Live Concerts
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@Tago-Mago …oh my!! Thank you
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There’s also a saying “never miss a Sunday show” I think based on bands rewarding those persevering despite work in the morning.
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Well, went to buy tickets and there was only one date left and only a few seats still available. Tickets purchased. Thank you @Tago-Mago
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Managed to snag some tickets to DIIV in San Francisco next weekend, will be heading down there to see them
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Day two of presale trying to snag two Black Sabbath final show tickets. Yesterday was a reccy making sure accounts set up, seating plan downloaded etc. doubt I will have much luck as was 32791 in queue yesterday!
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Attempted to grab Kendrick/SZA tickets yesterday (as a season ticket holder at THFC I get pre-general sale access). My daughter wanted to see SZA and I wanted to experience the Drake diss in person. Sadly, I'm not paying £140 - £180 for a potentially restricted view or being at the other end of the stadium watching stick figures dance around the stage. And don't get me started on the £40 admin charge. Someone explain to me why we get penalised for paying mad amounts of money in the first instance for a ticket then get slapped with 'admin fees'.
I then attempted to get Sabrina Carpenter tickets (not my demographic if anyone is wondering) and clicking on the 'buy tickets' option resulted with a multitude of error codes.
Had to tell the kid she can have my YouTube Premium log-in and watch them on that.
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https://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-screwed-2/
As the above indicates, part of the problem is that bands don't want to look like gougers by charging market value, so they depress face value below it and let the brokers take the heat. When there are only so many seats and so much demand, and artificially deflated face value prices, someone is going to make up the difference between face and market value. Increasingly that someone has been the brokers themselves instead of third party scalpers. The latest tool in their arsenal is "dynamic pricing" which they stole from the likes of Uber surge pricing.
Not sure about elsewhere, but here in the States we have a duopoly of LiveNation/Ticketbastard and AXS for all the larger venues. So there is no market pressure to improve things for consumers.
Then on top of that shit sandwich, these primary market brokerage also own secondary market brokerages, including the ability for people to resell (scalp) at a massive profit on their own site. This can make actual fans who wouldn't otherwise be scalpers into opportunistic scalpers. This is a clear conflict of interest and what our antitrust and consumer protection laws were meant to prevent. I believe that brokers intentionally release limited tickets that immediately sell out, and sit back and harvest resale fees when buyers can't resist scalping their tickets to panicked consumers. Then you'll see incremental drops as the concert date approaches. They're doing everything they can to wrest every penny they can from consumers, no matter how unethical and deceptive, and there's no regulations or market forces to stop them.
Then on top of THAT double decker shit sandwich these ticket brokers also own and operate venues or have exclusive contracts with them. There is no free market in live music for larger venues, inevitably resulting in enshittification: paying more for less. It will only get worse without addressing the structural and economic issues.
Ticketbastard had the gall to gaslight in a court argument that more competition would mean higher fees. Adam Smith rolled in his grave and I compared the $50 in Ticketbastard fees to the $5 in eTix fees on recent purchases.
Final point is that a Canadian investigative journalist infiltrated a Ticketbastard event and found them colluding with scalpers years ago. So before they took over that market themselves they were in bed with them.
How do we fix it? Artists must insist that brokers limit resale values and eliminate transfers. So you have to resell on the broker's site, and cannot do so at a profit.
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Fortunately most of the shows I attend don’t garner the attention required to support gouging but every once in a while (I’m lookout at you NIN) I’m forced to engage. Do have to keep on the look out for shows my daughter would be interested in now though. Ugh.
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I’m in a similar position to @matt (in terms of going to lower profile shows, I have no offspring with (or without) questionable musical taste). I feel for anyone who has to engage with the big beasts of the ticketing world. Where it’s an option I’ve found Dice works pretty well for tickets and the success rate of getting face value tickets for sold out events through the wait list is surprisingly high.
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Here in Denver, we have a robust music scene and plenty of small shows. But we also have Red Rocks, which the city of Denver is now exclusively contracted with AXS for. And AXS and LiveNation either own or are exclusively contracted with many smaller venues, even of just a couple hundred capacity. Luckily there are exceptions like Cervantes who use eTix but those are increasingly outliers.
Even if you have to deal with LN or AXS, the smaller scale and less known shows are less stressful and can be more intimate and satisfying.
I hate the ticket industry but also understand that we aren't entitled to tickets below market value.
