State of concert ticket sales
As part of a press release promoting the tour dates to the ongoing Taste of Chaos tour, I received a statement from Kevin Lyman — the guy behind the Warped Tour, Rockstar Taste of Chaos, Mayhem among other things – who discusses the state of concert ticket sales:
“As many of you are aware, the media has been reporting the problems concert-goers are encountering buying tickets for Bruce Springsteen and other superstar acts, however I thought fans of our projects should know that until these large companies get their act together, the place to buy tickets will be through the official websites of the tours.
Right now we have the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos Tour starting February 14th at the Hollywood Palladium and there are tickets available for all shows at this time at www.tasteofchaos.com. Click on the link by your city and you will be able to purchase tickets.
In the world of concert ticketing there have never been more players and people trying to provide this service, and hopefully one day they will get it right.”
Apart from the jab at Springsteen which made me chuckle, I don’t get what he’s getting at. To get a clearer picture, I tried to see who was selling the tickets online for the Taste of Chaos stop in Montreal and it turns out it’s one of the major 3 companies controlling all ticket sales in my area. The same companies that sold 500$ tickets for Madonna and who would sell unaffordable tickets to The Boss, if he’d actually come here. You would have to go through these monopolistic circles to get your tickets, no matter how you purchase them.
What about the more shady ways?
If fans can’t get in because scalpers are buying them in bulk, use the Nine Inch Nails model where fans registered on the official website can have access to an ‘exclusive’ ticket pre-sale session. As for fake tickets, I would say the issue is not even related to ‘these large companies’. A counterfeit item is a gamble you take each time you buy your tickets on the streets or on eBay. That’s just common sense.
It’s all cool and trendy to stick it to the man in front of emo kids, but you have to actually do something special before coming out pretending you’ve smacked your balls on the table. Is it really an issue anyway? My answer is: no it’s not. I think this is just another way to funnel the sheep that we are in a easily manageable line that will buy t-shirts at four times the price it should be.