Ticketmaster, Tay Tay and chasing phantoms

Hagrid7575

I know there are lot of strong emotions here regarding ticketing ops and evil rakshasas (TM), but after the last two days of trying to lock down our daughter's Christmas gift, I have a new-found appreciation for how PJ does things. It's not perfect (By law, anything even remotely attached to TM can't be), but I've lived the alternative, and I'd rather eat a dead and decaying fish that's been baking in sunshine for days and covered with flies then relive this ordeal again. 

Anywho, carry on you crazy kids. 
 

CROJAM95

Springsteen also earlier in the year

we need a ticketmaster doc similar to the FIFA one on Netflix, expose how the fuck this enterprise still does all their shady shit

pjhawks

Hagrid7575 said:

I know there are lot of strong emotions here regarding ticketing ops and evil rakshasas (TM), but after the last two days of trying to lock down our daughter's Christmas gift, I have a new-found appreciation for how PJ does things. It's not perfect (By law, anything even remotely attached to TM can't be), but I've lived the alternative, and I'd rather eat a dead and decaying fish that's been baking in sunshine for days and covered with flies then relive this ordeal again. 

Anywho, carry on you crazy kids. 
 

The Swift ticket mess makes me really appreciate how great it was PJ and the 10 Club getting so many tickets into the Club Members for these past US shows.  I imagine the guys gave up a lot to secure so many of those tickets for us. 

Although I still wish there were tickets available on Stub Hub for shows.

Lerxst1992

what’s the alternative? AOC says break up Ticketmaster, so we have five different vendors selling tickets to a show? That sound like it’s more expensive to put on a tour. Biden says the fees are excessive, but a big part of the fees go to venues and promoter, and sometimes back to the artist, so just charge us one price, the full cost of the ticket? Does a supermarket break out their margin from the cost of a steak?

Maybe the artists should front the full cost of the shows and bear the risk of cost overruns?

droptheleash9

It's hilarious to me how Swifties (unfortunately for my ears, my wife is a die-hard swiftie) are up in arms asking how can ticketmaster be so poorly run and can treat people trying to get tickets like shit as if this is the first time TM has done this. My wife asked me if TM would redo the verified fan sale given all the technical issues and I instinctually laughed (not the correct move, FYI) as neither TM nor Taylor Swift could care less about who ultimately ended up with tickets. A sold out show is a sold out show and both TM and the artist are getting paid, regardless of whether the correct people ended up with tickets. My suspicion about the Swifties is that these ticketmaster issues are only new to them as it's the first time most of them are old enough to buy tickets on their own...previously it was daddy putting the high priced tickets on his credit card.

As others have said, it makes you appreciate how much 10c does for us in securing such a large share of the tickets, in the best locations, and at a reasonable price. Kudos to them...happy to be a fan of a band that cares so much about the folks who support them and go to their shows.

hihobibo

Lerxst1992 said:

what’s the alternative? AOC says break up Ticketmaster, so we have five different vendors selling tickets to a show? That sound like it’s more expensive to put on a tour. Biden says the fees are excessive, but a big part of the fees go to venues and promoter, and sometimes back to the artist, so just charge us one price, the full cost of the ticket? Does a supermarket break out their margin from the cost of a steak?

Maybe the artists should front the full cost of the shows and bear the risk of cost overruns?

I think they need to provide what the fees are for, and how they are calculated. It makes no sense that a higher priced ticket has a fee that is disproportionate to a lower priced ticket, for the same event. There is no extra effort done by anyone on the backend to justify a variable fee.

Similarly, break out how same venues charge varying fees based on the concert. Again, the venue should have one flat fee, unless they deem something like additional security is required, then they should spell that out. 

Hagrid7575

droptheleash9 said:

It's hilarious to me how Swifties (unfortunately for my ears, my wife is a die-hard swiftie) are up in arms asking how can ticketmaster be so poorly run and can treat people trying to get tickets like shit as if this is the first time TM has done this. My wife asked me if TM would redo the verified fan sale given all the technical issues and I instinctually laughed (not the correct move, FYI) as neither TM nor Taylor Swift could care less about who ultimately ended up with tickets. A sold out show is a sold out show and both TM and the artist are getting paid, regardless of whether the correct people ended up with tickets. My suspicion about the Swifties is that these ticketmaster issues are only new to them as it's the first time most of them are old enough to buy tickets on their own...previously it was daddy putting the high priced tickets on his credit card.

As others have said, it makes you appreciate how much 10c does for us in securing such a large share of the tickets, in the best locations, and at a reasonable price. Kudos to them...happy to be a fan of a band that cares so much about the folks who support them and go to their shows.

I don't love Tay Tay but I love my daughter so would love to make it happen. If we don't get tickets, she doesn't go. Not the first time we swung and missed at something, and it won't be the last. 
I think the frustrating thing was that TM didn't seem prepared/ready. No real excuse for that. 

It 100% does make you appreciate what goes on at 10c. There is real effort to get tickets into the hands of fans. It's not perfect but it's better than a lot of the dumpster fires we see going down out there.

Hoccapuk

“The Eras on sale made one thing clear: Taylor Swift is an unstoppable force and continues to set records," Ticketmaster said in a statement Nov. 17. "We strive to make ticket buying as easy as possible for fans, but that hasn't been the case for many people trying to buy tickets for the Eras Tour. We want to share some information to help explain what happened."

The ticket sale company explained that it had fans pre-register as Verified Fans—with over 3.5 million fans pre-registering—so the company could use this program "to help manage high demand show—identifying real humans and weeding out bots. Keeping bots out of queues and avoiding overcrowding helps to make waits shorter and on sales smoother.”

While in the past the Verified Fan code has worked for Ticketmaster, this time around the site couldn't handle the increased traffic.

"This time the staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests—4x our previous peak," the statement continued. "It usually takes us about an hour to sell through a stadium show, but we slowed down some sales and pushed back others to stabilize the systems. The trade off was longer wait times in queue for some fans.”

https://www.eonline.com/news/1355016/ticketmaster-addresses-controversy-over-taylor-swifts-eras-tour-tickets

drakeheuer14

hihobibo said:

Lerxst1992 said:

what’s the alternative? AOC says break up Ticketmaster, so we have five different vendors selling tickets to a show? That sound like it’s more expensive to put on a tour. Biden says the fees are excessive, but a big part of the fees go to venues and promoter, and sometimes back to the artist, so just charge us one price, the full cost of the ticket? Does a supermarket break out their margin from the cost of a steak?

Maybe the artists should front the full cost of the shows and bear the risk of cost overruns?

I think they need to provide what the fees are for, and how they are calculated. It makes no sense that a higher priced ticket has a fee that is disproportionate to a lower priced ticket, for the same event. There is no extra effort done by anyone on the backend to justify a variable fee.

Similarly, break out how same venues charge varying fees based on the concert. Again, the venue should have one flat fee, unless they deem something like additional security is required, then they should spell that out. 

Yeah the fee scaling in relation to ticket price is absurd. 

Hagrid7575

That's crazy. I do wonder what, if any, changes will be made for future sales. Or is this just chalked up to Swift being who she is. 
I know they added a bunch of shows to several cities, I wonder if maybe they should've sold out the original dates, then dropped the other shows with other sale dates.
There probably isn't an easily identifiable answer here. 

tylerj

I was really shocked Taylor Swift doesn't have a fan club of some sort that gives fans a first chance at buying tickets. Not only is that leaving money on the table (not like she needs it), but it would at least make sure fans get the best tickets. Not gonna solve the demand issue, but at least her fans would know real fans are getting tickets. 

Bentleyspop

Ticketmaster cancels public sale for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour because of overwhelming demand

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/business/ticketmaster-taylor-swift-ticket-explanation/index.html

on2legs

My 17 year old daughter wanted Taylor Swift tickets.  She rallied everyone she was related to who had a Ticketmaster account to submit a request for her to get in on the verified fan sale.  Out of the 5 people who put in for her, she ended up being the only one who scored a code for the presale.  I was able to sit in front of the computer for her and after about 3 hours I was able to purchase 4 tickets at MetLife Stadium.  The fees are certainly ridiculous but I’m not sure what else Ticketmaster could have done to ensure a better experience due to the overwhelming demand.  It is what it is.  I could have easily spent 3 hours standing on a line to buy the tickets in person 20+ years ago.  I prefer the comfort of the house to waiting outside.  There’s no guarantee to get tickets.  She missed out a bunch of times on Harry Styles tickets before we finally got a pair this past summer at MSG.  You win some, you lose some when demand far outweighs the supply. 

jimjam1982

It's got the gang trending at number 12 nationally though on twitter.  Fuck ticketmaster. The battle rages on. PJs battle against them hasn't been forgotten.

GlowGirl

TM just raked in a boatload of cash in the last few days. Think I can get my PJ F2F sales money back yet, Ticketmaster?

jefft

GlowGirl said:

TM just raked in a boatload of cash in the last few days. Think I can get my PJ F2F sales money back yet, Ticketmaster?

I was not joking when I said 13 weeks.  It's ridiculous. 

pawlowski1097

I spent 6 hours trying to get my wife tickets, she likes Taylor and has been to countless pj or Eddie shows with me. I did not get tickets I got a code for verified fan and site crashed on me then when I finally got thur to put the code in the code I had did not work. Gigantic cluster fuck haha 

on2legs

Ticketmaster said that even if a ticket sale goes perfectly, fans still tend to leave empty-handed. It said that "based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing) … that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years."

PJ1973

Hagrid7575 said:

That's crazy. I do wonder what, if any, changes will be made for future sales. Or is this just chalked up to Swift being who she is. 
I know they added a bunch of shows to several cities, I wonder if maybe they should've sold out the original dates, then dropped the other shows with other sale dates.
There probably isn't an easily identifiable answer here. 

None. They'll make no changes because they don't have to. They made their money and their exclusive rights to sell tickets at every major arena and stadium allows them to create this same shit show next year and the year after that.

Lerxst1992

hihobibo said:

Lerxst1992 said:

what’s the alternative? AOC says break up Ticketmaster, so we have five different vendors selling tickets to a show? That sound like it’s more expensive to put on a tour. Biden says the fees are excessive, but a big part of the fees go to venues and promoter, and sometimes back to the artist, so just charge us one price, the full cost of the ticket? Does a supermarket break out their margin from the cost of a steak?

Maybe the artists should front the full cost of the shows and bear the risk of cost overruns?

I think they need to provide what the fees are for, and how they are calculated. It makes no sense that a higher priced ticket has a fee that is disproportionate to a lower priced ticket, for the same event. There is no extra effort done by anyone on the backend to justify a variable fee.

Similarly, break out how same venues charge varying fees based on the concert. Again, the venue should have one flat fee, unless they deem something like additional security is required, then they should spell that out. 

Good ideas, not sure if that brings down ticket prices? I think fans should realize how incredible it is to put on a show for $150 like PJ does. The comparable to concerts are sporting events, and the good seats for sports go for hundreds if not thousands. Concerts do not have a ticket revenue base like that.

Ticketmaster lost a lot of money the last two years and profited about one percent of sales in 2019 pre Covid. Not sure where all this extra savings for fans is going to come from.

Also, most cities have one big arena per city, so how would competition work? Sell every ticket based on an auction? We type in the amount we are willing to pay for each category of ticket and the highest bids win tickets? Every system, including TC, picks winners and losers.    

 

Get_Right

Maybe the politicians will actually do something this time.I am not hopeful. Big money always wins.

patkelly12

Get_Right said:

Maybe the politicians will actually do something this time.I am not hopeful. Big money always wins.

This literally made me LOL.

Zod

Lerxst1992 said:

hihobibo said:

Lerxst1992 said:

what’s the alternative? AOC says break up Ticketmaster, so we have five different vendors selling tickets to a show? That sound like it’s more expensive to put on a tour. Biden says the fees are excessive, but a big part of the fees go to venues and promoter, and sometimes back to the artist, so just charge us one price, the full cost of the ticket? Does a supermarket break out their margin from the cost of a steak?

Maybe the artists should front the full cost of the shows and bear the risk of cost overruns?

I think they need to provide what the fees are for, and how they are calculated. It makes no sense that a higher priced ticket has a fee that is disproportionate to a lower priced ticket, for the same event. There is no extra effort done by anyone on the backend to justify a variable fee.

Similarly, break out how same venues charge varying fees based on the concert. Again, the venue should have one flat fee, unless they deem something like additional security is required, then they should spell that out. 

Good ideas, not sure if that brings down ticket prices? I think fans should realize how incredible it is to put on a show for $150 like PJ does. The comparable to concerts are sporting events, and the good seats for sports go for hundreds if not thousands. Concerts do not have a ticket revenue base like that.

Ticketmaster lost a lot of money the last two years and profited about one percent of sales in 2019 pre Covid. Not sure where all this extra savings for fans is going to come from.

Also, most cities have one big arena per city, so how would competition work? Sell every ticket based on an auction? We type in the amount we are willing to pay for each category of ticket and the highest bids win tickets? Every system, including TC, picks winners and losers.    

 

I'm not sure if it means there would be multiple competitors for a single show, or if competition would mean the promoter/venue would be able to choose from multiple providers of who would do the ticketing for a show.

IE you get a few ticketing companies to do a bid for how much they would charge to do your ticketing, rather than being forced to have no choice and only be able to use TM.

mfc2006

While the demand wasn't nearly as high as Taylor, trying to get tickets to Tyler Childers was an absolute fucking nightmare. He had a couple of presales and the bots bought everything.

RS65573

I was lucky to win 10 club tickets for Camden, but other than that, I just don't buy them anymore. If I can get in day of the show for a  reasonable amount, great, if not, I don't go, TM can go eff themselves.

jsk175

I read where TM was slammed by Bots for Taylor.   Do you think if they did it the same as a PJ with the Fan to Fan where you cant scalp there would be less Bots?   I would think so

droptheleash9

jsk175 said:

I read where TM was slammed by Bots for Taylor.   Do you think if they did it the same as a PJ with the Fan to Fan where you cant scalp there would be less Bots?   I would think so

Generally curious on the Bot part given that you needed a verified fan code to get through in order to buy tickets? How would that work?

Taylor Swift fans seem to really just be mad that there weren't enough tickets available to accommodate all of the people that wanted them. Ticketmaster is the worst company on Earth but what Swift's fans are complaining about has nothing to do with TM being monopoly or how poorly run the sale was. Having other outlets to purchase tickets through doesn't make more tickets available....that is determined by stadium capacity and how many shows are on the tour. Is it unfortunate? Absolutely. But that's just the reality of how popular of an artist she is.

patkelly12

According to reports, people who didn't have codes were also attempting to access tickets which slammed the servers. Here is a crazy idea. You could have provided a special link to purchase when you provided the code. That would have surely lessened the number of people on a single page. But TM wasn't interested in doing that. They wanted the frenzy in order to measure the demand. I noticed the press release announcing the onsale cancellation said nearly all inventory was exhausted. How is that possible when you control what was available for a presale? I don't know if the presale had VIP or platinum tickets available but you can be sure any future release will.

sfox1989

I waited in the queue Tuesday for 5 hours to get tickets to her Saturday Tampa show. I was eventually successful, but we paid $530 with fees for two tickets in the 300 level (nosebleeds). I tried to get better tickets for the Friday Tampa show in the Capitol One presale the following day and was hit with error after error and watched all the floor seats disappear in front of me. It was an awful experience.

It really frustrates me when people say that Taylor has no power over Ticketmaster when clearly PJ got them to stop scalped tickets and only use face value resale. I see many Swifties who panic bought multiple tickets (which I don't even know how, it took me an hour of clicking around to even get our nosebleed seats) and are now trying to sell at a profit on stubhub. All of this to say, thank you Pearl Jam for your lottery!

BRONDO

my boss is not a scalper, but knew her concert tixs would be in high demand, he bought 2 for tampa 4 for pitt and 6 for cincy. It wasnt just the professional scalpers and bots.  

jsk175

Consequence of Sound

“The staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests – 4x our previous peak,” Ticketmaster said earlier this week