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David Ball from Stereoboard has written a comprehensive piece on the brouhaha surrounding the recent Alicia Keys concert in London, and AEG's choice to force fans to show ID at the gates that matched their tickets in order to shut down the secondary ticket market.
He called it a fiasco. And is not alone:
On announcing the show it was made known that ticketing for this event would be different to your usual gig. A decision was made that the organisers didn’t want anyone selling their tickets to anyone else so chose to go with a name checking system to avoid touting. This is where the problems began. BBC Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’, a consumer news show hosted by Winnifred Robinson, decided to track the show and whether this system could work. What they found appears to be that it didn’t.
As part of their research, BBC spoke with Seatwave who are one of the leading ticket re-seller’s for people who no longer want or can use their tickets for an up-coming show, designed to give people who missed out on sold-out events the opportunity to get hold of tickets. As discussed in previous features this is a system many people are unhappy with but what can’t be denied is that tickets are sold at whatever market value deems it to be. Take this year's Reading & Leeds festival as an example, tickets are selling for up to 50% less than face value as the demand for tickets is actually lower than expected, therefore giving people who felt they wouldn’t be able to afford to go an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have had.
Alfred Branch Jr., from Ticketnews.com also covered the problem:
Dozens of fans, however, were delayed entry and hassled for their ID,
according to press reports, and some were turned away from some gates
and had to go to other gates in order to get in.
"It was chaotic," Graham Burns, chairman of the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents (ASTA), told TicketNews of the show.
With the show not selling out, organizers ended up eventually
relaxing the requirements, which led Cohen and others to question what
was the point of the whole exercise? Red Light Management, Keys'
management company, did not immediately respond to messages seeking
comment.
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Both Billboard and Ticket News are reporting that documents filed with the SEC last week reveal James Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Cablevision Systems Corporation was elected to the Live Nation board of directors.
The addition adds substantial media heft to the company's board. Dolan
is also executive chairman of The Madison Square Garden Company, which
Cablevision spun off as a separate, public company in 2010. MSG owns
such venues as Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon
Theater and the Chicago Theater. It also owns sports teams (New York
Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty) and media properties (MSG,
Fuse).
There is no doubt about Dolan's clout in live entertainment. In addition
to heading cable television company Cablevision, which owns the AMC and
IFC networks and New York Newsday, Dolan is also the executive
chairman of the Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), which owns the
venerable New York City arena and the Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music
Hall and The Chicago Theatre, and combined the four venues are among the
most successful in the U.S.
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The Washington Post reports that round two of ticket sales for the 2012 London Olympics drew public ire within hours of its launch on Friday for the
slowness of the website as thousands of sports fans across the UK logged in at the wee hours Friday morning to get an early start in bidding, and found the site was working — but almost impossibly slow.
Edwin Parkinson, Director of Viagogo told Associated Press:
"This frantic Friday has created the biggest rush ever in U.K. history... It's even bigger than Michael Jackson's comeback tour."
The
latest chapter in a ticketing mess that has drawn criticism nationwide
because of its complexity and perceived lack of fairness, comes after
two-thirds of ticket seekers failed to earn any in a first round that
ended in April.
More than one million people in the UK missed out on tickets according to the Australian Herald Sun:
Nearly two-thirds of the 1.9 million people in the UK who applied to see events at the 2012 London Olympics were left empty-handed.
Despite a batch of three million on sale, only 700,000 applicants - 36 percent - landed the "greatest tickets on Earth."
That left 1.2 million people forced to enter a second round of sales to get a chance to attend the global spectacular next year.
Apologetic organizers promised that those who lost out would be given the first opportunity to buy the next batch of 2.3 million tickets when it goes on sale early June 24.
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Ticketnews.com is writing that it's a mere two weeks away from the sixth annual Ticket Summit conference and trade show in Las Vegas, scheduled for July 13-15 at the Venetian Resort, Hotel & Casino.
Over the course of the conference's three days, Ticket Summit
attendees will have their pick of more than a dozen panels and training
sessions, including the much-anticipated keynote speech of Outbox Enterprises CEO Fred Rosen. Attendees can also network throughout the days, both in the exhibition hall and at the Summit's after-hours events.
Since
the first Ticket Summit event in 2006, the event has expanded into a
twice-a-year format. The conference has already scheduled its 2012
return to New York City for January 18-20 at the Waldorf=Astoria.
The Ticket Summit audience has also evolved into a cross-section of
the ticketing industry and its extended community — both nationally and
internationally. More than 600 people have already registered to attend
the Vegas 2011 event, according to current estimates.
Get your tickets online at Ticketsummit.org
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SeatGeek,
a popular secondary ticket market consolidation site, is launching its “Three For Free
Summer Ticket Giveaway” to send a group of three Facebook friends to a
summer concert or sporting event of their choosing for free.
To enter, simply do the following:
1. Like SeatGeek on Facebook.
2. Search for the event you’d like to attend on SeatGeek.com, copy the
link and share it on SeatGeek’s Facebook Wall, mentioning two friends
you’d like to bring with the following message:
“I want SeatGeek to send me to this event for FREE with @Name, @Name.”
Each entry will automatically be posted to the wall of all three
fans, who will be entered into the drawing to win tickets to that event.
The promotion ends next Friday. Why not surprise your friends or family
with a chance to attend a hot show like Summer Stage in Central Park or
Paul McCartney, to the New York Yankees, or Seattle Sounders?
And it makes sense SeatGeek has chosen Facebook as its avenue for the
promotion. After all, music is one of the ultimate social experiences.
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It's now common knowledge that the advent of large-scale, consumer use of the internet changed the record business irrevocably. Prior to the online explosion, the music industry expected consumers to take a trip to their local record stores to buy CD's. And when ordinary consumers decided that they wanted a more instantaneous, easier way of sourcing music via their computers, the music industry initially fought tooth and nail to stop them. The didn't just initiate legal action against software developers and website operators who provided the infrastructure for file-sharing and downloading, they also sued individuals too. Of course, the inexorable tide of consumer power won the day, and accessing music via the internet is now the norm. The record business reacted badly and slowly, and much of it was simply wiped off the map as a result. The moral of this particular tale is that what the consumer wants, the consumer invariably gets
Jonathan White, the founder of ticketola.com - a ticket exchange which
specialises in concert and festival tickets said recently:
"It's a bit
of a myth that all tickets sold via the ticket exchanges have vastly
inflated price tags. Over 12,000 tickets have been purchased at
Ticketola over the last six weeks, and 96% of them were bought for their
original price, or lower. And if there's any ticket touting happening
at the ticket exchanges, the touts soon realise that ridiculously priced
tickets simply don't sell. It's a buyers market out there."
Over the last three years or so, the same dynamic has hit the live music industry, and specifically the way concert tickets are purchased and re-sold. The secondary ticketing market has enabled people who cannot attend the events for which they've bought tickets, to sell those tickets directly to other consumers. Ticket exchanges like Worldticketshop, Seatwave, Viagogo and Ticketola provide easy to use platforms for consumers to trade tickets amongst themselves. But just like the recording industry ten years ago, many people who work in the live music sector are distinctly unhappy that this is happening. Once again, most of these industry executives are missing the central, and most relevant issue; and that's the fact that the secondary ticketing market is not being driven by website owners, but by consumers themselves. The vast majority of tickets which can be purchased at ticket exchanges are listed by people who have bought tickets for events which they cannot subsequently attend. And most of those tickets are sold for their original price, or for less than their original price. Just like people appreciate the ease with which they can now download music when they want to, they also appreciate it when they are not stuck with tickets that they no longer have any use for. And the buyers who use ticket exchanges are now able to obtain tickets for events that are officially 'sold-out'. So it's a win/win situation for both parties.
Of course, there is the wider issue of ticket fraud, which has been highlighted lately in certain sections of the media. There have been instances of unscrupulous criminals who create websites and sell tickets that they don't actually have. But this is something that happens in all market sectors, not just ticketing. Unfortunately, one down-side inherent in internet shopping is that it's made it easier for criminals to operate, and the ticketing market is no different from other consumer-centric products and services in this respect. On this point, Jonathan White stated:
"Ticket fraud is almost non-existent on the leading ticket exchanges because buyers are protected against this kind of thing. At Ticketola (Ticketola.com), buyers are immediately refunded if the tickets they have purchased turn out to be fakes, and we verify the identity of all our sellers. The real cases of fraud have occurred when criminals masquerade as primary ticket agencies, and they advertise tickets that don't even exist. My advice to ticket buyers is to always use either a reputable ticket agency or ticket exchange - it's very easy to check out which company is operating a particular website. And if you can't find that information out, then don't use that site. Also, if you buy tickets using your credit card or paypal account, you will automatically be refunded if you've been scammed. And whilst I do think that ticket fraud is a very real issue, there's a lot of scare-mongering going on, and it certainly isn't as prevalent as some people would have us all believe."
Unlike the music download market, the secondary ticketing sector is still in it's infancy, and there are going to be many more twists and turns in this particular story. But the genie is now out of the bottle, consumers are using ticket exchanges in their millions, and the ticket market will never be the same again. It will be interesting to see if the live music industry is able to adapt, because if it doesn't, it will be trampled underfoot by the inexorable power of consumer choice.
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Established
in May 2011 by former artists' agent in the live music sector, Jonathan
White and managed by a team of music fans, Ticketola is the first
ticket exchange to feature concert and festival tickets only. You won't
find listings for sports or theatre and you won't find any 'special
deals' with concert or festival promoters either. It is a place for
genuine music fans who who simply can’t use the tickets that they’ve
previously purchased and the majority of tickets that are sold are done
so at something akin to their original value.
Ticketola claims its service fee's are significantly lower than those charged by
the major players, Worldticketshop, Seatwave, Viagogo and Getmein and they don't
expect members to pay extra for insurance policies or postage. On
average, it is 20% cheaper to sell at Ticketola and 44% cheaper to buy
at Ticketola than the aforementioned sites.
Ticketola also offers 100% protection to both buyers and sellers. Their
sellers always get paid on time and their buyers are fully, and
immediately refunded under any of the following circumstances:
1. If the seller does not proceed with the sale after you have paid for your tickets;
2. If your tickets do not arrive in time for the event;
3. If the tickets you purchase are not genuine.
Ticketola wants to create an interactive community of music fans, not
only on their sales platform but also on Facebook, Twitter and their
blog.
The exchange has already attracted several thousands of members and
they're heavily tipped to become the best value ticket exchange of
choice for music fans in the UK and Ireland.
To celebrate their launch, Ticketola (ticketola.com) are currently
running a competition with the prize being a trip of a lifetime to the
legendary Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Plus ten runners up
will each win a £50 itunes gift voucher.
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American heartland rocker John Mellencamp is set to play a series of
live dates in Europe in July, including his first UK shows in almost two
decades. Taking in 14 dates, including three in the UK, Mellencamp will
perform his greatest hits and tracks taken from last year’s full-length
No Better Than This, released through Rounder Records. The album was
recorded at various historic locations including Sun Studio in Memphis,
the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia and in the same
San Antonio, Texas hotel room where Robert Johnson recorded in 1936.
Performing in Manchester, London and Glasgow, Mellencamp will bring
his staple heartland rock back to UK shores. Intent on giving his fans
an unforgettable night given his lengthy absence from UK live scene,
Mellencamp will be searching deep into his back catalogue to bring
unique performances, detailing his musical journey over the past 35
years.
Mellencamp says: “We’re no longer trying to replicate greatest hits
as you heard them on the records. We are looking to rediscover the
music that we’ve made in the last 35 years and present a larger
repertoire and reimagining the songs that you think you know. We are
hoping to strive to discover new ways of presenting the music as such,
not as spectacle and we have no desire to be the equivalent of a human
juke box. At the very heart of this is the blues and the spirit of rock
and roll that we all love.”
Known for his compelling, everyman storytelling, John Mellencamp was
inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and was recipient of
the Woody Guthrie Award in 2003. Consistently hardworking with a hugely
impressive repertoire of over 20 studio albums, these UK tour dates see
the long awaited return of one of America’s all time great singer
songwriters.
UK tour dates
1st July – O2 Manchester Apollo, Manchester
2nd July – HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London
3rd July – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
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The Courthouse News in the US is reporting that the NY Yankees, eBay and StubHub crushed a rather frivolous, proposed class action lawsuit over ticket resales to baseball games.
On June 14, 2010, Newman's client Andrea Weinstein says, she surfed the
Yankees website looking for tickets to a game against the Kansas City
Royals. She says the Yankees page redirected her to StubHub, where she
bought six tickets in the outfield grandstand from an unknown seller.
Weinstein
says the tickets cost her $33 each, plus a $19.80 service charge and a
$4.95 fee to receive the tickets electronically. She says she found out
later that their face value was $20. Weinstein sued StubHub, its
parent company eBay and the New York Yankees on Nov. 3, 2010, alleging
deceptive business practices. She said the resellers should cite the
prices on their tickets.
But the Judge was not having any of it:
"...in a blistering 23-page opinion, U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan
said that her claim presumes that consumers have "a level of stupidity
that the Court cannot countenance."
bU
"If a consumer is forced to pay more than face value for a Yankees ticket, it is due to the economic forces of supply and demand, not StubHub's business practices," Keenan wrote. He also dismissed claims accusing StubHub and eBay of "intentionally aiding and abetting unlicensed ticket resellers," such as the John Doe that sold her the ticket. "The very nature of StubHub and eBay's business is to aid and abet third party ticket sales by sellers who are most likely unlicensed," Keenan wrote.
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CTS Eventim is the frontrunner in a bidding match over the UK's See Tickets along with The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) according to a recent report in the Financial Times.
See Tickets, one of the largest ticketing companies in Europe, is in the advanced stages of being sold by Dutch investment firm Parcom Capital for between £100m and £120m. The sale, which has reached second round bidding, has attracted interest from a handful of private equity parties and at least three trade participants.
And, according to the article, they are not alone - The Ambassador Theatre Group, which is backed by private equity firm Exponent and owns London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre and the Lyceum, is another interested trade bidder.
Rumour has it that
Parcom is dumping See Tickets See Tickets due to a shifting and disrupted primary ticketing market that is being eaten by smaller startups as well as companies such as Event Brite and other new online competitors in the European ticketing business. The plethora of new and different technology options for venues and promoters has chomped into the traditional value chain. After a decade in which CD sales halved and concert ticket prices climbed, the live entertainment business has replaced record labels as the object of fans’ relationship with music industry money makers.
In 2010, CTS Eventim in Bremen acquired 100% of Hamburg-based See Tickets Germany (sold more than 20 million tickets a year) and Ticket Online Group for $183.5 million on July 06, 2010. See Tickets Germany was a member company of See Tickets International in Amsterdam; 40% was owned by Stage Entertainment BV and 60% by Parcom, a private-equity group.
By acquiring See Tickets Germany, CTS Eventim also took over Ticket Online Software GmbH, Ticket Online Sales & Service Center and Ticket Online Polska Sp zoo in Warsaw last year.
Alfred Branch Jr at Ticketnews.com also covered the emerging merger:
A source with direct knowledge of the bidding, who spoke to TicketNews
on a condition of anonymity, said that the possible acquisition figure
quoted by the Times was "significantly inflated," but they
declined to offer more specifics. In addition to AEG/Outbox, CTS and
Ambassador, several private equity firms are also reportedly interested
in See Tickets.
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MusicTank have announced the first raft of speakers for their fourth industry conference, Remake, Remodel: Challenging the ‘Dinosaur’ Myth.
Muff Winwood, who began his career in the Sixties as the bass player of the Spencer Davis Group before rising through the ranks to become President of Sony Music UK, joins Paul Smernicki (Director Of Digital, Universal Music UK), Peter Thompson (MD [PIAS] UK), Martin Goldschmidt, (Founder, Cooking Vinyl), Robert Horsfall, Founder Partner, Sound Advice and of course Tony Wadsworth, BPI Chairman and former Chairman & CEO, EMI Music UK & Ireland, for the half-day conference.
The event builds upon Wadsworth’s recently published report
into the future of the record label, which raised questions about the
recordings business that can no longer be ignored. Five key questions
about the business will be explored in an attempt to map out its new
dynamic.
Said Wadsworth “I'm
thrilled that my report has got people talking! We put the report
together with the input and opinions of many people in the industry.
Several key themes came through from these conversations that we began
to explore and try to make sense of over the course of the report.
“This
conference is an opportunity to explore these themes further across a
wider group of music people. I certainly don't feel we arrived at all
the answers, but perhaps during the conference we may get a lot closer
to some of them.
“The
role of the record label, whatever part of the business you come from,
is a key question. Whether you believe it's had its day, or that its
role in the digital world is as pivotal as ever, or indeed you are
somewhere in between, the debate is timely and promises to be anything
but boring.”
Commented Keith Harris
“Having allowed time for people to digest Tony's report, we are now
looking to widen the debate with this conference, and hopefully reach
some hard and fast conclusions about the way the Recorded Music Industry
is developing."
Building upon the themes and assumptions laid bare by Tony Wadsworth’s report Remake, Remodel: The Evolution of the Record Label,
MusicTank’s fourth industry conference will address the future of the
recordings business. Tony's authoritative take into the future of the
record label raised questions about the recordings business that cannot
be ignored.
- Do financial pressures mean labels will be unable to develop tomorrow’s superstar acts?
- How are developments in media affecting the recording business?
Could media fragmentation hasten a decline in the number of superstar
acts coming through?
- What could this mean for the health of the business?
- Could record labels adapt more quickly if they ditched physical distribution earlier?
- What are the alternatives for artists in today’s business for a recording career?
Speakers
- Tony Wadsworth BPI Chairman, Report Author
- Muff Winwood, Former President Sony Music UK
- Paul Smernicki Director Of Digital, Universal Music UK
- Peter Thompson, MD [PIAS] UK
- Martin Goldschmidt, Founder, Cooking Vinyl
- Robert Horsfall, Founder Partner, Sound Advice
Remake, Remodel: Challenging The ‘Dynosaur Myth’
2.30pm to 7pm July 14th 2011
PRS for Music
29/33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB
Chairman: Keith Harris, MusicTank Chairman, Director of Performer Affairs, PPL
Moderator Dr. Eamonn Forde, Report Collaborator, Journalist
Content Partner Music Week
Event Details
Date: 14th July 2011
Time: 14:30 to 19:00
Venue: The Boardroom
PRS for Music, 29/33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB
Cost: Standard – £65 / members – £45 Tickets must be purchased in advance from www.musictank.co.uk
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A new and independent fan-to-fan ticket exchange has launched itself onto the widely debated secondary ticketing market. Established in May 2011 by
former artists' agent in the live music sector, Jonathan White and managed by a team of music fans, Ticketola is the first ticket exchange to feature concert and festival tickets only.
You won't find listings for sports or theatre and you won't find any 'special deals' with concert or festival promoters either. It is a place for genuine music fans who who simply can’t use the tickets that they’ve previously purchased and the majority of tickets that are sold are done so at something akin to their original value.
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