Ticket Prices

wanna see maxwell at hammersmith apollo next month but its 50 quid. wtf.

when did concert ticketing companies all become like ryanair, tacking on all sorts of arbitrary extra charges at every stage of the booking process? there's always been booking fees but now there seems to be a "service charge" and "delivery fee" (even for an email or collection on the night) as well. i think these last ones I bought also seem to have bunged on "cancellation protection" which i didn't ask for as well.

fucking infuriating that two tickets with a face value of £12.50 each end up costing £34.

A coworker and I were talking just the other day about the hypocrisy of Eddie Vedder solo tickets costing hundreds

when did concert ticketing companies all become like ryanair, tacking on all sorts of arbitrary extra charges at every stage of the booking process?

ever since I have been buying tickets

Y'all should read this book. It's a very, very comprehensive look at the history of computerized ticketing and how the modern concert industry came to be.

http://www.jambands.com/images/2011/05/12/28500/cover-Ticket-Masterssmaller-353x.gif

Writer goes into a LOT of depth about the Pearl Jam thing, and what other bands went through when they wanted to sell tickets on their own or keep the price below X, and it turns out to be really interesting. (A lot of it comes down to TM having exclusive rights to the full ticket inventory and not being willing to give any of it up to bands; and acts not being willing to take a smaller guarantee to lower the ticket price.)

In London you used to be able to walk up the venue box office and buy tickets in advance for cash at face value. This all changed when venues closed their box offices (because they didn't want to pay anyone to staff them during the day) and outsourced all ticket sales. For a lot of shows now it's actually impossible to pay the face value.

Was trying to book various tickets last night for several gigs from one of the big ticket agents and there was no shopping basket you could load up. Instead they only let you buy one set of tickets at a time so you have pay a "transaction charge" and "delivery charge" for each different event that you're attending wtf. This is on top of the mark-up put on the cost of each ticket.

Went to http://www.wegottickets.com/ in the end cos they don't do that shit.

For UK gigs it's always worth checking http://www.scarletmist.com although my impression is that really hot tickets for sold-out shows don't come up for sale there too often.

Wasn't there an edition of Panorama or Dispatches on recently about ticket agencies gaming the market by buying and re-selling their own tickets via Ebay? Did anyone see it?

That's good, the last I heard ScarletMist was offline because of some big fraud (not SM's fault, I believe) issue.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-great-ticket-scandal-related-links

I haven't seen it yet but from what I saw on twitter Viagogo certainly don't come out of it looking good.

That book looks very interesting, will hassle my library to get hold of it.

Probably this one, which aired last night:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-108/episode-1

xp

I recently bought a ticket for the Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost tour and was reminded why I usually don't go to larger scale shows, bought directly through the venue's website and there was still fees and service charges that amounted to 65% of the base ticket price. I know this is pretty standard, but I still get all o_O when I see the total at checkout. Like, oh $24 isn't bad, oh wait its going to actually be $41.

xp that's the one. Might watch it, but on the other hand it sounds depressing.

When somebody made the bold announcement "Record sales are all over, no-one makes decent money from that anymore, Live shows are where the money is at"..

It was just a matter of time before all significant agencies piled on to get their potential share.

xpost to Anagram - Though I remember turning up to the Shepherds Bush Empire box office to buy tickets for a show with cash and them charging me a booking fee. I demanded to know what it was for. They said for "processing". "But I've just handed you the cash and you've picked up the tickets from a pile in front of you. What exactly did you process?"

xp true, but hardly excuses ant-competitive and borderline illegal practices, does it.

Bjork was $90 and the best Madonna seat I could get for $170 the second they went on sale was on the OTHER SIDE of the arena across from stage. Luckily Philly has a really great promoter (http://www.r5productions.com ) that keeps ticket prices low (Plaid for $13, Spiritualized for $22) and sells tickets fee-less at their box office

as with anything it's the underhanded hiding of charges i find so maddening. i don't actually mind paying seventeen quid a ticket but don't fucking tell me the price is twelve when it simply definitely isn't and never could be.

I love imagining if the rest of the world were run like this. "Right, your gallon of milk rings up at $3.69 as marked on the shelf. Then we add your $1.50 milking fee, $1.23 bottling convenience fee, $1.12 handling surcharge, and $2.25 facility fee, so your total will be $9.79."

Possibly, but then what if they just said "Right, your gallon of milk rings up at $9.79."

Well thats what I'm saying, I'd rather them just price it accurately from the start than "surprising" you with a bunch of fees only when you get to the checkout.

US shops not including sales tax in their prices still pisses me off tbh

ah, they started it then!

Heh well one could mention "tipping" here as well... but let's not do that

Yeah the last thing we need on ilx is another thread on tipping.

A big factor in why I almost never go to shows anymore. If I had gotten through on the Kraftwerk thing and the fees had been more than $5, I likely would've bagged it.

US shops not including sales tax in their prices still pisses me off tbh

This is actually illegal in my jurisdiction...

rather, it's illegal to show the final price including sales tax.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/kid-rock-ticket-prices-jay-z-justin-timberlake_n_3108620.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/kid-rock-progressive-hero-why-hes-right-to-charge-20-per-ticket/275192/

Kid Rock's taking a smaller fee and he cut the ticket prices to his summer tour to $20; t-shirts are $20 too; beers $4; parking $4

I would've paid $20 to see Kool and the Gang or ZZ Top in a heartbeat. Fuckin' sold out up here, though. But then, checking Kid Rock ticket availability was literally the last thing on my mind.

(and I never, ever thought I would ever say this, but right on, Kid Rock)

Gotta give respect to Kid Rock for this

unfortunately this is the same guy who sings "All Summer Long" but yeah, this time I agree with him.

this isn't music-related, but I just looked at tickets on stubhub for upcoming knicks and nets home playoff games and I was SHOCKED at how many are available -- like around 5000 for each of the upcoming games (not even talking about the "if necessary" games). I would imagine this happens with concerts too -- would-be scalpers must buy up a shitload of tix. But then how are they making a profit when so many remain unsold in the secondary market? Or is it all marks thinking they can make a buck? Do they sell at the last minute?

http://media.nbcchicago.com/images/620*349/Joakim+Noah+It