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Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
I heard from friend that a local radio station was offering tickets without the service charges on Wednesday's. Not sure exactly how that would work, if it's still through Ticketmaster or not. But I got an e-mail last week from Live Nation and they were offering tickets without charges last Wednesday. Unfortunately I had already paid for 8 tickets and could've saved $80 if I had waited.
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
Just bought Tickets the other day for a baseball game from Ticketmaster...
Not only did I get a Convience Charge (which is enormous, and i'm used to), but they also charged an Order Processing fee. Now granted, it was only $3 bucks, but it's the point.
How does a small little use of their bandwidth that costs you know mere cents equate to $3. I'd boycott them but really if you want a chance of going to some shows they're your only shot.
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff
Will be interesting to see how much promotion Ticketmaster gives GNR on any upcoming tours. I foresee the Appetite-era logo shining from the homepage already 
Went off to Tunecores site as I thought they were offering ticketing services directly to the artists, but apparently not 
I did find an interesting blog post they made, bitching about the exact same bullshit like convenience surcharges and ticketsnow 
April 02, 2009
Scalping Tickets in the Digital AgeJake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support Representative and editor of the weekly newsletter.
I am a big fan of the T.V. show, "Flight of the Conchords, so after hearing rumors that this season would be the show's last, I was more eager than ever to catch them live. Unfortunately I couldn't get online until late in the evening, and by the time I got to Ticketmaster the seats were sold out. Ticketmaster informed me tickets were still available through "Ticketnow," a resale company owned by Ticketmaster. Here, the cheapest tickets I could find were being sold for three times the original price. You snooze you lose, right?
Now, I've been going to concerts for a long time and I am no stranger to the scalping process. If you want good seats (or any seats at all) and hope to pay anything close to face value, you might end up finding yourself sleeping in a tent on the sidewalk by the local box office in the pouring rain. However for those of us who need to keep our jobs, that may not be an option. I am aware of sites like StubHub where people make their living buying and immediately reselling tickets for hot shows. But for a company that already makes money from 11 types of "convenience" charges to also own an additional store where you are encouraged to scalp the tickets you just bought from them is just wrong.
Many of you have probably already heard the populist anger over this, with many big-name musicians getting behind the bullhorn. Bruce Springsteen, The Smashing Pumpkins, and David Byrne are among the artists who have spoken out against Ticketmaster's latest antics, demanding their fans be reimbursed in full or part of the drastically increased prices. Ticketmaster is facing a U.S. Senate judiciary committee investigation and $500 million in class action lawsuits in Canada (in Ontario it is illegal to resell tickets for higher than their original value). Will anything come of the angry threats and pleas for justice? It depends on whether or not scalping is illegal, which can vary from state to state and gets complicated when transactions take place online.
You'll be hard pressed to find much online defending these resale companies, but at the very least it is interesting to hear them try to justify themselves. In an article from Canadian Business Magazine, a StubHub official makes this argument:
"Do you call the beer vendor at the ball game a beer scalper or the restaurant that sells you lobster at the 'market price' a shellfish scalper? Of course you don't, though those entities are selling a consumer good for a markup over what they paid for it. What makes tickets any different?"
Author Andy Holloway gives his own reasons for why he finds this statement bogus, but I would like to add that once Ticketnow and StubHub start including butter sauce, Old Bay and cartoon lobster bibs with every order they can charge me whatever they want.
Bob Lefsetz wrote an article about something we're likely to see a lot more of in the future - artists teaming up with retail giants and selling tickets exclusively in store. Bon Jovi and Wal-Mart have recently struck up such a deal. That's awesome for them, but won't that make it even harder for people who actually want those tickets to get them before they're gobbled up and regurgitated on StubHub?
Trying to think of solutions to this problem gives me a headache. How can you tell what a person's intentions are when they buy tickets? Do more safeguards to protect against scalping just mean more fees from services like Ticketmaster? Are there any specific theories you have or examples you see as signs of hope for the future? Share your thoughts here.
Source: TuneCorner
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
The big bands need to find a way to stop this shit. Possibly the really huge ones should start up a ticket thing of their own. I don't know how feasible that is but with all the money these rockstars have they could easily create and back their own ticket company. Or they maybe couldn't... I don't know how much of a pipe dream this is but if the biggest bands today were to start their own thing where the tickets were sold to the fans, for the fans and the whole experiences was about the fans it would be fantastic. Something like that is what is needed.
Pearl Jam boycotted Ticketmaster in about 93-94, refusing to go thru them. But ended up basically not touring at all. Ticketmaster has exclusive ticket sales contracts with all the venues, so the only way to avoid them is to play non-major venues, stadiums, arenas etc.. Not really possible for the larger acts.
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
Actually at almost all the venues i've been to, if you buy the tickets directly from the venue box office, you beat Ticketmaster and their ridiculous charges.
Problem is, alot of people don't live a couple blocks from a stadium or arena. Most live hours away. If I want to see anything, concerts, sports... I have to drive 2 hours where i'm at.
The bottom line is i'm screwed. I either pay Ticketmaster, literally for the convience, or I spend alot of money in gas driving to and from the venue, which is illogical. You're spending the same money in gas, if not more. It's all bullshit.
And the only way to get rid of people buying up tix and reselling them online, is to make sites like TicketsNow and StubHub illegal by federal law.
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
The big bands need to find a way to stop this shit. Possibly the really huge ones should start up a ticket thing of their own. I don't know how feasible that is but with all the money these rockstars have they could easily create and back their own ticket company. Or they maybe couldn't... I don't know how much of a pipe dream this is but if the biggest bands today were to start their own thing where the tickets were sold to the fans, for the fans and the whole experiences was about the fans it would be fantastic. Something like that is what is needed.
I really think U2 should spear head this. They are the biggest touring draw in the world and they are the biggest band that actually tries to keep their tickets reasonably priced. I know $250 doesn't sound reasonable but when you look at the production fo their shows the tickets are actually cheap. Plus they do have a massive chunk of their tickets available for $70 or less and that includes floor seats. Same thing last tour as well. If U2 fired this up and got bands like Pearl Jam and Greenday and some new big band to jump on board shit would get done. It's unfortunate nobody followed PJ's lead back in the 90's. Unfortunately I don't think PJ has the pull to make a real difference anymore on their own. To be honest though neither does U2 and there really isn't any new band that's big enough to scare Ticketmaster. 
Re: Ticketmaster Is Such Bullshit!
I really think U2 should spear head this. They are the biggest touring draw in the world and they are the biggest band that actually tries to keep their tickets reasonably priced. I know $250 doesn't sound reasonable but when you look at the production fo their shows the tickets are actually cheap. Plus they do have a massive chunk of their tickets available for $70 or less and that includes floor seats. Same thing last tour as well. If U2 fired this up and got bands like Pearl Jam and Greenday and some new big band to jump on board shit would get done. It's unfortunate nobody followed PJ's lead back in the 90's. Unfortunately I don't think PJ has the pull to make a real difference anymore on their own. To be honest though neither does U2 and there really isn't any new band that's big enough to scare Ticketmaster.
One band on their own couldn't do this but if a group of todays biggest and most relevant acts got together and were at the forefront of this it would work.
