Difficulties Finding Decent Tickets

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by loverly13

Same. This is ridiculous.

Welcome to the Big Machine. Corporations have supreme control. The system is rigged and unfair.

I'm so glad I can have more organic experience when getting tickets for smaller less incorporated shows. I recently attended an Aimee Mann/Ted Leo show in a beautiful old vintage venue. A month earlier I went the to the venue to purchase the tickets (50$ for two tickets) I went to the venue a little early, and could hear the band rehearsing. Later, when the doors opened, I walked into the theater and chose my seats, four rows from the stage. It was such an intimate experience. Got some drinks and good local food at reasonable prices at the concession. It's not like anything like going to a big, somewhat soulless corporate show, where your remove from the essence of the event.

[TsnFan4Ever]

Just for fun, I checked prices at the San Diego show. Front row center (available through "resale" market) are listed for $2022 each; front row on left side are going for $1400; and seats a few rows back are ranging in the $700-850 range. There's also the option to buy through TM's platinum seating where you can get a really great deal: seats going for $350-650. Anyone want to buy a dozen?

I've never seen a company take advantage of fans like this before and frankly, if this is how TM/LN wants to operate, this may be my last concert (except for small venues). After 35 years of seeing FM and following their career, the greed of all of those involved (band, promoters, TM) is disheartening.

Let's hope Stevie and Lindsay go back to touring at smaller venues (and the long-awaited BN tour) after this tour.

[Nicks Fan]

There are few artists not out to gauge the fans. Bruce is one of the few who tours because he enjoys it and he clearly isn't phoning it in for a buck.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by Nicks Fan

Garth keeps his tickets low because he has never been one to rip off his fans. He has always had cheap tickets and I respect him for that.

Another singer who does it right is Bruce as his prices have been 115.00 since 2003 and you get your money's worth for sure.


Bob Seger also does something unique. He keeps some of the best seats in the house for sale later on close to the show and the prices are higher then his 80 something regular price. The thing is though the most you might pay is 250.00 a ticket. It seems high but when you know what scalpers try to get (which I am told is why he does these VIP tickets) it isn't so bad. I got 4th row tickets for Ottawa for about 150.00 through the VIP so I was fine with that. I wasn't mad that he does this as I get that he is trying to stop scalpers from hogging all of his tickets.

Yes Garth seems to be honest and I enjoy his tunes.Yes .Bruce was the singer that keeps the tix low.I remember he had a couple fights with TM about this issue.

If FM hits the road next year for $250 bucks .I stay home.

[Macfanforever]

I blame those TM-Livenation AMEX.CitiBank presales on losing the good seats.But reading some posts on here saying the TM site is bringing up crap seats during the presales.Where they go.

Who is hording the good tix.Is it the brokers.

I know some go to radio contests.I have no idea if the winners are getting good seats.

I know some venues hold some good seats for its local box office for concert goers to come buy them in person and some for people that call by phone.


I scored front row seats for a Stevie show years back just calling the venue box office about a hour later after they went on sale on the day the tix went on sale.I almost died when the lady said I have front row seats available.

[michelej1]

Syracuse.com By Mike McAndrew | [email protected] 1/28/2016

http://www.syracuse.com/state/index....rman_says.html

Best concert tickets are kept from public, AG Schneiderman says

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- More than 50 percent of the tickets to Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Jay-Z and other performers' shows at New York state venues were reserved for insiders and not available to the public, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday in a report.

He called on the music industry to reform its ticketing practices and the New York State Legislature to pass laws to prevent such abuses.

None of the concerts Schneiderman cited in his report were held in Central New York. Most were in New York City.

For the most popular concerts, the investigation found that many tickets are never made available to the general public in the first place. A majority of tickets for major entertainment events are either put on "hold" and reserved for a variety of industry insiders including the venues, artists or promoters, or reserved for "pre-sale" events and made available to non-public groups, such as those who carry particular credit cards.

On average, more than half of all tickets -- 54 percent – are reserved for insiders. Those reserved tickets are split between insider holds (16%) and pre-sales (38%), Schneiderman said.

The investigation cited the following concerts where more than 50 percent of the tickets were kept from the public, with the artist, venue, year and percentage of reserved tickets:

Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, Yankee Stadium, 2013, 71 percent
ColdPlay and Jay-Z, Barclays Center, 2012, 70 percent
Steely Dan, Beacon Theater (NYC), 2013, 65 percent
Fleetwood Mac, Madison Square Garden, 2013, 61 percent

"Ticketing is a fixed game," Schneiderman said. "My office will continue to crack down on those who break our laws, prey on ordinary consumers, and deny New Yorkers affordable access to the concerts and sporting events they love. This investigation is just the beginning of our efforts to create a level playing field in the ticket industry."

In addition, the investigation found that venues and ticket sellers like Ticketmaster regularly tacked on fees that added more than 21% to the face price of tickets.

The AG's investigation found that third-party brokers resell tickets on sites like StubHub and TicketsNow at average margins of 49 percent above face-value -- sometimes more than 1,000 percent.

Some of the brokers are using illegal specialty software – called "ticket bots" -- to quickly purchase as many desirable tickets as possible and resell them at a significant markup. The investigation, for instance, found that on December 8, 2014, a single broker used a bot to purchase 1,012 tickets to a U2 show at Madison Square Garden within the first minute they went on sale. The investigation confirms that hundreds of thousands of tickets are being acquired using illegal software.

Read the Attorney General's report

[michelej1]

The Attorney General's Report is Here:

http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Ticket_Sales_Report.pdf

On page 10 it says:

Figure 3. Ten Popular Shows Reserved Over 50% of Tickets
Through Pre-Sales Events, None Explicitly Earmarked for Fan Clubs.
Source: Live Nation/Ticketmaster (2012 – 2013)24

[Fleetwood Mac is listed as having 61% reserved tickets]

[michelej1]

Why It's So Impossible To Get Face-Value Tickets To The Hottest Concerts

BY CHRISTOPHER ROBBINS IN NEWS ON JAN 28, 2016 The Gothamist

http://gothamist.com/2016/01/28/tick...ation_bots.php

If you’ve ever screamed at the computer trying to get tickets to a sold-out concert while a Ticketmaster captcha calls you a “hipster assboal,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just confirmed that your rage is rational. “Ticketing is a fixed game,” Schneiderman said in a statement accompanying his infuriating report on Big Ticket.

First, those captchas are largely futile: resellers employ captcha-dodging robots, or "bots," that buy thousands of tickets in minutes—one purchased 1,012 tickets to U2’s MSG show last July in 60 seconds. Ticketmaster has revealed that bots can account for 90% of their web traffic, but they only enforce ticket-purchasing limits at the request of the artist, which seldom happens because that would entail canceling thousands of purchases.
“A single broker used 149 different American Express cards to make more than 38,000 purchases totaling over $12 million just from 2013-2015, while other brokers racked up similarly shocking volumes of purchases, sometimes using just a handful of credit cards,” the report states. The report describes bots' stranglehold on ticket sales as "an epidemic."

And if resellers aren’t gouging you, the ticket sellers themselves are. State law allows sellers to only charge fees associated with “special services,” and stipulates that the fees must be “reasonable.”

Yet the AG’s office “found an average surcharge of 21% of the face value of a ticket, which amounts to almost $8 in fees on average.”

This only matters if you’re lucky enough to get a ticket in the first place: many shows hold huge percentages of their tickets for presales to corporate vendors or rich people with fancy credit cards—artists like Kanye West and Fleetwood Mac have held as much as 29% of their tickets for these privileged buyers, while Steely Dan and Coldplay withheld as much as 70%.

"I’ve worked with artists to make ticket prices affordable, only to see those same tickets on sale on the secondary market for much more than face value,” David Taylor, an independent promoter with Empire State Concerts, said in a statement released with the report. “It’s what happens when bots are involved, and consumers are left with the choice of not attending events or paying a lot to see their favorite artists."

Despite the seemingly endless fodder for legal action, the AG’s office only announced two enforcement actions with today’s report: $80,000 and $65,000 settlements with unlicensed ticket resellers.

The report urges the state legislature to draft stricter laws (ha), most specifically in ending a state ban on non-transferrable paperless tickets. From the report:

A solution that most industry participants agree is effective at reducing broker activity is the use of non-transferrable “paperless tickets.” Unlike paper tickets and electronic tickets that are freely transferrable from the buyer to another person, non-transferrable paperless tickets require an event attendee to present the credit card that was used to purchase the ticket. As a result, the initial purchaser typically must be present to use the ticket. State law creates a de facto ban on these paperless tickets, but this rule makes New York an outlier - ours is the only state that bans the practice - and this ban should be repealed.

In his comments, Schneiderman also says, “This investigation is just the beginning of our efforts to create a level playing field in the ticket industry.”

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

First, those captchas are largely futile: resellers employ captcha-dodging robots, or "bots," that buy thousands of tickets in minutes—one purchased 1,012 tickets to U2’s MSG show last July in 60 seconds. Ticketmaster has revealed that bots can account for 90% of their web traffic, but they only enforce ticket-purchasing limits at the request of the artist, which seldom happens because that would entail canceling thousands of purchases.

............................

A solution that most industry participants agree is effective at reducing broker activity is the use of non-transferrable “paperless tickets.” Unlike paper tickets and electronic tickets that are freely transferrable from the buyer to another person, non-transferrable paperless tickets require an event attendee to present the credit card that was used to purchase the ticket. As a result, the initial purchaser typically must be present to use the ticket.

FM tickets are much easier to get than some others though.

i've been trying to get Springsteen tickets for the DC area shows of the last 3 tours he had - it is impossible though TM, and i don't want to pay $1000 on stubhub to sit behind the stage.

his show in DC is tonight. i tried getting into TM when tix first went on sale, it was impossible. i tried when more tix supposedly dropped. you get in, it makes you wait for 10 mins, only to tell you "no tickets available at this time, try again later". i've been trying for the last 2 days, and today too. TM doesn't say that it's sold out, but you cannot get a single ticket through their web site - you keep getting try again later after going through "bots-battling" steps, captcha, etc. and supposedly his tix for DC are paperless credit-card based. so it's all complete bs. not being able to get a single ticket, anywhere in the arena since the day tix went on sale?? ridiculous.

Bruce announced new dates of his tour. i can bet it will be the same again.

[soul_drifter333]

http://http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/vid...ckets-36574277

[Macfanforever]

I say corrupt racket.

I was involve with the Katz v. Live Nation Settlemen that happen a couple years ago.

I get emails weekly for shows in NJ.Some artists and bands are great and some I never heard of.

I just got this email a couple days ago.

Event Artist(s): Heart/Joan Jett/Cheap Trick
Event Date and Time: 7/31/2016 at 6:30 PM
Event Location: BB & T Pavilion
Number of Free Tickets Available: 1000- lawn

Event Artist(s): Heart/Joan Jett/Cheap Trick
Event Date and Time: 9/10/2016 at 7:00 PM
Event Location: PNC Bank Arts Center
Number of Free Tickets Available: 1000- lawn

Event Artist(s): Duran Duran
Event Date and Time: 7/21/2016 at 7:00 PM
Event Location: BB & T Pavilion
Number of Free Tickets Available: 1000- lawn


I would not mind seeing them.Maybe Stevie schedule a show on the night before or after.I would go for the freebie,

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

TM doesn't say that it's sold out, but you cannot get a single ticket through their web site - you keep getting try again later after going through "bots-battling" steps, captcha, etc. and supposedly his tix for DC are paperless credit-card based. so it's all complete bs. not being able to get a single ticket, anywhere in the arena since the day tix went on sale?? ridiculous.

Bruce announced new dates of his tour. i can bet it will be the same again.

Wow. The only thing I can say is that if Bruce gets wind of these complaints, he seems to be more responsive than other headliners and maybe he will tell his management to do something to try to resolve this problem.

Michele

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Wow. The only thing I can say is that if Bruce gets wind of these complaints, he seems to be more responsive than other headliners and maybe he will tell his management to do something to try to resolve this problem.

Michele

well, when you compare to Mac or the Stones, Springsteen ticket prices are set up really low for what he can charge (max price for DC show was $150). yet the only thing that does is make scalpers more money, and fans don't get to have any benefit from it. Springsteen tickets were the hardest to get of any i tried, for this same venue (other than the Stones cheap tickets, but you could get expensive ones without going to re-sellers). i don't know maybe something like 1D would be harder, never tried those? younger bands that are huge now and teenage girls are into like 5SOS are certainly not nearly that hard to get.

so i don't know about Springsteen's management. it doesn't seem to be a smart way to do it if they care about regular people getting tickets. it's not like this same article / stats you posted above were not posted in reaction to his MSG show 2 days ago, with the title "Here’s Why You Couldn’t Get Tickets to Bruce Springsteen at MSG Tonight (Thanks to venue holds and brokers who use illegal bots, buying tickets to see your favorite artist is a fixed game, according to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman)."

http://observer.com/2016/01/heres-wh...t-msg-tonight/

[Macfanforever]

They should wake up and do cheap tix instead of inflated money grab prices.
Maybe the word BOYCOTT the artists and bands will scare them for the inflated tix prices would work and wake up the promoters and anybody else is behind it.

Look at Garth Brooks.He's doing great with the cheap tix prices.

If FM went out on tour this year doing the same old game tour like the last several .I may sit out this time around.

BTW .My guilt feelings probably will kick in and tell me to go to atlease one show because it could be the last tour.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

so i don't know about Springsteen's management. it doesn't seem to be a smart way to do it if they care about regular people getting tickets. it's not like this same article / stats you posted above were not posted in reaction to his MSG show 2 days ago, with the title "Here’s Why You Couldn’t Get Tickets to Bruce Springsteen at MSG Tonight (Thanks to venue holds and brokers who use illegal bots, buying tickets to see your favorite artist is a fixed game, according to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman)."

I think it was really cool the way Tom Petty cancelled tickets that had been sold to fans (through the fan clubs) that turned up on scalper sites. The band cancelled those tickets and resold them to fans again. Now, of course, I can't see FM doing something like that, but it was conscientious and it would be great if other acts took the Heartbreakers' lead.

Michele