Scenario – you spent all morning in an online waiting room. You are minutes away. This band is THE concert of the summer for you. You have all their albums, a poster on your office wall and talk about “that one time I caught a drum stick.” You click and….the best seats you can get are 50 rows back.
You just weren’t lucky. Right? Wrong! You might have been cheated out of the best possible seats by a major concert company and the band you were hoping to see.
A telephone call was recorded and shared with Billboard magazine that included the wheelings and dealings between Live Nation and a representative for Metallica. The deal was for Metallica to receive X number of tickets to their show BEFORE they became available to the public so that the band could list them on a third party ticket resale site (like StubHub) to be sold way above face value. The profit goes into the band’s pocket instead of a ticket scalper.
(The band Metallica)
The Band’s Side:
Let’s say IT2 is a huge band who tour the country to sold out shows. Their deal is to make $100 per ticket sold and the promoter gets the rest. Tickets go on sale for $105.00 (plus the ticket company fee). Let’s say a 1/3 of all tickets purchased to this sold out show are put online for a minimum of $200 a ticket. The band still claims their $100 from the initial sale and the promoter still makes $5…but a third party now makes $95 for 10 minutes of their time. On a small scale, it’s no big deal – but if the venue seats 20,000 – a significant of money is being made without the band’s consent.
Band and promoter sell 20,000 tickets at $105 = $2,100,000 (a lot of money)
Online sellers move 6,666 tickets at $200 = $1,333,200 (also, a lot of money)
The band’s selling tickets on the side is just their way of getting a piece of the pie, right? It’s not fair that people are making money off of their hard work, right?
The Consumers Side:
A good amount of good tickets are removed from the inventory. Now, even more people are competing for those coveted seats. On the other hand, you could just cruise over to Stub Hub, play double or triple the ticket price and get the good seats. The consumer is getting screwed in the name of convenience. It shouldn’t be assumed that this is supply and demand. This is demand and a completely shady supply line. Manipulating the amount of tickets is not against the law, in fact, it’s not even regulated. That being said, this is a grey area and most concert goers are the ones paying the price.
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(Amy Iler & JJ Gordon are talk-show hosts at 790 AM KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. “It Takes 2 with Amy & JJ” can be heard weekdays 11am-2pm. Check out the show page on
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Follow Amy on Twitter
@AmyKFGO
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