Ticketmaster is a horrible company • Hacker News Board

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#61

Post by blowski » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #13

That insurance scam is only reason #8382 not to use Ticketmaster. Of course there is one reason to use Ticketmaster: you often don't get a choice anymore. The Venue box office is a joke, and Ticketmaster has an exclusive agreement for the rest so it's either them or pay even more to a scalper. This is why I go to barely any shows anymore. The ones I do go to are at the one local venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster (W…

Agreed. I go to small gigs with max 200 people. I don't miss the overpriced crap beer, half a kilometre from the stage. I like the fact you can talk to the band after.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#62

Post by tptacek » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #35

tptacek wrote: post #23

I understand the psychology here, but it seems pretty irrational. Even after every modifier Ticketmaster applies, tickets to major events are underpriced , as evidenced by the fact that things like the Japandroids show this person bought tickets for almost certainly sold out, and by the fact that the secondary market for tickets clears. I too would rather get one simple straightforward price, rather than the pointles…

The difference is if you paid more to the band, I'd be ok with that. My suspicion is this mostly involves paying more to ticketmaster.

Bands are in a fluid negotiation with both Ticketmaster and the venue for how much of the proceeds of their shows they get. It's different for different bands; you can't look at any breakdown of Ticketmaster's fees or the ticket price and know what it is. Moreover, to whatever extent the bands themselves aren't getting fee income, the venue sure does; the venues might have more market power than Ticketmaster does. The split between the venue and the artist is one of the oldest business negotiations in entertainment. Why are we alarmed about it now?

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#63

Post by RUG3Y » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

parthdesai wrote: post #41

I wanted to buy tickets for MLS final in Toronto this year. General Sale was at 1pm. I log on at 1pm, site doesn't load. Keep refreshing and all tickets are sold by 1:01pm. And rows appear on stubhub at 1:20pm for ~$500 a ticket. I can fucking watch Real Madrid vs Barcelona (arguably the biggest soccer game in the world after CL final) for a ticket price cheaper than that. Fuck Ticketmaster.

I've repeatedly experienced this frustration when trying to buy tickets to see big bands. It's impossible to buy a ticket for a major band these days, I just stick to small bands at local venues now.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#64

Post by pg_is_a_butt » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:51 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #13

That insurance scam is only reason #8382 not to use Ticketmaster. Of course there is one reason to use Ticketmaster: you often don't get a choice anymore. The Venue box office is a joke, and Ticketmaster has an exclusive agreement for the rest so it's either them or pay even more to a scalper. This is why I go to barely any shows anymore. The ones I do go to are at the one local venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster (W…

it's a testament to you weak cowards and your inability to properly wield weapons and rise up against your oppressors in blood.

you're all idiots.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#65

Post by shaklee3 » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:51 PM UTC

justinholmes wrote: post #45

Trying help disrupt TM by building a Stripe version of ticketing to provide nice APIs/grpc etc. https://ticketscale.io/ (still very much alpha)

I think the main issue is not having a different way to buy tickets, but actually signing deals with bands/venues to sell them. There have been many companies that have tried to compete against them, and typically they only get bands that want to move away from TM (Pearl Jam).

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#66

Post by peteforde » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:51 PM UTC

Hey, first off: chillllll out. Choose your battles carefully. Ticketmaster is not a great company, but it's become a lot better than it used to be. Truth!

Anyhow, you need to be aware that venues absolutely will charge a venue fee. Even purchasing tickets at my local club in Toronto from the front bar there is a 10% markup or $1 minimum, whatever is greater.

You don't have to get tickets printed and mailed to you for $2.25. It's 2017 and virtual tickets work very well. In fact, they have advantages like being able to electronically transfer them to your friends in a way they can verify. That is better in every way except that you don't get a stub for your collection.

Anyhow, your post is a sign that their business model is working: you think that TM exists to sell you tickets, but their actual and entire business model is to provide a layer of abstraction over the venues+radio+promoters so that they absorb all of your bad vibes. It's literally the only thing that they add, and they do it really well.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#67

Post by giarc » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:53 PM UTC

meifun wrote: post #48

I used to do web contract work for a company that was eventually bought by Ticketmaster. I left before the sale. I was actually "let go" because I didn't comply with design goals. One of the things that was encouraged in the design was to "hide away" things that detracted the user from checking out quickly. This included: * Smaller font for things that you would gloss over or not even read, when you really needed to…

Re: the time ticker. Is that true, because if you let that timer expire, you are indeed kicked back to the "Select Tickets" page and have to browse again.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#68

Post by blang » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:54 PM UTC

MicroBerto wrote: post #42

Many bands, startups, and other well-intentioned people have taken on TicketMaster in an effort to shake up the industry. All have lost. Nothing has changed.

Yup the first one I remember was Pearl Jam http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pearl-jam-taking-on-t...

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#69

Post by spelunker » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:54 PM UTC

jbverschoor wrote: post #8

jarjoura wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it's 100x better than the old days of waiting in 6-8 hour lines to guarantee a ticket to popular events.

Have you ever tried to get a ticket for something popular with TM?

Every year TM knows the Great American Beer Festival is going to be crazy popular and sell out within 10 minutes, and every year it's still a mess.

I mean I get it's a hard problem and a large crowd like that can't be easy, but if anyone can do it, Ticketmaster should be able to.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#70

Post by dopamean » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 8:55 PM UTC

jarjoura wrote: post #12

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #3

Can anyone offer any evidence to confirm or dispute the rumor I frequently see online in message boards that Ticketmaster is passing most of the profit from these fees onto the venues and it's really the venues that are doing the price gouging here? The idea that is frequently floated is that Ticketmaster bears the brunt of the hate from fans in exchange for letting the performers and venues collect most of the extra…

Ticketmaster has exclusive contracts with venues and usually owns the venues outright, so it doesn't matter where the money goes, it's all back into their coffers. http://www.livenationentertainment.com

> usually owns the venues outright

Really? "Usually?" I don't believe that.