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Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

buy.louisck.net

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Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#41

Post by AgentConundrum »

alan_cx wrote: post #36
brunorsini wrote: post #3

Not only he is one of the sharpest comedians on earth, he's also quickly becoming our lead crusader against exploitative middle men. Louie, you are our century's Montaigne.

Couldn't agree more. However, there is a slight snag to that: its unlikely he could have pulled this off with out first getting a huge following from the traditional media and all those middle men. Don't get me wrong, what he is doing is brilliant. And Im so glad that it is Louis CK doing this who I was already a fan of. That down load of his gig for $5 was the perfect example of what we want, an artist in control se…

You have to fight power with power. No, he probably couldn't have done this without gaining traction using traditional means, but so what? He's using the power he's gained in that system as leverage to improve the system.

He's in a position to improve the system because he's a part of it, and only because he's a part of it.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#42

Post by roc »

ryanwhitney wrote: post #33
roc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly. But I think the key difference is that Ticketmaster, et al. aren't promoting this. So no-one is likely to even realize these events are occurring unless they've gone to, or were directed to, louisck.net. So that leaves, most likely but not by no means certainly, only people who buy scalped tickets who should've known better. And I can't imagine they'll find any sympathetic ears, or amount to a notable conti…

"only people who buy scalped tickets who should've known better" I'm under the impression that you can still resell tickets, but not for over face value. So people are still going to see tickets for sale on sites other than louisck.net. And those who check his site and see SOLD OUT will probably head out pretty quickly instead of sitting around to read the terms of sale. A consumer seeing tickets on a third party sit…

Absolutely. I agree that honest 'victims' will happen. Outright ticket fraud happens all the time when people deal with scalpers.

I was just trying to explain why I don't think it'll be a notably larger problem than with any other event nor do I see the victims getting even the usual (low) amount of sympathy.

There are simply too many people who agree with Louis' efforts to keep his work as affordable as possible for there to be notable blowback on him.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#43

Post by Jamiecon »

Retroactively cancelling tickets is a non-starter. Labour intensive and prone to embarrassing false positives.

There are two simple, proven ways to avoid ticket re-sale. The first is to use "print at home" tickets. People are unwilling to repurchase these as there is no guarantee that they won't be sold multiple times. The second is to use a registration system and personalised tickets, ideally with a photo provided by the customer.

I wish Louis CK every success, but operating a ticket agency is a complex business. Not just the ecommerce side (which is a nightmare in itself given the bursty nature of the traffic), but marketing, fulfilment, customer services, reissue and an understanding of local rules and regulations are all essential components.

I'm in the UK where the market is more fragmented (and competitive). I do understand the frustration with Ticketmaster in the US, but good ticket agencies can and do add value to the process - and leave the artist free to concentrate on their art.

I work for a (non-TM) ticket agency in the UK.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#44

Post by SoftwareMaven »

ryanwhitney wrote: post #17

"Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce." I thought this was great at first, but I wonder how this will work. Won't canceling the ticket hurt the person who buys it from a scalper? I don't see a way for him to stop scalpers from selling them, and after it'…

Tie the tickets to a credit card, require the old and new credit cards to both be part of the swap transaction online. Ask both how much the transaction cost.

That's a lot of infrastructure for a single tour, but if he got it working well, he could turn it around to other performers to use.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#45

Post by dsl »

jhuckestein wrote: post #32

Does anyone know if it's hard for venues to fill out their inventory? Is there a market for a self-service platform the brings together performers and venues?

A company called Livenation spent the last few years going around buying all the venues that were big enough to hold large acts. They then merged with Ticketmaster to form one big monopoly.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#46

Post by mikeash »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #22

I fully understand the hatred of scalpers but I also kinda like knowing they're an option. I've bought a few overpriced tickets to events I really wanted to attend. I like that I can attend most events I'm interested in so long as I'm willing to pay for it. Is it worth $150 for a $50 ticket? Not usually, but sometimes.

It sounds to me like he doesn't want people to have an essentially guaranteed seat as long as they have a lot of cash. He'd rather people all pay the same and get in or not based on factors other than their wealth or spending. What you're implying is a bug, I believe he sees as a feature. If you fail to get a $50 ticket and then can't buy your way in at $150, that's the system working as intended.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#47

Post by marquis »

rsbrown wrote: post #6

This is phenomenal. I mean that both in the colloquial (it's fuckin' awesome) and the literal. Louis CK's direct-to-consumer efforts are a phenomenon that (I sincerely hope) are ushering in a new era of entertainment marketing and sales. The plethora of middle men at all stages of the current state of the industry (talent discovery, production, distribution) are really destroying the art. Kudos to Louis for using his…

At some point there is always, I believe, the need for the 'middleman' in terms of curation - if everyone sold tickets on their own website you might not know they were around, or not ever hear about them. But I hope that when these new kinds of curations sites evolve (and I'm sure they will) there is a way to monetize sufficiently to maintain a human presence.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#48

Post by jakejake »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #22

I fully understand the hatred of scalpers but I also kinda like knowing they're an option. I've bought a few overpriced tickets to events I really wanted to attend. I like that I can attend most events I'm interested in so long as I'm willing to pay for it. Is it worth $150 for a $50 ticket? Not usually, but sometimes.

The theoretical flip-side is that scalpers may create an artificial demand, which is what causes high prices. Obviously it's more complicated than that because price is also driven by demand & if the show isn't sold out then the scalper inventory is not worth more than face value. But when you do hear about scalpers in cahoots with ticket vendors or even the promoters - showing up getting escorted to the front of the line and buying up all of the front row seats - it's questionable whether they are doing a service or disservice.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#49

Post by marquis »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #5

I wonder if he's having issues with being denied access to certain venues. The reason why ticketmaster and the rest can get away with those fees is because they give a kickback to the venue owner. The venue owner can tell acts to get lost if they don't go through the ticket vendor that gives them $5 per ticket for nothing. Obviously CK is a huge act and you can't blacklist him, but you may need his level of star powe…

Pearl Jam is really a different example: you can't use, say, a local movie theater that converts to stage because of the sheer size of the equipment needed (Metallica had their own jumbo jet for this). For smaller bands and other groups however, I hope to see this kickstart a new era.

Re: Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

#50

Post by ryanwhitney »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #44
ryanwhitney wrote: post #17

"Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce." I thought this was great at first, but I wonder how this will work. Won't canceling the ticket hurt the person who buys it from a scalper? I don't see a way for him to stop scalpers from selling them, and after it'…

Tie the tickets to a credit card, require the old and new credit cards to both be part of the swap transaction online. Ask both how much the transaction cost. That's a lot of infrastructure for a single tour, but if he got it working well, he could turn it around to other performers to use.

That's what a few major tours are requiring nowadays: paperless tickets where you don't even get a ticket, just your card.

With this, he's still sending out paper tickets though. It'll be interesting to see how this in-between method will work as he does seem very serious about cancelling sold-for-profit tickets. Do third party ticketing sites have a way of letting tours get ahold of those who bought second hand tickets.

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