The entertainment industry could take action to reduce the kind of ticket scalping that has plagued the Tragically Hip’s upcoming tour, says one expert.

But it rarely does.

The perennial issue came to the public’s attention last week when tickets to the Tragically Hip’s concerts were gone within minutes of being offered for sale. The seats were soon found on online ticket reselling websites, such as StubHub, for sky-high prices.

Representatives from both the Hip’s management company and its promoter won’t say what steps they have taken to ensure that fans get a fair shake.

Pascal Courty, an economist at the University of Victoria who studies the secondary ticket market, says there are many things artists and promoters could do to limit scalping and keep prices affordable for fans, such as policing ticket “bots” and being more transparent about how many tickets are actually up for grabs.

Eggplant Entertainment, the Hip’s management company, would not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Star on how the band curbs scalping. Neither did Carrie Davis, chief communications officer at Live Nation, which promotes the Tragically Hip’s summer tour and is the parent company of Ticketmaster.

This kind of secrecy in the industry is far too common, Courty says.

Artists often reserve a big portion of the tickets for friends of the band, the venue and the promoter, and these tickets wind up in the hands of brokers, the economist says.

“Nobody knows how many tickets are in the market.”

Courty says artists and promoters should disclose how many tickets are available to the general public, to help temper fans’ expectations.

“I think artists should be honest,” he says.

On principle, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the secondary ticket market, Courty says.

People who buy their tickets and then change their minds want to be able to get their money back, and fans who might have missed the initial sale can still find a seat.

But advances in technology and the industry secrecy have tipped the scales too far in the scalpers’ interests, he says.

Before the rise of online ticket sales, ticket brokers — people who make a living buying large quantities of tickets and reselling them — had to pay people to wait in line with everyone else. In the end, there were only so many they could get at one time.

Now many brokers use “bots” — special software able to scoop up thousands of the best seats in a matter of seconds.

“It’s not a fair fight,” says Stuart Ross, an executive at Red Light Management who has been the tour director for such artists as Tom Waits and Weezer.

These bots can be detected and prevented, Courty says, and some bands have tried. For Adele’s most recent tour, the artist had her team monitor online ticket sales for suspicious purchases, such as a big batch of tickets from the same IP address.

Some, such as Garth Brooks, add tour dates until the market is flooded and there’s just no incentive to scalpers. The Hip added four additional shows to their tour, but given frontman Gord Downie’s terminal cancer and overwhelming fan demand, it’s probably not reasonable to expect the band to add dates ad infinitum.

Other musicians have opted for paperless tickets, which require fans to present the credit card they used to purchase the ticket at the door. Ross says Waits was one of the first to use paperless tickets on his 2008 tour, to great success.

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Some tickets offered for the Tragically Hip tour were paperless but it’s not clear what the proportion was. Neither Live Nation nor Eggplant Entertainment responded to requests for comment.

Still, some artists or promoters look the other way, Courty says, and don’t do enough to catch or prevent bots.

“Why would an artist who truly wants her fans to come to a show at an affordable price not take action?” he asks.

One admittedly unpopular solution to scalping — raising ticket prices.

The secondary ticket market exists in part because artists try and keep prices low — far lower than what they could fetch on an open market. They want to “protect their brand,” so they undercharge fans, Courty says. This opens the door for middlemen who want to make a profit of the price discrepancy.

But Ross says the industry is about more than simple supply and demand.

“The artists I work with don’t go and try and squeeze every dollar,” he says. “We’re trying to find a fair price that covers expenses, builds in profit and everybody’s happy.”

The concert industry will only thrive, he argues, if true fans can afford to go to not just one show, but many, and support their favourite artists all-year-round.

“I don’t think the richest fan should get to sit up front, I think the fan who cares the most should get to sit up front,” Ross says.

More on thestar.com:

How the government made ticket-scalping legal in Ontario

Why couldn't you get Tragically Hip tickets? New York may have the answer

Tragically Hip fan frustration was tragically predictable: Rayner