At least James Murphy fell on his sword.\u00c2\u00a0 Admitted he was not prepared and tried to take action.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the concert industry?<\/p>\n
As for the public…\u00c2\u00a0 Just because you listen to a band’s music ad infinitum that does not mean you’re entitled to a front row seat at a tiny price.\u00c2\u00a0 Seats are worth more than that.\u00c2\u00a0 And unless a special system is put in place to make sure you get them, you’re not.<\/p>\n
Paperless would be the best solution.\u00c2\u00a0 But it appears to be illegal in New York.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because the scalpers don’t want to be put out of business and the legislators are too dumb to know the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s worse than that.\u00c2\u00a0 The public doesn’t want paperless either.\u00c2\u00a0 People talk about the inability of a grandmother to buy tickets for her grandchildren, but the real point is the public wants to scalp too.<\/p>\n
What we’ve got here is the mortgage crisis.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody wants a home for a cheap price and everybody wants to get rich flipping it.<\/p>\n
How do we know this?\u00c2\u00a0 Because when paperless is employed, demand shrinks.\u00c2\u00a0 Shows don’t sell out.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the mania’s gone.\u00c2\u00a0 Only those truly interested in going buy tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 And that turns out to be fewer people than everybody thought.\u00c2\u00a0 And it kills your career overnight.<\/p>\n
So first blame the acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to risk playing to an empty building.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t an entertainment career based on smoke and mirrors?\u00c2\u00a0 Why reveal the truth?\u00c2\u00a0 That despite being in the news every day you’re not that big a star, like Miley Cyrus, she went paperless and found out that not that many people wanted to see her, she hasn’t toured since.<\/p>\n
And let’s also blame the acts for refusing to sell tickets at fair market value.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the front row really is worth $500.\u00c2\u00a0 So charge it.\u00c2\u00a0 But you don’t want to do this, you’d rather blame the big bad scalpers than risk appearing greedy.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe every other row is fair market value and you institute a system where fans truly can get the other good seats.\u00c2\u00a0 Paperless does this well.\u00c2\u00a0 Ask Trent Reznor.\u00c2\u00a0 His final show at the Wiltern was sans scalpers.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, fans had to line up, but no one complained, it was an EVENT!<\/p>\n
And Metallica manages to get fans in too.<\/p>\n
So James Murphy was ignorant.\u00c2\u00a0 Dumb.<\/p>\n
But the act is always at the center of the show, in a bubble, insecure, he truly does not know what he’s worth.\u00c2\u00a0 The final show in America’s number one media market?\u00c2\u00a0 That’ll definitely go clean.<\/p>\n
But if you think they’re gonna put all 20,000, or in this case 13,000, seats on sale on Saturday morning, you’re sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n
The public’s been told this story again and again and refuses to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 They blame Ticketmaster and scalpers.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think Ticketmaster is in a conspiracy on one LCD Soundsystem show in New York?<\/p>\n
Let’s investigate…<\/p>\n
There was a band pre-sale, handled poorly.<\/p>\n
American Express card holders get priority.<\/p>\n
Then there are senate seats and other holdbacks and in the case of a 13,000 seat show, it appears 1,000 seats were truly available on Ticketmaster on the general public on sale date.<\/p>\n
In a market of tens of millions is it a stretch to think 1,000 tickets sold out in seconds?<\/p>\n
Now I’m not down with the scalpers.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t believe they got that ridiculous law passed.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re only there because the act won’t charge fair market value.\u00c2\u00a0 And sure, it’s bad if scalpers use bots or inside connections at Ticketmaster to get tickets, but if you think this is the only way they get ducats, you’re ignorant too.\u00c2\u00a0 They buy the senate seats.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only do season ticket holders not want to see certain concerts, they want the profit from resale too, just like the acts.<\/p>\n
James Murphy could publish exactly how many tickets go on sale to the general public, but he doesn’t want to.\u00c2\u00a0 No act wants to, they’re afraid of the public outcry.\u00c2\u00a0 This information is available to acts, but they don’t want to disseminate it. Because if the public doesn’t believe it can get seats at a fair price, it’s out.\u00c2\u00a0 People turned on Toyota, they could turn on the concert industry too.<\/p>\n
Then again, there are alternatives to Toyota.\u00c2\u00a0 And not to a hot act.<\/p>\n
So it’s incumbent upon a hot act to be informed of realities and to do its best to make sure that good seats get in the hands of their fans.\u00c2\u00a0 You may abhor Bon Jovi platinum packages, but they wouldn’t exist if people didn’t buy them.\u00c2\u00a0 True fans are willing to pay a fortune to be up close and personal.\u00c2\u00a0 The extras just dress up the fact that you’re paying a fortune for a good seat.<\/p>\n
The industry does not want change.\u00c2\u00a0 Acts and promoters want that American Express money.\u00c2\u00a0 And with recorded music revenue down, acts scalp their own tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s less seamy than selling them at fair market value.<\/p>\n
Is this news?<\/p>\n
No.\u00c2\u00a0 Print media and TV have done this story again and again, but the public refuses to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easier to just blame Ticketmaster and the scalpers than the acts and the promoters and the venues.<\/p>\n
So it’s just like the rest of America.\u00c2\u00a0 The rich profit and the poor get screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish the poor knew the concert industry better, but they can’t seem to figure out politics, so the odds of them figuring out the concert industry…<\/p>\n
But the average person only goes to a show once a year.<\/p>\n
You wonder why?<\/p>\n
\n