Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

It's pretty weird how popular music and comedy acts resist setting ticket prices at market clearing levels. If you're selling tickets at a flat rate and a sellout happens in a few minutes that means your tickets were too cheap. Shortages in a market are bad and can be solved with higher prices. Acts that leave surplus on the table are mostly benefiting scalpers not the fans, and it is also part of the reason Ticketmaster can tack on their huge fees. In the internet era there is no reason not to setup an auction system and sell the tickets to the highest bidders.

What seems to happen is that acts worry about their shows having too many random rich people and not enough "real fans". They think without the super-excitement from the "real fans" it would ruin the experience of the show. I'm not sure if that is true, anyone willing to pay a lot of money to attend is probably a real fan, rich or not. But if the bands want to they could allocate a smaller portion of tickets at a lower price using some other method, maybe a lottery, but it's going to be hard to keep the scalpers out.

With all the problems with the copyright-based business models fans should actually want their favorite acts to raise prices and make as much money as they can from touring, instead of the money going to middlemen.

If you try to purchase a ticket you are warned

> We reserve the right to change the method of delivery to Will Call (pick-up at the box office) at any time after purchase. If we make this change the ticket(s) may be picked up within 2 hours of the show’s start time and a photo ID and the charge card used for the purchase will be required to claim the ticket.

This is the same as your "use a registration system and personalised tickets" solution, except without forcing everybody to go through all that hassle. It seems he's chosen to let a few scalpers have a chance, instead of ruining the experience for everybody.

Also, when you attempt to buy the tickets, (at least for the SF venue), your only delivery method is print at home. It looks like your implied fears that he doesn't know what he's doing are unfounded.

He is playing at offbeat venues; The Chicago Symphony center, for instance, and the Symphony Center in San Francisco. A quick peek at both venues will show you that neither are popular among mainstream touring acts.

In general, I 100% agree with you that prices should rise or fall until markets clear, but there is a counter argument that I believe is correct in some cases:

Fans are a complex system, and the people who might turn out for dozens and dozens of shows over years, create buzz, convert friends to your cause, etc. may not have the funds to pay for tickets priced at the margin.

Thus, it might be a mistake to charge market clearing prices that cause long term damage in your fan base.

I don't know for sure that this is correct, but in general, the market evolves behaviors that make sense, so the fact that very few performers try to squeeze every last dollar out suggests to me that it might be a reasonably intelligent strategy to avoid the quick profit that way.