Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

buy.louisck.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 123 posts

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

#91

Post by dclowd9901 »

MartinCron wrote: post #57
geekfactor wrote: post #2

The site is down, but here is the text: hello folks! I'm going on tour this year from October through Feb. I'll be all over the goddamn place. This year, I'm trying something new, building on the fun, success and fan-benifit of selling my content online. We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring t…

Setting up this tour has been fascinating and difficult. this ticketing service is a brand new thing and I really fucking hope it works and that there aren't any problems. If anything comes up, please be patient There is something so honest and earnest about this message. It's basically what I wish I could say whenever I was doing something new and difficult.

The best comedians are simply the ones who say the things we all know in the best way.

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

#92

Post by TylerE »

hristov wrote: post #87
smackfu wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you just say "no ticket transfers," scalping is pretty easy to defeat. 100% mandatory will call, no paper tickets, and they scan the credit card for the sale at the door. Popular solutions for high demand concerts.

That would work, but as I mentioned before there can be a lot of innocent ticket transfers due to people changing plans, etc. These do not result in price increases or artificial supply restrictions. You do not want to actually prevent these (even if they are technically contractually prohibited) because you will piss off a lot of your fans.

Most the time, with bands that have that policy (I am, admittedly talking like club and theater shows, not arena rock shows), advance notice to the ticketing company + a copy of the original purchasers drivers license is considered sufficient.

It's a nice check and balance, and covers the "sell for cost to a friend/acquaintance" route, but is a determent to the professional scalper, since he is required to surrender his identity, essentially, to a 3rd party.

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

#94

Post by vailripper »

guelo wrote: post #52

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 Ticketma…

Felix Salmon had a very interesting video on just this subject, and how Broadway has solved this problem with the TKTS booths: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cw-bqtpMZs&feature=playe...

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

#95

Post by commandar »

tptacek wrote: post #69
antidoh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you're selling tickets at a flat rate and a sellout happens in a few minutes that means your tickets were too cheap." Not necessarily. I see nothing wrong with attempting to control the entire end to end experience, including ticket price. If he's selling at $45 because that's what he wants, there's nothing wrong with that. Or should cancer or diabetes pills be $1000 per pill because the manufacturer will find en…

But it's inefficient: at an artificially low price (let's stipulate that's what $45 is for Louis C.K.), the show attracts more buyers, a larger proportion of whom aren't dedicated fans. Meanwhile, dedicated fans (not heartless rich people) might be perfectly happy to pay $46, $48, or $54 dollars; they can't, though, because they've been locked out by a flood of superficial fans. This is to say nothing of the deadweig…

>But it's inefficient:

Sometimes it's not about extracting the maximum possible dollar amount. Artists like sharing their work with other people. Many of them would gladly do it for free if they could, but charge because they have to make a living just like everyone else.

>some kind of auction mechanism is needed to figure out the right price for a ticket.

If Louis is happy with what he's making off the tickets, then they're set at the right price. What you're proposing would essentially lock out many of his fans that couldn't afford the "right" price that would be set with an auction system.

The traditional problem with intentionally setting an artificially low price is that resellers would buy up tickets, sell them back at market prices, essentially locking out those fans and also reaping the additional profit that the artist was intentionally forgoing.

What Louis is trying to do is design a system that locks out the resellers, and in turn essentially turns the ticket selling process into a lottery for those fans that care enough about seeing him to go buy a ticket early.

As long as there are more people that want to see him than can fit in the venue, there's no way to make it totally fair for everyone. But the approach he's taking allows him to make an amount he's happy with while keeping the financial cost of getting in at a point that he feels is fair to the fans.

It may be inefficient from a pure market standpoint, but, frankly, I think it's going to accomplish exactly what he wants it to.

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

#96

Post by dusing »

MartinCron wrote: post #61
guelo wrote: post #52

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 Ticketma…

More and more acts are charging market rates for tickets. I went to buy tickets for the traveling "Book of Mormon" production in Seattle and I had a pretty rude sticker shock. Better the production get it than the scalpers, I guess, but I can't justify that much on the play when I haven't even finished the book yet.

In Minneapolis I found it cheaper to just buy season tickets. And hey I get 7 other shows and center isle seats!

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

#97

Post by drewrv »

hristov wrote: post #86
ahelwer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What issues would arise with a refundable ticket tied to your identity?

That would piss people off. A lot of people have to change tickets not because of scalping but because of change of plans, etc. This is especially true for big ticket shows were you are supposed to book in advance.

But if it's refundable, what's the problem with a change of plans?

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

#98

Post by cdcarter »

guelo wrote: post #52

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 Ticketma…

Broadway is certainly headed this way with "dynamic pricing" and the "airplane model", where tickets increase in rate and availability as the event gets closer.

It's working.

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

#99

Post by rsbrown »

marquis wrote: post #47
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.

I don't consider a lead generator (i.e., sales affiliate) to be a middleman.

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

#100

Post by prawn »

tptacek wrote: post #70
prawn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always wondered about a market for an auction platform that serves events/similar. After the success of the restaurant Alinea in Chicago, the owner's next project (Next) actually sells tickets to eat there: 'Whether Mr. Achatz’s fans will be similarly loyal remains to be seen. Next will have a highly unusual online-only booking system that sells nonrefundable tickets, rather than accepting reservations. Once a…

The Next ticketing system is a good idea for Achatz because it eliminates an obstacle to purchasing tickets: the near total uncertainty as to when you might get a table. A seating for 4 people at Alinea might require a month or two advance notice; a prime date perhaps even more. So it's a win to be able to look at a website and see when you might be able to get a table --- or, with the new Sicily menu, quickly discov…

I'm from South Australia, so when I'm near exceptionally popular restaurants, it's usually while travelling so I have a fixed window and won't usually have locked that window in until a week or two beforehand.

And the reason I hate calling is that I imagine I'm one of a string of no-chance hopefuls just being a nuisance. And the staff are on the other end thinking "Doesn't this guy know who we are?! You're two months late, bozo."

Would love a web-based system to get around all this!

(Only been to Chicago once and quite liked it despite the weather at that time of year. We enjoyed Avec and The Violet Hour. Had a chance to go to Moto but bailed in the end.)

Post reply on HN