why do you think “special rights” have anything to do with this?

Tickets to concerts are not a ‘public good.’ What makes you think you are entitled to go to a show? This is a free market economy, remember? not stalinist russia, got it?

Put another way, do you whine about not being able to afford a Porsche 911 Turbo? I think not. Why is it your god given right to see a show?

Which leads to the bottom line, regarding bottom lines… People are willing to pay a lot for tickets. I dont see ’scalpers’ holding ‘guns to their heads,’ do you? Why is it that people abandon all notions of personal responsibility when it comes to paying for concert tickets. If a scalper is charging too much for a ticket, then no one HAS TO buy it, right? Arent we adults? Stop the f-ing crying! Trust me, don’t buy it and the price will come down. remember supply and demand, or too busy pouting?

The funniest implication of what youve said is that Ticketmaster itself is somehow too negligent towards its shareholders to capture the revenue that is generated in the secondary, tertiary, and so on, markets… Do you really think they are that stupid?

look at what andrew said:

”

THEY ARE MAKING A PROFIT, AND A LARGE ONE, ON CONCERTS, AND NOT A PENNY OF IT GOES BACK TO THE ARTIST, TO THE VENUE, OR TO THE PROMOTER.

”

So who is the f-ing idiot that let happen? Sean Moriarty? Are you calling IACI the words dumbest and most horrendously retarded company ever?

Naw, what youll never really admit is that if ticketmaster actually charged the “market price” for tickets, and not your notion of teenage-communist-manifesto prices, then you would be in uproar and outrage at ticketmaster for obeying some simple laws, that one day, when you have a job, youll respect; supply and demand. So for now, ticketmaster avoids your wrath, generated by some sophomoric idea that concerts are somehow promised to us in the declaration of independence, and lets you rage at how unfair all this is.

The real problem with concerts: too many asses, not enough seats.

Pearl Jam began the good fight against Ticketmaster over a year ago by booking a tour exclusively in non-TM-affiliated venues. (I believe it opened in Idaho.) The tour collapsed essentially and they still use the bastards to sell tix.

The String Cheese Incident also had public battle against Ticketmaster. But instead of just trying to avoid “the elephant in the room” they came up with an alternative: SCITicketing. Now they can still get their tickets to their dedicated fans but not pay a middle man.

Lots of jambands have jumped on, either using SCITicketing or creating their own service, while the rest of the concert industry stalls and most Americans pick a hobby that’s cheaper than a $50 Incubus ticket.

If you set things up so that everything went through StubHub, then that wouldn’t happen at all. Instead of researching the best way of getting tickets and getting a friend or two to help and hoping for luck, they’re left with a situation where the only way to get in is to have money. That sets up all sorts of class issues (which I would be on the right side of to get in fwiw) and it changes the expectations of the concert goers if they’re paying a lot more.

I’d rather get shut out on occasion than go that route.

zzyzx has a good point, but I’m not sure the current ticket scene is all that much different than what he described. And andrew’s comment hammers home something I breifly discussed in my post about the artists not seeing any of the additional value.

the brokers and scammers are ALREADY working deals to pull in big chunks of tickets for re-sale, and thus pricing out lots of these “teenagers” anyways. They also screw over all sorts of other folks who are even willing to buy the ticket and pay the ridiculous fees. So I might re-phrase your questions like this:

why should someone have special access these tickets at all? Why can they resell them on stubhub without the artist getting any value that their concerts actually generate?

I found Fred Wilson’s auction idea compelling because it acknowledges much of what ALREADY exists for popular shows (in his case, he got duped out of Arcade Fire in NYC). And for the shows that aren’t as hot tickets or sell-outs, the auction could actually serve to bring down the costs. As I said, I don’t have the perfect answer, but it was an interesting idea…espcially for some of the independent bands.

I’m glad peeps are into this either way. One of the reasons I wrote this post was to generate discussion from fans who probably see a lot of shows, and thus have to deal with this ticket scene frequently. thanks for the comments!

The fact is, plain and simple, they are profiting off an industries hard work without contributing back. And they are doing it by finding workarounds on the ticketmaster website, by bribing box office managers, or by otherwise beating the system.

How does this help the fan? How does this help the artist or venue?

Don’t say “It is now just another free-market business area to be developed” or “I’m gonna boycott ticketmaster”… when you go the route of stubhub, you are making somebody rich on the work of others.

Why should someone have special rights to see a show just because they have more disposable income than someone else? The Superbowl uses that model; how are those crowds?

If you price teens out of the market, they’ll just find something else to do at night.