We thought we have seen it all when it comes to ticketing companies, but this past week has been full of shocking new developments. First, Live Nation’s ticketing system crashed and burned under what Live Nation CEO Nathan Hubbard claims was 10 million requests for Phish tickets. Then, Ticketmaster’s system crashed and burned when Bruce Springsteen tickets went onsale and finally last night word came down of an impending merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Hey… Wha Happened?
We’re at a loss to figure out what’s gonna happen next. The love shown for Ticketmaster by Phish fans on Friday and Saturday was a sign of how screwed up the industry has become. But let’s get back to the Springsteen fiasco. Springsteen and his team issued the following statement this afternoon…
A LETTER TO OUR FANS:
We know there was much confusion regarding Ticketmaster and TicketsNow during last Monday’s on-sale dates. We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies.)
Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.
We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest. Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.
READ ON for more of Springsteen’s letter to his fans…
Those of you longing for the days when Ticketmaster sold tickets for Live Nation events just might get your wish. The Wall Street Journal just reported that Ticketmaster and Live Nation are close to a merger. If the merger goes through, you can say goodbye to Live Nation’s ticketing system.
It’s been a while since we last told you about Sly Stone acting batshit, but we’re gonna make up for lost time with this one. Last Friday, the 65-year-old Stone put his band, girlfriend and the promoters and audience at his show in Santa Rosa, CA through hell. As per usual, Sly took the stage for a brief period during his band’s performance and quickly jetted the scene when craziness ensued. City Sound Inertia runs down the whole story.
Let’s take one last look at what else is happened this week…
Finally, our friends at Jamtopia have just started a brilliant new series about the ticket broker industry called Who’s Got My Extra?. The first installment discusses why casual concertgoers are a metaphorical sniper rifle, a one man team with a single shot at scoring the elusive cheap concert tickets vs. the massive teams scalpers employ. It’s almost a depressing read.
One week ago, we had no clue what reCAPTCHA meant, but after tickets for Phish’s comeback shows at Hampton went onsale via Ticketmaster on Saturday morning we all learned how important that word was to our chances of scoring tickets. Those whose browsers weren’t able to load the system that differentiates humans from computers were dead in the water.
[Headiest reCAPTCHA ever via bloo2e]
Yet, ordering tickets online through Ticketmaster.com wasn’t the only way to obtain these valuable ducats. Some lucky MFers actually picked up their Hampton tickets by navigating Ticketmaster’s phone system. Our buddy Festicles was one of those blessed few and we wanted to share his story…
So I called at 9:27am thinking I’d be on hold for a few and then I’d have to BS the operator for maybe 15 minutes. The system said my wait time would be nine minutes, but immediately I was connected. My stomach dropped when I heard “Thank you for calling Ticketmaster this is Omar speaking, how can I help you?”
Any time I speak to an operator, I always ask “Hello, how are you today?” His response was “Much better than yesterday, thanks!”
READ ON for more of Festicles’ incredible story of scoring Hampton tix…
In a battle of two corporate behemoths, Live Nation continues to face off with Ticketmaster for the extremely lucrative live entertainment ticketing business. Live Nation scored a major victory in the latest round by making a five-year deal with a third corporate giant, SMG, to sell tickets at most of the SMG’s facilities.
Live Nation ticketing expects to sell 10 million tickets in their first year of operation which will probably start in the middle of 2009 when their current deal with Ticketmaster expires. That number should jump dramatically in the second and third year of operations for LN Ticketing. We haven’t heard the last of this war.
Let’s take another look at what’s happening elsewhere:
One more item before we go: The Mirage in Las Vegas recently unveiled details of a $25 million facelift for their world famous faux volcano. The 20-year old landmark’s getting a slew of fireball-throwing devices that will be choreographed to erupt on cue with a soundtrack co-composed by the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart. For the Mirage’s sake, let’s hope there’s no rapping involved. [via The AP]
A few weeks ago we told you about Carrie Brownstein’s Monitor Mix post calling out the Grateful Dead for asking NPR to write a piece on them in exchange for allowing Brownstein to use Friend of the Devil in one of her online mixtapes. It turns out Rhino Records were the guilty party that made the ridiculous request of Brownstein, which makes us feel better about the situation. We already knew record companies are shady, and certainly Rhino is no exception.
Let’s see what else is goin’ down this week:
Are we about to witness the death of the paper ticket? If Ticketmaster’s latest scheme for world domination works, we just might.
Ticketmaster recently announced the launch of a new paperless ticketing service that will start on Tom Waits’ upcoming tour. Under the new program, which will be installed at major venues over the next few years, ticketholders will present their credit card and Photo ID instead of printouts to gain entry to events. I’m sure they’ll still offer souvenir old school paper tickets… for a steep premium.
Today, local blog Chicagoist reported that the Metro has decided to ditch Ticketmaster, and move all ticketing services for the Metro and SmartBar in-house.
This is a huge move considering the venue is 25 years old and has had a long-standing relationship with the event-ticketing overlords. The fact that it could signal the beginning of the end for TM amuses the hell out of this guy. It shows other venues that utilizing Ticketmaster’s “service” is no longer a necessity, which should (hopefully) bring costs down for us.
Props to Metro for being so in-touch with their audience and having the confidence to know they’ll remain one of the Midwest’s premiere rock clubs.
Somewhere, Eddie Vedder is smirking over a bottle of red wine.
Mastering the Ticketmaster.com process is not something that comes easy. It takes cunning, honing, dry runs and live-action experience. It takes patience and dedication. But for years, the effort and constant refreshing was worth it when you pulled up tickets for the show.
When Phish was touring towards the end of its career, I was at my ticketmaster zenith. I masterfully maneuvered tickets for the reunion show at MSG, the subsequent shows at Hampton and scored pavilion seats left and right. On-sale dates, re-releases, it didn’t matter. I was on it. I never got shut out. As long as you put in the effort, you were rewarded.
But in the recent past, something has happened that has made getting tickets more of a crapshoot then ever before. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I have a hunch it has something to do with the 12 presales and various “auctions” that now accompany Ticketmaster on-sales.
On Monday, I slipped back into “Ticketmaster Master” mode to grab two tickets for my wife and I to check out Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, a venue that claims on its website to have, “a flexible seating capacity ranging from 3,300 to 7,000.” When I pulled up the Event Page a few minutes early to do a little scouting – like a good Ticketmaster.com veteran does – I noticed no fewer than three presales had already taken place. One for some fan club and two more for Amex card holders. Oh, and something called the “Hot Seat Package” that apparently starts at $304.50. But hey – it does include a merchandise gift and a special laminate. That’s gotta be worth the extra $200, right? Just ask the people who signed up for the Police fan club what their “special gift” was and if it was worth the extra cost. Read on for more of Luke’s rant…
