Ticketmaster officials testify before the Senate

[Treblefree]

Most of the venues in my area no longer HAVE a box office. Most that do only sell tickets to sporting events in the building.

Yes, same here. You go to the arena website and it tells you to use Ticketmaster. I really hate it. I really wish there was a better alternative without all the extra fees and stupidity too. If you got sick or wanted to sell your seats back, they charge $50 to resell for you. You couldn't make a buck or break even if you had to.

There might be 2-3 bands out there I haven't seen that I would go through this all again for.

Too bad for the musicians, but I'm about done with this stuff. They can't make any money except for merch and I'm not going to the shows any more so I'm not buying merch anymore either.

By the time my wife and I go to a concert, pay for parking, gas, etc, out to eat, the ridiculous ticket prices, and a snack and shirt each and I could buy a good Fender P bass pretty easily. Perspective...

 

[SouthLatitude]

Back in the day, there were quite a few clubs in NY/NJ would not book a band which did not have agency representation. Quiet extortion on the part of the agencies. Money greases the wheels and when that isn't enough, "well thats a nice place you got there. Hope nothing bad happens to it".

 

[Treblefree]

Boomer here.

Beatles in 1966: $5.50 (most expensive show I attended for many years)
Doors in 1967: $2.50
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1969: $3.00
Led Zeppelin in 1969: $2.50
Allman Bros. in 1970: $2.50
Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, too many times to count: $2.50 or $3.00
And many, many others.

The Bay Area was a wonderful place to live and experience live music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. You got your tickets at underground bookstores and head shops. Or bought them at the door. I’m so glad I was there.

Very interesting. Someone else mentioned a ticket being like 3X minimum wage back in their day.
exponentially higher now.

 

[Crackle]

The only major touring acts I take any interest in seeing are Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Queensryche, and The Fixx. For those four, I will pay the price. The others can get screwed.

 

[drumminor2nd]

Led Zeppelin in 1969: $2.50

Just checked out the Ticketmaster pricing on a Led Zeppelin tribute band playing in Buffalo -- $94 for one ticket ($76 face value, $14 in fees PLUS a $3 "order processing fee"). To a Led Zeppelin TRIBUTE BAND.

BTW, your original ticket price, adjusted for inflation, is about $21. So 4.5x more expensive to see a cover band over the original.

 

[DwaynieAD]

Not sure how we fix the situation. Ticketmaster charges egregious fees but people line up to pay what they ask. I suppose we could regulate their fees, given that they have no real competition. But is that a precedent we want to set.

My biggest issue with Ticketmaster (and Live Nation) is that no matter what lists I get myself on or how early I try to buy, tickets are always sold out, seemingly within seconds, and then just after that they are all up for sale on the resale sites at markups.

Seems obvious to me that people have figured out ways to get hold of more tickets than they should be able to, sooner than they should be able to, and few of them plan to actually go to the show.

Ticketmaster owns the resellers. They are selling them to themselves, saying they're sold out, then inflating the prices. That is the very crux of the issue.

 

[rodak]

I saw the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Brownsville Station (remember them?) and a local band called "Yazoo" for $5 at the local arena. Brownsville Station stole the show. Must have been around 1970-ish.

Saw Styx last year in Macon, tickets were about $40 I think. Good show, only about 2/3 sold out, lots of empty seats.

 

[higain617]

It's great to be a boomer... I saw the good bands when tickets were $6.

Still... that six bucks was three hours pay when I was sixteen.

I saw Lizst for three pence.

 

[scuzzy]

My understanding is that the majority of artists are in favor of dynamic pricing. They don't care for seeing the scalpers taking a big slice of the pie, so.... artist has become scalper.

My understanding is that artists set a price, and that is what they get. Dynamic pricing is set by Ticketmaster and they keep the difference in profits. I don't believe the artist benefits from the jacked up ticket price at all.

 

[Neil Folkard]

Ahh, it's so wonderful to be into prog/jazz/psych cult bands that don't play arenas. I almost never pay over $50 for a ticket and don't need to jump online with seeming lottery-like odds, just to even get a chance at an overpriced seat.

Life is good.

 

[SouthLatitude]

Ticketmasters key quote in defense of dynamic pricing.

"It then stresses that promoters and artists decide how they want to sell their tickets and, if they decide on dynamic pricing, Ticketmaster just enables that. And it’s also for the promoters to decide how that dynamic pricing works, in terms of what the any price range parameters should be."

The full report is here.
Invalid Link Removed

I've yet to see a challenge to the veracity of the report.

 

[6-3-2]

My understanding is that artists set a price, and that is what they get. Dynamic pricing is set by Ticketmaster and they keep the difference in profits. I don't believe the artist benefits from the jacked up ticket price at all.

It's murky, since Ticketmaster is still not being transparent, but it seems like most artists get the cut Ticketmaster decides to give.

 

[BAG]

I have almost zero interest in seeing any band in a sports arena setting. The last one I went to was AC/DC in Sydney and for that style of band it was pretty good. But the prices charged now is getting ludicrous. As mentioned earlier in the thread, for the money charged for two tickets, throw in a few drinks and maybe dinner and you're looking at spending almost as much as for a low-to-mid-level bass.

 

[higain617]

As the arena rock bands fade into oblivion, I imagine Ticketmaster will lose its hegemony.

 

[Lobster11]

Ahh, it's so wonderful to be into prog/jazz/psych cult bands that don't play arenas. I almost never pay over $50 for a ticket and don't need to jump online with seeming lottery-like odds, just to even get a chance at an overpriced seat.

Life is good.

Ditto here, although I'll admit to paying a little more than that not long ago to see Adrian Belew with his Power Trio at a small theater. (I spent the whole night standing side-stage watching Julie Slick.)

Actually, my favorite concert venue these days is my living room. I've got the audio from my big-screen TV running through a killer Denon/Kliphsch stereo system, and love to watch concert videos from YouTube or on DVD. No Ticketmaster fees, no line for the bathroom, and there's never a 7-foot guy wearing a sombrero standing in front of me. Not to mention the open bar.

 

[Neil Folkard]

Ditto here, although I'll admit to paying a little more than that not long ago to see Adrian Belew with his Power Trio at a small theater. (I spent the whole night standing side-stage watching Julie Slick.)

Actually, my favorite concert venue these days is my living room. I've got the audio from my big-screen TV running through a killer Denon/Kliphsch stereo system, and love to watch concert videos from YouTube or on DVD. No Ticketmaster fees, no line for the bathroom, and there's never a 7-foot guy wearing a sombrero standing in front of me. Not to mention the open bar.

I paid $150 for Crimson a few years back at Massey Hall in Toronto. One of the best shows that I have ever seen. So, there are exceptions, lol.

And Julie is an amazing player, so I don't blame you.

 

[friskinator]

Yes, same here. You go to the arena website and it tells you to use Ticketmaster. I really hate it. I really wish there was a better alternative without all the extra fees and stupidity too. If you got sick or wanted to sell your seats back, they charge $50 to resell for you. You couldn't make a buck or break even if you had to.

There might be 2-3 bands out there I haven't seen that I would go through this all again for.

Too bad for the musicians, but I'm about done with this stuff. They can't make any money except for merch and I'm not going to the shows any more so I'm not buying merch anymore either.

By the time my wife and I go to a concert, pay for parking, gas, etc, out to eat, the ridiculous ticket prices, and a snack and shirt each and I could buy a good Fender P bass pretty easily. Perspective...

Agreed. When I consider going to a show now, I think about other stuff I could do with the money. The show usually loses.

Even if you don’t drink or eat, a show at a large venue could set you back several hundred dollars by the end of the night. Not worth it for me anymore.

 

[alex1fly]

Their new algorithm and premium seat designations have caused me to lose more interest. I got presale code on a recent concert and every decent seat was gone by the time I could see what the price was. Finally had to just bite the bullet and grab some. Find out later the left overs were as cheap if not cheaper because the algorithm ran the prices up in the presale itself.

Have never had a good opportunity early at a good seat for decent price. I'm nearly done with going to arenas and ampitheators. Way too much money spent for okay seats at best and the headache of fighting traffic and large crowds.

Silly... you need the pre-pre-sale code.

I do whatever I can to buy direct from the box office and skip ticketmaster.

Great when that works. Looooots of venues don't sell directly.

 

[Rojd]

Seems unbelievable that we used to pay less for a ticket than a beer costs now. This is the oldest stub I have out of all the ones I have, $9? I remember standing in line at a Sears store ticket window to get it.

https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/cotn-ticket-jpg.4947649/

I had tickets to that tour too. My dad was going to take me. It was the middle of January and the snow was so bad we couldn't get out of town and drive an hour north to the venue. The concert still went on. I was 12 and it was my first opportunity to see Kiss with makeup. I was completely brokenhearted.

 

[Loring]

One thing I haven't seen discussed is that most shows nowadays are complete spectacles. I'm amazed at the scale and grandeur of the lighting, video, and production values. Somebody has figured out that there is money to be made by adding lipstick to the pig, and it's probably not the artist that's getting the biggest cut.

It’s been that way since the 70’s - where have you been?