Ticket brokers are making more $ the band- something needs to be done

Eddieshometown

thank goodness for the Ten club otherwise A lot of us would have been shut out of Wrigley and Fenway tix. The scalper situation is totally out of hand. Pearl Jam puts on a show and pays its crew and charges less than $100 a ticket for all seats and then scumbag brokers buy them up using bots and sell them at 3x that much. How is this legal? These brokers are making more than the band is.

faithful2you

Keep in mind that season ticket holders and elitists had dibs on tickets before the general public. Demand was way higher than the supply. But I get what you're saying. Live show tickets is not what it used to be and that goes for every big name artist, not just PJ.

annabellaqueen

Before everyone shouts about "BROKERS," realize the brokers aren't the only ones making a killing on third-party sites. The artists sell tickets there, too. Artists are scalping their own fans. Even your favorite artists.

The only people that lose in the current setup are fans unable or unwilling to pay marked-up prices for tickets.

ckravitz

annabellaqueen said:

Before everyone shouts about "BROKERS," realize the brokers aren't the only ones making a killing on third-party sites. The artists sell tickets there, too. Artists are scalping their own fans. Even your favorite artists.

The only people that lose in the current setup are fans unable or unwilling to pay marked-up prices for tickets.

Well thankfully not Pearl Jam, at least according to this article anyway.

rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-ticketmasters-new-scalping-plan-20130913

weekapaug19

I'm not quite sure you realize how much PJ is probably making from these shows

MK88178

And there are fans selling tickets on there as well, but that is hard to imagine.

josevolution

I don't believe this band has another fight in them at this stage of their career I just don't ...

VillagePJ

ckravitz said:

annabellaqueen said:

Before everyone shouts about "BROKERS," realize the brokers aren't the only ones making a killing on third-party sites. The artists sell tickets there, too. Artists are scalping their own fans. Even your favorite artists.

The only people that lose in the current setup are fans unable or unwilling to pay marked-up prices for tickets.

Well thankfully not Pearl Jam, at least according to this article anyway.

rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-ticketmasters-new-scalping-plan-20130913

That article has all the detailing that makes these resellers such scumbags and that touting is now seen as normal and sadly acceptable.
Its a shameful practice that needs killing off but the no-one appears to be doing anything about it.
There is a company in the UK called twickets that allows sellers and buyers to sell or buy, all protected, at face value only and they're now trying to open up in the US, twicketsny.

brewdog123

you do realize, that this ticketing situation affects every major music artist(s), not just pearl jam. this happens at nearly every venue for every major touring act all across the country. suck it up

Zod

josevolution said:

I don't believe this band has another fight in them at this stage of their career I just don't ...

I agree. They couldn't win the fight in the mid 90's. It's exponentially worse now. Bands have no leverage. It was insanely hard for PJ to try and mount the '95 tour without using TM venues. We've now had another 20 years of Ticketmaster merging with Livenation and swallowing all the big venues in exclusivity contracts. Ticketmaster/Livenation (or the other odd ticketing company that has exclusive ticketing rights on a venue) have all the power. If you don't use them, you can't tour. It doesn't put you in good position for negotiating. It's fairly obvious that the '95 tour took it's toll on the band (especially Eddie). They kind of gave up. By 1998 they said fuck it, and used whatever venues they needed to put together a tour.

Ticketmaster (and similar companies) say they are against the bots, but technology like Captcha (or waiting rooms) seem easily circumventable by bots, but keep real people from getting the ticket.

I'm both surprised and not surprised that TM/LiveNation hasn't had another antitrust review. They must be seriously lining politicians pockets as I don't see how it's not a monopoly.

deagator3

VillagePJ said:

ckravitz said:

annabellaqueen said:

Before everyone shouts about "BROKERS," realize the brokers aren't the only ones making a killing on third-party sites. The artists sell tickets there, too. Artists are scalping their own fans. Even your favorite artists.

The only people that lose in the current setup are fans unable or unwilling to pay marked-up prices for tickets.

Well thankfully not Pearl Jam, at least according to this article anyway.

rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-ticketmasters-new-scalping-plan-20130913

That article has all the detailing that makes these resellers such scumbags and that touting is now seen as normal and sadly acceptable.
Its a shameful practice that needs killing off but the no-one appears to be doing anything about it.
There is a company in the UK called twickets that allows sellers and buyers to sell or buy, all protected, at face value only and they're now trying to open up in the US, twicketsny.

What prevents a scalper from buying the tickets at face value and then selling that same ticket for more via another avenue?

CompassionateSpirit

Why is it now legal to "scalp" tickets online but it is usually illegal to scalp outside the venue on the day of the show?

Zod

ckravitz said:

Well thankfully not Pearl Jam, at least according to this article anyway.

rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-ticketmasters-new-scalping-plan-20130913

I'm not overly against the concept. Basically TM allows fans to resell their tickets and TM charges a fee on the transaction (and some of that fee is kickbacked to the artists). It's exactly like stub hub, except it's tm and the artists charging the fee.

I actually used it when I couldn't go to a Foo Fighters show a few months ago. It was insanely easy to use (which is why I did it). Ticketmaster must automatically void my tickets, because I didn't have to have anything to do with the person that bought them. The only thing was how much extra I had to charge in order to get my face value back. They make it easy because you can choose to charge a price, or put in how much money you're trying to net.

For this specific item I feel it's a wash. If Ticketmaster doesn't do it, then people do it on sites like stubhub. At least the bands get a cut this way. It still stems from artists selling their tickets less than what they are worth. The only way to really combat it is to increase ticket prices to the level where there's no arbitrage opportunity (where scalpers can buy something that's undervalued and sell it for it's real value). If this system lets bands still attempt to sell fans tickets at lower prices I'm ok with it.

My worry would be (like the ticketexchange... tm's own broker website) is possible conflicts of interest. What if TM finds a way to direct tickets and some kind of subsidiary that's not them, and they sell their own tickets for the higher resale value. IE they find a sneaky way to become the seller. Then they pay covenience charges, resell charges, and profits off the tickets. Ok, maybe it is a good thing to completely separate Ticketmaster from the resell side of things.

shep

CompassionateSpirit said:

Why is it now legal to "scalp" tickets online but it is usually illegal to scalp outside the venue on the day of the show?

It's not illegal in the state of Texas - provided you are more than 200 ft away from the box office. If the box office is sold out, you can do it anywhere you want.

Zod said:

ckravitz said:

Well thankfully not Pearl Jam, at least according to this article anyway.

rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-ticketmasters-new-scalping-plan-20130913

I'm not overly against the concept. Basically TM allows fans to resell their tickets and TM charges a fee on the transaction (and some of that fee is kickbacked to the artists). It's exactly like stub hub, except it's tm and the artists charging the fee.

I actually used it when I couldn't go to a Foo Fighters show a few months ago. It was insanely easy to use (which is why I did it). Ticketmaster must automatically void my tickets, because I didn't have to have anything to do with the person that bought them. The only thing was how much extra I had to charge in order to get my face value back. They make it easy because you can choose to charge a price, or put in how much money you're trying to net.

For this specific item I feel it's a wash. If Ticketmaster doesn't do it, then people do it on sites like stubhub. At least the bands get a cut this way. It still stems from artists selling their tickets less than what they are worth. The only way to really combat it is to increase ticket prices to the level where there's no arbitrage opportunity (where scalpers can buy something that's undervalued and sell it for it's real value). If this system lets bands still attempt to sell fans tickets at lower prices I'm ok with it.

My worry would be (like the ticketexchange... tm's own broker website) is possible conflicts of interest. What if TM finds a way to direct tickets and some kind of subsidiary that's not them, and they sell their own tickets for the higher resale value. IE they find a sneaky way to become the seller. Then they pay covenience charges, resell charges, and profits off the tickets. Ok, maybe it is a good thing to completely separate Ticketmaster from the resell side of things.

Ticketmaster has said in the past that this is their ultimate end goal - simply make each and every seat in the venue a bid-style auction to maximize their profits... get ready for it...

to be honest, from a "business" standpoint I don't know why they even set a "face value" on tickets.... does the law require them to do that? Who says they can't just make the primary means of sale their auction website?

Zod

shep said:

Ticketmaster has said in the past that this is their ultimate end goal - simply make each and every seat in the venue a bid-style auction to maximize their profits... get ready for it...

to be honest, from a "business" standpoint I don't know why they even set a "face value" on tickets.... does the law require them to do that? Who says they can't just make the primary means of sale their auction website?

For a band like PJ they have tried to keep their tickets in the more affordable ticket price range. I always assumed bands did it to make the shows more accessible to their fans. IE what kind of audience to they can if they charge auction style, or only the wealthiest people get all the good seats. Some bands already do this. Firewall the best seats through a fan club which gives you access to mega expensive VIP packages. Not all bands go that route though.

I guess everyones winging it, but charging below the price the market will bear, creates scalping. Especially if the real market price is 2x or 3x the face value. That's a huge monetary incentive to scalp.

I'm glad I've seen almost every band I would want to see. I get less entralled with the industry each passing year.