Ticketbastard to become touts

ThreadKiller

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/technology/01TICK.html?ex=1063420405&ei=1&en=5d46ad0bf8919942

Stark

ah feck.

Kali

Absolutely ****ing unbelivable.
Hopefully more promoters will take action against this sort of thing (at glasto this year they pursued and cancelled anyone selling tickets at inflated prices on ebay).

comet

Thats a disgrace!!

On another note can anyone tell me why ticketmaster when concerts which sell out won't change the "On Sale" to "Sold Out" or "X" as they use. Its so frustating because I keep thinking maybe they have released more tickets. For example Nick Caves 3 gigs, Bob Dylan Milstreet etc. etc. The .co.uk site updates these immediately

Makaveli

Anybody want to cut and paste the article, don't want to register with the site.

KdjaCL

Originally posted by Makaveli
Anybody want to cut and paste the article, don't want to register with the site.

Ditto please.

kdjac

honru

Thats weird, it was working a few days ago, must be archived premium content now. Anyway, heres the same news story from a different site;

Ticketmaster plans to auction its tickets

Ticketmaster plans to charge whatever people will pay to see their favourite bands and to discourage scalpers. By the end of the year, the ticket giant is to start selling concert and event tickets to the highest bidder through an online auction service. The new system would push aside fans who line up for hours to get the best seats and instead cater to those who will pay the most.

"It has the ability to make (prices) what the market will bear," said Patti Babin, spokesperson for Ticketmaster Canada. "We developed this because the artists and promoters asked us to. They are the ones who are losing out on the money in the secondary market."

Ticketmaster said it also is offering the auction system to stop the circulation of counterfeit tickets and to curb scalping. Tickets originally bought from Ticketmaster are being resold for many times their regular value on Internet sites.

The auction service will be made available to artists and promoters who choose to sell some or all of their tickets at premium prices. Those who don't want to auction tickets still will have the fixed-price system.

Analysts said the auction plan may deter fans.
"There will be a huge backlash if people can't go to concerts they want to see because scalpers, or people who can pay the most, are getting first access to all the tickets," said Adam Cooper, a consultant with J.C. Williams Group, a retail analysis firm in Toronto. "Really, they are not in the business of trying to maximize profits by selling the tickets for as much as they possibly can."

Dennis Ruffo, an Ottawa concert promoter, was also cautious.
"From a fan's point of view, I don't think this would be fair," he said. "Obviously, everyone should have equal access to tickets, especially if you're a fan that lines up overnight. It should be fair and equitable."

Source: lfpress.com

Also, heres an article about why these new auctions suck.

Makaveli

That's shockingly bad.
Hopefully they are totally snubbed by everyone.

gucci

what a shower of arse bandits....annoying thing is there gonna b people willing to part with their cash....oh and by the way ye do realise that they are already ripping out nuts off with their rigged pricing:mad:

therecklessone

I have no idea what ticketmaster Ireland are like, because I buy all my tickets from the Sound Cellar on Nassau Street, but here's an experience I had with ticketmaster UK...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115617

Also came across this story on the Peral Jam fanzine Synergy

originally posted in the Washington Times
Mexican Music Fans Can't Bank on Concert Tickets

Reuters
Sunday, September 7, 2003; 7:31 PM


By John Hecht

MEXICO CITY (Hollywood Reporter) - Mexican rock fans are singing the blues about ticketing practices that literally take them to the bank.

Carlos Zuniga, who waited a decade for the Seattle rock band Pearl Jam to offer a live show in Mexico, was thrilled when a local promoter announced that tickets would go on sale in June. Yet excitement gave way to disappointment after he was excluded from a 48-hour presale, during which tickets were available exclusively to bank cardholders at Banamex, one of the nation's largest banks.

The problem, says Zuniga, was that in order to obtain a debit or credit card, he would have needed to open a bank account with a minimum balance of 1,000 pesos ($93). Factor in ticket costs, some of which fetch up to 1,800 pesos ($168), and throw in an obligatory Ticketmaster service charge and you get a price that goes well beyond many fans' reach.

"I never even considered it an option," says Zuniga, referring to the presale. "It would have cost me the equivalent of a monthly rent payment."

Granted, Mexico City-based promoter Ocesa Entretenimiento added a third Pearl Jam show in which tickets went on sale to the general public. Yet one fan points out that because so many people had been excluded from the presale, the demand for the third show was overwhelming.

"I felt like I was scrounging for leftovers," says 25-year-old Marcos Vazquez.

When Ocesa brought Pearl Jam to Mexico in July, manager Kelly Curtis agreed to come under the condition that the promoter was only going to sell 9,000 presale tickets for a total of three gigs, which is about 15% of some 60,000 seats that went on sale.

He learned later, however, that the company had sold 30,000 such tickets, or about 50% of the available seats. Curtis was also told in a letter he received from Philip Enrst, Ocesa's U.S. regional director, that any person could obtain a bank card by opening an account with a minimum balance of $20. He found out later that the amount required was closer to $95.

"I am not happy to hear that," Curtis said in a telephone interview. "Had we known about all that beforehand, we wouldn't have accepted those conditions."

Guillermo Parra, Ocesa's director of international events, explains that the offer to sell 9,000 presale tickets was based on a "per show" estimate, bringing the total to 27,000 seats. Curtis said the bid sheet he received made no mention of that.

The presale ticketing practice was launched about five years ago by Banamex, Ocesa and Ticketmaster Mexico, which are both controlled by the same company. Banamex assistant director of publicity Carlos Olivos says the presales have been so successful that some shows have sold out completely to the bank's card-carrying members.

"For some shows, there is no limit to the number of tickets we can sell in the presale," he says.

Coldplay fan Ulyses Gonzalez knows about that all too well. He was recently left out in the cold when he attempted to buy a ticket for one of two shows held just last weekend. "By the time I found a friend that had a Banamex card, it was too late," he says. "All the good tickets were gone."

Unfortunately, concertgoers have very few options, mainly because one company controls nearly every aspect when it comes to bringing big-name acts to Mexico.

Latin America's largest live-entertainment outfit, known as CIE, owns a controlling stake in both Ticketmaster Mexico and Ocesa. Currently, Ticketmaster Mexico's only rival is Top Ticket, a relatively small distributor.

Mexico's antitrust laws are far more lenient than those in the United States where Pearl Jam led an ultimately unsuccessful battle against Ticketmaster practices a few years ago.

Last year, Ticketmaster Mexico faced stiff competition from upstart TicketAcces, a subsidiary of Mexican media giant Televisa. But in December, Mexico's Federal Competition Commission (CFC) approved an alliance between Televisa and Ocesa. Under the agreement, Televisa purchased 40% of Ocesa and was ordered to dismantle TicketAcces, thus eliminating the only viable competitor.

Also as part of that deal, Televisa's live-entertainment promoter, En Vivo, ceased to operate. With En Vivo out of the picture, Ocesa is practically the only promoter that can organize events on a large scale, says Santander media and live-entertainment analyst Francisco Rivero. "There are smaller promoters in Mexico," he says. "But if someone is going to bring the Rolling Stones or Madonna, it's going to be Ocesa, and if they don't, nobody else will."

Bas*ards!!!

gucci

dat reminds me i havnt listened to perl jam in months.......oh but getting backk to it its ticketbastard is nearly as crooked as the gaa when it comes to gettin tickets.have to admit it i took presale option a few times myself in local shop but they stopped doin it after u2 slane fiasco......place was nearly wrecked!felt guilty wen i arrived in at 11 o'clock+ collected my ticket.....i promise guys i wont do it again.