The Stones aren't mentioned, but plenty of relevance to us, and the article makes some interesting points. Among them:

1. Springsteen’s (low-cost ticket) style might seem more altruistic, but performers who undercharge their fans can paradoxically reap higher profits than those who maximize each ticket price.

2. Springsteen and others have angrily denounced scalping at their shows, but their prices are guaranteeing the very existence of that secondary market ...

3. Internet-based ticket reselling has doubled in the past five years and is now projected to be a roughly $4.5 billion business.

The article: [www.nytimes.com]

Damn good piece, thanks for bring it to our attention. I hate what the ticketing business has become. I long for the days of hard, cardboard, printed by local union #1234 tickets! Was lucky to be just old enough to remember that era. General or 'Festival' seating, if you wanted to jam up at the front, you could. Or you could just sit up back, and enjoy the space around you. Audiences always seemed to have 'self adjust' depending where you put yourself. No jerk screaming 'Sit Down!'

That article fails to point out that many of the tickets on Stubhub and other resellers are being sold by the bands and sports teams themselves, not real "scalpers." The extra money goes to their bottom line. That makes two stories the NY Times recently published that seems to justify the ridiculous prices bands such as the Stones want to charge. Not buying it. The Times' journalistic standards are slipping.

The first NYT story from a week or two back was a puff piece for Ticketmaster, terrible. Your point is valid, and I also agree with a commenter on the NYT site who noted that the guy selling tickets on the street is negatively referred to as a "scalper," while online vendor Stubhub is considered in more legitimate terms as a "reseller." What's the difference? Still, this article does expose the hypocrisy and double-dealing of certain beloved blue-collar rockers.

Which reminds me that the Stones' $85 deal was a stroke of genius. We thought we were getting a bargain, so we celebrated by buying more beers and merchandise - where the Stones' profit margins are higher.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-06-11 04:50 by DeanGoodman.

Yeah, it is Springsteens fault the tickets are overpriced at resell. He should snap out of it and help his fans by charging $1000 for tickets. That is logical right? Huh?

What about printing a picture of the ticketholder on the ticket?

For example, ticketmaster accounts you can upload four pictures of people to choose from and you can change pictures each month. Plus no presale tickets for customer of a certain credit card.

Personally I believe Ticketmaster/promoters are in some way responsible.

The other factor is that Springsteen's whole persona is built on a blue collar image. If he charged high prices he would risk his entire marketing strategy.

I saw Petty at the Vic Theatre in Chicago about 10 years ago. There were no hard tickets, my name was on a list and they let me in the door. No way to scalp that. Don't understand why he isn't doing something similar at these smaller venue shows this time around.

The first show I planned to see abroad was London 1990. At the time it was extremely difficult - if not impossible - to buy the tickets from abroad. Concerts were essentially a local market affair. As a consequence scalpers were more a limited phenomenon, both with regard to number of tickets sold and value of transactions.

With the internet and low cost air fares, the potential market of a rock show is the world. This made the business interesting for professional resellers.

Resale of tickets is legal in most jurisdictions. Provided, as is the case here in Italy, that you duly account each transaction and you pay your taxes. (Of course traditional scalpers had a tendency to forget the side bureaucracy of their business: this is what made the outlaws they are).

The combination of all these factors led to the actual ticket prices.

Note that the phenomenon/problem already existed well before for other international events (Olympic games, finals of popular sports in general - tennis, football etc.). In the music business, the prices for most events at the Scala of Milan have been inaccessible for decades.

The problem with pop music tickets is that pop music always was a "popular" form of entertainment, so these kind of prices are seen as a rip off. Sure the market sooner or later will correct the trend, but by that time the band(s) we love might be well over.

Is there a fair solution? An easy alternative?

I don't know.

For sure no one of us has "true fan" tattooed on his ass, so how do you recognize one?

If the Clash were alive and kicking in today's market, I would like to know how Strummer would have dealt with the whole situation.

No easy way out.

I doubt I will ever see the final solution either, because I have the feeling that all this mad system we are living in will collapse much sooner than what we all think.

C

Quote
mnewman505
I saw Petty at the Vic Theatre in Chicago about 10 years ago. There were no hard tickets, my name was on a list and they let me in the door. No way to scalp that. Don't understand why he isn't doing something similar at these smaller venue shows this time around.

that's exactly how the Fonda Theater shows were handled.

Quote
DeanGoodman
The Stones aren't mentioned, but plenty of relevance to us, and the article makes some interesting points. Among them:

1. Springsteen’s (low-cost ticket) style might seem more altruistic, but performers who undercharge their fans can paradoxically reap higher profits than those who maximize each ticket price.

2. Springsteen and others have angrily denounced scalping at their shows, but their prices are guaranteeing the very existence of that secondary market ...

3. Internet-based ticket reselling has doubled in the past five years and is now projected to be a roughly $4.5 billion business.

The article: [www.nytimes.com]

Very interesting and it does shed some light on the Stones' strategy this time around (Kid Rock seems to have taken notes...), next time they'll have to talk about "flex pricing" though, but the reasoning behind attracting people inside with low prices to make more money on "merchandise" loses a bit of ground if the tickets get sweeped by scalpers (official or not) taken "merchandise" money out of the pockets of the buyers...

Didn't Springsteen get nabbed selling tix on the secondary market?

the BOSS is a good guy in my book , because his tickets are AFFORDABLE not like the stones who charge top dollar and then some . i have no right to bitch because i always pay what i have to for good seats to see my favorite band the stones .