You can’t get a ticket, it must be somebody’s fault.

You didn’t get into Harvard, even though your grades were poor. You can’t buy a Mercedes-Benz, even though you don’t have the cash. Why is it only with tickets that the public is irrational?

Well, unfortunately, it’s not only tickets. If people are so misinformed on ticketing, it scares me to think what they believe when it comes to politics, something critical in our country and their lives.

Scalpers. They get the difference between the face price and what the fan is willing to pay. Why should the scalper get this uplift as opposed to the act, which is drawing the customer to begin with?

So, acts used to scalp their own tickets. Yes, you’re shocked, positively shocked! Well, how would you feel if someone else was piggybacking on your business, taking your money out of your hands? Well, why don’t the acts price the tickets at what they’re worth? Obviously people are willing to pay this price. Because the act doesn’t want to look bad.

So, the acts employ what was then called “platinum ticketing,” or “golden circle.” Selling the best seats for a premium, along with a few benefits. Maybe going to soundcheck, meeting a member of the band. But it turns out those extras were not the incentive, people just wanted good seats, so in many cases those extras faded away.

So, that took care of the best seats. But what about the medium seats, the seats you were happy to get, maybe at the front of the lower bowl? Well, the scalpers sold those too, so, the platinum ticketing of today was instituted. I.e. dynamic pricing. If demand is high, the price goes up. Because why give the spread to the scalper?

As for the crappy seats in the upper deck… The scalper doesn’t bother with them. The customer is thrilled to be in the building. Caught up in the mania he or she may buy extra tickets to sell, but good luck even selling them for face value. The mania has exceeded the reality.

But how many shows are instant sellouts?

Not most. And the promoter is at risk. And the promoter must stay in business.

This is especially risky in clubs. Which are open more nights and have a plethora of developing talent. These clubs count on sellout dates to make their nut. And believe me, if you can sell out the club, you’re getting a better deal.

So you can’t get a good ticket and you hear it’s Ticketmaster’s fault. So you blame Ticketmaster too. Ignorance on parade.

As for the fees… Forget that seemingly every other industry has them, they exist because the act takes almost all of the face value on the ticket. The fees were established to create a pool of money that was not commissionable by the act.

And it’s not only the hoi polloi who can’t understand this, it’s Congress and the President too. It’d be like having these same people weigh in on surgery. Do you think they know as much as the MDs? OF COURSE NOT! But when it comes to ticketing…

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Amen Harvey!

LYV’s margin 5.87% (source Sep 2022 Quarterly report)
AAPL margin 22.99% (source Sep 2022 Quarterly report)

LET’S GET THE PITCHFORKS READY WE’RE GONNA STORM 1 INFINITE LOOP!

Ps - Apple’s typically more than 30% but supply chain issues and inability to keep up with demand are kicking their asses.

Dan Millen

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I agree with Harvey. As a promoter working with international artists, I can do nothing that affects the public face of the concert without the consent of the Artist’s agent. And of course, via their Production and Tour managers, the Artist controls the production, marketing and organisational side of the concert as well. A foolish promoter might try to cheat the Artist in one way or another by hiding charges or cutting production and safety corners but they won’t last long if they do, as it will become obvious to the Artist’s team. That doesn’t mean that promoters don’t use various forms of ‘creative accounting’ to survive on versus deals that disregard the need for a promoter to cover their risk and overhead. That’s another story…

As a promoter, I propose a scaling to the Agent which the Agent approves or not. And a wise promoter will listen to the Agent anyway as the Agent has a wider experience of what prices work for that Artist and their fans. The agreed scaling might be less or more ‘dynamic’ – that’s a discussion depending on the Promoter’s judgement of the market and the Artist’s line on democratic ticket pricing versus maximised income. A discussion that hopefully happens before the show is confirmed, otherwise the Promoter might find that they’ve offered based on a higher ticket (and possibly sponsorship) income than the Artist agrees to.

Nick Hobbs

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This quote says it all:

“if I can go online and buy a car and have it delivered to my house, why can’t I buy a fucking ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be? So it’s that simple.”

WHAT!!!?  Does he understand the law of supply and demand?

Has this guy ever tried to buy a car that everybody wants?  You can’t get that car because demand far outstrips supply, and when I do finally get it, I waited forever or I paid a premium. And did the manufacturer make some money off of that premium? Probably.

And don’t even get me started on the false equivalencies here.

If there is one thing I have learned from reading your letter for many years, it’s that this is a very complicated situation and simplistic tirades like this will just complicate the matter even further. Probably because most people think it’s that simple.

I don’t know what the answer is but I can guarantee you Congress can never solve it. It is way too complicated for our legislators, as I imagine a large number of them have about the same depth of understanding of this problem as Antonoff.   .

“ignorance abounds”

Charlie Vanture

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Remember before dynamic pricing? The market still set the ticket price but all of the additional money went to the ticket brokers instead of the artists and hard working people who produce the concerts.

Justin Basch

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From: Zach Sutton

He’s wrong about the Canadian government as well. Yes there are grants – but no they don’t give a sh.t.

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Sounds like Jack is part of the problem. Thanks!

Brian Reiser

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“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair

Evan Sanchez