I talked to the old CEO of TicketMaster years ago about the fees and when I found out that most of the service fees are kicked back to the venues, I found them far less evil. They take all the blame that should be directed at venue owners.
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Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#12I talked to the old CEO of TicketMaster years ago about the fees and when I found out that most of the service fees are kicked back to the venues, I found them far less evil. They take all the blame that should be directed at venue owners.
That seems disingenuous. It is my understanding that the fees are kicked back to the venue owners only if they make TicketMaster their sole agent. If you sell tickets anywhere other than your box office or TicketMaster, you're not going to see a dime of those TicketMaster fees.
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Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that those events are "Ticketmaster events" they are "events I want to attend that are only handled by Ticketmaster." So it really comes down to accepting the Ticketmaster model or pretty much not going to any live concert or sporting events. Of course the other annoying thing that the article didn't mention was TM's habit of "sharing" your email address with partners (which you couldn't opt out of) an…
So it really comes down to accepting the Ticketmaster model or pretty much not going to any live concert or sporting events. I haven't paid a TicketMaster fee in years , and I go to live music events all the time. How, you ask? Indie music. It is alive and well, and the best bands working right now are not playing in arenas. In any major city in the country on any given night (and at least once or twice a week in mos…
Ticketmaster runs tons of stuff that isn't arena scale. Warfield/Grand Regency Ballroom/Fillmore in SF come to mind.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#14Well, I'd like to take this time to recommend Brown Paper Tickets (out of Seattle). They do a fantastic job, and it's very common to see them used in Seattle. A great, ethical service with minimal fees. Especially for small, local events. Even cooler: if your event is free, their service is free.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#15It's perplexing that they charge such a large premium when the industry must be saving many millions of dollars a year in printing costs, box office attendants, and sales.
One thing in this article that I found extremely interesting was that the infamous charge to print your own tickets -- essentially charging the customer for saving Ticketmaster and the box offices money -- is apparently driven largely by the venues. It claims that Hubbard has been successful in getting a third of their partners to drop the fee, which suggests that two-thirds of venues are holding out, and more respon…
I find it even stranger that they don't simply raise the price of the ticket and hide the cost of the fee that way. If a ticket is $25 and then it has a $5 fee I would be upset, but I wouldn't notice if it was just a $30 ticket.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#16I talked to the old CEO of TicketMaster years ago about the fees and when I found out that most of the service fees are kicked back to the venues, I found them far less evil. They take all the blame that should be directed at venue owners.
That supports my theory that TicketMaster's primary reason for existence is to be a scapegoat. Venues want to charge market-clearing prices, but don't want to be accused of "gouging" customers. So they bring in TicketMaster to take the reputation hit, in exchange for splitting the profits.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#17This Hubbard guy sounds really smart. My favorite quote was "If we don't disrupt ourselves, someone else will." It seems like a lot of big business failures would have been prevented if the companies had the courage to disrupt their own business model. Microsoft and their foot-dragging on the web comes to mind. Obviously they haven't failed yet, but wouldn't they be healthier if they had embraced the change and pushed it forward instead of trying to hold their position against it?
Anyway, I hope Hubbard has what it takes to pull off his vision.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#18No big surprise with that. When you have a dominating monopoly on most of the major venues in America, you probably don't lose any sleep at night worry about user experience. The only way that is ever going to change is if people vote with their wallets and stop going to Ticketmaster events...
The problem is that those events are "Ticketmaster events" they are "events I want to attend that are only handled by Ticketmaster." So it really comes down to accepting the Ticketmaster model or pretty much not going to any live concert or sporting events. Of course the other annoying thing that the article didn't mention was TM's habit of "sharing" your email address with partners (which you couldn't opt out of) an…
Yeah, of course you're right but that is what Ticketmaster is counting on. They are kind of like the TSA in a way. They are hoping that you want what they are offering so badly you won't mind being taken advantage of to get it. It's not going to stop being that way while people take it.
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing in this article that I found extremely interesting was that the infamous charge to print your own tickets -- essentially charging the customer for saving Ticketmaster and the box offices money -- is apparently driven largely by the venues. It claims that Hubbard has been successful in getting a third of their partners to drop the fee, which suggests that two-thirds of venues are holding out, and more respon…
I find it even stranger that they don't simply raise the price of the ticket and hide the cost of the fee that way. If a ticket is $25 and then it has a $5 fee I would be upset, but I wouldn't notice if it was just a $30 ticket.
It's because the promoter pays the band based on the face price of the ticket, not on the total price with fees.
At an incredibly high level, there are two historical economic forces at play:
1) The Irving Deal, which states that the goal of the band is to get 90% of all earnings of any event, including concessions, popcorn, tickets, etc. Obviously a very tough proposition in the event promotion business when some of your events make you money, but most break even and some you lose quite a bit on.
2) The Fred Deal, which is what transformed TicketMaster from being a company that cost promoters money (you pay us $.50 for every ticket we sell for you) to one that made them money (we'll charge the customer an extra $10 and give you $8 of it, but you need to sign a multiyear contract and we sell ALL your tickets).
If you're keenly interested in this, you should read the very excellent and recently published book Ticket Masters goes through all of the history and mechanics in great detail. Immediately upon finishing you should come work for me at Ticketfly in San Francisco where we're solving these sorts of problems on a daily basis. ;)
Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America
#20If you like going to the rock show, wrestling with algorithms that deal with high currency, social media analysis on a crazy complete data chain versus the regular induced douchebaggery, building a credible alternative to TicketMaster, or just run-on-sentences, you should come join our team of pirates at Ticketfly in SF.