Ticketmaster moves to expand ticket stranglehold
No, I'm not talking about Ticketmaster's attempted merger with concert promoter LiveNation. They've got something new up their sleeves.
As tickets for Springsteen's 1st Mariner Arena show go on sale this morning Friday, we all remember when Maryland Springsteen fans got shut out buying tickets at the Boss's show at the Verizon center. Like fans in New Jersey, they got rejection messages from Ticketmaster's Web site and suddenly saw themselves directed to Ticketmaster's scalping site, TicketsNow, where they were invited to buy tickets at huge markups. Ticketmaster denied wrongdoing up and down but reached a settlement in New Jersey and tried to mollify fans.
Ticketmaster boss Irv Azoff has said the company is trying to sell TicketsNow, which makes sense when you look at what the company has up its sleeve. It's rolling out a "paperless" ticket system -- like airline e-tickets -- in which you gain admission not with a piece of paper but by showing the credit card you used to buy the ticket.
It's more than just a way to save trees. As this Associated Press story points out, with no ticket, there is nothing for brokers and scalpers to resell. Instead, Ticketmaster controls the reselling on the Web. That gives artists, entertainment venues and Ticketmaster itself virtual control over the secondary ticket market -- even more so than with TicketsNow. The arrangement reached with Penn State for football games looks like it will spread. Students, who get cheap tickets through the school and used to reap bonanzas reselling them, are now limited in price and quantity to reselling on Ticketmaster's system.
If the system spreads, it'll mean fewer scalped tickets available for those willing to pay top dollar. But the scalped tickets that are available will be cheaper, thanks to price controls reached with the artist or team. Quasi-monopoly's Ticketmaster's power will grow. And, says the AP story, its fees on resold tickets are likely to be even HIGHER than the ransom it extracts from regular buyers.
Comments
The irony in this is that sometimes it's cheaper to buy tickets via a reseller such as StubHub because even with the mark-up over face value for the tickets the total cost is cheaper than buying direct from Ticketmaster because of the ridiculous amounts in fees it extorts.
Posted by: brstevens | September 24, 2009 10:06 AM
You know what is happening? Ticketmaster is trying to effectively corner the market on all ticket sales and re-sales.
Posted by: Paul | September 24, 2009 12:01 PM
While I do not condone what TicketMaster is doing I do not have much sympathy for concert fans who feel ripped off. Attending the concert of an over the hill rocker who pockets millions for singing about the plight of working class white folk is a matter of choice.
Posted by: Dan | September 24, 2009 12:19 PM
This hurts the consumer as much as it helps. Only on the high profile acts does the secondary market get mentioned. Many shows you can find great seats for half of face value on the secondary market. In fact before Bruce instituted paperless ticketing it was often his floor seats that were half of face value. Now they're just unsold.
The only way ticketless ticketing should even be legal is if you can return your seat for a full refund at any time.
Posted by: Brian | September 24, 2009 3:35 PM
What I've never understood (and perhaps someone can enlighten me) is why the artists have put up with this system for so long? If anyone "deserves" to reap the benefits of a favorable supply/demand situation, it makes sense that it should be them, not the venue and certainly not the parasitic ticket sellers and brokers.
Posted by: Bob | September 24, 2009 11:35 PM
So where does one buy tickets TODAY for Bruce? ticketmaster? ticketsnow? LiveNation? help!
Posted by: JB | September 25, 2009 7:20 AM
I remember going to see aoerosmith zz top styx in the 70s were like 20$.What the hell is going on with the ticket prices?And how does ac/dc charge more than mettalica or the boss??I cant even take my boy to see them at hsbc buffalo.Somebody should be in jail for extorting fans cash.I am one angry fan.I wanted my boys to see a rock concert..with the economy like it is forget it.Not all fans are rich are they real ones probly are poor...f the prices....rotten mo people waaaake uuuuppp.Ya know if people wouldnt pay theyd go down quick real quick!!!!
Posted by: Daniel Cherry | September 27, 2009 2:16 AM
When gas was cheaper, once we actually drove to Virginia to buy the tickets from the venue directly. Up yours, Ticketmaster! P.S. Isn't monopoly illegal in this country? How come this company still exists?
Posted by: Jelena | September 30, 2009 2:57 PM
Honestly - I used to be an employee at Ticketmaster. Lots of the fees go to the venue in revenue sharing agreements.
The solving of this problem is via auctions - then people will pay what it is "worth" to them and most people will not resell them because they didn't get a "deal". The venue and whichever ticket vendor can get a % of the final ticket price. Seems reasonable to me.
I'm no longer w/ TM - and you have to understand the complexity of a system that handles box office, call center, and web ticketing at the same time. It takes quite a large staff ($alary) - though TM is not in the caring business - it was my first venture into ticketing and it seems like a sleazy industry in general.
Posted by: Al in SoCal | October 1, 2009 7:43 PM