Ticketmaster..."Official Platinum Seats"....What?

they are described as "original tickets, priced to reflect market value", on ticketbastard's site, so these are not those rip-off fan club, or meet-n-greet ducats....but for one artist, Enrique Iglesisas, I see 18 platinum seats available, yet half are in the 200 section, going for $250 or so...why would anyone want those? at those prices? Hell, I could have got closer when tickets were originally on sale, yesterday, for $150....how many ways is Ticketbastard going to reach into our pockets?

 

Don't blame it all on Ticketmaster - unlike Stubhub and the like, the artist is involved here.

 

The artist AND the "Event Provider", whoever that is .....

For the Dallas stop of the Van Halen 2012 Tour, retail pricing for seats was $29.50 (41.14) - $149.50 (164.88).

Today, there were 25 sets of seats (2 each) of Platinum seats for the Dallas VH show, with prices ranging from $449.00 - $2495.00 each seat.

These were in the front floor sections 10-12 and the side sections 105 & 120.

The TM website explains:

Official Platinum Seats are premium tickets to concerts and other events made available by artists and event providers through Ticketmaster. They give fans fair and safe access to some of the best seats in the house.

Official Platinum Seats were not purchased initially and then posted for resale; they are being sold for the first time through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's Official Platinum Seats program enables market-based pricing (adjusting prices according to supply and demand) for live event tickets, similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold. The goal is to give the most passionate fans fair and safe access to the best tickets, while enabling artists and other people involved in staging live events to price tickets closer to their true value.

IMO, no VH show ever performed, ever, was worth $2495.00.

What irks me, is the nosebleed rafter tickets, to the side, of the stage, were priced at $79.50 (93.14) each.

I would prefer the artist demanding a much greater array of pricing, for each event. Basketball and Hockey and Opera has no Logistical Problem with that.

Today, with the pre-sale, there were no 2 seats together available at either the $29.50 or the $49.50 price points. Just singles only.

Public Sale is tomorrow, will there be seats for sale then that were not on sale today... Who Knows ? ? ? ?

 

This is what happens when we want touring and concerts to be the primary source of income for artists while wanting their recordings to being acquired for free.

 

good point, but lost on most

 

Ticketmaster is going to transition to this as much as possible. They see tickets scalped on StubHub and eBay for 2X, 3X, 5X, 10X face value. They want in on that. They want their piece of the pie. They tried with their TicketsNow venture, which backfired somewhat because of very shady dealings, and now they'll just try to sell them for market value from the get go.

 

Have no problem with artists seeking market value for their seats. If they don't sell at these prices, they will get offered more cheaply later. And agree 100% that this move by artists is driven by the fact that so many people now steal their recordings rather than buying them.

 

Yeah, but they shut down MegaUpload and most of the other lockers followed. Illegal filesharing will now be on the decline. Artists (and record labels) should start making tons of money from their recordings now. This should result in a reduction in ticket prices. Right?

 

Yes, there will be seats for sale tomorrow that are not available in the presale. Most presales have a small number of good seats and a whole lot of terrible seats. They are attempting to cash in on the public furor to get seats, any seats. I always have an idea of what seats I will accept in a presale and if they aren't available then I wait for the public sale.

 

Isn't the bad economy a bigger factor?

The downside to this selling method is that some shows will have little crowd energy since there's too many bored rich people up front. GA floor arena shows have better crowd energy than "highest bidder" seated floor arena shows.

 

Megaupload was hardly the popular share for music.

First line of music shares begins at private ftp's... They are then moved to newsgroups, where they are then uploaded to wupload, file serve, rapidshare, etc.

If artist truly want their money, they will do so on their own label, while charging a fair price.

Record companies are the ones greedy here guys.

 

Ticketmaster/ Artists can go screw themselves .... No ticket should be over $99 all included ...... Unless it's some Bizarre over the top Expensive one off Production ............ MAYBE .

Springsteen , Billy joel , Taylor swift etc. have all proved your tix can be under $99 & you can make Boatload of cash .... People need to vote with their wallets , don't go ......
I am a HUGE concert goer , but i support those who are Reasonable with prices....

Tonight i'm going to see Megadeth , Motorhead , Volbeat & Lacuna coil at an arena Floor for $35 each ....... and going to the same show sunday , HUGE value for my $$$$

 

This is going to come back to haunt them when all the classic rock artists (the ones who can actually get 25 people to pay $500 for a seat) retire or die, and they'll be lucky to have any bands that could fill a 20,000 seat venue at any price, let alone at $100+ a ticket.

The future is in mid-level career artists: the Avett Brothers, Wilco, Mastodon, Porcupine Tree, etc. Bands that can draw between 1,000-5,000 a night for years but will probably never get bigger than that. Even Adele will probably be at this level in a few years once her phenomenon phase ends, but she'll have a core audience. (Keep in mind, Norah Jones sold just as many records 10 years ago, and has pretty much stuck to mid-sized venues since)

This bodes well for theaters, auditoriums, and smaller arenas, but is going to bite Ticketmaster and the big arenas in the *** soon.

 

Has anyone seen an example of unsold tickets falling for a concert based on this "market condition" pricing?

In other words, have "platinum" tickets ever turned into "copper" tickets or do they just remain unsold so as to not upset those who already paid high prices?

 

I love it, but I don't entirely but it. Every major "live event" I've gone to in recent years has gotten much more expensive than it used to be. I can't go to a baseball game w/ the wife w/out spending at least $75 for "cheap" tickets plus service charge, parking, 2 beers, etc. I can't take a piss at any large venue of any kind anymore and not find myself staring at an advertisement. Such strategic advertising hasn't lowered prices and indicates to me that everyone involved (w/ possible exception of artist) is getting much better at milking every last dollar from every aspect of the experience -- can you blame them?

I, however, seriously doubt that artists are managing to recoup losses from album sales, and I wonder if they're not the weakest force in setting prices. Bands with albums that don't get promoted in the first place due to the downsizing of the record industry don't get as much recognition and surely don't sell as many tickets; how realistically can such an artist, beyond the really big names, afford to demand significantly higher ticket prices?

Geez, I'm cynical today. Someone tell me I'm wrong!

 

Only when the mentality changes/is fixed about tours and merchandise being the money maker and the music is secondary. Once the music is of primary importance and seen at a higher value like it once was, then ticket prices would go as touring is secondary to releasing music and not the other way around.

No. This has been an issue since before the economy took a nose dive.

 

I think the Platinum seats are owned by the Platinum seat owners at the AAC.

I personally like the fact that I can pay more to the artist for good seats opposed to scalpers where I have to worry whether a ticket is counterfeit, etc.

 

I simply don't see this happening. If anyone (us, artists, labels) thinks that things are going to be "like it once was" they are in for a rude awakening.

 

You really think that scalpers aren't sanctioned by the LN/TM operation? They wouldn't be selling tickets right outside the theater if it were otherwise. All this new arrangement does is to make scalping more efficient, assuring that tickets aren't sold for a penny less than what the highest bidder is willing to pay.

 

Do scalpels even get busted these days? Lol

I've always wondered if they were given the tickets to actual sell by the venue because they were originally sold to high.

Rose Bowl, 1989 of June 18... Depeche Mode concert for the masses.... Wire, Dolby, OMD, and Depeche Mode... Everyone was scared to death they wouldn't fill this venue. Decent seats being scalped outside for $100 a pop and none of these people were ever getting the shake down.

 

Not here. Scalping is legal in Tennessee.

 

Yes, to a degree but many major bands still price their tickets fairly (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Phish, Jane's Addiction, on and on). You can catch one of these shows for $40 - $60. It's the older artists (Van Halen, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, on and on) that charge outrageous prices. They are charging to the demographic which is screwed up. They are alienating the younger audience that can't afford these prices. I refuse to waste that much money on a show. My only temptation was the Roger Waters show but still. If it's a theater, and it's an artist like Leonard Cohen then I will drop $80- $90 on a ticket. Also, this is more reason to catch shows in theatres and small venues for typcial prices of $10 - $40.

 

The problem is the scalpers prey on those artists who price their tickets fairly. For instance, this last run at MSG, Phish's tickets were $65 ($70 for New Year's because it's three sets). Scalpers jump on these, and then within an hour there were thousands of tickets on StubHub for $200+ a piece, $300+ for New Year's.

 

Bon Jovi repackaged some of his crazy expensive VIP tix.

Other tours with unsold VIP just throw those ticket back into the ticketmaster pool for "normal" top tier pricing.

Other shows just allow upgrade via guest services or maybe do groupon 2-for-1 offers.

 

No, that's a confusion. The AAC in Dallas has a mezzanine level that they have labeled the "Platinum Level". Tickemaster, has labeled certain seats they have to sell on the floor and the balcony as "Platinum" seats. Today, none of the 25 Platinum seats pairs were in the "Platinum Level".

I have heard that the Ticketmaster Platinum seats do change in value, from day to day.... But, that is a safe way to get a "Market Value" seat. If the concert was scrapped for some reason, you would get your Platinum Priced ticket value refunded by Ticketmaster.