We’re leaving eight billion dollars on the table!
You’ve got to listen to Live Nation head Michael Rapino on Peter Kafka’s podcast. Or maybe not. You haven’t got that much time and don’t care.
But then you can’t get a ticket to a show you want to see and need a scapegoat so you denigrate Ticketmaster and illustrate your lack of knowledge and contribute to the problem. And there you have America in a nutshell…a land overloaded with information where everyone complains and points to inaccurate facts.
Within the podcast Rapino delineates Live Nation’s complete business model and tells more about the company’s vision than you can get by reading a lifetime of Rolling Stone pieces. This is the music business education you’re yearning for.
It’s definitely business…and Rapino is one of the two most powerful people in the music business!
The $8 billion figure is the amount by which we underprice tickets.
Let’s go back a step.
If Drake or Beyonce play Madison Square Garden, what are the odds you can get tickets anyway? Superstar acts might tour every three or four years and millions want tickets, but not everybody can go. Just because you can tweet and pontificate on Facebook that doesn’t mean you can get inside the building. Which flummoxes you, that you have access on Ticketmaster, but you can’t conclude the transaction.
Because of the bots.
However this is not a technological problem, no, this is all about economics!
It’s no different than drugs. The government reduces Oxy availability and the heroin dealers see an opportunity and move in. That’s what happened, that’s why everybody’s o.d.’ing, heroin is not only cheaper, it’s a more available fix.
So get off your highfalutin’ college education pedestal and recognize that when an entire industry underprices its inventory there will be those willing to move in and skim the profits.
You can’t put billions up for grabs and expect those who are not already rich, or those who already are, the hackers and the ticket scalpers respectively, to not move in and take it.
Of course there’s subterfuge in the offering.
When tickets finally go on sale they may be less than a tenth of total inventory.
Pre-sales and holdbacks are making up the majority.
Get your Amex or Citi card, or both, join the fan club, do your best to be an insider, there are rewards for being a regular customer as opposed to buying once a year. But the real problem is we’re underpricing our tickets.
What’s the value of a front row Beyonce ticket in NYC?
Four hundred? A grand or $1,500? That’s what they end up going for, either through scalpers or platinum procedures.
Yes, platinum, it’s a way for the industry to capture that income without looking bad. You give a good seat and a laminate and maybe a poster or a meet and greet and somehow that rationalizes a ducat price far in excess of face value.
But the truth is people just want the seats, close, and that’s what they’re worth.
And then you have Hamilton actor Lin-Manuel Miranda bloviating about bots in the New York Times. We haven’t even been able to eradicate e-mail spam, what are the odds we can mess with the bots? Low.
But give “Hamilton” credit, they just jacked up the price for good seats to $849. Don’t get your knickers in a twist, that’s what they go for anyway, not via the primary sale, but via scalpers.
Or, you can enter a lottery for a cheap seat, wherein the victors get in for just ten bucks. But the odds of winning are about as good as those in the California Lottery.
But “Hamilton” has it half right. The rich have unlimited bucks, they’re gonna pay anyway, why not capture that income?
And the poor are priced out, so give them hope, give them a small chance.
However the truth is that in order to make this work, to get rid of the bots, acts have to charge what the tickets are worth.
That’s what the Rolling Stones do, that’s why you can always get a ticket.
But the wimps paying fealty to their fans while they make backroom deals to scalp their own tickets are worried about the backlash. Screw that, the public already knows what tickets are worth, that’s why StubHub and the scalpers are so profitable!
And how great is it that we work in an industry where even the poor will overpay for what they truly desire?
Yes, people will scrimp and save and blow the piggy bank for a show they want to see. And you can always get a ticket at an exalted price, just Google and the offers come right up.
So…
Let’s come out from under the covers, let’s stop blaming the bots.
Either price the tickets at what they’re worth.
Or…
Employ a paperless or lottery system to ensure that the great unwashed can get in.
Expect outsiders to bitch, they always bitch, you’ve got to ignore them. But if you don’t go paperless, if you don’t tie the ticket to the initial buyer, you’re gonna discover that the rich people are gonna get most of the good seats.
And there you have America.
You might be priced out of “Hamilton” at $849 a ticket, but to a corporate denizen, someone who landed in Teterboro, that’s just the cost of doing business, their only decision is whether they want to go or not.
The fact is that you can’t get a ticket because there aren’t enough, they aren’t priced properly and the rich scoop up the good ones.
We can start by pricing our shows properly. As Rapino says, we’ve got to raise the price to sit up close and personal and lower it to sit in the upper bowl.
But that’s never been the case. A bad seat costs almost as much as a good one.
And now, more than ever, people want to sit up close.
I don’t expect rapid change. Acts only have one career, and frequently it’s very brief. But it’s the acts’ responsibility to fix this problem. And railing at scalpers picking up margins like candy ain’t gonna do it.
Who’ll follow the Rolling Stones into flex pricing? Who’ll follow Metallica into paperless? What will it take to make this behemoth industry move forward?
I’d say there’s no chance, then again, this political season has illustrated that the public knows the truth and is ready for change.
And we’re ready for change in the ticketing business.
The best way to a get a ticket is wait to the last minute and buy one from someone on the sidewalk before the show. They are always available and you might be surprised at the cost. There will always be someone trying to get rid of a ticket or two because their friend can not show. Trust me.
Sincerely,
Have Not Bought a Ticket on the Primary Market in Years
Always try to buy a tick from the venue first.
They love eliminating the middle man when possible.
Having worked in the promotion biz as a younger man the trick used to be
getting at capers corners or tiger records or 7th haven in the morning when
tickets went on sale.
Now…we figured out how to beat the system. American express gives out
tix early. Or even better go to the venue the day of theshow and get
great seats that day.
Or….here’s our secret…pull up to the boarding zone at sprint center in
a limo and be letinto the facility and pay nothing for tix. They guy in the
guard box lets you in…you walk into the staging area….and you can walk
back stage. Saw McCartney/stones/springsteen and almost 10 otherbig actsfrom the
left side of the stage for free.
Or if you’re Harley…you have contacts to get firstor second row seat/middle
by being the man with the plan.
Headed to indio California in October for the concert of the decade (Dylan/stones/
McCartney, who and every other major act out there) and have tix in A3/3rd row
because Harley is king!!!!
Yes…its tough to get tix…because promoters can make anywhere from 50k-100K
on big show by letting brokers sell of the tix.
I was backstage for Sammy haggar/first row Fleetwood mac and springsteen
(although I had to make sure he body surfed around me) but its great being
HARLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I worked for plesser and fritz in the old days…had relatives in the concert biz
and still can get great seats. but there’s so few bands I really want to see.
The concert biz has become a huge billion dollar scam!
You’re even more full of sh!t than I thought.
no just been around the music biz for a long time.
family was major promoter in Midwest markets so I know
the ticket deal.
When there was a show at kemper almost all the seats
in section 102 (section just to left of stage..I think that
was the section) ended up with brokers in kc who hiked
the price.
If you were the first one on ticketmaster yu’d see all those
seats sold. then they’d end up at ace or another broker
at above face value.
I’m headed to indio in October for the 2 weekend festival
there and was able to grab some good seats. They sold
40,000 GA tickets and then refused to let the older
crowd of concert goes to bring chairs or blankets. They
changed they rule recently.
concert biz is tough…worked when I was really young
at cowtown. Saw everyone from poco to Kenny loggins
to brwer and Shipley and other pretty big names. Scalpers
really never got a hold of those tickets but I know this
biz and if you have any questions about it I’d be glad
to answer them here on kcc.
It’s all fact rww…just like everything else I wrote.
Obviously you’re a newbie here but I do appreciate your
being a reader/disciple/follower of my comments here
and at my national blogs.
good luck…but as the rest of these old goats learned…never
doubt Harley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But you can’t name them to back up those facts, can you? I worked for Chris. My family owned the promotion business in the Midwest. You remain a liar.
Name the family.
Zuckerman. Litman.
need I say more.
And my cousins were great friends with
stan plesser (cowtown ballroom) and
barry fey (Denver).
Tell us Your name ….
Lies. I was too close to the pulse. If you were there, who you are would be glaringly easy to discern. It’s not like there were 20 of us.
Pay me the million bucks for more info.
Whoever you and tom are…we may have metbut
I haven’t seen many of these people in a long time.
Irv owns pizza shops in cali and steve runs the
fox.
What’s your name Tom?
Obviously you are new here and haven’t read my
many comments that were about the concert
biz.
Go check lefty’s stories….or hearnes from a few years
back.
Harley is never wrong.
Harley is the king of kcc!
I invite further conversations be directed to lawforlife1000@yahoo.com.
My name is Harley!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahah!
Between Glazer and you Harley, I can’t decide which one can tell the biggest lie.
I also worked with Chris. so we probably know each other.
I hate scalpers with all my being. They get first access to tickets the rest of us don’t. I remember the days when if you were willing to put in the time and camp out so you were first or second in line you would get front row seats for $20. Now you have no shot unless you want to pay some asshole $1000 who somehow can get tickets before the public. Not sure how this is legal.
Joe Walsh is coming on Monday, Bob Dylan on Tuesday and both shows have all the prime tickets still available from the venue.
GNR, Louis CK, Weezer, RageAgainstTheMachine/BReal/ChuckD all have tickets available from the original venue.
If anything the story is how few shows are sold out this year.
And it’s because those shows are wildly overpriced.
I don’t know about the price…but dylans shows are ve ry lame.
Louis ck just can’t seem to sell tickets here because he
badmouth kc. Guns and roses are just not top of mind
acts…and even fans from decades ago really are not big
on arrowhead. Bring in a major act with talent like
McCartney or springsteen and they sell out…or move
acts to smaller venues to fill them up.
As far as ticket brokers it was not unusal for show promoters
like fritz or others to hold back tickets for brokers.
At Kemper entire sections of tickets to one side of the
stage were held back for brokers. Figure 800 tickets
to a big show….they add $50 per tickets and there’s an
extra 40K.
Tiger (of tigers records fame held tickets back and
made a “killing”….)
It’s so expensive to play on the road anymore bands need
these prices.
But its supply and demand.
Few artists can sell out sprint because they just don’t
have the fan base.
interesting to see the last minute sales of guns and roses/
and walk up. Could be pretty big.