"Mr. Rosen, 67, is the godfather of the $18-billion-a-year tickets business. Go to almost any big-name concert -- or to a Dodgers game or to a Broadway show -- and the odds are that you will pay dearly for his legacy.

Those you've-got-to-be-joking prices are, in good part, Mr. Rosen's handiwork. Starting in 1982, he built Ticketmaster into the tickets giant that drives many people nuts. Even before the company merged with Live Nation Entertainment last year, fans and even some performers, like Pearl Jam, complained that it was a near-monopoly. Despite the protests and a nail-biting antitrust investigation, the Justice Department disagreed and approved the merger.

So it might come as a surprise that Mr. Rosen, of all people, wants to challenge this behemoth, which sells tickets for more than 80 percent of the major concert venues." [NY Times]

Though the Thursday show sold out almost instantly, tickets seemed to be available to the Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday Terminal 5 shows for at least 45 minutes. Also worth noting: Stubhub doesn't list a single ticket and Craigslist and eBay are quiet too,

As previously mentioned, tickets to the four LCD Soundsystem shows at Terminal 5 go on sale Tuesday, but now we also know the exact time, price, openers, and a lot of special rules. LCD says:

basic bullet points to know:

-monday and tuesday, march 28 & 29 will feature liquid liquid.

-wednesday and thursday, march 30 & 31, will feature shit robot live.

-tickets for all four terminal 5 shows (march 28/29/30/31) will go onsale via ticketmaster at 9.00am on tuesday 22nd.

-there is a two ticket per person limit.

-the cost of a ticket is $40.00. ticketmaster charges will be $6.90 plus $2.05 per order handling fee. (that's the best we could get, apparently)

-(as an attempt to avoid the "secondary market") there will be no hard tickets. the only way to get in to terminal 5 on the nights of the shows will be to show i.d. at will call and then immediately enter the venue.

-we're told that ticketmaster will also sweep the online purchases daily and delete any duplications from potential scalper bots. (please come to the venue early on show nights - the line for entry may be long). if the tickets for the shows don't sell out very quickly, we'll stop the duplicate ticket thing and allow people to buy tickets for multiple nights. (just want to make sure all who want to go get a ticket before "multiples", if that makes any sense).

-oh... and we can't do a walk-up ticket buy at the mercury lounge box office this time (w/o ticketmaster fees) because those are only the hard tickets, which can be sold afterwards. (yes, i asked about putting names on the hard tickets.)

-more important: we're as bored of this ticket stuff as you are, so let's just have fun a few last times, and then get some food! 2 more liquid liquid shows! the new york debut of mr. shit robot live, maybe featuring some guests! loudness and lights! fancy stuff!

Liquid Liquid is also opening the MSG show.

Bon Jovi fans (more by Ryan Muir)

At Bon Jovi's three sold-out shows this week at the New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the top package -- which includes the takeaway chair, a leather bag and a catered meal -- is $1,875.

Once available only for top-dollar tours by the likes of U2 or the Rolling Stones, V.I.P. packages have trickled down to the rank-and-file of live music, as artists try to maximize grosses and reap some of the markup value that the best seats get on resale sites like StubHub.com. And despite the soft economy, promoters have found that hard-core fans are willing to pay premium prices to get red-carpet treatment for their favorite shows. [A Front-Row Seat, to Go? Rock Fans Pay for Perks @ the NY Times]

" Gov. Paterson is going nuclear in the political fight over New York's now-expired ticket scalping law. The state's 2007 scalping law, which removed price caps on the resale of tickets, expired Saturday.

As a result, Paterson is firing off a letter to 56 ticket brokers, including StubHub, reminding them a more restrictive law passed in the 1920s is back in effect. According to Paterson aides, that law prohibits the selling of tickets for more than $2 above face value.

And it prohibits primary sellers like Ticketmaster from tacking on service and delivery fees.

"Ticket resellers must act in accordance with the laws of New York State," the Paterson administration says in a copy of the letter, obtained by the Daily News." [Daily News]

"An Arizona woman who bought, what turned out to be, counterfeit Phoenix Coyotes playoff tickets helped police nab the suspected scalper with a picture of his license plate.

Mari Alfaro discovered the tickets for sale on Craigslist, and after meeting up with the alleged scalper, Mario Cox, she bought them for $200. But, according to a report on KTVK-TV, Alfaro had a funny feeling about the transaction, so before Cox could drive off she snapped a photo of his license plate." [Ticket news]

Continue reading "phony ticket seller busted via his license plate "

I forgot this in today's big on-sale post. Tickets for Voxtrot's final show which happens to be in NYC at Bowery Ballroom are on sale. Note that the date is June 26th, not the 25th as originally announced by the band. All dates in the previous post.

Continue reading "Voxtrot's final show (June 26th, not the 25th) on sale now "

Tickets are on Fan Club Presale (password: reunited) for the Faith No More show at the Williamsburg Waterfront.

The Boss @ Izod Center in May (more by Tim Griffin)

The Federal Trade Commission has settled with Ticketmaster over complaints that Ticketmaster used deceptive tactics to steer Bruce Springsteen fans to expensive scalped tickets last year. As part of the settlement, the company will pay refunds and, in a move that could have a wide impact on the multibillion-dollar resale business, make disclosures about the availability of the tickets it resells.

The settlement, announced Tuesday by the F.T.C.'s chairman, Jon Leibowitz, concerns 14 Springsteen concerts last May and June. Fans trying to buy tickets through Ticketmaster's Web site were pointed to a subsidiary site, TicketsNow. In what Mr. Leibowitz described as thousands of instances, brokers on TicketsNow -- an eBay-like resale marketplace with no price caps -- advertised tickets they did not have, and fans never got the tickets they paid for.

"TicketsNow.com sold phantom tickets without letting consumers know that the tickets did not exist," Mr. Leibowitz said in a statement. "Then the company held on to consumers' money, sometimes for months, when it knew those fans weren't going to see Springsteen. Clearly consumers deserve better. They deserve to know what they're buying, including the risk that their tickets won't materialize." According to the settlement, Ticketmaster must refund to fans who used TicketsNow the difference in price between the tickets' face value and the final amount. Mr. Lebowitz said those payments could amount to more than $1 million. In addition, brokers on TicketsNow must disclose when they are listing tickets they do not have in hand, and the F.T.C. is sending letters to about 10 large ticket resellers warning them to comply with the law.

Scalped Springsteen tickets have been a focus of news-media and political pressure on the concert industry since early last year, when fans for two Springsteen shows in New Jersey were directed from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow while tickets at face value were still available. Ticketmaster settled with the state of New Jersey over those concerts.

Last month Ticketmaster received approval from the Department of Justice to merge with the concert giant Live Nation. That merger still faces court approval. [NY Times]

"Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., has inked an online ticketing and marketing deal with Ticketfly. The deal marks the largest venue contract to date for the upstart ticketing company, which also handles ticketing for 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., among other venues. The 9:30 is owned and operated by independent promoter I.M.P., which also books and operates Merriweather." [Billboard]

Andrew Dreskin is the co-founder of Ticketfly, Inc., a next-generation ticketing and marketing company. He is the co-founder of the Virgin Mobile Festival, a multi-day music and arts festival. Mr. Dreskin was the co-founder, and president and C.E.O., of TicketWeb, the first company to sell event tickets over the Internet. TicketWeb was acquired by Ticketmaster in 2000. Prior to founding TicketWeb, Mr. Dreskin was the co-founder of Energy Media, an early web design firm. Prior to that, Mr. Dreskin was the executive vice president of Beserkley Records, an influential independent record label. Until its recent acquisition by Knitting Factory Entertainment, Mr. Dreskin was the largest outside shareholder in the Big Easy Concert House, a chain of concert venues in the Pacific Northwest. He holds a B.A. from Tulane University, where he is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council. He is also a member of the board of directors of Headcount, a non-profit voter registration organization.

Independent concert promoter Seth Hurwitz and the Maryland-based companies he co-owns, It's My Party (I.M.P.) and It's My Amphitheatre (IMA), have taken legal action against Live Nation.

In an 11-count lawsuit filed shortly after Live Nation and Ticketmaster announced their intentions to merge in February, plaintiffs I.M.P. and IMA allege that Los Angeles-based Live Nation "deliberately" and "unlawfully" acquired monopolistic power over promotion for the national concert market, and has used its influence to "coerce" artists from only appearing at amphitheaters and other venues the company owns, operates or books.
[Billboard - June 12, 2009]

What does it mean for NYC? How long until Bowery Presents (who probably sells more NYC tickets total through Ticketmaster than anyone else in NYC at the moment) moves to Ticketfly too? Ticketfly is already selling tickets for a few NYC venues: Brooklyn Bowl, Littlefield and Knitting Factory / Warsaw. Nothing on that list is as big as Merriweather, but Brooklyn Bowl is a Bowery Presents-booked venue (though important to note: Brooklyn Bowl were using Ticketfly before Bowery was in the picture there). And even before the TM/LN merge we learned that Bowery wasn't 100% committed to Ticketmaster when they started selling tickets to their NJ venue Wellmont Theatre through Tickets.com (though it is of course possible that they use tickets.com there due to some strange contract that came with the venue when they opened it.... regardless, anyone who has tried tickets.com knows that it won't ever be where Bowery moves permanently).

Meanwhile, Live Nation, who used to use Ticketmaster exclusively but then switched to their own LiveNation.com ticketing system, have started using Ticketmaster again. For instance, Crystal Castles' Irving Plaza show went on sale on Ticketmaster today. Shows that have been on sale for a while, like Ted Leo (and Obits and Screaming Females), are listed on Ticketmaster (its a redirect), but actually only on sale on LiveNation.com.

More details of the Baltimore story are below...

Continue reading "Ticketmaster has to pay refunds to Bruce Springsteen fans, loses Maryland's Merriweather Post Pavilion to Ticketfly"

From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Nathan Hubbard

Is this true? That buyers of DMB and Phish tickets at livenation.com were redirected to coasttocoast.com?

___________________________________

From: Nathan Hubbard

Sorry, been traveling.

No it's not to my knowledge. Have not had fan complaints about this and we monitor issues in the email and call center hourly. We DID find out that a couple of these broker sites including gotthetix.com were using the Live Nation name in their Google ads and displaying the ads when someone searched "Live Nation." This happened in late June. We filed a trademark complaint with Google soon after. But no redirect from the buy button.

We do of course know that many brokers get their tickets using bots that vault them to the front of the line. It sucks for us (we have to build a costly infrastructure that can essentially handle an attack), and more importantly it sucks for the fan (lack of available inventory). We continue to work on technologies that thwart these efforts, and dynamic pricing to address the underlying economic reasons why the secondary market exists.

Thanks for highlighting the great stuff NIN does via Musictoday (part of Live Nation Ticketing). These really are the two options to address the issue; restrict transferability and ask the fan to jump through a few hoops to prove their identity, or price the tickets at what the market is willing to pay. They aren't mutually exclusive

"When country music superstar Keith Urban announced his latest project -- a charity benefit to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame -- Nashville's music community was quick to sing his praises.

"To have someone of Keith's stature step up and do this today -- and who all he's bringing to play in October -- is overwhelming to us," Vince Gill told reporters at the time

The benefit -- "We're All for the Hall," as it was known -- was advertised as "all tickets just $25."

But even before tickets went on sale to the general public, they showed up on scalping web sites like Ticketmaster's TicketsNow -- listed, in some cases, for hundreds of dollars each.

"When you have a highly desirable product with incredible demand, all kinds of shenanigans go on," said music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz, who writes The Lefsetz Letter blog." [NewsChannel5]

"Regulators in the United Kingdom and United States appear likely to impose conditions on the merger of concert promoter Live Nation Inc. and ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. now that British authorities came out against the deal yesterday." [AP]

Live Nation is running its weekly "No Fee Wednesday" promotion today, but for the first time it also includes clubs. For NYC that means Roseland Ballroom, Irving Plaza, and The Gramercy Theatre, in addition to Jones Beach and PNC Bank Arts Center.

'I finally got a Webster Hall ticket at 5:20, after refreshing about 200 times' -Anonymous | July 17, 2009 5:29 PM

Tickets went on NIN.COM-sale at 5pm for the final shows at Bowery Ballroom and Webster Hall. How did you do? Terminal 5 tickets go on sale July 30th.

"Live Nation announced that it is expanding its "No Service Fee" program to every single available ticket in each of its amphitheaters this Wednesday, June 10th, for 24 hours only, exclusively at LiveNation.com.

Last week's debut of "No Service Fee Wednesday" generated a sales spike 500% higher than the average number of tickets sold on a typical Wednesday, as music fans everywhere took advantage of Live Nation's no service fee offer, which helped more concertgoers get to more shows for less money."

"Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.) will announce federal legislation intended to overhaul the concert ticket industry and improve fans' chances of scoring tickets to their favorite acts.

The BOSS ACT (Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing) [which is a clever acronym based on Bruce Springsteen's nickname] will require primary ticket sellers to disclose the number of tickets available for sale to the public and the number held back for fan clubs, presales and artist allocations, Pascrell told The Star-Ledger.

The bill would also prohibit brokers from purchasing tickets during the first 48 hours of the primary sale. It also makes it illegal for any primary ticket seller, promoter, artist or their employees to resell tickets to events they are involved in at more than their face value." [The Star Ledger]

SelectATicket - today (Monday) 10:02 a.m.

" Nobody expected that getting tickets for Bruce Springsteen concerts this fall would be easy. There have been ticket scams in the past, and this time he was offering the chance to witness the "wrecking crew" bring a finale to the old Giants Stadium in New Jersey before the place is demolished early next year. The tickets were supposed to go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday. Instead, tickets appeared on the Internet a week ahead -- ghost seats costing up to $1,300 apiece.

Last week, New Jersey's attorney general, Anne Milgram, filed charges against three companies for selling the phantom tickets (including some for sections that do not exist). "It's plain fraud," she said.

Across the river in New York, where fans routinely face huge markups in the resale market, ticket scalping is basically legal. The state once capped these markups, but lawmakers got rid of that restriction two years ago, and on Monday, Albany is expected to renew the ticketing free-for-all for another year. One reason is that, somehow, a study of this looser market was never finished in Albany. Also, a lot of money has been spread around by lobbyists who want the law to stay just as it is...." [NY Times]

Today, Live Nation announced that it's dropping service fees on more than five million lawn tickets and hundreds of concerts, helping add value and save money for fans throughout North America. The 24 hour event makes June 3rd the biggest one day sale in concert business history.

"No Service Fee Wednesdays," kick off June 3 at 12:01 a.m., offering fans some of the lowest prices of the summer with no ticket service fees on any LiveNation.com-ticketed amphitheater show, and only at www.LiveNation.com.

Throughout the rest of the summer, Live Nation becomes Free-Nation, as it offers a variety of "No Service Fee Wednesdays" specials at www.LiveNation.com, making Wednesday the biggest day of the week for savings on concert tickets for hundreds of shows and millions of fans.

"Summer concerts are a great escape in these tough times," said Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation. "Starting this Wednesday, Live Nation and the world's top artists are making it less expensive for fans to see their favorite bands by waiving service fees on over five million tickets at www.LiveNation.com. We wanted to do something that had never been done before and "No Service Fee Wednesdays" provide incredible value to millions of music fans to attend the hottest concerts this summer."

Tickets for "No Service Fee Wednesdays" go on sale at 12:01 a.m. local time on June 3, 2009 at www.LiveNation.com. This promotion is not valid in combination with other special pricing offers and is subject to availability.

"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]

FORBES: Then what are the challenges for the next five to 10 years?

AEG's Randy Phillips: In 2009 and 2010, our biggest challenge is the economy. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I put two tours on this year--Britney Spears and Taylor Swift--and they both blew out. However, at some point this massive unemployment is going to bite us. I think it's going to happen around June or July, when we start to put tickets on sale for the summer. We're trying to determine what level of staffing and overhead we need for a decreased business model. That's the biggest short-term challenge.

FORBES: What about long term?

Randy Phillips: My biggest concern honestly past the economy is where the headliners of tomorrow are going to come from. That's scary. The record industry has so many of its own problems in terms of sales of music and how to make money on it, so they're not really breaking acts at the rate we're used to. At some point, supply and demand is going to catch up to us. The sweet spot in touring going forward is going to be the 5,000- to 7,000-seat theaters. I think the consumer would rather spend more money on something that means something to them in a more intimate setting.

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.

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]

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

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. are close to a merger, people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that would consolidate two of the most powerful forces in the music industry under one roof.

The combined company would be called Live Nation Ticketmaster, and would merge the world's biggest concert promoter with the world's dominant ticketing and artist-management company. The resulting firm would be able to manage everything from recorded music to ticket sales and tour sponsorship. It could package artists in new ways, for example, allowing corporations such as a cellphone provider to sponsor a concert tour and to sell an exclusive download of a song.

Because it would be so vertically integrated, the new company would also be able to muscle out competing concert promoters and have more power to dictate ticket prices to consumers.

The boards of both companies have yet to approve the all-stock merger, these people said. Terms of what these people described as a merger of equals have yet to be worked out. It was unclear last night which company would be acquiring the other. Live Nation's market capitalization, at $390 million, is slightly higher than Ticketmaster's $351 million. But the concert promoter has more debt and less cash.

Sticking points remain to any deal. Because a merger would concentrate so much power in the music industry under one company, it would require review by antitrust authorities. The deal, which wouldn't entail any exchange of cash, could be announced as early as next week, these people said. [Wall Street Journal]

"Former Live Nation executive Michael Cohl made news last week when according to Pollstar, he reportedly sold about forty percent of his shares in the company worth an estimated $1.73 million. The move comes after a $19 million loss Live Nation suffered in December when U2 exercised its right to have the company buy back shares it paid the band, dealing a new blow to investor confidence in the entertainment and ticketing company. Cohl resigned as chairman of the company in June 2008."
[IT Business Net]

"Wow LIVE NATION IS WORST THAN TICKETMASTER! Anyone have luck?" [Anonymous]

"TOTAL LAME, I was on the screen, pressed reload at 10:00 and haven't been able to get on livenation since." [Anonymous]

"I got to the point where I put my ticket request in and then the security code and then it crashed. What a joke." [Anonymous]

"Same thing just happened to me! Never thought i'd ever say this, but i want ticketmaster back!" [Anonymous]

"So much for the big Live Nation ticket website. What a joke. Come back ticketmaster, all is forgiven" [Anonymous]

Continue reading "Phish too big for LiveNation.com to handle"

"Live Nation Ticketing is live. The bulk of the world's largest promoter's 10-year contract with Ticketmaster has expired and the company has now launched its in-house ticketing company.

"Anytime you have a major rollout, you hold your breath and hope there are no major glitches," Live Nation CEO of global music Jason Garner tells Billboard. "We went live over the [holiday] break and I didn't hear one complaint from anybody about the system."

Garner admits the rollout was "pretty complex, only because we had a bunch of events that had to be transferred from Ticketmaster over to Livenation.com. The rollout went as flawlessly as we could have hoped. I think in general you'd have to call it a major success."

The bulk of the events transferred from Ticketmaster to Livenation.com so far are club shows, as existing ticketing contracts remain in effect for most larger indoor venues. "What we went live with was our own venues, and no amphitheater shows are up yet," Garner points out. "So it was a bunch of small club shows, which in many ways is more difficult because of the volume."

As the launch moves forward, Garner says the primary facet of Live Nation controlling its own inventory is flexibility. "Our goal is always to have a system built around being able to satisfy what the artists and fans want," he says. "We realize in this economy the guy that gets creative and thinks outside the box on ways to create new revenue is going to win. It's about creating new music products for the fan."....

....It is likely that more Live Nation tickets will be priced "all-in" as opposed to service charges being added on. "We're trying to strip the structural rules off and say to artists, 'How do you want to reach your fan? All-in price, status quo, a lower service charge on the lawn? We're just trying to be real flexible and keep options open so we can serve artists," Garner says." [Billboard]