Ticketmaster looks to put scalpers out of business...

[davepeck]

...by taking care of the scalping themselves. :rolleyes:

New World In Concert Tickets
Sept. 1, 2003
(CBS) Waiting in line won\'t help you.

Keeping an ear to the ground, checking out Web sites and other news about your favorite musicians might still be of some use.

But in the end, for many concerts, it may soon be true that only cold cash - and plenty of it - will get you the hot tickets you are seeking.

According to the New York Times, Ticketmaster plans later this year to begin auctioning off the best concert seats to the highest online bidders.

The paper says there would be no limit on how high prices could go - it would be simply a matter of how much people were willing to pay.

There is no indication at this point on whether Ticketmaster plans to have any rules to keep ticket brokers or scalpers out of the auction, or would allow all comers - individuals and businesses - to compete on the same basis.

"The band\'s biggest fans ought to have the best seats, not the band\'s richest fans," Tim Todd, 47, a Phish fan in Kansas City, told the Times.

An industry analyst is quoted as saying that prime seats at the hottest concerts are "undervalued in the marketplace" and auctions are likely to push prices up as a whole.

Tickets have long been resold in auction settings - particularly on eBay, which does a heavy volume in tickets of all kinds.

But in many states, the resale of concert tickets is subject to strict rules meant to protect consumers and give the small scale fan a chance to buy tickets for their favorite event.

Ticketmaster\'s plan, by contrast, involves the first time sale of tickets and does not appear to be subject to anti-scalper rules.

"The tickets are worth what they\'re worth," said Ticketmaster CEO and president John Pleasants, in an interview with the Times. "If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it\'s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket\'s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients - the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves - are saying to themselves \'Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.\' "

NOTE: i couldn\'t find the source of this story, so it has not yet been verified...

[tiedyetoga]

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/technology/01TICK.html?ex=1062993600&en=16048ce77a000608&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

BTW, this is the full story and yours is a summary.

[davepeck]

IRONY: i clicked on gray\'s link to the article, and got a pop-up for CheapTickets...

gray - what\'s up the STG? been getting all kinds of database errors since last night...

[tiedyetoga]

All fixed now, the old version of mysql could not handle the traffic. We have it up and running now 100% with a new version.

[kindm's]

As if we needed another reason to hate those fuckers

[Wolfman]

It\'s time to start hating music and sports.  From now on, I\'m sticking to cooking and yoga.

[tiedyetoga]

Wolfman the yoga cooker.

[FrankZappa]

this is absolutely insane. we\'ve all known that ticketbastard has helped scalping companies for years who in turn give them pushbacks, and you dont have to look much further than the phish msg reunion show to see that they dont care who buys the tickets as long as they get there money. and the more money they make, the happier they are. Once i have enough money, I want to open the "No affilation whatsoever with ticketmaster concert hall." I will only allow bands to play there were the only people making money off ticket sales are the band/management and the hall to cover hosting the event. tickets will only be sold through the bands themselves, or at the location and every shows tickets will look completely different so no scalpers can duplicate them.

maybe now congress will take a serious look at this company. ticketmaster has such a strong hold on the concert industry that it is now setting its own prices. this is price guaging and it is illegal. they need to be stoped.

[binx]

thats a decent thought.. but i think if the govt ever does get involved and finally stop ticketmaster from monopolizing the scene, i jus think that another company in about 2-3 months will get jus as big and do it all over again.. theres no stoping the bulldozer of hypocracy that is big business..   might sound pessimistic, but i usually try to go to the bands website imma see and get tickets right from them.. usually works but i dunno, as long the music keeps streamin along undisturbed, ill be happy