Ticketmaster now reserving the best seats for themselves

SHZA said:

High Fidelity 2000 said:

mpedone said:

Get_Right said:

mr bungle said:

mpedone said:

High Fidelity 2000 said:

mpedone said:

Ticketmaster has won.

I get tired of people saying everything is Ticketmaster. The band's management signed off on this. They sign off on 10% of the tickets being sold for "premium" prices to rip off fans at 4-5 times the cost. Why would they sell all those good seats for $185 to the ten club members when they can sell them for $1000 to stupid desperate people who log on and find that's all that's left when they get through the queue? It's a scam. The band AND ticketmaster are in on it. The band is making more money, too.
Don't believe me? The Cure toured without premium seats, and everything was affordable with their top ticket prices being around $130, lawn $25, t shirts were $25. And somehow they did this for every show on a huge tour all last summer. It was probably hard but it can be done, but management (I'm guessing) doesn't want to do it. Weak.

That is exactly my point, though. Pearl Jam fought Ticketmaster, and Ticketmaster has won. Whether it's the actual band members making these decisions or they've turfed it off to management with tacit approval, the fight is over (probably has been for some time).

Probably one of the reasons Kelly Curtis "retired".  It was probably too hard seeing the fans not being prioritized.

Ticketmaster did not win. They came up with a business plan that takes money away from Stubhub and puts it in the artist's pocket. The band said yes to that plan. Truthfully they could charge much more and still sell out most arenas. I think the band took a medium path capturing some of that revenue but not totally gouging the fans.

How is that not Ticketmaster winning? Non-transferable digital tickets accomplish the same thing. Nothing is stopping someone who bought a MSG "premium" ticket from selling it for twice as much on StubHub if they think they can get that much. Also, I think one of the things people are pushing back against is the idea that a band that's so often railed against greed is now interested in "capturing some of that revenue".

Exactly this. "Hey, Stubhub sellers are screwing the fans! Wait a minute... WE could be screwing the fans!" Well, approximately 10% of them anyway. The band has to be willing to say no like the Cure did. 

Only some Cure shows had $400 first row (which by the way, is kind of a bargain for first row compared to a lot of Premium Platinum bullshit, don't even get me started on the Chili Peppers prices), some the whole front sections topped out at $130 or $150 something, I can't really remember at this point. Decent/good reserved seats were under $100. Anyone can do it if they want to, they just don't want to. They most likely get shown a dollar figure from the Live Nation for so many shows and say wow sign us up. Why do you think Beyonce and Bruce and Madonna and everybody and their moms did a huge tour last year or this year? They found out how much they can make/how much people will buy tickets for. Chili Peppers are the biggest frauds in all this. Lawn seats for $120, pit for $420 or "early admission pit" for an extra $200. It's all a scam.

They could say no to platinum, but why is that necessarily better for the fan? Plenty of fans who attended Cure shows paid platinum prices--they just did it through Vivid, stubhub, and seatgeek instead of ticketmaster. So the ticket brokers made the money instead of the band. Why is that a better system? 

High Fidelity 2000 said:

Why do you think Beyonce and Bruce and Madonna and everybody and their moms did a huge tour last year or this year? 

ilockyer said:

SHZA said:

High Fidelity 2000 said:

mpedone said:

Get_Right said:

mr bungle said:

mpedone said:

High Fidelity 2000 said:

mpedone said:

Ticketmaster has won.

I get tired of people saying everything is Ticketmaster. The band's management signed off on this. They sign off on 10% of the tickets being sold for "premium" prices to rip off fans at 4-5 times the cost. Why would they sell all those good seats for $185 to the ten club members when they can sell them for $1000 to stupid desperate people who log on and find that's all that's left when they get through the queue? It's a scam. The band AND ticketmaster are in on it. The band is making more money, too.
Don't believe me? The Cure toured without premium seats, and everything was affordable with their top ticket prices being around $130, lawn $25, t shirts were $25. And somehow they did this for every show on a huge tour all last summer. It was probably hard but it can be done, but management (I'm guessing) doesn't want to do it. Weak.

That is exactly my point, though. Pearl Jam fought Ticketmaster, and Ticketmaster has won. Whether it's the actual band members making these decisions or they've turfed it off to management with tacit approval, the fight is over (probably has been for some time).

Probably one of the reasons Kelly Curtis "retired".  It was probably too hard seeing the fans not being prioritized.

Ticketmaster did not win. They came up with a business plan that takes money away from Stubhub and puts it in the artist's pocket. The band said yes to that plan. Truthfully they could charge much more and still sell out most arenas. I think the band took a medium path capturing some of that revenue but not totally gouging the fans.

How is that not Ticketmaster winning? Non-transferable digital tickets accomplish the same thing. Nothing is stopping someone who bought a MSG "premium" ticket from selling it for twice as much on StubHub if they think they can get that much. Also, I think one of the things people are pushing back against is the idea that a band that's so often railed against greed is now interested in "capturing some of that revenue".

Exactly this. "Hey, Stubhub sellers are screwing the fans! Wait a minute... WE could be screwing the fans!" Well, approximately 10% of them anyway. The band has to be willing to say no like the Cure did. 

Only some Cure shows had $400 first row (which by the way, is kind of a bargain for first row compared to a lot of Premium Platinum bullshit, don't even get me started on the Chili Peppers prices), some the whole front sections topped out at $130 or $150 something, I can't really remember at this point. Decent/good reserved seats were under $100. Anyone can do it if they want to, they just don't want to. They most likely get shown a dollar figure from the Live Nation for so many shows and say wow sign us up. Why do you think Beyonce and Bruce and Madonna and everybody and their moms did a huge tour last year or this year? They found out how much they can make/how much people will buy tickets for. Chili Peppers are the biggest frauds in all this. Lawn seats for $120, pit for $420 or "early admission pit" for an extra $200. It's all a scam.

They could say no to platinum, but why is that necessarily better for the fan? Plenty of fans who attended Cure shows paid platinum prices--they just did it through Vivid, stubhub, and seatgeek instead of ticketmaster. So the ticket brokers made the money instead of the band. Why is that a better system? 

The tickets were supposedly non transferrable, apart from the markets where that is not allowed. 

https://www.nme.com/news/music/robert-smith-the-cure-ticketmaster-north-america-tour-tickets-scalpers-3413725

BF25394 said:

Poncier said:

Luckytwn1 said:

Ticketmaster makes no decisions at all as to what tickets go where. Those decisions are 100 percent made by the promoter in conjunction with the act, in this case Pearl Jam.

Ticketmaster is the promoter.
They and Live Nation are the same entity.

The venue is also involved in this. The reason that the Forum and MSG have lower-bowl seats excluded from fan-club ticket blocks and Vancouver, Seattle, Las Vegas and Portland don't is because of pre-existing ticketing policies at the Forum and MSG that Pearl Jam cannot circumvent.

BF25394 said:

SHZA said:

BF25394 said:

Poncier said:

Luckytwn1 said:

Ticketmaster makes no decisions at all as to what tickets go where. Those decisions are 100 percent made by the promoter in conjunction with the act, in this case Pearl Jam.

Ticketmaster is the promoter.
They and Live Nation are the same entity.

The venue is also involved in this. The reason that the Forum and MSG have lower-bowl seats excluded from fan-club ticket blocks and Vancouver, Seattle, Las Vegas and Portland don't is because of pre-existing ticketing policies at the Forum and MSG that Pearl Jam cannot circumvent.

Must be a new pre-existing policy 

Yes, that's correct. The venue had one policy in 2019, when the seating was worked out for the 2020 shows that got postponed to 2022. The venue adopted a new policy that was in effect in 2023 when the seating was worked out for the 2024 shows. Thus, the policy pre-existed this tour. A thing can be both new and pre-existing depending on your frame of reference.

Lerxst1992 said:

BF25394 said:

It's always Dolan's fault. We should count our blessings that JD and the Straight Shot aren't the openers for the tour.

Seating chart is a bit of a joke. It’s because there are so many club seats now at the garden as compared to four years ago, but still it’s absurd for them to be in love with that damn arena. So many other options here in NY yet the band insists on rewarding Knick and rags fans.

One would have hoped SOMEONE in the band would look at that seating chart and say fix it or we are going to Belmont, Brooklyn, or NJ.

Poncier said:

Luckytwn1 said:

Ticketmaster makes no decisions at all as to what tickets go where. Those decisions are 100 percent made by the promoter in conjunction with the act, in this case Pearl Jam.

Ticketmaster is the promoter.
They and Live Nation are the same entity.

Luckytwn1 said:

Eddieredder said:

This is nothing new. Since the beginning of time the following get their ticket alottment. Before any kind of sale goes on. 

venue
promoter
band
misc (credit card company, sponsors, season tix holders)

And people have been reselling their alottment forever too.

Its all negotiated to a point. But at the end of the day TM is the venue and promoter in most cases. Don't like the deal? Then you can't play here. Its pretty simple. But also, the band has to agree to the terms. They also don't really have a choice or alternative. 

Ticketmaster/LN has no ownership interest in either The Forum or MSG. The Forum is owned by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and as others have noted, Dolan owns The Garden. It's not like AEG which owns Crypto.com arena and then promotes shows there.