Here in Japan it's quite common to have ticket lotteries and ID checks for certain popular/easily oversold artists. Better odds are given to early-bird applicants and fanclub members.
Why is that so hard to implement?
Why is that so hard to implement?
Artists know they can charge much more for tickets, but can't do so overtly because everybody will cry in the media about them locking out their "true fans", so hence we have this scheme where bands like U2 scalp their own tickets to get paid what they are worth.
Ticketmaster makes money on every sale (fees, as well as 7%-12% of the sale amount) so it's not like they are really losing anything this way. In fact, they may make more money, since even if the tickets sell at a premium on resale, if they don't sell for more than the cut the exchange takes, the broker still loses money (which ends up in the hands of the exchange).
It is true that some artists and venues are more amenable to this than others though. Some allow the ticketmaster sanctioned secondary market (TM+), and some don't.
Solutions exist, it's just that no-one who has the power to fix it is motivated to do so.