Why You Couldn't Get $20 Keith Urban Tickets
My love/hate relationship with ticket scalpers is a never-ending one. I love them when I want good seats and hate them when I can't afford them. But it really gets me when artists like Taylor Swift and Keith Urban specifically set aside cheap tickets, and they are quickly snatched up by the so-called secondary market -- the mysterious buyers who immediately resell the tickets online with a massive markup.
Billboard had a story last week about how Swift had some seats with a face value of $20. They say that was her call and if it was up to her, all the seats would be $20. And I had blogged about Urban's similar fight to keep some seats affordable. The Tennessean reported on the trend as well, quoting Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar saying "They're creating lower price levels so that everybody will be able to come. I don't think anybody is looking around and going, 'Boy, I think I can sell out at $150 a ticket.'"
After those stories ran, I had about 20 emails from angry country fans who tried to buy said tickets. (You know the drill: you're online 10 minutes before the onsale time, signed in and ready to click on the "buy tickets" button. But alas, no tickets are available. And you're left wondering where they all went five seconds into the sale.) So what started as a very nice gesture has ended up in the wrong hands, again, and now fans are right back where they started. No tickets and a list of super-pricey inventory on ticket reseller sites.
What went wrong? Billboard says that no one can explain how resellers get their hands on tickets before fans. And how some industry people really think ticket reselling should be illegal. That doesn't solve the problem, I know. But it does help to know that some artists really have good intentions. Then again, we know that the road to hell can be paved with good intentions.
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JANETGIJOENURSE says:
ALison why do you have to ruin a blog by putting Taylor Swift in it. Keith Urban can hold his own. If you are too cheap to watch a great Keith Urban concert than maybe you aren’t a fan. Go sit and watch a Taylor Swift concert since you like young girls. No price can be to high for your taste in music.
Miat says:
Alison I AGREE with you. I really think the artists want to sell them at the cheaper prices but as they go through the ranks the prices seem to go up & up! I hATE waiting online & always get cruddy seats, That is when I go to a ticket broker. Then after all the fees….who knows what it will cost. Somes I just miss waiting in line at the venue in the old days or going to a record store & waiting there ( with all the rest of the fans) for the magic time when tickets go on sale. Even if you are a member of the persons fan club & they offer a presale the tickets are junk. Oh well….who knows who controls all this. :(
I guess you have to just say…” How bad do you want it? ” LOL
classiccountryfan says:
I’ve never used a ticket broker and have no plans to start now. I won’t pay more than 55 bucks for a ticket anyway. Since I mainly go to bluegrass shows so that is easy. The last one I went to was just 15 bucks for 3 hours of music.I will pay more for a festival ticket since it is usually 3 or more days but still usually way under $100. Plus I get the chance to talk to the artists.
Samantha says:
I totally agree with you too Alison. They should do what the Rascal Flatts do. The first 500 seats go to their fan club members. It should be like that for every fanclub.
Last time I went to a Rascal Flatt’s concert, I got seats in the third row.
It is wrong how fans waited and got their tickets right on the pre-sale date, but end up not getting the seats they hoped for. Instead it is in the hands of someone who is going to resell them for a few hundred dollars. They are probably not even a big fan of the artist.
Oh well whatever, their is nothing we can do about it.
I guess I will be going to see the Rascal Flatts again this Summer.
Country fan 4 life says:
But some artist like Taylor Swift don’t charge her fans to be fans i.e. to be in a fan club. So what Rascal Flatts does with the first 500 won’t work for her.
Puddy Tat says:
There is a very simple solution for the bad fan club tickets. The artist just needs to reserve a number of very good seats for his/her fan club pre-sales. Then make them will-call tickets only and you have to show picture ID to pick them up on the concert date. It’s real hard to sell tickets that you don’t hve yet.
Lori jean says:
This is a huge problem for all genres of concert goers. Thanks for the blog and I hope some day this will change.
Kevin says:
Exactly right Puddy Tat. If the artists really wanted their fan club members to have the best seats then thats how they would do it. They would completely ditch ticketmaster for their pre-sales. The way you described it is exactly how Brad Paisley handles his fan club tickets….and I have been to several of his shows and my fan club seats have never been farther back than the 10th row on the floor. And I have been as close as the 2nd row. The solution is very simple. Its just a question of whether the artist is willing to do it.
Florent Dufour (FACM) says:
You are lucky in USA because oyu have star. In france, we don’t have star. We don’t have country music. Kenny Chesney really sell cheap tickets. Maybe Taylor and Keith do that just for publicity.
AC/DC will perform in france. All tickets were sold in 2 minutes! I think if you’re really fans, you wake up earlier to buy tickets
Gabe says:
I’ve been in the music industry for over 15yrs the way to do it is for a band to place holds for X amount of tickets which can be pre-sold to their fan club whether they charge there fans or don’t to be in there Fan club. Those tickets are sold on a first come first serve basis with a limit of how many tickets can be bought by a single fan, with close monitering they can detect resellers are not trying to infiltrate there fan club to buy up the tickets. This has been tried and proven to work with many bands in the European market and some bands here in the states.
Andrea says:
@Florent Dufour
Sugarland played in a small club in Paris just three weeks ago. And you have some great country festivals with great country stars in France. Country stars don’t come to Europe often but it happens.
The problem in Europe are a bit different I think because you usually don’t have seated areas in the Arenas or stadiums. It’s generel admission and you just need one ticket. Good seats are not a problem so.
But we also have problems to get those tickets because of resellers here as well with very popular artists.
I’ve had the problem with U2. The tickets got on sale. I was online one hour before. And by the time the sales started the general admission tickets were sold out.
And a lot of resellers had them in their offers for double or more.
Betty Jaeger says:
Ticket brokers………my favorite subject. It isn’t fair, but unfortunately you can’t do anything about it. If you want to see your favorite performer, you will go to any length to get a good ticket. It is unfortunate that sometimes you do have to pay more. As for fan clubs, they don’t always work either. It’s all the luck of the draw. Yesterday, Keith Urban was at Joe’s Bar in Chicago. All the tickets were FREE, and there were still some people selling them on Craig’s List. What are you going to do? Go around policing everyone.
classiccountryfan says:
I have my favorites but I still have my limits. As long as I get a seat I’m okay.
Johnathan Vrozos says:
Let the clan of Vrozos explain the ticket game. The artist has no control whatsoever of the tickets except for maybe 200 tickets for their friends. The promoter who pays them the “big” bucks wants to recover their money and hopefully make a profit. They carry all the risk. The artist gets paid whether 1 or 20,000 paid people show up. The artist is “gauranteed” their money and paid before they get on stage. Furthermore, if the show is a big success the artist also receives a bonus. The promoter plays the odds and hopes the big shows pay for the bad ones that agents force them to take on in order to get their STAR clients. Let’s not be sympathetic to the STARS now, yes be sympathetic when they were trying to make it but NOT now. Trust me they have short memories!! Pay what you can afford and watch the show, if not buy the DVD and watch it from the comfort of your home.