In the Opinion Pages of the NY Times today, Albert A. Foer, "a lawyer formerly with the Federal Trade Commission [who] is president of the American Antitrust Institute," writes that:

AT this moment, all over the United States, consumers are buying tickets to games, concerts and other live events under the impression that they have the right to give away, donate or resell the tickets they purchase. They assume that they can do so whenever and with whomever they wish and (as long as they don't violate the few remaining laws against scalping) at whatever price they choose.

But those consumers may be mistaken. In recent years ticket sellers, along with promoters, producers, artists and sports teams, have increasingly taken a new approach to selling tickets. This approach, marketed in the name of innovation, convenience and protecting purchasers, restricts those fundamental freedoms long rightly taken for granted.

The practice is so-called paperless ticketing...

Read the whole article at the NY Times, including the part where he admits that "The American Antitrust Institute, of which I am president, received a modest contribution, in the form of sponsorship of a conference last year, from an advocacy group financed in part by StubHub."

nin.com only had access to a limited number of tickets for the upcoming terminal 5 dates in new york. the remaining tickets will be available through ticketmaster. in an effort to keep tickets in the hands of the fans and out of the hands of brokers/scalpers, ticketmaster will be selling the remaining tickets via their new paperless ticketing system.

here's how it works:
1. buy your tickets online using a credit card.
2. bring the credit card used to purchase your tickets and a valid government issued photo id to the venue.
3. go directly to the door with your guests, present your id and swipe your credit card for immediate entry into the venue. Go to ticketmaster's paperless ticket faq for more info

on friday july 24th, ticketmaster is offering nin.com members an opportunity to purchase "paperless" tickets for the upcoming nine inch nails performances at terminal 5 [and Aragon Ballroom in Chicago] before they go on sale to the public.
to buy tickets for the terminal 5 performances in new york, click here at 5:00pm edt.
password: byebye.

Bowery Ballroom and Webster Hall tickets are already gone.

Continue reading "NIN Terminal 5 & Chicago presales (paperless tickets)"