Today’s follow-up to the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger is quite an interesting one. Bruce Springsteen has officially gone on the record to oppose the merger, saying it “would make the situation even worse for the fan than it is now” and “thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.”
Bloomberg, is reporting that now the New Jersey Attorney General is investigating what happened with Ticketmaster’s sales for Springsteen’s tickets.
In a statement released on the front page of BruceSpringsteen.net, Springsteen encourages his fans to contact their local representatives if they oppose the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, as well as to write directly to Albert Lopez at Ticketmaster with “accurate informational letters” to voice concerns. He also has posted the official press release from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and an official apology from Irving Azoff, Ticketmaster Entertainment’s CEO.
The tone of Springsteen’s letter is far nicer than the one Larry Mullen wrote to fans back in January 2005, and it represents the extreme frustration music fans in general feel about what has been going on with concert ticketing on a whole.
In this current economy, taking a night out “to forget about life for a while” (in the words of Billy Joel in “Piano Man”) is a very expensive proposition. The bands who are planning on touring in 2009 are the big name, heavy-hitters who, while they have a loyal fan base, may be lucky to consider their tour sold out. It looks like U2 are planning stadiums this time around in North America, and if the goal is to fill every seat, keeping it affordable is going to be job one. If these ticketing companies expect fans to be able to shell out more than the average ticket price, they’ve got another thing coming. As was found with the recent Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, the “resellers” weren’t making the type of money they once were for this type of event.
As job losses continue to mount, salaries are frozen or reduced, the cost-of-living increases at alarming rates, and people struggle to make ends meet, companies like Ticketmaster and Live Nation *need* to be taking notice of the hand that is feeding them. Yes, music lovers need to see their favorite act when they come to town – for a variety of reasons. As base ticket prices continue to go up and up, a lot is being asked of the fan. How much more can fans endure? We’re not even considering the cost of concert merchandise, venue parking, babysitting, food and beverage, and any other costs associated with a gig.
I appreciate what Springsteen is doing, and I hope that we see more artists weighing in on this topic as the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation does not bode well for joe-average fan. The whole secondary ticket market and the way they system can be legally manipulated adds insult to injury. A lot of money will be spent lobbying from this point on by all of the ticketing companies involved as it’s a $3 billion industry. There’s a lot to be lost here. Bottom line is, that $3 billion is coming out of the fan’s pockets and lining those who buy and sell people’s night’s out “to forget about life for a while” as a commodity.
I do hope that U2 is taking notice of what’s been going on. Springsteen admitted in his letter that “We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies.)” Springsteen learned this the hard way, as did U2 in 2005. Let’s hope that history doesn’t repeat itself.
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- Paul McGuinness and U22 Final Tally - January 21st, 2012
Bruce says the artists are not clients as the agreements are b/w venues and the ticket agencies. Couldn’t the artist leverage their relationship by only agreeing to play if tickets were sold at the box office for example. There would be pros/cons to this. Pro’s–local fans actually get tickets, no gross service charges, get to camp out again with other fans. Con’s–difficulty getting tickets to non-local shows that might serve as your vacation (but could facilitate more trading b/w fans and not resellers), no time to camp out as we now have jobs.
There must be an answer to this problem that is better than what we have now. What if you had the option of purchasing a concert ticket when you purchased the new CD, either online or at the store.
I think only the big-name artists have the power to demand changes here. So cmon Bruce, U2, and others.
The ticket situation is tough, I work for a sports team in tickets and know a great deal how the ticket system work as I deal with it every day. The biggest thing that has changed since the 05 Vertigo tour disaster is the secondary company being owned by the primary company. This is what Springsteen was unaware of. I also find some fault with Bruce in this because if your in that business you should have someone that has rudimentary feel of the landscape of tickets, and clearly he didn’t as its been around for a couple years. There is no firewall on how many tickets they can move from the primary ticket company to the secondary one, and clearly those tickets were never on sale in the first place (how could you buy them, re-list them) all within a split second.
In Baseball this issue has been around for awhile, the Chicago Cubs themselves own a ticket scalping agency and in that situation nobody can tell how many tickets get to the scalping company without ever hitting the primary market, and since the Cubs own it they get the full mark up.
As you know, many tickets go to sponsors, clubs and various entities that support the venue year round (guaranteed income). They get stuck with tickets to tractor pulls, or rodeos but they make it back up when a big act comes to the arena or stadium. They have those tickets or the location to those tickets in advance, thats why you frequently see these thing on Stubhub, or other secondary sites long before tix go on sale. With U2 playing stadium this tour, many of the teams have arrangements to play in their stadium they will give first crack to season ticket holders of the venue for the sports team, which is some modern facilities could be upwards of 13,000-15,000 accounts (not seats). This has happened with the Giants and the Rolling Stones, etc
Its sucks, but it mainly has to do with the venue having multiple agreements (there always wrapped up in whats called “sponsorship” even though a sponsorship can just be an agreement to buy a big chunk of tickets for a flat fee, see Razorgater) to create steady cash flow for the venue, and lots of tickets are associated with that. That’s why all those tickets you expect to see, never show up accept in the secondary market
There really is no solution, barring doing an onsale at the stadium, but then the band would have to pay for a large amount for on site staff to deal with 100,000 people showing up to buy U2 tickets, there is parking, security other issues to deal with. And you all would still flip out about that and say it doesn’t work, line cutting etc that would go on.
Dwaltman, some artists do have such requirements — it’s true for artists who play college towns, for example; they want to make sure kids can get reasonably priced seats. But that does not always work to the advantage of the venues, and especially in this economy, they want to cast as wide a net as possible. Especially if it’s expensive to bring in an artist, and if they have a specific tour rider that requires the venue to do X, Y & Z, they want every chance they can to sell tickets.
Also, as for the artists demanding changes, their power is limited by their performance in any given city. Bruce and U2 did not sell out the Palace of Auburn Hills last time around — you could get seats for Bruce’s November 2007 concert on line on the day of, and the second U2 show in 2005 was not a sell out. Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, could probably demand whatever she wanted.
I was afraid of this. I’m living overseas for awhile, but just for curiosity, I checked on tickets for Bruce in my hometown of DC. Sure enough, no regular seats but plenty on their “scalper” site. My suspicion that this was a way for Ticketmaster to charge higher prices for tickets was confirmed! Bruce’s tickets are very reasonably priced – I think the range was from around $ 70-$100. However, I wonder how many fans were able to purchase at this price? Unfortunately, instead of shutting down scalpers, it now seems to be perfectly legal just about everywhere. Tickets are already very expensive – this only makes it more worse. I went to 10 Vertigo shows – unless circumstances change, I doubt I’ll get to more than a few for the next tour.
I have to say that I’m really dreading U2′s ticket sales – I experienced the disaster of the early Vertigo sales. And, I was really stressed each time I tried to buy tickets – if you don’t get through in the first few seconds, you’re doomed. Hopefully, U2.com will come up with something reasonable for members.
I’m no fan of TM nor do I like Live nation. I think both are bad for fans, but let’s get real. The ticket prices are high, because bands demand HUGE guarantees, when they tour. I’ll give credit where credit is due: for someone who’s been around as long as Bruce, his tickets are relatively cheap. I say relatively, because most tickets are ridiculously expensive
In 1997, U2 was an expensive show and the price, with service charge, was under $60.00 for the expensive tickets.
Rush was under $30.00. Virtually all bands were under $40.00, and that’s AFTER service charges. Starting around 1998, we saw the prices skyrocket.
This was long before the huge decline in record sales, and frankly, when a band like U2 sells 10,000,000 or more albums with each release, it’s hard for them to claim that music sales are forcing them to raise prices.
But again, I give credit to springsteen. Since the first E-Street reunion, prices have only gone up around $20.00. And the top ticket price is about the same as what you paid for the middle teir Vertigo Ticket (and those seats universally sucked….hell, I saw 150.00 seats that were upper deck).
Yes, U2 had cheap floor seats, but once the Lottery was in place, they were largely a PITA, with people still lining up early, but generally ending up with a spot wher eyou couldn’t see (unless you’re relatively tall or were lucky enough to get rail).
I should also add that I don’t fear the ticketing situation at all, so long as they don’t do the stupid, pointless ticketless option. If they do that, I may the tour out….or perhaps just go for whatever U2.com offers…if the seats are good, I’ll go, otherwise, I’ll pass.
Why don’t I worry? Because I’ve never had a tour where I wasn’t able to buy floor tickets at cost.
1/2 for Zoo.
3/4 for Pop
13/15 for Elevation (could have gotten floors for miami 2, but already had a seat)
9/11 for Vertigo (my 2 non-floors were because I didn’t decide to go until 2 or 3 week before the show.
A little planning and you can get tix to most shows…at least that’s how it’s been for me over the last 20 years.
I’m in agreement with Kevin. Anyone familiar with U2′s ticketing knows that they *never* release all of the tickets during the initial onsale. They will usually release about 80-85% of the house, then over the next few months they’ll do a calculated ticket drop up until a few hours before the show.
There are many reasons why they’ve done this – and it’s not just U2 who follow this practice. After working on the concert crew in college and helping out after graduation, I learned that the reduced inventory during the initial onsale allows the excitement/demand to promote the tour on its own. So, if you only released 80% of the tickets during the initial onsale, and those sell out quickly, you can claim that you sold out of all the tickets and thus – poof…you have a “sold out tour.” That makes the news in so far as saying “The tour sold out in 15 minutes – and because of high demand, a second show was added” (or third, etc.) Over the next day or two, as credit cards come back as being declined for whatever reason, those tickets that were once in the inventory get re-released into the system as the original sale gets voided. Or, the ticketmaster system was able to identity (in rare cases) where someone bought more tickets than what the onsale rules stipulated.
Additional tickets are also released once the tour manager has the discussion with the venue operators and they can see how the staging will impact the seats that are obstructed-view. If the arena/stadium is wide enough or long enough, then additional seats can be placed back into the sales hopper for the consumer to purchase. This is a very typical practice.
Usually the biggest final ticket drop occurs between a few days and a few hours before a show. This is because the management/artist/tour promoter, etc. (all of those closest to the tour) have to alert staff if their guests will be in attendance for a particular performance. A group of tickets are usually held back for guests of the tour – and if Aunt Bertha isn’t able to make it, then her 4 tickets are given back to the box office for resale. Usually, this is when the better or best seats in the house are most available. I’ve been able to get front row tickets for Springsteen and a few other artists by waiting until the morning or afternoon of a show and waiting (patiently, mind you) for that management guest ticket drop.
U2 go one better – they will hold onto between 100 – 200 tickets for day-of so that fans can get tickets at face value at the box office to try to thwart the scalpers. The timing is usually kept under wraps, but the most die-hard of fans have a good idea when the drop will hit because they’ve been camping outside the arena with the hopes of getting a ticket at face value.
I remember for St. Patrick’s Day in Boston back in 1992, U2 kept an entire section of the floor for this type of onsale. This was a show that sold out in less than 10 minutes and melted the phone lines in Boston because over 1 million people were trying to call into Ticketmaster to buy the tickets. At 3 p.m. that afternoon, all the people who were hoping they’d get a ticket from the box office were not only shocked that they got them, but once they saw where their seats were nearly had to be hospitalized because of their good fortune.
This is why I’m in agreement with Kevin. If you’re willing to be patient and not freak out because it’s all happening at the last minute, then you stand a good chance of getting in if you weren’t able to get a ticket during the initial onsale.
As far as GA/floor goes, I’m a short person and if I didn’t get scanned in for the ellipse or the heart for the last two tours (arenas only), the best place to be was back by the sound desk. Sound was great, view was great, had plenty of room for moving about – and didn’t have to worry about losing my place should I need a bathroom break. Stadiums are a whole different breed – the stage is taller, more people, weather issues could get in the way…I’m not a big fan of GA for stadiums. Maybe I’m just getting older and my tolerance for the crushing of people during a concert is waning. Now I’m sounding like a grumpy old woman!
Back to the blog posts already in progress =)