Ticketmaster getting rid of fees for some shows...with major strings attatched!

[remphish1]

Disgusting bait and switch from TM again...

 

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008...tmaster_ex.html

 

Now there are no insentives to go to the box office. Basically it is the same prices as before just you won't get the initial shock you normally would when you try and check out and purchase the tickets in the final step.

[mfwahl]

"We think that fees broken out by line item are awkward and confusing for consumers,"

Great. Condescending and dishonest. What a great company.

[owl]

I have been boycotting TM for about 3 years now. No TM shows for me. They're just not worth it.

[jff]

I don't really miss going to big concerts.

[remphish1]

I have been boycotting TM for about 3 years now. No TM shows for me. They're just not worth it.

 

I wish I could! 90% of the concert venues in NJ and NYC (MSG, IZOD, Roseland, Maxwells, Mercury Lounge, Irving, Bowery, Webster, Beacon, Hammerstein, Central Park) sell ticketmaster tickets...even when you buy on ticketweb which is some of the other venues they are still owned by ticketmaster...

[mfwahl]

I have been boycotting TM for about 3 years now. No TM shows for me. They're just not worth it.

I mostly do too. That is why this new thing is disgusting. For certain shows now, you're going to pay their fees no matter where you buy the tickets.

 

Love your site, btw.

[isadorah]

Now there are no insentives to go to the box office. Basically it is the same prices as before just you won't get the initial shock you normally would when you try and check out and purchase the tickets in the final step.

 

 

the way i read this was that the extra money collected at the box office would go to the artists and not ticketmaster, so there is incentive to go to the box office. the money you pay at the box office goes to the venue and the artist, if you go through TM then the money you pay goes to the venue, the artist, and ticketmaster. kind of like buying a cd, you could buy it at the merch table and more of the money goes to the band or you could buy it from amazon and a portion of the money is divided between the band and amazon.

 

not seeing the fees is less annoying and less painful. albeit, they should get rid of the fees all together, but i would prefer to know how much i am spending on a concert ticket before i get to that last screen and am already committed and have 2 minutes to review my information. i bought tickets to go see Loretta Lynn at the 9:30 club, somehow a $55 ticket became a $67.50 ticket and i didn't buy it through ticketmaster or from a scalper. it would have been nice to know i was buying a $70 concert ticket before i started the whole stressful buying process.

 

probably just me though.

[remphish1]

the way i read this was that the extra money collected at the box office would go to the artists and not ticketmaster, so there is incentive to go to the box office. the money you pay at the box office goes to the venue and the artist, if you go through TM then the money you pay goes to the venue, the artist, and ticketmaster. kind of like buying a cd, you could buy it at the merch table and more of the money goes to the band or you could buy it from amazon and a portion of the money is divided between the band and amazon.

 

not seeing the fees is less annoying and less painful. albeit, they should get rid of the fees all together, but i would prefer to know how much i am spending on a concert ticket before i get to that last screen and am already committed and have 2 minutes to review my information. i bought tickets to go see Loretta Lynn at the 9:30 club, somehow a $55 ticket became a $67.50 ticket and i didn't buy it through ticketmaster or from a scalper. it would have been nice to know i was buying a $70 concert ticket before i started the whole stressful buying process.

 

probably just me though.

 

I see what you are saying but the insentive to save money dissapears (Sure I would like the artist to get more of the money if that is the case but the other side of it is I rather save the service charge and pocket it myself)...Wouldn't this lead to more traffic on the webpage when the shows go on sale. I hope they put some money into easing onsale internet traffic. Why do I have to wait on a virtual line for minutes?!

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

the way i read this was that the extra money collected at the box office would go to the artists and not ticketmaster, so there is incentive to go to the box office. the money you pay at the box office goes to the venue and the artist, if you go through TM then the money you pay goes to the venue, the artist, and ticketmaster. kind of like buying a cd, you could buy it at the merch table and more of the money goes to the band or you could buy it from amazon and a portion of the money is divided between the band and amazon.

 

not seeing the fees is less annoying and less painful. albeit, they should get rid of the fees all together, but i would prefer to know how much i am spending on a concert ticket before i get to that last screen and am already committed and have 2 minutes to review my information. i bought tickets to go see Loretta Lynn at the 9:30 club, somehow a $55 ticket became a $67.50 ticket and i didn't buy it through ticketmaster or from a scalper. it would have been nice to know i was buying a $70 concert ticket before i started the whole stressful buying process.

 

probably just me though.

The article refers to "additional revenue streams" for ticketmaster based on fees at the box office that they are not currently getting.

[ms. yvon]

there was an interesting response posted in the page of the ticket news article.

 

i don't know anything about how this business really works, or where the money goes, but i am happy to gripe about the fees.

mostly my beef with ticketmaster comes with the monopoly they have over venues and ticket purchase options. that they don't always offer hard tickets by mail, but the only other option is the "print now" which carries a fee.

 

 

and don't get me started on livenation. oof.

 

(hey, remphish, thanks for the link)

The deal with Ticketmaster's fees is that most of the money does not benefit Ticketmaster - it benefits the venue, the promoters, and other people in the food chain. The reason for the fees is because many artists have stated in their contracts that they get 100% of the face value of the ticket. Well, if the artist gets 100% of the face value of the ticket, what motivates anyone else to work? Certainly not for free.

 

So Ticketmaster gets "paid" by all the other industry folks to be the whipping boy - they take the hit for collecting the fee, but then are responsible for dividing up that fee to all the interested parties. TM of course collects its own fee.

 

The thing is, Ticketmaster HATES doing business this way, but it has been required to do it this way for so long because of arcane music industry rules. They have been asking artists to change their ways for YEARS but everyone else in the industry would rather the consumer hate the Ticketmaster corp and not the venue or the radio station.

 

With Irving Azoff, Ticketmaster finally has some leverage to say, hey, let's do this the RIGHT WAY and keep our internal fees and costs behind the scenes. You hate it when the phone company adds stupid charges and airlines do the same thing, and now even hotels have a "resort fee" - how stupid is that? So Ticketmaster is finally able to get its way.

[mfwahl]

Yeah, I don't see the box office fee going to artists (Ticketmaster is in the business to make money) UNLESS the specific instances they are saying this will be used are only for artists that have exclusive deals with Front Line Management/Ticketmast Entertainment (like the Eagles, who are also mentioned in the article). If box office fees are ONLY applied to their exclusive clients like the Eagles and Guns n Roses, the policy is at least justifiable. I'm sure Live Nation is doing comparably the same thing with their exclusives like Jay-Z.