Tickets, please.
This one always bothered me.
One of the best things about growing up where I did was that every act (major or minor) played nearby. With a zillion venues to fill, there was a great concert nearly every weekend. The meager earnings of my crappy high school job forced me to be selective. I had to pick and choose which ones to attend. Even then, I was intent on getting the best seat possible. That meant one of two things. You had to be first on line at the nearest Ticketmaster booth or you had to go to a scalper. I very very rarely went for the latter option it was just too expensive. I was able to get some really good tickets on occasion but mostly I was relegated to the nosebleed sections. As I got older, the scalpers would eat up more and more blocks of tickets with rapidity that all be forced you buy from them. Either that or start your own band and you might be allowed in to your own show. Now its getting worse.
Small wonder that thethieves scalpers have figured out a way to outmaneuver Ticketmaster. I always assumed there was some sort of collusion between Ticketmaster and these guys. A tacit agreement of sorts. A wink and a nod that this is just how the business is done. To my mind, why would Ticketmaster care who bought the tickets so long as they get their cut? Given that they're suing these guys (decades too late IMNHO) their stock has gone up considerably with me. (Yes, I'm sure the good people will now rest easy knowing that Duffy now things better of them).
Astute reader(s) may ask how they were able to operate with impunity for so long without the wrath of law falling upon them. Simple. They incorporated in Connecticut which gave them a pass and resisted any attempts by NY and NJ law enforcement to get them for scalping (which is actually against the law). The only real concert venue in CT was the Hartford Civic Center. Tickets for that venue were handled by other scalpers who were, conveniently, not located in Connecticut.
Pearl Jam did yeoman's work in the mid to late 90's by trying to make an end run around Ticketmaster and the scalpers. They limited purchases to mail orders only and only 4 at a time. This probably helped but was frequently changing and often confusing.
The rise of Stubhub, if anything is probably like gas on a fire. I can't imagine how this can help keep ticket prices down. My capitalist heart isn't bothered by the tickets going for market value, rather that the access to those tickets was (and is) effectively controlled by a monopoly. If a venue/artist/ticketmaster was to open all tickets to bidding on eBay or something that would strike me as more fair. Inevitably, there would be another race to the bottom as scalpers would simply flood those auctions also and gobble up all the tickets. The only method of ensuring they don't get tickets en masse that I can think of would be to sell tickets the night of the show in the form of a wristband. Non-transferrable and one per customer. A wise artist would package CD's and concert tickets together. That is, the ticket is inside the jewel case. That would spike their CD sales and abate some of the losses from piracy.
One of the best things about growing up where I did was that every act (major or minor) played nearby. With a zillion venues to fill, there was a great concert nearly every weekend. The meager earnings of my crappy high school job forced me to be selective. I had to pick and choose which ones to attend. Even then, I was intent on getting the best seat possible. That meant one of two things. You had to be first on line at the nearest Ticketmaster booth or you had to go to a scalper. I very very rarely went for the latter option it was just too expensive. I was able to get some really good tickets on occasion but mostly I was relegated to the nosebleed sections. As I got older, the scalpers would eat up more and more blocks of tickets with rapidity that all be forced you buy from them. Either that or start your own band and you might be allowed in to your own show. Now its getting worse.
Small wonder that the
Astute reader(s) may ask how they were able to operate with impunity for so long without the wrath of law falling upon them. Simple. They incorporated in Connecticut which gave them a pass and resisted any attempts by NY and NJ law enforcement to get them for scalping (which is actually against the law). The only real concert venue in CT was the Hartford Civic Center. Tickets for that venue were handled by other scalpers who were, conveniently, not located in Connecticut.
Pearl Jam did yeoman's work in the mid to late 90's by trying to make an end run around Ticketmaster and the scalpers. They limited purchases to mail orders only and only 4 at a time. This probably helped but was frequently changing and often confusing.
The rise of Stubhub, if anything is probably like gas on a fire. I can't imagine how this can help keep ticket prices down. My capitalist heart isn't bothered by the tickets going for market value, rather that the access to those tickets was (and is) effectively controlled by a monopoly. If a venue/artist/ticketmaster was to open all tickets to bidding on eBay or something that would strike me as more fair. Inevitably, there would be another race to the bottom as scalpers would simply flood those auctions also and gobble up all the tickets. The only method of ensuring they don't get tickets en masse that I can think of would be to sell tickets the night of the show in the form of a wristband. Non-transferrable and one per customer. A wise artist would package CD's and concert tickets together. That is, the ticket is inside the jewel case. That would spike their CD sales and abate some of the losses from piracy.
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