NIN @ the 2009 Virgin Fest (more by Bao Nguyen)

A letter from Trent below...

Continue reading "Trent Reznor: thoughts on ticket re-sellers / scalping"

"Yeah, we're getting really good at mergers and acquisitions at this point, so we've had a lot of companies that we've acquired and had to integrate. But we're working on our ability to do this much quicker. We have to keep some of these systems distributed; sometimes you just can't directly integrate them. You've got to keep running them to better integrate them into the overall enterprise."
[Joe Manna, CIO of Live Nation]

"Mr. Billy Corgan was busy in Washington today, first appearing before the House Committee on the Judiciary in a hearing on the Performance Rights Act, then delivering a letter in support of the controversial Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger. You can read Billy's words to the committee here, but essentially Corgan told congressional leaders that radio should pay performers, not just songwriters, for tracks played." [Stereogum]

"Bono said he had no opinion on the mega-merger." [Chicago Sun Times]

"I had a long conversation with a promoter who told me that with regard to a show he was promoting, Ticketmaster was guaranteeing the secondary market for the act." [Bob Lefsetz]

"In a meeting last May with more than 100 ticket brokers, Ticketmaster's then-chief executive, Sean Moriarty, acknowledged that the ticketing giant had used TicketExchange to sell 160 Neil Diamond tickets over two shows at marked-up prices." [Wall Street Journal]

"No Doubt is sticking it to Ticketmaster by selling 10% of the tickets for its North American Tour directly to fans. The goal, according to Jim Guerinot, No Doubt's manager, is for fan club members to buy tickets instead of 2nd party distributors such as TicketNow, the legal scalping division of Ticketmaster. This is the same problem Bruce Springsteen and his fans have been pissed about for weeks." [New York Press]

"AEG CEO Tim Leiweke slammed the proposed Live Nation, Ticketmaster merger, saying that it is 'not good for the industry.'" [The Busines Insider]

"Come on! Only Gene Simmons got into this business for the money. The rest of you were enraptured by the music. Can't you get the public on the same page? Can't you turn everybody into a club rat? Can't we get everybody to go out and see live music on a regular basis? Or do we have to wait until the labels fail, independent promoters are broken and every ticket is sold on TicketsNow and StubHub?" [Bob Lefsetz]

Continue reading "Bono, Billy Corgan, No Doubt, Bob Lefsetz, AEG, others chime in on Live Nation & Ticketmaster"

"Ticketmaster faces a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday about its plan to merge with Live Nation, but at least the company managed to resolve its conflict with the state of New Jersey just before the hearing takes place.

Bruce Springsteen's home state settled with the ticketing giant after fans filed thousands of complaints that Ticketmaster gouged them and others by directing them to its secondary ticketing market, TicketsNow, which offered tickets marked-up hundreds or even thousands of dollars above their asking price on the first day in which they were available.

As penance, the company paid New Jersey $350,000 and promised to compensate approximately 2,200 people who were overcharged as part of the flap, according to the Wall Street Journal (whose article can't be read without a subscription). Their means of compensation is a bit odd; out of those 2,200 disgruntled Springsteen fans, 1,000 will be entered in a random drawing to receive permission to purchase two tickets to another show on the tour without having to pay Ticketmaster's notoriously onerous convenience fees (so that's how you avoid those fees: by winning a lottery?).

In addition, Ticketmaster must erect a better wall between its primary and secondary ticketing businesses and must prove that it is selling its tickets first to the primary market, as opposed to injecting them directly into TicketsNow, whose auction style bidding generally results in higher prices.

Barry Diller, CEO of Ticketmaster, originally pinned blame for the foul-up on Visa. The company later clarified the problem was with its credit card billing system in general, which was overloaded by consumer interest in these shows -- never underestimate the popularity of Bruce Springsteen in the tri-state area.

Top brass from Ticketmaster and Live Nation will appear in a Justice Department hearing on Tuesday to determine whether they should be allowed to merge, called "The Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger: What Does it Mean for Consumers and the Future of the Concert Business?" [WIRED]

Wired further points out that the hearing will be webcast starting at 2:30pm EST.

Smashing Pumpkins @ United Palace (more by Chris La Putt)

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc was hit with a C$500 million ($410 million) lawsuit in Canada on Monday, alleging the company broke the law by reselling tickets at inflated prices.

A Toronto man who tried to buy two tickets to a November 2008 concert by the band Smashing Pumpkins alleges Ticketmaster's website said none were available, but redirected him to the website of the company's TicketsNow resale unit...

...The suit mirrors complaints in the United States that people trying to buy tickets to singer Bruce Springsteen's current tour were redirected to Ticketmaster's TicketsNow site, where they were available at much higher prices. [Reuters]

If the prospect of a single company mounting a Guns n' Madonna tour worries you, it also concerns some in the business. Via e-mail, Tom Morello, the guitarist in Rage Against the Machine, told me that a Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger could have huge consequences.

"Fewer and fewer gatekeepers mean fewer choices and higher prices for fans," he wrote. "One huge monolith means no choice at all. Fans and artists must develop some organized counterweight quickly or resign themselves to their fate." [David Carr, NY Times]

NY Senator Chuck Schumer not only agrees with Tom, he has now joined the fight against Ticketmaster started by angry Bruce Springsteen fans...

"Fans who thought they were going to 'The Promised Land' of Springsteen found themselves in the 'Badlands' of ticket scalpers," Schumer said. The senator added that he wants to put the brakes on Ticketmaster's proposed merger with Live Nation, the nation's largest concert promoter. [Newsday]

NJ's Star Ledger newspaper hasn't forgotten yet either. Today's paper has an article entitled "More music fans claim scalpings by Ticketmaster". In it they talk to people who have come forward with similar claims of Ticketmaster-to-TicketsNow trickery.

alternate headline: Bruce Springsteen fans more mad at Ticketmaster than Phish fans were at Live Nation...

You may have noticed that sometimes when you try to buy a ticket at Ticketmaster, you are instead redirected to TicketsNow which is a scalper site owned by Ticketmaster. In turn, TicketsNow will offer to sell you the same exact tickets for a higher price. Ticketmaster describes it like this...

TicketsNow provides consumers access to live entertainment event tickets, no longer available via primary distribution channels, through its leading online marketplace where buyers and sellers meet in open exchange.

Tickets listed on TicketsNow come from licensed brokers, as well as from individual sellers. All tickets listed on TicketsNow are 100% authentic or your money back.

The potential shadiness involved there is pretty obvious, as a NJ politician pointed out in a letter he wrote to the federal government this week...

A New Jersey congressman has asked the federal government to investigate allegations that tickets to two Bruce Springsteen concerts were diverted to a ticket resale agency moments after they went on sale Monday morning.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.) said his constituents complained that Ticketmaster, the primary ticket seller for the concerts, said tickets were sold out and directed consumers to its subsidiary, TicketsNow, a secondary marketplace where tickets were being offered for resale at three and four times the cover price.

Pascrell wrote a letter yesterday to the Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the Justice Department asking them to "investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow to ensure that the procedure for purchasing tickets remains fair to the average consumer."

"There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate and profit from the secondary market," he wrote. "The speed with which tickets were made available on Ticketmaster's official resale site raises questions about whether TicketsNow brokers were given preferential treatment." [NJ.COM]

The Superbowl (halftime show) was Sunday, Bruce tickets went on sale Monday, and the above letter was in the papers on Wednesday (yesterday). In no time, both Ticketmaster and Bruce Springsteen personally responded with letters of their own...

Continue reading "Bruce Springsteen Ticketmaster controversy! letters from the Boss, a congressman & CEO + Live Nation, TicketsNow"