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| American Country Star Taylor Swift Embroiled in Ticket Controversy |
 OP/ED - Taylor Swift is one of the hottest acts in the USA, a nominee for Entertainer of the Year. So who's getting the tickets to her shows? Not the general public according to recent, controversial reports out of the USA. And this appears to be another case of artists and promoters cutting Secondary Ticket Market deals for higher profits above and beyond face value. The numbers speak for themselves and it's not the secondary market players that are the only 'players'... it appears that the promoters, Credit Card companies, and back room deals with management, et al. are playing roles. With artist CD sales tanking due to piracy, artists are being forced to tour more and they are relying more on gig money than recording deals. It's not surprising they are working with the Secondary Ticket Market. And Taylor Swift is not the only artist in the industry being accused of redirecting blocks of tickets to the secondary market for huge profit. Neil Diamond, Van Halen, the Eagles, Beyonce, etc. Many of the acts that are managed by the Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff's other company, Frontline have been accused of the same in the Wall Street Journal. The Taylor Swift revelation yesterday is starting to sound a a bit like that Ticketsnow, Ticketmaster fiasco that took place around Bruce Springsteen earlier this year. Concerning the Swift gigs, there were widespread reports in Minneapolis of would-be buyers being turned down for tickets less than a minute after they went on sale at Ticketmaster. Meanwhile, ticket-broker sites Stubhub, eBay and the Ticketmaster-affiliated TicketsNow immediately filled up with listings amounting to several thousand tickets on those sites alone, many ranging from $120 to $1,000 apiece. Original prices were $27, $41.50 and $61.50. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune.com: Taylor ticket seekers were swiftly shut out) And an investigative report by Nashville's NewsChannel 5 discovered that it may have nothing to do with who's selling the tickets. For seven months now they have been digging deep into the ticketing industry and have revealed some bombshells. But internal ticketing documents show that, out of more than 13,000 seats at her Nashville show, there were really only 1,600 set aside for sale to the general public. To view ticketing documents from the Sommet Center show, click here Out of 13,330 seats, there were 1,591 left "open" for when tickets went on sale to the general public.Click here to view ticket maps, showing which seats were reserved for which group. It's a secret that, music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz said, is never shared with fans in the news investigation. "Your numbers are unfortunately incredibly realistic," he told Williams. "People will be shocked. They said, 'Well, I saw the ad. Tickets are finally on sale, and I got a crappy seat. What happened?' So it's about truth in advertising." Taylor Swift's tour was advertised as an American Express event. What that meant was that, during a presale period, American Express customers had first dibs on some 5,000 seats. "I think it's terrible by virtue of the fact that the public has no idea how many tickets go that way," Lefsetz added. And fans probably had no idea that if they really wanted a prime seat on the front row of Section 4, right in front of the stage, those seats were reserved exclusively for folks with American Express Platinum Cards. Or third row, Section 2 -- alongside the stage -- those seats were reserved for people with American Express' Centurion Cards. That's an invitation-only card for the very rich. "That's what's wrong with this business," Lefsetz said. "In the '60s, rock and roll blew up, 'We're against the man.' Now, rock and roll is the man. Country is the man." Taylor's team says it was a deal they struck to help keep the top price of their tickets at $49.50. But on web sites like Ticketmaster's TicketsNow, we found eight tickets being scalped for $183 each. Those seats -- Section 4, Row 5 -- had also been reserved for Platinum cardholders. Related Articles: Online ticket retailer Seatwave beats postal strike through HMV partnership Seatwave and UK music retailer, HMV, have joined up with Seatwave in launching an in-store music ticket box office. The partnership will allow customers to buy and sell tickets in HMV right up to the day of the event. Seatwave will also launch an online ticket exchange for HMV.
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