Former CEO of Ticketmaster comes clean on how fans get screwed on tickets

MayDay10

but you aren't selling anything on a level of millions/billions based on if people walk on your lawn or not.

I think it is a major misrepresentation to a level that is insulting. They are in cahoots with people running the bots and have taken measures to help them. I have a feeling, the only reason they post it... is so they can selectively crack down on people like you and me who wisen up and employ bots of our own.

There has got to be an interpretation of a law/regulation out there that says they cannot write that there and operate like they do.

HughFreakingDillon

Spark28 said:

pjhawks said:

And no, the artists are not getting screwed. some of the artists are the ones doing the screwing, if that former TM CEO is to be believed, putting it in their contract that a certain amount of tickets get the super-inflated treatment, or go to their friends, family, the list goes on. the artist only gets screwed if the tickets don't sell, and that clearly is not the case here.

The good seats are worth what someone will pay for them. Resale is going to happen. Would you rather see a scalper receive the "super-inflated" price or the artist?

I also find it hard to be upset that artists want good holds for friends and family. If you are playing somewhere, wouldn't you want your friends or family up close? I would assume that friends and family would be fans as well.

the main difference is you had handful of scalpers out trying to make a buck vs online robots scooping up tickets by the thousands before the general public is allowed a chance at them.

no, it doesn't bother me that an artist wants their friends and family at the show and in good seats. I was merely paraphrasing what the former CEO said.

of course if the artist wants to scalp their own tickets, then be up front about it. I want to see Beyonce (just an example) actually charge $3500 for a front row ticket instead of hiding behind it being the bots or the promoter or whoever. because I guarantee you if people really find out who is charging these prices, and that sometimes it's not the "innocent artist and the evil scalpers", it just might cause enough of a backlash against those artists and stop the whole thing from happening.

if these artists want no one except the rich at their concerts, don't pretend that you want the opposite and give a shit about your fans. it's disingenuous at best.

PJ_Soul

I figure artists whose shows have this problem don't need to charge EVEN MORE for tickets. I don't want to see yet more money going into the super rich artists' pockets much more than I want it going to scalpers if it means that tickets become only accessible to the wealthy. This "make the tickets market value from the start" theory is stupid. If the artists in question were getting screwed, I might think otherwise, but they aren't. They are still make gobs of cash even if every single ticket in a venue went for current face value. They could certainly stop taking a huge chunk of the tickets to give out free to every Tom, Dick and Harry who is loosely affiliated with their record label or whatever. The greed of ultra rich artists and their indifference to the vast majority of the population being able to afford a ticket to see their shows are big factors in this whole thing as far as I can tell.

I understand how a completely free market works. In the end, pure capitalism fucking eats everything in its path, to the detriment of almost everyone in the end. Some fucking regulation is needed here.

nycrats

good read, a lot of this stuff was already known, but interesting to hear a former ticketmaster ceo's take on it.

what was not addressed and I really want to find out how this happens:
ticketmaster onsale at 10:00am
refresh at 10.. information page
refresh at 10:00:30 seconds information page
get a drop down window at 10:00:50 seconds
and its basically sold out by then. how do the bots make it so i cant access ticketmaster right at 10:00?

doesnt happen on ticketfly but happens on ticketmaster a lot for hard shows

MayDay10

nycrats said:

good read, a lot of this stuff was already known, but interesting to hear a former ticketmaster ceo's take on it.

what was not addressed and I really want to find out how this happens:
ticketmaster onsale at 10:00am
refresh at 10.. information page
refresh at 10:00:30 seconds information page
get a drop down window at 10:00:50 seconds
and its basically sold out by then. how do the bots make it so i cant access ticketmaster right at 10:00?

doesnt happen on ticketfly but happens on ticketmaster a lot for hard shows

The bots get in by identifying the backdoor link for the best tickets x1000 and basically freeline into the checkout page... meanwhile we are trying to figure out which pictures have palm trees in them

nycrats

MayDay10 said:

nycrats said:

good read, a lot of this stuff was already known, but interesting to hear a former ticketmaster ceo's take on it.

what was not addressed and I really want to find out how this happens:
ticketmaster onsale at 10:00am
refresh at 10.. information page
refresh at 10:00:30 seconds information page
get a drop down window at 10:00:50 seconds
and its basically sold out by then. how do the bots make it so i cant access ticketmaster right at 10:00?

doesnt happen on ticketfly but happens on ticketmaster a lot for hard shows

The bots get in by identifying the backdoor link for the best tickets x1000 and basically freeline into the checkout page... meanwhile we are trying to figure out which pictures have palm trees in them

i get all the bots stuff holding the tickets, but sometimes i cant even attempt to get tickets until liek 10:01 or 10:02 sometimes. you refresh and its only the "information(tickets not onalse yet)" page, not even the "select ticket type" page to go through all the bs. i wont even be allowed to attempt to play for 90 seconds after 10 am.

MayDay10

I think they do that on purpose too. For a couple of the Hip sales, I got that information page after the clock went down and I had to go back to the "tour list" and enter back into the find tickets link. I believe ticketmaster does all they can do to keep ordinary people away from the good ticket pool

pureoc

How about all these presales and regular on sales being in the middle of the work day. Im lucky enough to have a job where i can usually try for tix during these although many don't. I miss the 10am Saturday on sales. I feel like no shows do this anymore.

on2legs

Getting decent tickets for anyone other than Pearl Jam is a major panic. I set my expectations very low and I'm just happy if I get seats before they sell out. I refuse to pay scalper prices.

Zod

on2legs said:

Getting decent tickets for anyone other than Pearl Jam is a major panic. I set my expectations very low and I'm just happy if I get seats before they sell out. I refuse to pay scalper prices.

PJ tickets are Bi-Polar. If you get 10c tickets your golden. If you miss out on 10c tickets, there's that many less open for sale to the public. I think getting tickets to Seattle 2013 PJ was the hardest show I've had to try and get tickets for in a long time.

I actually find PJ tickets some of the hardest to get (for shows I don't get 10c tickets too). I generally get pretty decent seats to most shows I go to. Pit Tix for GNR this summer. Row G for Chris Cornell. 14th row Side Stage for the Hip.

Before PJ started doing GA, I found I always had better tickets to non PJ shows than PJ shows

benjs

Zod said:

on2legs said:

Getting decent tickets for anyone other than Pearl Jam is a major panic. I set my expectations very low and I'm just happy if I get seats before they sell out. I refuse to pay scalper prices.

PJ tickets are Bi-Polar. If you get 10c tickets your golden. If you miss out on 10c tickets, there's that many less open for sale to the public. I think getting tickets to Seattle 2013 PJ was the hardest show I've had to try and get tickets for in a long time.

I actually find PJ tickets some of the hardest to get (for shows I don't get 10c tickets too). I generally get pretty decent seats to most shows I go to. Pit Tix for GNR this summer. Row G for Chris Cornell. 14th row Side Stage for the Hip.

Before PJ started doing GA, I found I always had better tickets to non PJ shows than PJ shows

Thanks to this community, securing PJ tickets may be hard but I always believe it's possible to see them with great tickets if you can access this site on the day of a show.