Reader Santiago CC’d us on a letter to Ticketmaster’s parent company, IAC. As we’ve mentioned before, Radiohead fans are upset with Ticketmaster for linking to and promoting a “partner” ticket reseller that is charging exorbitant amounts of money for hard-to-get Radiohead tickets.
Santiago writes:
To whom it may concern at IAC,
Recently I found out you are the owners of Ticketmaster, I don’t know if you are aware but in April 19 tickets for the Radiohead concert in Toronto went up for sale by Ticketmaster at 10:00 a.m. At 10:00 a.m. it was already impossible to find tickets, they had sold out. Instead Ticketmaster was offering the chance of going to their partner website Ticketsnow.com, and buying the tickets from there, which of course meant that a ticket with a regular price of $70.00 could now be found with a value of up to $500. I intended to purchase two tickets and I am not willing to pay $1000 for them. It is not clear to me how tickets might sellout in the first minute of their launch. Should Ticketmaster and your company be abiding by a business code of ethics this wouldn’t happen, I refuse to buy tickets from scalpers and even more so when those scalpers are linked directly (and protected) to the company that was supposed to provide us with the tickets initially.
I expect this letter to cause no effect whatsoever in your companies policies, but would just like to let you know the frustration that my girlfriend, me and many fans of Radiohead feel towards your company and Ticketmaster.
Sincerely,
Santiago
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Ticketmaster owns TicketsNow. They also own SeatExchange.
I vote Ticketmaster for WCOTY.
I usually don’t have to buy my tickets through ticketmaster. Don’t laugh but I am a big BNL fan, and therefore I’m entitled to pre-sales through their own website before normal people have to buy on Ticketmaster.
Honestly, I think Ticketmaster was better before the days of the internet. I never had problems getting decent tickets to BNL or Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band even when I showed up to the Filene’s where Ticketmaster was located HOURS after the tickets had gone on sale.
@buzzybee: So only people with ridiculous amounts of disposable income should be permitted to attend concerts.
Ability to pay != how much one values an artist or a show.
I’m a huge Radiohead fan and got great seats for the West Palm Beach and Tampa shows, and here’s how:
In Radiohead’s case, they have an official website called WASTE ([www.waste.uk.com] , yes, the domain extension is odd) and tickets for all the Radiohead shows went on sale there FIRST, two days ahead of TicketBastard. As rabid as Radiohead fans are, you can be certain that at least the entire front section of the theater was sold before TicketBastard even had a chance.
WASTE is based in the UK and I had to pay equal fees for order processing and shipping from England, but at least I didn’t have to go through TicketBastard.
For the person complaining about the setlist: Radiohead play a few of the oldest songs each night, and both of my shows they played almost the entire new album, which I prefer. They did play “Just” both nights, played “The Bends” in Tampa, and played “Bulletproof” (!!!) in WPB. With 24 songs in a set, they can’t please everyone each night. Both nights I saw them they played nearly all of “In Rainbows” and two or three songs off each other album except “Pablo Honey.” And come on, you can’t expect “Creep.” The song is 14 years old now and the band themselves have said they don’t like the song any more.
@The Count of Monte Fisto: Well, then I feel sorry for you. Like I said, there are plenty of big-ticket bands that I love, but that I just refuse to see live if my only avenue to do so is through Ticketmaster. People need to quit playing the victim and take ownership of the problem. Tell this corporate bully that we’re sick of paying ridiculous prices (be it in mark-ups, or extra fees). Sooner or later, bands will feel the crunch and decide to take their business elsewhere.
TicketMaster usually contracts with the venues, not with the artists/promoters.
i’ve run into the same problem with ticketmaster. every time there’s a playoff game for the spurs the only option to get even balcony seats is the alternative service so that 17 dollar tickets start at 50 dollars at least. not much good for the average student basketball fan.
@elcook: I guess you didn’t see the prices for Eddie Vedder’s solo tour. I think the tickets were about $70 each before “convenience” charges and were only available at TicketMaster where they sold out in a matter of minutes and then appeared on re-sale sites immediately.
Trent Reznor had a good idea when he decided to pre-sale tickets that would have your name on it and would have to be picked up with ID on the day of the show. Sure, that’d be slow and somewhat impractical to add ID checking to the ticket taking/bag searching/pat down at the door, but then scalpers and their ticket bots would have less of a chance, unless they sold fake IDs along with 400% marked up tickets.
I’m lucky enough to live in a town that TicketMaster doesn’t have any venues in. Not that selectyourtickets.com is much better, but it’s someone else.
Saying as how I’m a card-carrying member of Pearl Jam’s 10Club, I feel the need to chime in on this one.
Lazlo is right about TicketMaster contracting with venues rather than artists. The rub comes in when the artists choose to play venues that use TicketMaster as their ticket seller.
If at all possible, Pearl Jam will play a non-TicketMaster venue over a TicketMaster venue, even if it means smaller crowds and presumably, smaller revenues. Since they are a well established band, have an army of adoring fans and millions of albums sold, they can obviously afford to do this. Conversely, many bands cannot do this for a variety of reasons (needs to increase exposure, lack of power within the industry, being able to “take what you get,” etc.)
The problem, as I see it here is that Radiohead plays cities in the US far less frequently than most other American bands, and is forced into playing larger venues which are invariably under TicketMaster control. If they decide to go the Pearl Jam route and play smaller venues, they’ll alienate their fan base by not having the seating to accommodate them.
Yes TicketMaster sucks, but they’re so established within the music industry that there’s nothing really that you can do but avoid them whenever you can, like Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike, Matt and Boom do.
Ticketmaster owns TicketsNow, but they are not the sellers of the tickets on TicketsNow. It is merely a marketplace for licensed ticket brokers.
Please, consumerist, how about doing a little bit of research, for crying out loud.
@LazloNibble: Big Radiohead fan here, but I feel like some of the blame should fall on them for contracting ticketmaster to be in charge of ticket distribution.
“TicketMaster usually contracts with the venues, not with the artists/promoters.”
…Choose a different venue, my assertion that Radiohead is judged by the friends the keep still stands.
Same thing here in the UK with Madonna tickets. As part of the fan club pre-sale (before the general sale!) I selected a ticket type. Sorry, out of luck – but hey, try these scalpers we’re in league with, they mysteriously have plenty. Before the show even officially went on sale to anyone other than fan-club members. Now try telling me something fishy’s not going on.
@sarcastibitch: There’s something like Ducat King or a similar sounding name that handles ticketsales for several bands now – if you buy through them, you get will call tickets and must present ID at the venue to get the tickets.
Go figure, I tried buying tickets for ticket master, their site
continued to have errors until now, but there are only tickets left
on their TicketsNow site for 4x the cost.