AC/DC tour offers paperless ticketing

Guitarist Angus Young performs with his band ACDC after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 18th annual induction ceremony at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel, March 10, 2003.

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - AC/DC will use Ticketmaster's new paperless technology for select seats on its upcoming North American arena tour in an effort to combat scalpers.

Up to 3,000 paperless tickets per night will be used for the Anglo-Australian hard rock band's "Black Ice" trek, which launches October 28 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Tickets start going on sale on Friday. The nontransferable paperless ticket purchases will be available via Ticketmaster.com (www.ticketmaster.com/), Ticketmaster charge-by-phone, Ticketmaster retail outlets and ACDC.com (acdc.com/). To gain access to the shows, concertgoers will be required to bring the credit card they used to make the transaction, along with a valid photo ID.

Part of the reason AC/DC embraced nontransferable paperless ticket purchases was "to help ensure fan club members and fans purchasing designated seats will be able to secure tickets at face value," according to a statement from Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster expects to offer paperless ticketing on a tour-by-tour basis. A notable drawback is that concertgoers can't give them away at the 11th hour.

Tom Waits became the first recording artist to use Ticketmaster's paperless ticketing technology during his 13-date U.S. theater tour earlier this summer. Metallica recently became the first act in Europe to use the system, for its September 15 show at London's O2 Arena.

AC/DC's new album, "Black Ice," arrives October 20 via Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores as well as at ACDC.com.

Reuters/Billboard