Ticketmaster, Live Nation in merger talks

[LukeA]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

Wow.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you belittle the "emotional component". Seems to me to be a pretty important factor that differentiates it from selling and re-selling, say, a lamp.

I didn't mean for it to sound like I'm belittling the emotions that people have for their favorite band/sports team. When you do everything in your power to get the best tickets possible and fail, of course its disappointing. That said, just because it seems that scalpers got "most" of the premier tickets for a show doesn't mean that Ticketmaster had anything to do with it other than facilitating the initial transaction.

For most high profile events, there are FAR more amateur/professional scalpers trying for tickets than fans. They buy tickets to all the high profile events, so they're more familiar with how the site works, which call centers/outlets to use/avoid, etc. It doesn't mean that fans don't end up with great seats in public on-sales, but, in the end, its a numbers game. There's more of them than there are of us, is what it boils down to... which is something less fantastical than some of the conspiracy theories we've all read.

I think we will soon see a shift to where the top tier (in Fleetwood Mac's case, ~$150) is all will-call, or ticketless (swiping credit cards at the gate, like AC/DC). I think Azoff will be smart enough to install this procedure (or something similar) at all of Live Nation/Ticketmaster's high profile events, because it makes too much sense for all involved.

Originally Posted by trackaghost

Personally, I don't believe that Ticketmaster in the past has been in league with touts (or scalpers), they have just got the tickets online or on the phone like the rest of us (although the more professional scalpers hire lots of people to do this when the tickets go onsale ). But Ticketmaster re-directing to TicketsNow on the first day of sale when tickets are still available certainly seems rather fishy to me.

I completely agree with you- especially when the show isn't even sold out yet. It gives the false (in most cases) impression that tickets are scarce, or even completely sold out.