Live Concerts
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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.
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@tody when The Exploited come here they are playing The Oriental, a venue that uses HoldMyTicket.com
I do miss those $5 all ages Fugazi tickets of yore.
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@mclaincausey dang, that sucks. The Exploited will play the venue I was at tonight on April 8th, and while that comes with a 28€ price tag, you'd probably be able to get a ticket at the door. Glad to still have independent venues around...
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My wife is friends with Paul McCartney’s wife and we got invited to see him play at a fairly small venue in NYC,tomorrow.No cell phones allowed, like the old days. My wife has met him,but even though we have wristband status,I’m not anticipating meeting him.
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@Jett129 that's amazing!
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@mclaincausey got it. Should have looked at the website you linked to, would have seen the Koffin Kats and my buddies in The Drowns there. Thought this was another of these rip off sites, too.
I thought of buying a friend tickets for the willie nelson/bob dylan tour. While the base price for the cheapest tickets is around 35 bucks, i guess i need to have a look how ticketmaster will double/triple/whatever that with additional fees? -
The Paul McCartney show was off the charts great. He was bantering with the audience,telling stories,the sound was perfect,the band was lock tight. Great set list consisting of old Beatles songs and his solo stuff. I didn’t get to meet him, but his wife Nancy came over and said hi to us. I said hi to Larry David and Chris Rock. They were both very nice. Everyone’s phone and smart watch was sealed in a pouch that only they could open. We wanted to go up in front of the stage and take some pictures after we got our phones back ,but they wouldn’t let us.Our wristbands got us up into the balcony area,but no seats. He played an hour and 45 minutes.
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@Jett129 wow!! What an experience that must have been.
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@IrishHeart It really was a wonderful experience, I couldn’t sleep when I got home. And to top it off they gave us free t-shirts commemorating the gig.
