Pollstar Ticket Holds Scrutinized

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

rmckenzie8@cfl.rr.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:42:59 GMT

Back in the 90's Pearl Jam tried to fight ticket master and practically dropped them off the charts but now we are getting to the point where a central service can no longer keep a grip on the market share when the public is not happy with them. I believe the future will be smaller ticketing systems strung together with social sites like Facebook, mySpace, and Last.FM. If the ticket feeds can be picked up and replicated across all these sites, why should we continue to let ticketmaster rule the market? You can't even use Ticket Master as a primary source for concert information anymore.. you need sites like Pollstar and new music sites are showing up everyday with amazing potential. Check out http://www.preamped.com, its the new kid on the block for concert info.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

ferrymcmanz@yahoo.com — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:35:08 GMT

Hey Hooterville, how can you call Springsteen a hypocrite when he always keeps his prices low ($95.oo top price) and he just busted Ticketmaster for the very practice desribed in the article. It was not him or his people that listed tickets on TicketsNow. It was Ticketmaster and they encouraged people to go over to their "partner site" to get tickets at inflated prices even before the shows were sold out. Oh yeah, then when Bruce found out what was going on he gave all those fans their money back AND FREE TICKETS TO THE SHOW! What a jerk, huh!

To say that the artists SHOULD participate in this practice is rediculous. They can charge whatever they want for their tickets and be upfront about it and if people can afford it and are willing to pay THOSE PRICES they will. But to hold back the best seats and pass them off as some kind of secondary market of tickets sold by fans who have extras is wrong. That's what Ebay is for. Ticketmaster execs and promoters can go on Ebay and see what kind of prices people are paying so they feel like they should be getting a piece of that action too. Corporate greed pure and simple.

Ebay is mostly to blame for this trend. They used to police their auctions, making sure sellers obeyed the scalping laws for their states, having them show pictures of the tickets clearly showing the face value. Then Ebay realized how much money they could make in selling fees on tickets selling for outrageous prices and now the site is a scalpers paradise, a free for all, where scalpers can list tickets that cost $50 for $1000.00. Very few of them run straight auctions with low starting bids, for fear that bidders will hold back and tickets will sell at a loss. If you see an auction like that it is usually a fan stuck with a few extra tickets trying to make a few bucks or hoping to recover his cost. The scalpers use "BUY NOW" type auctions which start at super high prices and only get lowered when the show is near and they are desperate. This doesn't happen that often because most of these scalpers, or brokers, as they prefer to be called, don't actually have the tickets they are selling. The tickets are held in a "pool" by Ticketmaster and the brokers have access to them. If some sucker buys a pair the broker claims them from TM and emails you the tix. If the tickets go unsold the broker is not out any money and the tickets go back into TM's computers for sale to the public either on their site or at the box office the night of the show. Check out any of the many scapler sites (Stubhub, ACE Tickets, Vivid Seats) to name a few, and notice how they all seem to have the exact same seats and prices. That's why they don't give seat numbers, just section and row, so it is not so obvious that different brokers all over the country are all selling the SAME tickets. I contacted a broker once and he told me he had HARD TICKETS IN HIS HANDS for a certain show and I even got him to tell me the exact seat numbers. I told him I had to think about it and did not buy them. Two days later I got those exact same seats online from Ticketmaster the day of the show.

I have been going to concerts since 1972 and have seen everyone I have ever wanted to see many times over. I have never bought from a scalper unless it was last minute and they were dumping tickets cheap. It's too bad that people don't realize what's going on and all refuse to go to shows for ONE summer. If no one bought tickets for one entire summer concert season you would see the artists taking back control of how the tickets are sold. Maybe we should go back to the old way where you got all the tickets from the box office and you had to go there and wait in line to get them.

Long live Rock and Roll!

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

CHECKMEOUT73@GMAIL.COM — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:25:17 GMT

JUST BOYCOTT GROUPS THAT USE THIS TECHNIQUE.WHO NEEDS THESE OVERHYPED BEHEMOTHS ANYWAY.AFTER SEEING ALOT OF GREAT CLUB GIGS WHO WANTS TO SIT WAY OUT IN OHIO SEATING TO SEE THE MICHIGAN STAGE.THAT OR GO DOWN THE DAY OF SHOW AND HIT UP PEOPLE IN LINE TO SEE IF THEY HAVE EXTRA TICKETS.YOU WOULD'NT BELIEVE HOW OFTEN YOU CAN GET 1/2 PRICE OR LESS TICKETS OR FREEBIES THEY'LL JUST HAND YOU.IF ITS SOLD OUT AND NOONE HAS A CHEAP SEAT YOU'LL STILL GO HOME ALOT RICHER.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

funcpl2741054@yahoo.com — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:40:32 GMT

mikebrc.....you make sense....but of course you're thinking with your brain...not you're Oprah emotion gland. So you'll upset people on here.

I'm a ticket agency scalper?.....well, i did sell some extra Jimmy Buffet and Bon Jovi tickets on EBAY once.

If you think ticketmaster is a scum bag company (and it probably is) ...try EBAY....with the VIG that company skims off the top Tony Soprano would be embarrased.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

mikebrc28@gmail.com — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:26:33 GMT

But Hooterville does have a point. Any agent knows the ins and outs of scaling the house. You set your gross and then scale your inventory to hit that mark with a mix of higher prices up front and lower prices farther out.

A few hundred seats at a hundred dollars over your median can allow for a thousand seats way below your median.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

CHECKMEOUT73@GMAIL.COM — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:54:06 GMT

hooterville is a ticket agency scalper sold over to the dark force.ignore his comments.that or he likes being taken from behind like in the dirty movies.ha!

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

tvteacher@cox.net — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:55:29 GMT

I am curious if this is what happen when the Hanna Montana fiasco took place. Did ticketmaster actually screw all of those kids that could only afford the regular priced tickets or did the scalpers get a hold of the tickets? I am starting to believe TM probably screwed all of those kids and their parents.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

funcpl2741054@yahoo.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:04:03 GMT

Why shouldnt the artists get every penny possible? The only reason they can charge this is because people are willing to pay it.....period! (i will agree many of them, like Bruce Springsteen, are just plain hypocrites)

But, I got news for you. The reason you get $20.00 lawn seats is because someone else is paying $180.00 up front. PERIOD. Stop whinning like an Obama voter and just make your choices.

re: Ticket Holds Scrutinized

monet2u2002@yahoo.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:47:32 GMT

There's a cozy warm (HOT) places in hell for all these people.