用机器人和其他手段获取一批门票。

In this transatlantic divide lie some interesting lessons about the “gigenomics” of live entertainment.
在这场跨大西洋的现场娱乐的“零工经济”差异中，有一些有趣的经验。

[Paragraph4]
To begin with, look at the contrasting antitrust targets.
首先，看看差异很大的反垄断目标。

In America, the DOJ is almost exclusively focused on Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
在美国，司法部几乎只盯着Live Nation和Ticketmaster。

But its critics want a bigger crackdown, accusing the conglomerate not just of bullying venues but of using its dominance to drive prices higher.
但批评人士希望进行更大的打击，他们指控该集团不仅欺负场馆，还利用其优势推高价格。

[Paragraph5]
In contrast, Britain’s competition authorities waved through the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger without conditions 12 years ago but have been notably warier when it comes to resellers.
相比之下，英国的竞争委员会在12年前无条件地通过了Live Nation Ticketmaster合并案，但在涉及转售商时却格外谨慎。

Its promotion of paperless ticketing and actions to verify a buyer’s identity were also welcomed.
英国还欢迎推广无纸门售和实名制购票。

[Paragraph 6]
That points to a second difference, concerning the nature of tickets themselves.
这指出了第二个区别，即门票本身的性质。

In America, critics of Ticketmaster argue that a ticket confers ownership, meaning it should be possible to buy and sell it as freely as a second-hand car.
在美国，Ticketmaster的评论者认为，车票赋予了所有权，这意味着它应该可以像二手车一样自由地买卖。

They note that people purchase tickets months before a concert and should be able to resell them to whom and at whatever price they want.
他们注意到，有人会在演唱会前几个月购买门票，预计能够以他们想要的价格转售给其他人。

They dislike things that impede that, such as paperless tickets.
这些人不喜欢阻碍交易的东西，如无纸门票。

[Paragraph7]

Those on the other side of that argument treat tickets more like a licence to visit an event, and view limits on transferability as a healthy way to impede touts.

另一方观点是将门票视为参观活动的许可证，并将限制转让性质视为一种打击票贩子的健康方式。

Pearl Jam, a Seattle rock band that 28 years ago butted heads with Ticketmaster over antitrust concerns, now treats the ticketing site as an ally, using its non-transferable, mobile-only ticketing services to ensure it keeps prices low and scalpers at bay.

28年前，西雅图的“珍珠果酱”摇滚乐队曾因反垄断问题与Ticketmaster针锋相对，现在为了打击黄牛，确保歌迷们能买到低价门票，该乐队将Ticketmaster视为盟友，使用其不可转让、仅限流通的票务服务。

[Paragraph8]

Pearl Jam is a rare American band that has sought to rein in ticket price.

“珍珠果酱”是一支罕见的美国乐队，想办法抑制门票价格的上涨。

Most are much less altruistic, for reasons that are easy to understand.

大多数音乐人没有那么无私，原因也很容易理解。

Until the covid-19 pandemic stopped live events, bands had for years been making more money from touring than from recording. Now that tours are back on, they have lost income to recuperate.

在新冠停止现场活动之前，乐队多年来一直靠巡回演出赚钱，而不是靠卖唱片赚钱。现在巡演回归，是时候挽回损失啦。

After the pandemic, concertgoers appear particularly keen to splash out on shows, the bigger the better.

新冠之后，歌迷们似乎特别热衷于在现场节目上花钱，越多越好。

And the competition between megastars to stage the most Instagrammable event is so intense that they invest fortunes to produce a spectacle.
为了举办最受Instagram欢迎的活动，巨星们之间的竞争也异常激烈，以致于他们投入巨资来打造一场壮观的现场演出。

[Paragraph 9]
Only the strong survive 

只有强者才能生存

In other words, for all their folksy or countercultural veneer, superstars tend to be capitalists.

换言之，尽管超级明星有着民俗气息或非主流文化的外表，但他们也是资本家。

Like Live Nation, they have an incentive to be as big as possible and to earn the highest rewards.

像LiveNation一样，他们有动力做大做强，实现利益最大化。

As the ones sweating on stage, they have every right to charge whatever they like—though they need to balance that against the risk of alienating some fans.

那些在舞台上挥汗如雨的音乐人，他们有权收取各种费用--尽管他们需要平衡赚钱和脱粉风险之间的利害关系。

Live Nation can be as greedy as it likes, too. But it has to be prepared to sweat in the political heat.
Live Nation也可以随心所欲地贪婪。但它必须做好防范政治风险的准备。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量1053左右，有删减）
原文出自：2022年12月3日《TE》Business版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
零工经济Gig economy：在网络化和数字化的今天，很多工作已经不再需要人们到现场亲自下手完成，如给供应商汇款可以通过网银和某宝，编程人员随时随地写代码，企业员工随时随地用视频平台开会。人们也逐渐不依赖于一家公司或一个雇主，而是在有全职工作或没有全职工作下打起了“零工”。这里“零工”的意思已经不再是我果八九十年代进城打零工的人，也不是指做重复性劳动的群体，而是通过自己的专业技术或爱好特，特长，在全职工作或学业以外在从事的工作，也就是我们所说的副业。这些副业工作通常不受空间限制，更不受上级牵制，在时间空隙中寻找机会。“零工经济是一种技能经济，技能型劳动者回事鱼与熊掌兼得的大赢家”，他们可以利用自己的专业技能和社会的需求去打造一种灵活自主且有意义的职业工作。

Ticketmaster是一个很老牌的售票网站，而他所属的Ticketmaster公司更是全球票务行业的王牌，总部在美国加州，目前业务遍及20多个国家，主要负责在线销售各大演唱会、体育赛事、戏剧、展演等活动的门票。2010年Ticketmaster与全球最大的现场音乐公司Live Nation的合并也是一时轰动音乐界。另外，针对很多尤其是一线歌手的大型巡演，Ticketmaster还会独家发售一部分专供土豪的特殊形式的门票。比如，有一种叫白金坐席（Ticketmaster Platinum）。这也是Ticketmaster主打的一个特色服务，以根据市场供求情况计算出的一个合理价格（高于票面价格）发售一部分位置优越的门票。

【重点句子】（3 个）
The second is that a big part of the price inflation comes from secondary resellers (ie, scalpers or touts) who use bots and other means to acquire batches of tickets.
第二点：价格上涨很大一部分原因是由于二级转售商（即黄牛或票贩子），他们使用机器人和其他手段获取一批门票。

Most are much less altruistic, for reasons that are easy to understand.
大多数音乐人没有那么无私，原因也很容易理解。

In other words, for all their folksy or countercultural veneer, superstars tend to be capitalists.
换言之，尽管超级明星有着民俗气息或非主流文化的外表，但他们也是资本家。