Rolling Stones Concert Promoter On Ticket Sales: ‘I Want the Brokers Pissed Off’

By Ray Waddell, Nashville | May 07, 2013 8:59 AM EDT

Price adjustments on Stones shows in L.A. and elsewhere reflect a “flex pricing” strategy and attempts by promoter AEG Live and the Stones to keep tickets out of the hands of brokers, according to John Meglen, co-president of AEG Live subsidiary Concerts West, promoter of the Stones’ 50 & Counting tour.

Meglen adds that reports of deep discounting and sluggish sales are inaccurate, and the shows are coming off well. “It’s unfortunate in our business that everybody wants to be cynics,” he tells Billboard.biz. “The fact is, the tour is doing great and we have no problems whatsoever.”

The tour is on a pace to gross close to $100 million from 18 shows. Meglen, calling from the Oakland airport following the second of two Stones sellouts in the city, says that, as opposed to discounting (Meglen has long expressed his distaste for the practice), certain tickets in the lower bowl are “flex priced,” going up at the top P1 price of $600 at on-sale and moving to the second tier of $450 when and if sales stall.

The strategy is designed to gauge what the market will bear for lower bowl seats and to keep those tickets off the secondary market by upping the risk and cutting into the profit margins for brokers. The practice is not new, particularly with the Stones, but this time out has the added dimension of the flex pricing element for tickets in the back half of the lower bowl.

“[Our] philosophy was, if we would’ve charged $200 a ticket for every seat in the house, everybody would have said, ‘OK, that’s fair.’ We’re selling 240- 260- degrees, about 15,000 tix (per), and that would have been about a $3 million gross [per show],” Meglen explains “But when you showed up that night, the actual gross would have been well over $5 million because of what the brokers got. So if I had 15,000 tickets out there at $200, if the brokers could take 6,000 of my seats that I charge $200 for and charge $750, that’s $3 million [per show]. Why should they get that money?”

In the current pricing model, brokers are still getting $750 for a $600 ticket, Meglen points out, and more than $1,000 for the best seats, but the band is capturing a larger percentage of face value. “We flex $450 [tickets] up to $600 on the on-sale,” he says. “When every single one of them doesn’t sell, you have to rescale some of them, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Meglen says more than 20,000 $600 tickets sold in Los Angeles across the four shows. “Did we hit a point where we ran out of people that would buy at $600? Yeah,” he says. “But why can’t we do the ‘market value’ thing? Why do we have to let the market value proposition live with the scalpers? Why should, in my estimation, $3 million go to the brokers, instead of the artists, in every one of these markets?”

In another strategic move, 1,000 paperless tickets per show were available at onsale on rollingstones.com and the band’s social sites priced at $85, with those seats largely located in the upper bowl but “peppered” with prime seats in the GA “tongue and lips” pit up front. In L.A., production kills from the first shows were added to that mix, which “had nothing to do with our $600 tickets,” Meglen says.

So despite reports of mass discounting, “there are no $600 tickets turning into $85 tickets, I an assure you of that,” Meglen says. “We’re smart enough to know that you re-scale. And you know our feelings on discounting, we will not discount a ticket, and we’re holding to that.”

Meanwhile, Meglen says the intention of putting a dent in the secondary market is working. “Bottom line is we wanted to take the brokers out and get to what the real gross is in a venue,” Meglen says. “If you go on line and see what the brokers are selling tickets for, we took the lion’s share of the money from them, and we’re giving it to the artists. Personally, I want the brokers pissed off. I want that money going to the artists. And, by the way, we have not put a single ticket on the secondary market on this tour, and we don’t need to, because we went and took the brokers’ margin out, and that’s why they’re all screaming and making noise.”

[www.billboard.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-07 17:16 by proudmary.

Flex pricing? so that is what they call fire sale these days. pretty good spin I have to say.

There are many reports of $85 tickets ending up in $600 and $450 sections. The guy is all spin.

The solution to the scalper situation is NOT to raise prices... It is to make everything will call. One pair per ID/credit card, done. Scalpers would only be able to sell singles. DONE.

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oldschool
Flex pricing? so that is what they call fire sale these days. pretty good spin I have to say.

Just like flex scheduling in the NFL, it's just a nice way of saying that the two scheduled teams suck so hard that they're going to air a different game.

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flacnvinyl
There are many reports of $85 tickets ending up in $600 and $450 sections. The guy is all spin.

The solution to the scalper situation is NOT to raise prices... It is to make everything will call. One pair per ID/credit card, done. Scalpers would only be able to sell singles. DONE.

Not sure will call for 20K people would work as it would take most of the day to process them and get them into the area if you don't want them wandering off trying to resell the tickets. look at how long it took to distribute a few thousand tickets at the L.A. show.

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oldschool

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flacnvinyl
There are many reports of $85 tickets ending up in $600 and $450 sections. The guy is all spin.

The solution to the scalper situation is NOT to raise prices... It is to make everything will call. One pair per ID/credit card, done. Scalpers would only be able to sell singles. DONE.

Not sure will call for 20K people would work as it would take most of the day to process them and get them into the area if you don't want them wandering off trying to resell the tickets. look at how long it took to distribute a few thousand tickets at the L.A. show.

True... but I still say it is the best solution. Make everyone show up a bit early, you get your tickets, which you have already paid for, once you get inside...

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flacnvinyl

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oldschool

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flacnvinyl
There are many reports of $85 tickets ending up in $600 and $450 sections. The guy is all spin.

The solution to the scalper situation is NOT to raise prices... It is to make everything will call. One pair per ID/credit card, done. Scalpers would only be able to sell singles. DONE.

Not sure will call for 20K people would work as it would take most of the day to process them and get them into the area if you don't want them wandering off trying to resell the tickets. look at how long it took to distribute a few thousand tickets at the L.A. show.

True... but I still say it is the best solution. Make everyone show up a bit early, you get your tickets, which you have already paid for, once you get inside...

This is now illegal in some areas such as New York state. It places an extreme inconvenience on the buyers. In most cases I refuse to buy these kinds of tickets. Especially when put on sale several months in advance.

And the scalpers have actually helped the Stones over the years. Get ahold of a pair of Shelley Lazar's $99 in the first 10 rows and list them for over $1,000 each? Suddenly those $450 back of the floor tickets look like a bargain.

Someone buys a stack of tickets then tries to get their friends on board and ends up dumping half of them in the parking lot? Stones get all their money and the buyer loses.

It doesn't really matter to the consumer who gets his money.

Interesting, but a bit of a "spin" I think, not sure about no $600 tickets turning into $85 tickes, but some $450 (possibly $600) sure turned into $168 tickets in San Jose and that's more than what you would call "flex-pricing" I think...

Also it sucks for people who struggled to be in early to buy $600 and $450 tickets and see them going for $450 or $168 later on...like for the $1500 pit, it hurts the biggest fans most.

TRANSLATION:
AEG is losing its shirt having signed an $80 million dollar contract guarantee with The Stones. Therefor AEG will present itself as virtuous, as pro-fan and anti- promoter/packager and anti-scalper. Profit is more desireable but trumpeting your virtue is second best.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-07 19:15 by triceratops.

Kwit yer bitchin' and just have fun. I had a fabulous time on Sunday at the Oakland show and am going again to San Jose tomorrow. Money comes, money goes bit there is only one Rolling Stones......see 'em while you can.

It's hardly bitching when people know the AEG promoter is full of shit. "Flex pricing" my ass.

Brilliant.

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proudmary
John Meglen, co-president of AEG Live subsidiary Concerts West

... he is, cos the Stones tour ain't over yet. Once the 18 gigs are done and money is counted, it'll be :

"John Meglen, former co-president of AEG Live subsidiary Concerts West"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-07 19:14 by dcba.

The top guys at AEG must be realy sorry they have taken this tour on with the $80 million payout to The Stones.

It must be an administrative nightmare for them with the ticketing fiasco.

Some fans are obviously happy with their $85 tix ,but a lot of other fans and general concert goers,are not at all happy with what they had to pay.

Restricted views,chats to fans sitting next to you who maybe paid $500 less for same seats etc. all lead to bad public relations.

Still a lot more dates for North America and U.K. to go ,so we havn't heard the last of the tix situation by a long way.

Joe Meglan:

“There are no $600 tickets turning into $85 tickets, I an assure you of that. We’re smart enough to know that you re-scale. And you know our feelings on discounting, we will not discount a ticket, and we’re holding to that.”

Everyone who attended the May 3 show:

"Huh?"

What he probably means is that you can't specifically buy a former $600 ticket for $85...but you can win one in the lottery...or get one from the Box Office Manager if you're not happy with your lottery win.

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gotdablouse
What he probably means is that you can't specifically buy a former $600 ticket for $85...but you can win one in the lottery...or get one from the Box Office Manager if you're not happy with your lottery win.

Thats exactly what he means. I didnt agree with what he says about flex prices. Flex pricing is usually mentioned BEFORE tix go onsale. Many think this tour is a bust, but I dont. These 18 shows will gross close to $100 mil. Thousands of seat sold for $600, many more at $1,500,$1,200, $2,000 etc. In the end EVERBODY will get their fare share of $$$$.

I love the smell of red bloodied capitalism in the morning....







Oh hang on...

Pull the other one. How does this so-called anti-scalping measure help fans? If the face value is that much higher, fans are still getting scalped - but officially so - to be able to get the seats they want at the get-go. The whole process should be transparent but now it even more mired in endless layers of fog and confusion and couldn't get much muddier.

What a crock of horse manure.. "flex pricing" to stick it to the brokers? Please! How about explaining to a fan who spent $600 that (s)he was not screwed. There are many tactics, used by other artists, who did not seem to initially have to charge $600 then "flex" the pricing. Talk about spinning a story. These guys should go into politics. How can anyone believe these people?
They claim "the fact is, the tour is doing great" two shows into it. What poor planning, poor management, poor PR and poor damage control...

This sounds like the lies I tell women.

They have been working on perfecting flex pricing for a while- how to sell every ticket at the highest amount the public thinks it is worth, with most of the money going to the band instead of scalpers. Sounds reasonable to me.

If wha they are saying is true, and they bring in 100 milion and pay the band 80 million, that sounds like 20 million profit. Even if it is part "spin" at least they are explaining.

Good article thnaks for posting proudmary

Prince Rupert's new book A PRINCE AMONG STONES gives real insight into how much people stole from the Stones regarding tickets, including in a major way Bill Graham. I'd much rather the Stones get my money than a pushy hustler like Bill Graham.

If AEG wants to keep scalpers out of the picture, why did they allot 10% of the tickets for any given show directly to 2ndary resalers in the first place? Some 2ndary resale sites had their tickets (venue, row and seat number) listed BEFORE the event was on pre-sale to the general public. Seems to me AEG is in bed with the resale profiteers and because of the ticket buyer's negative opinion is trying to make their partner the fall guy!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-07 23:17 by DearDrK.

Can anyone explain the difference between discounting and flex pricing to me please?

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DearDrK
If AEG wants to keep scalpers out of the picture, why did they allot 10% of the tickets for any given show directly to 2ndary resalers in the first place? Some 2ndary resale sites had their tickets (venue, row and seat number) listed BEFORE the event was on pre-sale to the general public. Seems to me AEG is in bed with the resale profiteers and because of the ticket buyer's negative opinion is trying to make their partner the fall guy!

i studied the whole ticket sale process closely because i wanted the best seats possible and wasn't willing to pay face value.

it became pretty clear to me that the promotor was working with secondary sites like stub hub, etc. that's just based on my observations, rather than cold hard facts, but it seemed like they used those sites to gage demand, sensitivity, and to unload seats at top prices.

what i saw was ticket master only having seats in a certain class in certain sections, and the secondary sites having tickets in the other (better) sections. as the show got closer, more and more of the better sections came up on ticketmaster, and the prices for those seats came down on stubhub. for a couple of days they were both selling for about list price, and then a few days before the show the ticket broker tickets started going down below face value price.

in the end i came out happy - great seats at a reasonable price. for those people who are still on the fence, i'd say spending 10 minutes a day on ticketmaster and one or more of the secondary brokers' sites can help a lot.
the seats i went with were side of stage, lower level front. i waited for days and days (somewhat nervously) to get row 4 seats in this section rather than row 12 because i was so picky. but in the end i got what i wanted. i'd say the side of stage seats (127 for example in oakland, where i was) are some of the best seats in the house and can be gotten for face value or less than face value if you're patient.

They should have sold all the tickets on eBay.

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GravityBoy
They should have sold all the tickets on eBay.

I agree!

AEG has done the impossible and made us all miss Micheal Cohl. This flex pricing/. discounting is there Karma for the way that they did the bait and switch for the Hyde Park shows, selling Gold and Diamond Circles and delivering the wretched Tier 1 Tier 2 product.