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Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

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

#111
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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." Speaking from personal experience, once you get past barriers in yourself like that, life opens up to you. Using the internet as a crutch to avoid social interaction with a possibility of embarr…

You're right and luckily I'm only like that with phones. Generally sociable, well-rounded and out-and-about otherwise. Just the phones...

Of course, if I worked the phones at a restaurant like that, you can bet I'd be driven nuts by all the calls and wish people would give it up or the boss would devise another system!

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

#112
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...

Interesting concept. The ticketing platform should work as a stock exchange for tickets, adapting pricing depending on the demand.

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

#113
post #69
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…

As I remember, the economic concept of "efficiency" has a pretty narrow meaning: The market for a commodity will reach an equilbrium at the most efficient state if prices are allowed to change freely (a free market). An efficient outcome is defined as being an outcome that maximizes the surplus value when the surplus of each individual transaction is summed. The surplus value of a transaction is the difference between the lowest price a seller would accept and the highest price a buyer would pay. The strongest negotiator will take a bigger share of the surplus.

Even if the surplus is split unfairly on many transactions, the market is still said to be efficient if it meets the above definition.

Louis CK's ticketing idea is a pretty unique case because in some ways tickets are easily fungible and lend themselves to this traditional economic analysis.

On the other hand, if Louis ck decides he's only doing 50 shows at mid sized venues, and prices are 45 dollars, as long as all tickets sell the market is actually perfectly efficient. Louis has no more product to sell. If he could have sold the same amount of tickets at $65 all that means is that fans are taking more of the surplus, as opposed to scampers. Even though there might be way more fans than tickets, the market is at an efficient equilibrium because Louis CK's supply curve has become totally inellastic at $45.

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

#114
post #51

Is anyone else having trouble buying tickets? I'm getting a "Sorry, card cannot be processed" error, even after I asked my friends to buy me a ticket where it worked for their card.

Careful. If they, at their option, decide to do Will Call for getting you your tickets, then you'll need the CC of your friend to pick up the tickets (and his/her ID).

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

#115

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…

I understand he doesn't use an editor, but he should at least type in a word processor with spell checking functionality. Errors like 'benifit', 'exhorbanant', 'privalege', and 'preffered' look bad.

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

#116

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…

I understand he doesn't use an editor, but he should at least type in a word processor with spell checking functionality. Errors like 'benifit', 'exhorbanant', 'privalege', and 'preffered' look bad.

To be honest, it doesn't bother me coming from him. It's just another part of his act, and I'm okay with that..

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...It was a real challenge to find venues around the country that could work with our exclusive ticketing service under these perameters. It means I'm playing in very new places. I really appreciate all of these theaters that are letting us give this a try."

We did a charity concert at one of those venues. Between ticketmaster's cut, and their $$$ mail you a ticket charge or the $$ print your own ticket fee and the tax that somehow we don't get back because we aren't a big enough charity It would have been better to make it free and pass a hat around

Ticketmaster is widely regarded as a scummy company. I think everyone in the world is just waiting for someone to knock them off their perch atop the industry. So, yeah, if one of you geniuses on this board would go ahead and get on that, thanks..

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

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fans would know about the discount, so I'm sure they'd be more than happy to give their name and show a driver's license at the door.

Let's also have some backscatter imagers to make sure nobody brings weapons into the venue. Emulating the airlines is a business model guaranteed to succeed!

It's an optional method for fans to get discounts. I think this comparison is too far.

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

#120
This takes a decent sized set of stones, and is overall bold, but likely to work for someone of Louis CKs status. Its been done before unsuccessfully (i.e. Pearl Jame and Ticketmaster) but I think his pricepoint and approach looks more like a sensible business plan and less like a PR stunt. Bravo!
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