ticketmaster sucks

[mgriff73]

I just got shutout again by ticketmaster in louisville.  After a long delay of trying to get tickets I don't get general admission.  I hate their monopoly on tickets.  I know the scalpers got plenty.  Just venting  :'(

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

I just got shutout again by ticketmaster in louisville.  After a long delay of trying to get tickets I don't get general admission.  I hate their monopoly on tickets.  I know the scalpers got plenty.  Just venting  :'(

dude ticketmaster is so fucked now.  ever since the merge it's almost impossible to find tickets to certain shows.  I'd give anything for it to be back like it was 4 or 5 years ago.  

they fucked me on ween tickets.  Was searching for a couple weeks online for tickets then I found out the day of the show an hour before it started that there were still plenty of general admission tickets left but I had to go to the venue site and they linked me to some bullshit site.  It's a clusterfuck out there getting tickets to shows anymore.  If you find an alternative place that's consistent let me know I'm boycotting ticketmaster/livenation at all costs.  I'm probably just going to start going to the venues themselves for shows I really want to go to.  I wish MMJ had a ticketing system and they did everything direct from this site.

[aMillionDreams]

I heard they're going to release more tickets.  They sold the floor and the first "ring" of bleachers.  Once they sell out, more tickets will go on sale.  Or at least that's what I heard.

I got my tickets from EarXtacy and owner John Timmons told everyone waiting in line that usually ticketmaster doesn't let non-ticketmaster vendors (and he gave the hail Hitler sign) then they can't do a presale. It was only because the band insisted on it that they got 300 tickets.  Then he let us in 15 minutes early to get tickets, as he said, "Just as a screw you to Ticketmaster".  Ear Xtacy tacked on 3 bucks, but that's a lot better than the 12 or 15 bucks or whatever they're charging for "convenience" these days.  Anyway, agreed, ticketmaster sucks!

[st. john]

can't we all  - music lovers/fans/us paying schmucks  - organize a total boycott of ticketbastard - use facebook/twitter etc.

might mean doing without for a bit - but the public, the talent and the independant operators need a better deal.

a couple dozen multinationals have us all from birth to balls up and all the way inbetween.

if it can all be used to elect a president - why not to rid the world of this one plague???????

[ericm]

can't we all  - music lovers/fans/us paying schmucks  - organize a total boycott of ticketbastard - use facebook/twitter etc.

might mean doing without for a bit - but the public, the talent and the independant operators need a better deal.

a couple dozen multinationals have us all from birth to balls up and all the way inbetween.

if it can all be used to elect a president - why not to rid the world of this one plague???????

It's the venues that are in bed with Ticketbastard. Each venue has their own ticket seller and most are aligned with TM/Live Nation.

If a band wants to play MSG for instance, they have to allow TM to sell the tix because that's who MSG uses. Either that or they don't play there.

I agree it sucks but I don't really think a boycott will help much. It will really only hurt the bands that are touring, imo.

Bands today are already hurting with album revenues, so most bands have to make their money on tour.

I go to a decent amout of shows a year, and can't stand TM/LN, their fees, trouble getting tix etc, as much as anyone, but I just look as it as the price I pay to see and support the bands I love.

It's really crazy to know that I paid $8.50 to see Led Zep @ MSG  and today most fees are higher than that. ::)

[st. john]

i get how ticketting works - spent a year researching the business.

can't believe the merger was allowed.

i think a little pain in the short run will pay off for everyone in the long run.

bands were always screwed on record sales.
the money is in merchandise and sync rights.
touring has never been as big as now so more reason for everyone to get a better FAIRER deal.

maybe no one shud pay for ticketbastard for a year or two till something is worked out.

y can't bands sell direct. and venues !   so many suck.  ex. london - forum / koko.   give a chance to independants to get into the market.  and provide something better.

ex. couldn't mmj's management organize louisville concert direct with local authoritise or entrepeneurs and ticket from their site or removador ?

and on a sillier note - teatime concerts on jj's front lawn. imagine the neighbours. lol.

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

I'm just going to try and bypass the bullshit service charge at the very least going and picking it up from the venue or something.  it is fucking retarded when a concert ticket is 28 bucks and then the service charge is 15bucks.  because now they have two service charges.  there's a service charge and a convenience fee or something.  it's borderline robbery they can charge over half the price of the ticket price in bs fees.  fucking clear channel.

[ericm]

I'm just going to try and bypass the bullshit service charge at the very least going and picking it up from the venue or something.  it is fucking retarded when a concert ticket is 28 bucks and then the service charge is 15bucks.  because now they have two service charges.  there's a service charge and a convenience fee or something.  it's borderline robbery they can charge over half the price of the ticket price in bs fees.  fucking clear channel.

I agree the fees are crazy, and I try to avoid it wherever possible. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid them.

A perfect example was a couple of years ago,. We took a road trip to Hartford to see Roger Waters. We were going to sit on the lawn and since they were still available, I figured I'd get them at the box office and not online  to be left at will call.I figured I'd save the fees. Wrong!! They friggin charged me them anyway.

Most venues are in with TM/LN and you can't avoid it.

The only tix I've seen that get around this are band mail order/presale.

I know Phish does it, there is a small order fee, and shipping but it's still cheaper per ticket than the TM/LN fees.

I'm actually real surprised that MMJ was able to secure some tix for the Yum show, to have that pre-sale in Louisville the other day.TM usually doesn't budge on that. They want their dough!  Even though it was a small amount of tix, it was still a great job by them for taking care of whatever fans they could.

[st. john]

just for info:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/mar/03/comment.musicnews

Comment
The fat-cat jukebox

A spat over a Deep Purple live CD is a potent reminder of record companies' priorities
     Comments (44)

   * Tom Robinson
   *
         o Tom Robinson
         o The Guardian, Saturday 3 March 2007
         o Article history

The jibe by Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan about "opportunistic fat cats" seems to have had the desired effect. This week Sony BMG recalled their recording of his band's "worst gig ever", while issuing a handsome apology for ever releasing it. So that's all right then.

This money-for-old-rope episode is a useful reminder of exactly whose interests record companies - and their trade association, the British Phonographic Industry - exist to serve. Obviously not the consumer's. Even in the internet age, albums are still more expensive in Britain than almost anywhere.

Three years ago the BPI invoked copyright law to prevent online retailer CD-Wow selling perfectly legitimate albums they'd imported from Hong Kong - forcing them to hike album prices by £2. Last month they took the company to court again for flouting this injunction.

"Contrary to some reports," said BPI lawyer Roz Groome, "this case is nothing to do with price." Or indeed with blatant protectionism. Her team singled out the trader's offence of "selling the Live Aid DVD at half price". A canny choice - to remind us of the record companies' charitable nature, as the heartless CD-Wow steals food from the mouths of African babies.

It just won't do. Take iTunes - where a download costs you and me 79p compared with 50p for US residents. Tax is cited as one reason, but the other, as we all know, is that 79p is the smallest amount UK record companies would settle for. Nor is it to protect the interests of British musicians and composers. Out of that 79p, the person who actually wrote the song gets just 6p to share with their publisher. Even the credit card company sees 7p per individual download, while Apple takes about 12p for administration costs.

The remaining 54p goes to the record company, which assigns a share to the recording artist, typically 6p-12p. This may seem stingy, but wait, it gets better. Almost all recording and promotion costs are recouped from the artist's modest share of the earnings.

What's left (about half the retail price) is pure gravy for the big institutions which own today's major labels. With iTunes there are no pressing, storage or distribution costs - even the accounting is done by Apple. Record execs claim that fat margins are needed to cover the risk of investing in new artists. But do the sums. Say a label risks advancing you £100,000 to record and promote your new album. Let's say (for simplicity) it's sold only on iTunes, at a cost of £7.90, and that your royalty rate is 10% of that price. Result: for each album sold, the label receives £5.40 and knocks just 79p off your £100,000 debt.

At 20,000 sales the label has broken into profit and made £8,000. You still owe them £84,200. At 50,000 the label has made £170,000 while you owe them £60,500. At 100,000 the label's profit is £440,000. You still owe £21,000. Only at 130,000 do you finally recoup and earn £2,700 in royalties. The record company has meanwhile made nearly £600,000.

The example is simplified and all sums quoted include VAT. Actual figures will vary, yet the picture is broadly accurate. Very few artists ever see a penny in record royalties - most of their income comes from touring, merchandise, publishing and radio play.

You might imagine that, having paid for their recordings while under contract, artists would at least own them afterwards. Not a bit of it. Recordings made during the contract period almost always belong to the record company, to do with as they please. If Ian Gillan and Deep Purple hadn't been famous enough to kick up a stink, no copyright laws or high court injunction would have prevented Sony BMG from flogging that awful album without their consent.

· Tom Robinson is a songwriter, broadcaster and teacher
Tomrobinson.com/stand

[The General]

ticketbastard, LOL

they are so awful. They make a killin on fees and charges. I paid $8.50 convienience charge and $4.50 processing fee? WTF? They've been doing it for so many years, they can't be stopped! sux

[deathstick]

Or you could just do this, what Bob Dylan is doing in San Fran next week:

http://www.bobdylan.com/tour

[ditty]

can't we all  - music lovers/fans/us paying schmucks  - organize a total boycott of ticketbastard - use facebook/twitter etc.

might mean doing without for a bit - but the public, the talent and the independant operators need a better deal.

a couple dozen multinationals have us all from birth to balls up and all the way inbetween.

if it can all be used to elect a president - why not to rid the world of this one plague???????

It's the venues that are in bed with Ticketbastard. Each venue has their own ticket seller and most are aligned with TM/Live Nation.

If a band wants to play MSG for instance, they have to allow TM to sell the tix because that's who MSG uses. Either that or they don't play there.

I agree it sucks but I don't really think a boycott will help much. It will really only hurt the bands that are touring, imo.

Bands today are already hurting with album revenues, so most bands have to make their money on tour.

I go to a decent amout of shows a year, and can't stand TM/LN, their fees, trouble getting tix etc, as much as anyone, but I just look as it as the price I pay to see and support the bands I love.

It's really crazy to know that I paid $8.50 to see Led Zep @ MSG  and today most fees are higher than that. ::)

Reviving an old thread to resurface the same old problem.  Take a look when you have time.
https://jambands.com/news/2022/03/14/john-oliver-tackles-ticket-sales-on-last-week-tonight/

[ranyart]

Good article/segment and thanks for posting it ditty.  This part really got to me:

"Oliver mentioned a 2012 incident in Nashville, where reporters found a ticketing manifest confirming that an entire row of tickets for a Justin Bieber show had been directly posted for sale on a secondary site by Bieber's own tour. "I think there is no question when one looks at the document that Bieber is scalping his own tickets,""

WTF?  How many other bands engage in this practice?  Does Justin really need the extra cash, or is this his being done by his entourage (and if so that needs to stop!)?

I really wish there was a good way to end the TM/LN gravy train.  The whole venue ticket sales lock step integration is exactly the root cause of this problem because it's so easy for a band/group to sign a single contract for a tour that essentially puts them on a conveyer belt of venues associated with each other and ticketing all wrapped up nicely to extract as much money from our pockets as possible.

One idea is for venues that are not part of this setup to join together to form a similar network using an ethical ticketing company and ticket sales methods that are less electronic and more personal (like the Dead used to do with mail order and Phish does with its lottery) but that's obviously a lot of work and I don't know if there are enough venues in the right places and sizes to make this work.

Another idea I heard people kicking around this past weekend is for fans to stop participating in this madness en masse, let the bots buy up all the tickets or leave them unsold until the very last minute, and the fans will have to continue to stand firm until the bot masters and ticket companies start feeling enough pain to cut back on their purchases and manipulations.  Not bloody likely was my answer because in the end We The Fans are the real problem.  We want to go to these shows, even more so now that we've all been through this virus disaster, we want to support the bands, and we're willing to set aside our better judgement sometimes knowing full well that we're getting screwed at every opportunity along the way.

The only thing I came up with after discussing this with friends is we need to start being a lot more selective about the shows we go to and how we go about purchasing tickets.  I don't know what that means for us long term but I can tell you right now that this ticketing situation kept us from purchasing more Billy Strings tickets for his summer tour.  I'll be happy to watch a livestream and if we happen to stumble across cheap tickets then we'll consider going.  Billy, MMJ, and all of the other bands we love are super fun to watch but not if we're stuck at the back of a packed GA section and can't even see the stage.

Indeed TicketBastard sucks!

[ditty]

Good article/segment and thanks for posting it ditty. 

I don't know what that means for us long term but I can tell you right now that this ticketing situation kept us from purchasing more Billy Strings tickets for his summer tour.

Indeed TicketBastard sucks!

I've cut back on a number of shows due to the fuckery.

[ditty]

Two new pieces on Ticketmaster's Fuckery


https://youtu.be/YfPiqgLPro8


https://popular.info/p/how-ticketmaster-gets-away-with-it?r=bwh1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

[ericm]

I'm settled with all my tickets for the shows on this tour (at least for the ones announced so far), but I was thinking of getting an extra ticket for a friend for one of my shows coming up and started looking today during the General On-Sale, and all I have to say is Fuck Ticketmaster! They are greedy, amoral bastards/bitches. "Official Platinum" or whatever-the-fuck they want to call Price Gouging these days needs to be outlawed. If not, all bands should go without the mother-fuckers and force the cock-suckers out of business.

I'm done with my little rant about these dicks.

Right there with you buddy. I honestly don't know how they get away with what they're doing and it's only getting worse.

Now they have this damn "Dynamic Pricing" scam which is even worse than their Platinum bullshit.

What they're doing now is only releasing a portion of tix at onsale ( especially the good ones) and creating a false demand for the supply. The Dynamic pricing algorithm adjusts sale price during the sale based on demand. Eg, Springsteen Platinum Pit tix were going for a face of $349.00 which was bad enough but once in your cart at the onsale at that price they increased to anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 a pop depending on how fast people actually paid. WTF? By only releasing a small number at a time they kept the demand high and the algorithm did the rest. Plus, the higher selling cost the more in fees they get. Some of those tix had fees over $200!

I have a good friend who bought a pair of tix to another band for a show in Philly at what should've been a pair at $375 and ended up checking out at $1,500! She thought she mistakenly bought eight tix!

It's criminal and really proves the adage of "buyer beware". It's going to be up to the bands to do something about this by not using the Dynamic Pricing. It's bad enough they have to play TM/LN venues or they're screwed out of most cities but as of now they do have control over how the tix are sold and I pray that continues.

[searchinbig]

I'm settled with all my tickets for the shows on this tour (at least for the ones announced so far), but I was thinking of getting an extra ticket for a friend for one of my shows coming up and started looking today during the General On-Sale, and all I have to say is Fuck Ticketmaster! They are greedy, amoral bastards/bitches. "Official Platinum" or whatever-the-fuck they want to call Price Gouging these days needs to be outlawed. If not, all bands should go without the mother-fuckers and force the cock-suckers out of business.

I'm done with my little rant about these dicks.

Agreed Mr. White. Most of the reason I do not go to concerts anymore. Luckily my son puts up with the whole ticket buying process bullshit. At least I will be going to Albany. Fuck ticketbastard.

[walterfredo]

remarkably I fell for their shady biz practices again...accidentally. Only needed Friday Beacon tix, was in right away, hovered my mouse over some orchestra tix that indicated they were "standard admission", $105 total with fees. I carted 2, checked out, only to notice after they were platinum tix at $140/ea. Could have been way worse, but still, F U TM.

Second time I've been burned by bait and switch crap. Truly amazing they get away with this.

[ChiefOKONO]

ugh!!!  Sorry to hear that man!

I wonder if AXS is any better?

Still hoping for direct fan club tickets one day where you have to pick up @ will call w/ ID !

[Trukel]

Today they put up 8 tickets for the Friday Beacon show in row F...10 rows off the stage in the orchestra section on Jim's side.....all Platinum and at a total price of $230 each. It's so disappointing. Thankfully as I write this, not one has sold. We can't get sucked into this. I want to go to all three shows but I cannot pay $230 per ticket for a good seat.