Music

Ticketmaster's ex-CEO explains why getting tickets is impossible

by Richard Howard

Image via ag.ny.gov

It’s no secret that scoring even a single ticket to in-demand shows has become increasingly difficult – and as evidence mounts that scalpers are snapping up a huge portion of them, music fans are insisting that something be done.

The Attorney Generals of New York and Ontario are both taking steps to fight shady resale practices, but former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard recently penned a lengthy article explaining that scalpers and their bots are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the reasons why getting that section 1 Beyoncé ticket is basically a lost cause.

Hubbard first pointed to the fact that a number of tickets are already gone by the time “general on-sale” happens due to presales. Which would be fine, except there’s nothing to stop ‘ticket brokers’ (read: large volume scalpers) from creating fake names and using bots and multiple credit cards to scoop up large amounts of these first run tickets. But still, that leaves a ton of general sale tickets, right? Not so much. Prepare to get really, really angry.

NY Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s report on the topic revealed that, on average, less than half of all tickets are sold to the general public. Schneiderman even pointed to specific Katy Perry and Justin Bieber shows where less than 15% of tickets were made available to the public (it really is heartwarming how much The Biebs loves his fans).

So you know how angry you are now? Well, you should make sure nothing breakable that you’d like to keep intact is within reach before you read this next quote.

“The biggest artists sign contracts that guarantee them money every time they step on the stage, and that guaranteed amount is usually more than 100 percent of the revenue if every ticket is sold at face value. Which means that if every ticket in the venue ‘sells out’ at the face value printed on the ticket, that wouldn’t be enough to pay the artist what they are contractually guaranteed by the promoter for the performance.

How does the promoter make up the difference? You guessed it: by selling some of the best seats directly in the secondary market, so that artists don’t get flack from you for pricing them high right out of the gate. That means the artist is either directly complicit, or that the artist is taking a massive check for the performance while looking the other way.”

Oh, you read that right. Scalpers don’t always have to get their robot on to get the best tickets: sometimes promoters and venues (with or without the artist’s knowledge) will sell them the tickets directly. (Sorry about your porcelain Pikachu. I warned you, though.)

Hubbard didn’t pull any punches, saying that as things stand the average live music fan is “screwed.” He figures there are three ways to keep tickets away from scalpers: artists pricing tickets at their true market value (which will be higher in some cases), restricting transferability and a screening system to get below-market price tickets directly to superfans. And a hell of a lot more transparency.

Of course, when you’ve got a machine that’s making all of its components mad loot, pesky human nature throws up the biggest roadblock of all to us common folk: the guys holding the reins just don’t give a shit.

[h/t The Ringer]