Ticketmaster Subpoenaed
OneTooFree
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http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-200 ... 13310.html
Ticketmaster Subpoenaed On Ticket-Reseller Pacts
By Ethan Smith
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. (TKTM) said Friday that it has received subpoenas from four government agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including the Justice Department, investigating the company's activities in reselling concert tickets.
The company sent an email Friday to ticket brokers who use the company's TicketsNow Web site saying that it had received subpoenas from Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the New Jersey Attorney General and the Canadian Competition Bureau. The company confirmed that the email was authentic but declined further comment.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
Ticketmaster's proposed merger with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. (LYV) is already under review by the Justice Department's antitrust division; it was unclear from the company's email whether any of the subpoenas in question were issued as part of that regulatory review, or part of a separate investigation.
The email indicated that the investigations stemmed at least in part from an episode in February in which people trying to buy tickets to two New Jersey Bruce Springsteen concerts were redirected from Ticketmaster's main site to TicketsNow, where seats were priced at many times face value.
The letter said that Ticketmaster had been asked for information relating to its dealings with ticket brokers, including the names of every broker who resells tickets on TicketsNow and copies of their business contracts.
The letter added that Ticketmaster would take steps to protect the confidentiality of its business relationships but that it considered the requests "lawful demands," and would respond to the requests next Friday, April 10.
-By Ethan Smith, The Wall Street Journal; <!-- e --><a href="mailto:ethan.smith@wsj.com">ethan.smith@wsj.com</a><!-- e -->
Ticketmaster Subpoenaed On Ticket-Reseller Pacts
By Ethan Smith
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. (TKTM) said Friday that it has received subpoenas from four government agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including the Justice Department, investigating the company's activities in reselling concert tickets.
The company sent an email Friday to ticket brokers who use the company's TicketsNow Web site saying that it had received subpoenas from Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the New Jersey Attorney General and the Canadian Competition Bureau. The company confirmed that the email was authentic but declined further comment.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
Ticketmaster's proposed merger with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. (LYV) is already under review by the Justice Department's antitrust division; it was unclear from the company's email whether any of the subpoenas in question were issued as part of that regulatory review, or part of a separate investigation.
The email indicated that the investigations stemmed at least in part from an episode in February in which people trying to buy tickets to two New Jersey Bruce Springsteen concerts were redirected from Ticketmaster's main site to TicketsNow, where seats were priced at many times face value.
The letter said that Ticketmaster had been asked for information relating to its dealings with ticket brokers, including the names of every broker who resells tickets on TicketsNow and copies of their business contracts.
The letter added that Ticketmaster would take steps to protect the confidentiality of its business relationships but that it considered the requests "lawful demands," and would respond to the requests next Friday, April 10.
-By Ethan Smith, The Wall Street Journal; <!-- e --><a href="mailto:ethan.smith@wsj.com">ethan.smith@wsj.com</a><!-- e -->
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CHILLIN LIKE BOB DYLAN!!!
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are you implying that's bad? yeah it's been going on for years, so i don't really care how it starts, even if its Hannah Montana parents.
If they have the power and the voice, more power to them. If I knew someone I'd do it.
weather anything gets done is the big question-even if the Gov prevents the merger, there will be collusion between the two companies to keep prices high-bet on it.
Schumer's proposed legislation has good intentions, but simply delaying the brokers resale will not stop them from getting their hands on tickets in the first place
its simple, TM and LN need to publicly disclose where every ticket for every event is sold or held for promotional reasons
unfortunately, resale of tickets is more or less allowed in most states.
the key question is what exactly is TM and LN putting on sale when there is a public sale, 20% of the available tickets? They must disclose the numbers to get answers.
Ticketmaster doesn't hold back tickets to sell on their broker site on their own. They have no authority to allocate ticket inventory to Ticketsnow. As much as the redirect to Ticketsnow is shady and needs to be eliminated, Ticketsnow is nothing different than Stubhub or the countless other online brokers out there. People sell tickets they have (or think that they will have) through those sites.
Most of the time, the people selling tickets through these sites don't have the tickets to start with. They guarantee the seats they sell or better, so if a broker has an in with a fan club or corporate sales with a venue or whatever, they can sell tickets in like the first couple sections closest to the stage, knowing that they will probably be able to get something as good or better than that.
The venue (with the promoter/artist approval), decides what seats are held or sold to the public, not Ticketmaster.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
and playing it well........
I dont think a fucking thing will change..............
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
TM absolutely holds back tickets from public onsales. No question about that. They own the exclusive right to sell tickets and have been trying to capture the secondary market for years. You dont think they are testing their right or authority to distribute the tickets as they see fit? They absolutely are. Thats what this is all about. Based on what has been happening recently, you just dont know what they are up to. But thats what Im saying, they need to disclose where the tickets are going to when an onsale happens, otherwise, the consumer, the government, and even the artists will never really know what TM is up to.
I dont believe this to be true. I dont see any such language in the terms and conditions for tickets now. I did read it quickly though.
absolutely not
TM has an exclusive contract with 90% of the venues to sell the tickets for events at that venue.
The promoter/management company booking agent books the concerts for the venues and is usually forced to agree to TMs terms should they want that venue. The promoter/agent sets the price and negotiates for the allocations (as PJ does to get as many 10C tix as possible-which is rumored to be around 10%)
TM then establishes the percentage of tickets that allocated to fanclubs, the artists, and for promotional activities (i.e. amex presales).
TM exercises domain over 80% (or more) of the tickets and the public needs disclosure as to where they are going and how they are being sold. I am willing to bet that less than 40% of the tickets are actually sold to the public through ticketmaster.com-and they are all the crap seats.-thats why shows sell out so quick and it is almost impossible to get choice seats to any show. At least thats how it works here in NYC.
Hey but you may be right, because no one knows what TM is really up to. Thats why the government should simply be seeking full disclosure as to where the tickets are going.
Sorry, but you are incorrect about what TM can and can't do. I'm a box office manager at an arena and have worked in several different venues over the last 10 years and have actually read several Ticketmaster and Tickets.com venue contracts.
Yes, TM can say how much can be allocated to fan clubs, if the fan club doesn't sell through TM. As far as Amex pre-sales, local radio station or venue presales, or even fan clubs who sell through TM, Ticketmaster has absolutely no limit (or could really care less). Their basis is that they have the exclusive right to sell tickets, and the 10 club or musictoday or any other fanclub selling tickets violates the contract between TM and the venue. It is allowed to a point (usually 10%), because accommodating that maybe a requirement of the venue getting the show. But even if that 10% number is in the contract, I've seen that waived or increase for acts like the Dead, Dave Matthews or even Pearl Jam.
Besides that, TM has absolutely no say on the percentage of tickets held for the artist, promoter, venue, etc.
As far as promotional tickets, TM typically doesn't care about that either... if a venue decided to give away 80% of the building for every show, then they might, but just because their service charge revenue is lower than what was projected when signing the contract with the venue (unless that practice was know then).
I've put shows onsale with 95% of the tickets open to sell to the general public, and shows with less than 50%, but at no time have I ever been told by Ticketmaster what can't be or has to be open.
Besides being a breach of contract, box office managers are usually very protective of their events... If Ticketmaster decided to funnel seats directly to Ticketsnow or open or hold seats on their own, then Venues/box office managers would be up in arms.
The monopoly thing (with Live Nation) should be looked at, but to the point about the government seeking full disclosure on where every ticket goes, why? on what grounds should the gov't have that authority?
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Do you know for a fact this is not happening? I rather doubt it. Which is why TM is being subpoenaed and investigated. Some sketchy things have been happening and there is definitely good reason to believe that TM is doing illegal things with their tickets... ie farming tickets out to brokers before they even have a chance to be bought by the public and then getting kickbacks on the inflated prices. I rather suspect this is exactly what is happening.
completely agree... trying to get Phish tickets for their June & August shows through Ticketmaster was an exercise in futility. i love Phish but i'm sorry, there's just no way that band is that popular.
Sure TM didnt tell you what has to be open, but why the variation in available percentages? Where is the allocation coming from? What about the exclusive right to sell though TM online before the venue box office even gets to sell tickets? You dont think that a larger percentage is "held" for the media and VIPs at say MSG than in Kansas City? Who makes that call??? The venue?
Isnt basically true that the venue has outsourced its ticketing to TM via the exclusive sales agreement? TM says an event is sold out the venue gets paid whatever its entitled to. No breach of contract as long as the venue gets paid in accordance with the agreement. Its what happens after that I now wonder about with this whole tickets now thing. Isnt also true that there is often nothing left for the box office to be protective of once an even sells out online?
Not trying to get confrontational at all. I seriously want to understand how this whole thing works
Consumer protection laws. The IRS. Is TM publicly traded? If so the SEC. If the gov really wants to find out, they can create a way to do so if it involves interstate commerce.
The allocation is coming from the promoter & artist. Marketing comps, artist, record labels, etc., are all worked out between them and that is dictated tot he venue. The venue might have contractual deals with suite/club seat holders or whatever that has to be followed as well. You brought up MSG, and that is a bit of a different animal with all of the premium seat holders and everything... The normal everyday ticket buyer does get shut out of most of the good seats. For most normal sized markets (Non NYC, LA or the like), the artist (if they care) will keep everyone's holds down to a minimum. The negotiation strength depends on the market... MSG can tell a big act that they need to hold 5,000 seats (or whatever) or you don't play in NYC, but the same show coming to Tulsa OK, can pretty much tell the venue that they can only hold 500 seats.
As far as selling through TM before the box office, that most likely isn't a Ticketmaster call. I don't know the deal that MSG has with Ticketmaster, but I'm guessing that part of it is logistics (in a city like NY not wanting deal with hundreds of people lining up at the box office for every onsale), and money... Venues get a cut of the convenience fees, so making people buy online not only saves money on staffing, but makes the venue some extra money as well.
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All of the money from the face value of the tickets gets deposited in the venues account... TM makes no money off of the actual ticket (just service charges and credit card fees, etc).
TM only says a show is sold out if there are no open seats to sell. For 99% of shows, there are no separate allocations for the box office or TM. Everyone pulls out of the same pool of open seats. So if an event does sell out, then it's sold out for everyone.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln