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Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

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Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#21

Post by rationalbeats »

acgourley wrote: post #13
SwellJoe wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think he is referring to venues like Cafe Du Nord, and Bottom of the Hill.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#22

Post by kloncks »

The thing that irks me the most about Ticketmaster is their absolute monopoly on this market. There's no denying just how crappy of a product they have, which is likely due to not having an incentive or need to innovate as there are no competitors.

Having the unfortunate experience of dealing with them every time I (attempt to) buy football tickets for my college, I really am bothered by the simple lack of innovation in this field. A friend summarized it really well in a tweet a while back:

@Ticketmaster you have absolutely the worst product imaginable. Your employees should be ashamed of the company they work for.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#24

Post by enko »

seannui wrote: post #19
jergason wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks for the book recommendation. Ordered.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#25

Post by orionlogic »

techtalsky wrote: post #14

Well, 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.

I second to Brown Paper Tickets, i love their perspective in ticketing business. Please take time to read this old article: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/14/ta...

And here is the details from BPT website: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/faq.html

Ticketmaster is evil, and it's not just in America, it has lots of child companies all around world and doing the same unfair and awful business model.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#26

Post by tgraydar »

It's a CEO Speedwagon! The story is a nice antidote to the Pearl Jammed version of Ticketmaster's evilness. There's lots of nuance. And, though it might have made a grab for fees early on, Ticketmaster--and Live Nation--finally seem to be innovating, creating services that actually make concerts better.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#27

Post by gergles »

sliverstorm wrote: post #8
pforpal wrote: post #4

It'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.

It's not perplexing at all. They have convinced the public the extra fees are justified. If you have a monopoly, your buyers are paying extra fees, and the cost of goods actually drops, you do not drop your prices.

Uh, no, they haven't "convinced the public" - it's not as if there's any other way to purchase the tickets to events without engaging TM and their extortionate fees. Trying to pretend like TM is a paragon of the free market winning again is just wrong.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#28

Post by vegashacker »

acgourley wrote: post #13
SwellJoe wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A number of the venues allow you to buy tickets directly from the ticket window without the extra fees. (The Fillmore allows this during restricted times, e.g.) I will usually try to do this as a way of not supporting the Master--but, come to think of it, I actually don't know how the money is divided when I purchase like this.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#29

Post by cmer »

andrewflnr wrote: post #17

This 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 pushe…

A great book explaining exactly this: The Innovator's Dilemma (http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Cause-... -- I don't make money from this link)

I think every entrepreneur should read and understand the theories illustrated in the book. It made me realize a lot of things, and understand better why old/established businesses are often replaced by startups.

Re: Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America

#30

Post by [deleted] »

andrewflnr wrote: post #17

This 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 pushe…

[deleted]
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