Posts tagged ‘live nation ticketmaster agency’
Do I have a dream job for you @viagogo
This job may now be a bit of a nightmare on the back of the ‘Dispatches’ exposé of The Great Ticket Scandal.
“It’s really ####ing shady!“ Viagogo employee in The Great Ticket Scandal.
“at viagogo you’ll work with fun people who are committed to helping fans gain access to tickets to the best live events in the world!“
One of the required Skills and Attributes is “A sense of humour” 
The Great Ticket Scandal in summary:
Viagogo takes the most flack (not surprisingly they attempted to block the broadcast with an injunction), but Seatwave and others named are not without blame. Promoters LiveNation and SJM are also incriminated for duping fans with a 90/10 split (in their favour) on the markup on tickets withheld from the primary marketplace and allocated to resellers like Viagogo.
1. SECONDARY MARKET COMPETITION WITH PRIMARY MARKET
“Viagogo staff compete directly with real fans to buy tickets from primary ticket sellers, like Ticketmaster, for in demand events as soon as they go on sale. To get around systems put in place to prevent bulk buying of tickets, Viagogo staff use multiple credit cards registered to different addresses.“
2. PRIMARY MARKET SHORTCHANGED
“major promoters allocate hundreds or even thousands of tickets to be sold through their (Viagogo) website at well above the face value. Tickets for recent gigs and tours by Coldplay, Rihanna, Westlife, Take That, and V Festival have been allocated by the promoters in this way.“
The Dispatches episode on the Channel 4 website:
The Great Ticket Scandal (not available online outside the UK)
Outside the UK watch the exposé on YouTube (in 4 parts):
The Great Ticket Scandal (outside the UK)
Various recent articles:
28 February, 2012 at 11:05 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Is a scalping bot a bot, if it looks and smells like a bot?
I was surprised by the candour of this website TicketBots – automating human efforts.
“Ticketmaster Helper Application is designed to help brokers, so that they get more organized and save time while purchasing tickets. This product is legal and developed by authorizing the lawsuits. Ticketmaster helper application just helps the user to reduce manual work that user does while purchasing tickets. It is just a transformation of human efforts into an automatic process of buying tickets.“
It appears that they are covering a fair few of the scalping opportunities with a suite of offerings:
8 June, 2011 at 3:11 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Fred Rosen Taking on Ticketmaster
Wired recently carried an interview with Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard Young CEO Seeks to Reset Ticketmaster With Tech and Transparency
In it he addresses the “challenge that faces Ticketmaster: its reputation as one of the most loathed companies in America.“
“… given Ticketmaster’s abysmal track record on fees, transparency, privacy and customer service, it’s going to take more than a sweet jam to change the public perception of the ticketing giant.“
Meanwhile, ex-Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen is back and rattling Ticketmaster’s cage with a ‘new model’ partially explained in Taking on Ticketmaster
The article includes a video of Fred Rosen explaining how the model works.
Rosen “estimates that over the next 24 months, as many as a third of the current contracts between venues and Ticketmaster will expire, and Outbox hopes to make a play.“
We wish him luck, many have tried in the past as Fred well knows. I hope Outbox has deep pockets to stump up with key money or a suitable replacement in terms of financial incentive.
28 March, 2011 at 9:52 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
We believe that we own the tickets we buy, but do we?
I have been watching this movement with interest since the start of the year.
The Fan Freedom Project rails against the “new restrictive paperless ticketing technologies under the guise of innovation and convenience.“
It is the terms and conditions that are now being applied to paperless tickets that the Fan Freedom Project sees as restrictive:
Two types of paperless ticketing, both of which have negative implications for fans of live events:
- Restricted transfer (closed-loop system administered by the ticket agent)
- Prohibition of ticket transfer (ticket tied to one credit card or ID)
While I applaud the sentiment and the call to action for change, I am not so sure about the statement – “We the fans believe we own the tickets we buy.” My understanding is that a ticket is just a licence to attend an event at a specific location, date and time (and maybe seating location). Does the consumer really own it and own what? Any opinions?
Take a look at the infographic for a quick summary of the issues.
1 March, 2011 at 1:06 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
A not so well kept secret has been let ‘out the box’
We always expected Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) take the opportunity to go its own way with ticketing. Particularly as it is #2 to Live Nation, now owners of Ticketmaster.
It is not surprising that AEG chose not to Ticketmaster’s system, surely this is an endictment of the decision and logic of the antitrust regulators?
AEG has entered a joint venture called Outbox Enterprises. Fred Rosen, former Ticketmaster CEO who steered Ticketmaster to dominance in the 80′s and 90′s, is the new venture’s CEO. Outbox originates from Canada and is responsible for the sexy Cirque du Soleil online ticketing interface written about in FULLHOUSES last year.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the industry takes to the ‘white label‘ model that Outbox offers, removing the need for a central ticket agent online brand selling directly from the venue or event owners website. Is it the end of the agent middleman?
“This isn’t about trying to go out there and build a whole new brand around the name Outbox, … This is about service.” AEG Chief Executive Tim Leiweke
4 February, 2011 at 12:52 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 3 comments
Mobile Apps – How do you butter your bread on both sides?
Live Nation (owner of Ticketmaster) has just announced that it has launched an iPhone app for the Apple OS. Ticketmaster parent Live Nation drives ticket sales via mobile commerce platform
Live Nation has previouslyl become involved with Apple in providing concert listings for iTunes 10.
But back in 2009, Ticketmaster launched Ticketmaster for Blackberry (albeit described as “a glorified browser shortcut/plugin“) and has since stated that Blackberry is the “Official Smartphone of Ticketmaster“. Although the page on the Ticketmaster site does confuse the issue with the tag line “love seeing it live”
Is this an example of how a monopoly vertically integrated company just tries to ensure that it is all things to all people?
13 December, 2010 at 11:11 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
A vision of the future? But where are the crowds?
This press release pushes a pretty sexy new toy, however only for the venues that can afford it currently. But we do know affordability improves with accessibility.
Ticketmaster and Iomedia Deliver Interactive Ticketing Technology
Some other competitors already offer seat views by way of photos for sections of seats, but this seems to be the next step.
Check out the demonstration video
I was entertained by some of the cited features:
Select your seat interactively by criteria such as:
- chanting or singing
- consumption (alcohol I presume)
- soccer knowledge etc.
You can check out the view from your seat using a variety of criteria:
- daytime vs nighttime
- shade by time of day
You can even compare the view from two different seats.
It started to get a little spooky when it started showing some of the product placement opportunities for advertisers … oops sponsors.
The only thing missing was the audience. Lots of views of empty seats. It is a shame it does not give an option for view with crowd and view without. But then I guess it would need settings for half full vs half empty and with or without really tall person sitting in front
16 November, 2010 at 11:03 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
A Serious Competitor for TicketMaster?
Outbox Technology Inc. plans to announce, former Ticketmaster Chief Executive (1982-98), Fred Rosen as the CEO of a new U.S. subsidiary, Outbox Enterprises LLC. You may remember the seven part interview with Rosen that was featured on FULL HOUSES last year.
The new company is a partnership among the Canadian company, Mr. Rosen and Cirque du Soleil Inc., for which Outbox has provided the ticketing technology for several years.
“Instead of listing and selling tickets for thousands of events on a single, centralized website, the new company plans to offer a so-called white-label service that will enable clients such as concert venues, festivals and sports teams to sell tickets to consumers directly from their own websites.“
“The middle-man model is dead, … You have to evolve.” says Rosen
Whilst it is great to see another option that is allowing producers to deal directly with their customers and via a pretty sexy interface as well, the challenge is still to get past the barrier of venue exclusive ticketing contracts. It was easier for Cirque du Soleil to get past that handicap as they controlled the venue, in many instances their own tent.
READ FULL ARTICLE ONLINE Ticketmaster Ex-CEO to Lead a New Rival>>
12 October, 2010 at 8:15 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 3 comments
Hang on … who runs the venue – The venue management or Ticketmaster?
It may be me being thick, but this article seems to continue the confusion over who runs a venue, who hires the venue and owns the act and who is just an agent.
This article would be amusing if it were not for the large number of annoyed customers and fans judging by the comments.
Just because you can gouge some customers does not mean you should disadvantage all customers. This is a shortsighted tactic that hopefully will be discouraged by consumer backlash.
Or am I just being naive?
Some classic quotes for your amusement:
“Ticketmaster, the official ticket agency for the O2, tells fans that using “market-based pricing” for tickets will give them a better chance of seeing their favourite groups than using set prices.“
“The most expensive price of all – £675.03 for a pair of tickets in block A1 – was charged by Simply Red, the Mancunian band fronted by Mick Hucknall, the Labour-supporting singer whose songs include ‘Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)’.“
Why do we charge £200 a ticket? Because the touts do, says the O2
30 September, 2010 at 3:50 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
iTunes teams up with Live Nation/Ticketmaster
Thanks to Karl Vosper in the UK for pointing out this story.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have jointly announced that they will be powering the Concert Listings feature in iTunes 10. However, there is no confirmation from Apple that there will be any ability to buy tickets as well!
Robin Wauters questioned this on TechCrunch in Live Nation To Power Concert Listings, Ticket Sales In iTunes 10
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think CEO Steve Jobs
left that part out of his keynote, although the official press release does mention Live Nation briefly, indicating only that the company will be providing tour info for Concert pages.“
FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT Live Nation Statement on Apple iTunes® Concert Information
7 September, 2010 at 10:10 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
