Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
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Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#2There is no reason that event tickets couldn't be sold similarly to airline seats.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#3There is no reason that event tickets couldn't be sold similarly to airline seats.
Expand on what you mean by that?
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#4Hard to care what happens to a company like TicketMaster. As you build your company, ask yourself how they ended up like this.
Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started (everyone hating them and seeing them as an evil money grab)? They probably started with a different ethos.
A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, otherwise we'll just be building the next TicketMaster, Oracle, or Meta.
As far as I know, we get one go. Let's build things that matter and make the world a better place. Greed will even ruin concerts otherwise.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#5There is no reason that event tickets couldn't be sold similarly to airline seats.
The issue that spawned scalping and Ticketmaster is that musicians want to sell tickets under their market value. There's no analogous issue with airline pricing.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#6We bought $700 tickets to see a show we really wanted to see, but ended up being unable to make it.
We tried selling it on Ticketmaster, where you can in theory set your own price, or accept their "best offer". Our best offer was somewhere in the neighborhood of $150, and given that it was the night of the show, we accepted it.
We paid $54 per ticket in "processing fees" when purchasing, and paid $50 in more "processing fees" when selling. I'm sure the eventual buyers of our tickets probably had to pony up something like that as well.
If I had a magic button that made everyone above a certain level working there destitute and homeless, I'd probably break my finger pushing it.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#7Hard to care what happens to a company like TicketMaster. As you build your company, ask yourself how they ended up like this. Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started (everyone hating them and seeing them as an evil money grab)? They probably started with a different ethos. A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, o…
Oh, the shows are great. But the ticket purchasing experience is only slightly better than a root canal, and is typically more expensive.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#8There is no reason that event tickets couldn't be sold similarly to airline seats.
Expand on what you mean by that?
You can't resell a plane ticket. You can get a credit or cancel the purchase depending on the airline's terms. But there is no secondary market in plane tickets. If you show up at the airport and your ID doesn't match the name on the ticket, the ticket is invalid.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Expand on what you mean by that?
You can't resell a plane ticket. You can get a credit or cancel the purchase depending on the airline's terms. But there is no secondary market in plane tickets. If you show up at the airport and your ID doesn't match the name on the ticket, the ticket is invalid.
You can also buy plane tickets from a number of providers.
Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
#10There is no reason that event tickets couldn't be sold similarly to airline seats.
The issue that spawned scalping and Ticketmaster is that musicians want to sell tickets under their market value. There's no analogous issue with airline pricing.
What other services, other than musicians operating in a monopoly environment, deserve criticism for under pricing their services? The problem is a market failure, but the musicians didn't cause it.