For those of us who attend plenty of concerts each year, the topic of ticketing is one that is near and dear to our hearts. We’ve all watched as Ticketmaster has become a behemoth and as ticket prices have reached insane levels. A book that traces the roots of the concert ticketing industry from the pre-computer days to the present and examines the major players along the way is finally coming out on June 1 with the release of Ticket Masters – The Rise of the Concert Industry and how The Public Got Scalped by Relix editors Dean Budnick and Josh Baron.
A recent Hollywood Reporter article details some of the topics we can expect the book to hit and of particular note is a revealing chapter on String Cheese Incident’s successful challenge to Ticketmaster that includes details of the group’s settlement with the ticketing giant which were previously undisclosed. There’s also plenty in the book about the Grateful Dead and the launch of the band’s Grateful Dead Ticketing Service.
Baron and Budnick will host a panel on Thursday, May 26 at the 92Y Tribeca on 200 Hudson Street in New York City from 7 – 8:30PM in conjunction with the book’s release featuring renowned promoter John Scher, StubHub co-founder Eric Baker, Madison House co-founder Mike Luba and Ticketfly principal Andrew Dreskin. Attendees will be able to ask the panelists questions in addition to those posed by the authors. Hopefully between the book and the event we’ll gain some insight into why concerts sell out so fast, why Ticketmaster isn’t considered a legal monopoly and other questions we’ve always had about the incredibly sketchy industry.
4 Responses
It should be interesting.
Nice!! I wish I could hit that discussion. Great people for the book. I cant wait to read that one!
Great idea for a book. It’s currently not available for pre-order in Kindle format. Is that going to happen?
Did tickets sell out already? Scalp’d.