Why you can't get good concert tickets

[Isgrimnur]

The Ringer

Presales, giveaways to sponsors, secondary markets, and bots. The deck is stacked against you in pretty much every way.

Oh, yeah. The author was the head of Ticketmaster from 2010 to 2013.

[LordMortis]

The Ringer

Presales, giveaways to sponsors, secondary markets, and bots. The deck is stacked against you in pretty much every way.

Oh, yeah. The author was the head of Ticketmaster from 2010 to 2013.

I can't imagine going to an assigned seat venue without buying through presales. Even then, moments after they open you usually don't get choice seats. The only way you get good seats through presales is if they are proof of ID and purchasing credit card at the door sales and there is no corporate arrangement from the vendor/artist to set aside so many prime seats.

As I am (was) a small venue, general admission guy for most shows, it never really bothered me. I'd see one or two big shows every one or two years and when I did, I would always join fan club before the band went on tour. Usually we were second crack. There was inevitably some sort of CITI elite concert status that always had tickets the day before fan club ticket sales. I have no CITI accounts and so that was never on the table.

[Isgrimnur]

When I did a Citi presale, all they asked me for to qualify was the first 6 digits of my card (BIN). And those are easy to find.

[LordMortis]

When I did a Citi presale, all they asked me for to qualify was the first 6 digits of my card (BIN). And those are easy to find.

Where the hell were you from 2003-2013, when I was still seeing shows like crazy?

[Chaz]

This is why "going to a live concert/broadway show/sporting event" isn't even on my radar of things I consider doing. Which stinks, because I like doing that, but there it is.

[Xmann]

I only go to small <1000 seat general admission venues.

The large majority of bands I listen to and enjoy never play in big venues or arenas.

I pay my $20-30 general admission, even the night of the show, and can stand pretty much next to the stage. I'm thankful I live in a city with 6 or 7 of these types of venues within a 30 minute drive.

I loathe (with a vengeance) how ticket sales are done through the jerks at Ticketmaster or Live Nation or whoever runs it. It's a rip off and I won't support it.

[hitbyambulance]

going to see S U R V I V E next month (aka the Austin, TX band that does the soundtrack for Stranger Things) at a little concert venue - tickets are only $15

[tgb]

tlr has been dying to see Beautiful, the Carole King musical, and while it still hasn't come to Tucson it will be in Tempe Thanksgiving weekend, so we looked into getting tickets. It must have been on sale for a while, because only a handful were available in each section,

Orchestra seats were $175 and nosebleed $50. I don't know the theater, but if it's similar to the ones here, top of the balcony may not be that bad. Nonetheless, at those prices I just haven't been able to force myself to pull the trigger.

[Rumpy]

For that money, I could buy a weekend pass to our local music festival, which is what I've been doing the last several years. Get more value for the money and I can see who I want to see and in general imbibe in the atmosphere.

[Skinypupy]

I only go to small <1000 seat general admission venues.

The large majority of bands I listen to and enjoy never play in big venues or arenas.

I pay my $20-30 general admission, even the night of the show, and can stand pretty much next to the stage. I'm thankful I live in a city with 6 or 7 of these types of venues within a 30 minute drive.

I loathe (with a vengeance) how ticket sales are done through the jerks at Ticketmaster or Live Nation or whoever runs it. It's a rip off and I won't support it.

Same here. I can't remember the last time I went to a concert with actual seats, and I like it that way.

[Isgrimnur]

Some of us don't like to stand for three hours and deal with the press of humanity around us.

[Xmann]

Some of us don't like to stand for three hours and deal with the press of humanity around us.

you don't go see the bands I do then.

i've been to countless metal shows (large majority of those are what are considered extreme or death metal) and very rarely do i deal with the press of humanity.

[Kraken]

I haven't been to a concert in quite a few years unless you count small clubs and symphony. In fact, the last fairly large venue I went to was The Rocky Horror Show five years ago, and that was only a few hundred people -- most of them were general-admission groundlings, but being elderly we paid for table seats. If I'm going to spend big bucks for a ticket, I'd rather see a play (which, arguably, Rocky Horror is).

[pr0ner]

Some of us don't like to stand for three hours and deal with the press of humanity around us.

you don't go see the bands I do then.

i've been to countless metal shows (large majority of those are what are considered extreme or death metal) and very rarely do i deal with the press of humanity.

You should have gone to see Babymetal. You would have had to deal with the press of humanity then!

[Xmann]

I'll just act like you didn't say that

[tgb]

99% of the artists I want to see aren't popular/well known enough to play big halls or arenas. Fortunately we have two very old movie theaters downtown that regularly host concerts, and there isn't a bad seat in either one of them.

[Chaz]

I barely pay attention to whatever's going on in the music or theater scenes, so by the time something's penetrated my bubble of ignorance, it's usually so popular you can't see it. My current white whale is Hamilton tickets. It's essentially impossible to get tickets for less than $500 each, and they won't release a video recording of it, so I've basically resigned myself to only being able to listen to the soundtrack.

[Exodor]

Some of us don't like to stand for three hours and deal with the press of humanity around us.

Yup. Just happily bought tix to see Colin Meloy play a solo show and a large reason I'm going is it's at a traditional theater full of seats.

Concerts at venues without seating are much less appealing to my almost-44-year-old back and knees.

[Xmann]

Some of us don't like to stand for three hours and deal with the press of humanity around us.

Yup. Just happily bought tix to see Colin Meloy play a solo show and a large reason I'm going is it's at a traditional theater full of seats.

Concerts at venues without seating are much less appealing to my almost-44-year-old back and knees.

I can probably get you old farts a walker or wheelchair to go to shows

[Isgrimnur]

New law

Today, President Obama has signed the “Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016 which makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets online. While New York already passed this legistlature, President Obama has made it nationwide. The idea is that it will prevent those whose end goal is to resell them at a higher price.

Under the law, it is illegal for anyone or company to use a bot or software to circumvent the rules for making a fair purchase such as buying more tickets than specified. It is also illegal to resell tickets that were purchased with the help of the bot. With this law, it makes the person(s) and those who know how the tickets were purchased liable.

It's nice when everyone can agree on who the bad guys are:

11/30/2016 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
...
12/07/2016 Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed without objection.

[LordMortis]

BOTS

Funny.

makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets online.

Wait. What?

[Isgrimnur]

Bad summary.

Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016 or the BOTS Act of 2016

(Sec. 2) This bill prohibits the circumvention of a security measure, access control system, or other technological measure on an Internet website or online service of a ticket issuer that is used to enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules for a public event with an attendance capacity exceeding 200 persons.

The bill also prohibits the sale of or offers to sell an event ticket in interstate commerce obtained through such a circumvention violation if the seller participated in, had the ability to control, or should have known about the violation.

[Rumpy]

That's great to hear. Hopefully Canada will soon follow up with a similar law.

[Jag]

It also allows local AGs to enforce the law since you know the Feds probably won't. Great way for the always political AGs to make some feel good headlines while shutting down the scourges of ticket sales.

[Isgrimnur]

CBC

Box-office giant Ticketmaster is recruiting professional scalpers who cheat its own system to expand its resale business and squeeze more money out of fans, a CBC News/Toronto Star investigation reveals.

In July, the news outlets sent a pair of reporters undercover to Ticket Summit 2018, a ticketing and live entertainment convention at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Posing as scalpers and equipped with hidden cameras, the journalists were pitched on Ticketmaster's professional reseller program.

Company representatives told them Ticketmaster's resale division turns a blind eye to scalpers who use ticket-buying bots and fake identities to snatch up tickets and then resell them on the site for inflated prices. Those pricey resale tickets include extra fees for Ticketmaster.

"I have brokers that have literally a couple of hundred accounts," one sales representative said. "It's not something that we look at or report."

[tjg_marantz]

Read that this morning. Fucking crush that monopoly already!

[Rumpy]

Yeah, no kidding. Canadians get enough of a raw deal as is. This practice should be made illegal! The longer this is allowed to happen, the more it encourages Ticketmaster to think it's entirely OK.

[Jag]

And that's why I'm seeing the Australian Pink Floyd for $50 next week instead of seeing Roger Waters play the oldies. Although I have seem him 3 times in the last few years.

[GreenGoo]

Another brick on the barbie?

[Jeff V]

Another brick on the barbie?

I'm pretty sure they only ever see the dark side of the moon down there.