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Live Nation defends concert ticketing program that has come under fire
Mon, Apr 13th 2009 2:21 pm EST
By Alfred Branch Jr.
A year-old VIP concert ticketing program launched by Live Nation has drawn criticism from some users, and is forcing the company to defend the initiative.
The program, called Concert Club under the company's VIP Nation moniker, offers members, at an annual cost of $1,500 in the popular New York Metropolitan area, "exclusive, personalized service, access to Live nation tickets" within the particular market and the "right to purchase hard-to-get tickets."
But, what some fans are finding out is that there are some unexpected exceptions.
As the world's dominant concert promoter, a title that will grow in stature should its proposed merger with Ticketmaster Entertainment is approved by government regulators, Live Nation is usually the company that sets the table for most of the major concert tours throughout the country, so obtaining tickets for club members should not be a problem.
However, artists and their representatives often withhold seats and set much of the criteria for which tickets are available, and how many, and Live Nation has had to inform club members on occasion that tickets are not available. In addition, tickets through the program are sometimes not premium seats, though the program does not promise that all seats will be premium.
In a recent New York Post story, members complained that the VIP program is expensive and hardly worth it. "You don't think I could get tickets to the top row of the mezzanine by myself?" an angry club member told the Post. "The best attraction of the service was that you could bypass Ticketmaster so I was willing to pay the upfront fee, but after all this I just want my money back."
Among major shows where tickets were not available or in very limited supply for club members in New York were Billy Joel, Dave Matthews Band and the Jonas Brothers; the young recording stars have an exclusive touring deal with Live Nation.
Even though the club works in a similar fashion to those of shopping clubs, such as Costco where people pay up front for savings later, Live Nation spokesperson John Vlautin told TicketNews that it is simply a convenience program. Members are notified via email in advance that tickets are available for certain shows, and they can then buy the tickets for as little as $10 each with an additional $10 fee per order.
"There are sometimes shows where we are not able to offer Concert Club members tickets, but these arise very infrequently," Vlautin said. "In fact in New York we have been able to offer Concert Club members tickets to 99.5 percent of all of the shows we have produced in the city since the program began in June of 2008."
Issues of transparency concerning tickets have dogged Live Nation and Ticketmaster for years, because the companies typically do not disclose how many tickets are made available for many shows. So members rarely know how many tickets will be disbursed, or where those tickets might be located.
He added, "It’s important to note that this club does not guarantee premium seat locations."
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Comments represent the opinions of users and do not necessarily reflect the views of TicketNews.this is by no means a new program. it existed way back under sfx + before that under ron delsener . i heard that back then the seats were so good u would be in shock ( first 5 rows at jones , best loges at msg ). for jones beach we used to get orchestra . now wehave to be satgisfied with stadium 1. yes my cousin is a member and received the very last row in jones beach for dave matthews . he called to complain and was offered a refund. live nation is holding back on better seats and giving their concert club members lowsy seats . we used to get loges in msg . now side 100s+ 200s . for dave matthews we got back 300s.also for first 2 phish shows seats are willcall only and we dont know what we r getting. cmon live nation give your club members better seats .
This program is nothing close to a VIP program. I have had nothing but headaches dealing with the people through this program. Lets start with the seating you get through the "VIP" program. The last 2 shows have been in the 300's of Madison Square Garen, the mezz at Radio City Music Hall. That is not what I paid for. I could have gotten these crappy tickets on my own through ticketmaster the day of the onsale. Next is the fact that they acutally charge you the fees for each ticket. Considering you are purchasing directly through them and you have already given them $1500 why do I need to pay $10 surcharage on a $10 ticket as so nicely stated by Live Nation themselves. And as mentioned there are ceratin artists you cant get like Springsteen. Great I can pay you $1500 to get Foghat at the Westbury Theatre but cant get tickets to a show I really want to attend. Then there have been a couple of shows that I purchased tickets in advance for, or thought I had, until 2 days before the show they inform me they didnt have any to offer. The program is a BIG WAIST! Do not join this program at any cost.
Im not sure you completely understand the ticket market. For popular shows (especially at MSG and Radio City), the general onsale lasts a minute or two. You are not guaranteed tickets to anything. If the VIP program can only get you decent seats to these shows, it stands to reason that the tickets were tough to get. Nowhere in the VIP contract does it state you will get premium seats.
Take your chances with the general onsales, and you'll probably end up with nothing. If you attend enough live events in the NYC area, you will spend way more than 1500 on secondary market tickets.
You are right that it doesnt state you will get premium seats but they also never told you that you would be sitting in the upper levels of the arenas. Further more we had one show that we were supposed to get seats for and two days before the show they told us they didnt have any and would give us standing room tickets. 2 days before the show!! If that was made clear we would have never joined the program. And for that matter we completely understand the ticket market. We understand that we can get better tickets in the presales, in the ticket drops, during the onsale if you know how to do it or you can wait a week before the show when prices go down. We joined this program with the hope that the tickets we received would be better then what we could get on our own. This meaning any show sponsored by Live Nation was guaranteed at least decent seats for ANY Live Nation sponsored show. The quote about 99.5% of the shows being fulfilled is complete bs. I can give you about ten shows we couldnt get in the last year off the top of my head based on restrictions. Many times if a band comes into town like Pearl Jam they were only allowing 2 tickets for one of the two shows happening at the Garden. The number of tickets has changed for some artists but not the major ones like Pearl Jam or U2. And many of the shows we purchased tickets for are by far not tough shows to get. Keane at Radio City Music Hall is not a hot show but we still got mezzanine tickets?? Mezzaine tickets for Keane come on.
And honestly I would never spend $1500 in the secondary market because I dont buy tickets in it. If you have enough patience and wait until a couple days before the show someone is always selling at face. Or you can keep checking ticketmaster for releases.
It sounds like you may work for Live Nation based on this quote, "Nowhere in the VIP contract does it state you will get premium seats." Honestly I am not sure how anyone knows this unless you are part of the program or work for Live Nation. So it would seem to me it is one or the other. I understand that you need to defend your program if you do work for them, but clearly I am not the only one who believes this based on the article. This also includes your own employees which I have emails from saying they are not surprised with some of the issues