“Price of admission”: The battle over concert tickets.

StardogChamp79

Why are concert tickets so expensive and so frustratingly hard to get? Brook Silva-Braga spent a year talking to artists, fans, scalpers, and executives from Ticketmaster and StubHub in search of answers.

https://youtu.be/1dRcD6DPhdE?si=Eni0PbpwuogJH9A9

Love the transparency in this!

Chrrie

Love to see more things like this, but had to chuckle when they got to the part about fan to fan tickets. I wish someone would tell the Something Corporate dude and CBS that fan to fan isn’t working like they think it is. 

I’d also love to see more about the cost of touring and ticket price breakdown. SoCo gets about 1/6th or so of the cost of each ticket and then has to split that amongst themselves and pay for touring expenses on top of it amounting to what, like $7k per member per show if I’m remembering the video correctly. I bet it would be pretty eye opening to people if we could somehow know the bottom line for each of the guys from our $192 tickets. 

DM282158

Great report. Thanks for sharing! 

Get_Right

That was a good piece, but it misses the heart of the matter. Ticketmaster controlling all the tickets and not making them all available to the public. You have not been able to get a front row seat since 1985. Even if you slept out for three days. Prices are going up and artists want to secure as much money as possible. I cannot blame an artist, even Pearl Jam, for getting fair market value for their tickets. It is the restraint of trade and the manipulation of market value that is the problem. Textbook monopoly. And there is no discussion about how ticketmaster is trying to shut out ticket brokers so they can realize the revenue. The whole thing is a joke in its current state. The only saving grace is that we can still get 10C tix, but the prices are higher and the seats are not as good.

JD87070

Get_Right said:

That was a good piece, but it misses the heart of the matter. Ticketmaster controlling all the tickets and not making them all available to the public. You have not been able to get a front row seat since 1985. Even if you slept out for three days. Prices are going up and artists want to secure as much money as possible. I cannot blame an artist, even Pearl Jam, for getting fair market value for their tickets. It is the restraint of trade and the manipulation of market value that is the problem. Textbook monopoly. And there is no discussion about how ticketmaster is trying to shut out ticket brokers so they can realize the revenue. The whole thing is a joke in its current state. The only saving grace is that we can still get 10C tix, but the prices are higher and the seats are not as good.

I get what you’re saying, and it does have that affect for sure, but at the same time i bet TM’s argument would be that by doing that they are keeping brokers from getting their hands on those tickets, at the initial on-sale at least.
This year for several shows (not PJ) i’m trying a new strategy, instead of getting tickets like i usually do, i’m holding off and going to try for tickets at the drop a week or a few days before the shows. I’ve had some good luck in the past doing that occasionally-last fall i had a pair for Billy Strings at Pine Knob at on-sale that were face value but halfway up the pavilion and off to the side (best non-Official Platinum available), then the morning of the show i got 3rd row behind the pit dead center for face value in the ticket drop. And for Neil Young at PK last year same thing, i had gotten lawn with some friends in the presale, then the day before the show got Pit for face value (and the face value actually changed from day before to day of, i paid $150 for mine and the next day they were listed as $200). For Neil i gave my lawn ticket to another friend so got what i paid out of it, but for Billy Strings i took a loss, was able to resell the tickets but for less than i had paid for them. So this year i’m resisting the initial buy (unless the tickets are good and for face of course, i never buy dynamic priced ones), and trying for drops. I might miss some shows with this strategy, and for the shows i’m doing it for i’m ok with that.

Get_Right

Make no mistake. TM is trying to capture the secondary market revenue and squeeze every dollar out of every seat. They are manipulating the process with technology. The public onsales and even the "member" presales are a joke. They dump the crappy seats to panic buyers. Then they mark up the best seats as premium. If anyone thinks TM is not controlling the supply vs. demand and using technology to control tickets then you are in denial. F2F is another joke, with TM controlling the tickets, perhaps even deploying TM bots to buy up good seats as they become available. Then about two weeks out they start to lower the prices if there are no buyers. With the exception of very high demand shows, let's say like Pearl Jam at the Apollo, or maybe even Hollywood this time around, you can always get decent tickets at a good price 48-24 hrs before the show. I am amazed at how many people do not see how this actually works. You got an error code? Yeah no kidding. TM, or perhaps an affiliate, took those tickets to try and resell them at a higher price. For shows that are not in high demand, you might actually be able to buy them. But you will have to wait until close to showtime. At least this is my take on it.

Sugarloafer04

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/beyonce-cowboy-carter-tour-ticket-prices-b2734565.html

Get_Right

Proves my point. It is an even bigger FU with high demand artists like Beyonce.

Sugarloafer04

Seriously. I read that article this morning. Ticketmaster NEEDS to get disbanded it is clearly a monopoly

Get_Right

No one cares about prices of concert tickets other than consumers. Let that be the biggest problem we have. Unfortunately it is not. 

edocon

Get_Right said:

That was a good piece, but it misses the heart of the matter. Ticketmaster controlling all the tickets and not making them all available to the public. You have not been able to get a front row seat since 1985. Even if you slept out for three days. Prices are going up and artists want to secure as much money as possible. I cannot blame an artist, even Pearl Jam, for getting fair market value for their tickets. It is the restraint of trade and the manipulation of market value that is the problem. Textbook monopoly. And there is no discussion about how ticketmaster is trying to shut out ticket brokers so they can realize the revenue. The whole thing is a joke in its current state. The only saving grace is that we can still get 10C tix, but the prices are higher and the seats are not as good.

Exactly. The piece did not mention that TM withholds a large number of the most premium seats and other decent seats at the time of original on sale, and then trickles out the release of the acceptable seats in the months/weeks leading up to the event at hyper inflated prices. Fans buy these tickets at these outrageous prices because there is a perceived scarcity. i.e an artificial demand is specifically engineered by TM. Closer to the event TM releases the remaining tickets, which are in better locations than previously sold tickets, and adjusts the prices to meet demand leading up to the show. People who purchased in the first waves of over-priced tickets who wish to sell them cannot adjust their selling price to compete with TM, even to take a loss to recoup some of their money.  There is certainly a sophisticated computer algorithm that determines tickets to hold back and timing of their release to maximize profits for TM. It would be naive to think TM does any of this in the best interest of fans. 

Get_Right

And automation to buy up any F2F tix. Even back to the days of paper tickets TM has been doing this. Now they have technology that can manage the price of every single seat. All of that said, you can still get into most shows for a fair price. If you have a bit of patience. If you are traveling then you might have to pay a bit more. 

PB11041

The entire live events industry is a speculative house of cards. Music and sports ticketing alike. 

josevolution

I’m done participating in TM ticket sales for big name bands or arena shows! I’m more interested in those up and coming artists that play the smaller venues and don’t have to overpay for a ticket.