WebProNews

Tag: Ticketmaster

  • Bruno Mars Act Could Help to End Ticket Scalping

    The Bruno Mars Act?

    After Bruno Mars rocked the Super Bowl halftime show, the Hawaiian born singer’s entertainment value sky-rocketed to record heights. So much so, in fact, that three of his upcoming concerts in Honolulu, Hawaii sold out in two hours.

    Tom Moffataa, a local promoter, said he had never witnessed anything before like Mars’ ticket rush in the fifty years he’s been in the business.

    But Mars fans in Hawaii are not the ones getting the tickets. Just 6% of the tickets were sold at the box office to people waiting in line. Out of state scalpers and brokers bought up 42% of the tickets via telephone or through the internet. So the $100 face value for a Bruno Mars concert could be scalped in the area of $450.

    Not too many people stand on line for concerts anymore. The old days of camping outside of the Ticketmaster box office are long gone, due to the ease of getting tickets on the internet. But it doesn’t seem fair to the fans who waited in line in Hawaii to be turned away, empty-handed.

    Now, Hawaiian Senate President Donna Mercado Kim would like to pass a resolution which prompts entertainment venues to sell tickets in-person for the first 48 hours. She said, “Anyone who takes the time to show up in person should have the opportunity to purchase tickets for at least the first two days before opening up to online sales. It’s unfortunate that out-of-state ticket brokers and scalpers will resell these concert tickets back to local residents for an enormous profit. Our residents should enjoy a night of entertainment without having to pay inflated prices.”

    Kim even called the Resolution “The Bruno Mars Act.” It will be a tough act to pass considering most concerts don’t sell out and scalpers will still most likely find their way around waiting in long lines. But going back to the good ole days, although not as easy as getting them on the internet, would at least ensure a fan a seat at a fair price.

    Image via Bruno Mars, Twitter

  • Once Again, Louis C.K. Finds Success In Cutting Out The Middleman

    Once Again, Louis C.K. Finds Success In Cutting Out The Middleman

    Louis C.K. continues to give a giant middle finger to middlemen, networks, and anyone who would attempt to make you pay any more than is reasonable or necessary for his product. And the awesome thing is that it continues to work.

    Earlier this week we told you that Louis C.K. had decided to forgo Ticketmaster and sell tickets for his upcoming standup tour himself – directly from his website.

    Here’s what he said about the venture in an email to fans:

    We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring the price of tickets down and make them easier and less complicated to buy. We figured out a way.

    Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I’ve made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.

    By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I’ve cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing. opt in to the email list if you want, and you’ll only get emails from me.

    The tickets are going for $45 – a flat rate for all shows across the country.

    Now, a few days in, it appears that Louis C.K.’s direct ticket sale move is paying off. Apparently, fans have paid over 4.5 million dollars in just 45 hours of the sale being live:

    That tweet came Wednesday evening, so we can assume the numbers are even better now.

    If you remember, this isn’t the first time Louis C.K. has found success in bucking the trend. Last year, he distributed his standup special “Live at the Beacon” on his site, free of DRM, for $5. In just one week, proceeds hit the $1 million mark (of which he gave about 75% of to charity).

    Other big-name comedians like Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan followed suit, relasing their new standup specials direct to fans.

    I can only express happiness and enthusiasm about this trend. And the more success “cutting out the middleman” finds, the more likely we are to see other content producers trying it out in the future. Of course, like I’ve said before, Louis C.K. is a huge star, and many think that he’s the best living comedian. It will be interesting to see if others who are maybe not at star-powered can find success following the Louis C.K. model.

    And just for good measure, here’s why this funny son of a bitch is succeeding in all of his ventures:

  • Louis C.K. Gives Ticketmaster The Finger, Sells Tix Himself

    Comedian Louis C.K. is pretty well known for doing things however the hell he wants to do them, and when it comes to selling tickets to his stand-up shows, he’s not just going to acquiesce to the man (i.e. Ticketmaster). He’s going to sell them himself.

    He did something similar with his comedy special “Live At The Beacon”, selling downloads of the show for 5 bucks apiece. The idea was so popular–making a million dollars in about two weeks–that other comedians followed his lead, including Aziz Ansari.

    C.K. insists that now that he’s able to make a living doing what he loves, there’s no point in overcharging his fans if its not necessary. He announced on Monday that he will offer tickets only through his website, louisck.net, to his upcoming October tour for a flat rate of $45.

    Besides cultivating a hugely successful stand-up presence, the comedian has also found a hit in his FX show, “Louie”, which is in turns odd, sad, hilarious, and insanely addictive. His observations on the people and world around him have hit home with a big fan base, who have all been clamoring for his presence on Twitter. He obliged, but only to insult them. That’s why we love you, Louis.

    The new season of “Louie” begins this Thursday on FX.

  • String Cheese Incident Sticks it to Ticketmaster, Scalps Their Own Tickets

    String Cheese Incident, like most people on the planet, hate Ticketmaster. Sure, one should expect to pay some sort of fee when utilizing a specific service, but many feel that the company takes advantage of bands and their legions of concert-going fans. Such is the case with String Cheese Incident, a jam band out of Colorado that decided to help fans cope with those outrageous fees you’re forced to pay each and every time you purchase a ticket.

    In order to strike back against Ticketmaster, the band forwarded a handful of fans $20,000, which allotted to secure a handful of seats for their upcoming performance at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. After 400 tickets were acquired, the fans then sent them back to the band, who, in turn, put them for sale on the website at face value. Minus the service charges, of course. String Cheese Incident devotees obviously get the better end of the deal, though I doubt the band makes enough money to sustain such a practice for very long.

    “It costs us money to sell the tickets. But we are going to eat that cost this summer in order to make a better deal for our fans and let them know how much we appreciate them,” explained bassist Keith Moseley.

    Of course, it would make more sense for the band to find another location in which to perform. Unfortunately, Ticketmaster has exclusive rights to a lot of the larger venues, which makes acquiring a place big enough to hold their fans almost impossible. To prevent their fans from having to fork over extra cash just to see them perform, String Cheese Incident decided to simply eat the extra cost and save their followers a little scratch for CDs, t-shirts, and whatever else the band might be peddling at their shows.

    If you’re unable to attend the Greek Theater performance, fear not — String Cheese Incident intends to do the same thing for every concert scheduled this summer.

    (image) corey denis
    @coreythrace     string cheese incident is circumventing ticketmaster’s questionable practices by scalping their own tickets at no service charge – love it!!
    44 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    (image) jonathan gold
    @thejgold     That dismaying moment when you realize an article about the String Cheese Incident will have nothing to say about cheese…
    19 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    (image) Michael Shafrir
    @sugdaddy     Good work String Cheese Incident. Fight the power. http://t.co/UZVzrlTQ
    1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    (image) Brian Reinhart
    @bgreinhart     String Cheese Incident is the name of a band. Bummer, thought it would be a story about a bizarre, edible scandal at a concert somewhere.
    1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    (image) Michael E. Dehn
    @ledzeptickets     Lloyalty to fans 101 Band String Cheese incident bought back 400 seats from brokers and resold them on band site w/ no fees to slight TM
    1 hour ago via Vocus · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

  • String Cheese Incident Protests Tickemaster Fees

    A jam rock band named “String Cheese Incident” (SCI) is not very happy with the way that Ticketmaster does business. So in protest they took about $20,000 and 50 fans and bought as many tickets as they could to their upcoming show at the world famous Greek Theater in Berkley, California. They then took those tickets, which were bought for $49.95 each, and turned around and sold them on their website for that exact amount. “We’re scalping our own tickets at no service charge,” Mike Luba, one of the group’s managers, explained in an interview last week. “It’s ridiculous.”

    SCI has a history with Ticketmaster. In 2003 the band sued Ticketmaster, accusing the company of “abusing its market power by denying the group more than the 8 percent of tickets it customarily makes available to acts.” The two parties reached a settlement that let the band continue to handle tickets for five years, but the agreement expired in 2009. “I would argue that on some level they are our tickets,” Mr. Luba said. “If people in a free market find that Ticketmaster’s service is easier and more effective, by all means go for it. But we have found a group of people who are used to buying tickets directly from the band’s Web site.”

    Normally the band band is able to make private deals with individual box offices for large ticket allotments to its shows, but was unable to make such a deal with the Greek. For those tickets, the band took advantage of a loophole that says the Greek waives surcharges on walk-up sales of its tickets. So if there are no surcharges then Ticketmaster doesn’t get anything. There is only one catch though. If you buy the tickets from the band’s website. There is a $12 charge for shipping. Even with the shipping, it is still cheaper than buying from Ticketmaster.

    Check out a String Cheese Incident playing Austin City Limits here: