Secondary ticketer TicketsNow, responding to questions concerning its parent company Ticketmaster directing Radiohead fans to TicketsNow for sold-out tickets, said its entire inventory of tickets for the tour came from brokers and not Ticketmaster.
A TicketsNow spokesperson, who did not wish to be identified, told TicketNews that all tickets “listed on TicketsNow are owned and supplied by vetted, professional resellers. TicketsNow does not receive inventory directly from Ticketmaster or individual performers.”
Earlier today, TicketNews reported that fans seeking tickets on Ticketmaster to some of Radiohead’s sold out shows were being directed to the TicketsNow website where secondary tickets are available. Ticketmaster completed its acquisition of TicketsNow in February, and TicketsNow is considered a standalone, but wholly owned, subsidiary of Ticketmaster.
Carole Kinzel, senior agent in the music department of Creative Artists Agency, Radiohead’s U.S.-based representative, could not be reached for comment. Laura Eldeiry of the PR firm Nasty Little Man Public Relations, which handles publicity for Radiohead, also could not be reached for comment. Ticketmaster did not reply to a request seeking comment.
In recent years, the relationship between artists, promoters, venues, and primary and secondary ticket sellers has slowly changed as album sales have decreased and more acts look to tour to make up lost revenue. Ticketmaster and StubHub are currently embroiled in a legal tussle over artists selling premium tickets on StubHub, and late last year Van Halen and others began scalping tickets to their own shows through auctions.
“As we shared in our acquisition announcement, one of the many benefits of combining assets of TicketsNow and Ticketmaster is the increased access our broker partners now have to consumer demand for tickets,” the TicketsNow spokesperson said. “Along with that, consumers now enjoy a wider range of purchase options. TicketsNow’s extensive, nationwide network of partners provides consumers an alternative way to safely secure tickets.”
“Bottom line is that TicketsNow and Ticketmaster together are connecting consumers to the very best seats through our broker partner network — and to the fun and excitement of live entertainment,” the spokesperson added.
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how come when you mention that artists or Ticketmaster may be selling tickets in the secondary market you always call is ‘scalping’ but when you talk about brokers you never use that word? Your bias is unfair and will not further any intelligent conversation.
Case in point – since when is it ‘scalping’ for an artist to run an auction and let the fan decide what the ticket is worth rather than have all the ‘brokers’ buy up the inventory and make that determination for themselves???? This is lame and ludicrous – if you ever want any of those calls returned for comments you should display a modicum of journalistic integrity.
It’s just TicketNetwork’s mechanism to post BS news that no real news source would run. Everyone knew that TM was going to drive traffic to TNow once tickets sold out, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. Brokers are happy, the only people upset are the people at TicketNetwork!
When is the industry going to wake up and realize this is a bad deal for all of us. Brokers pull your tickets from Tickets Now and and let them know you are sick of this!!!
It was an interesting choice of words, but I can think of a lot worse things to call Ticketmaster. They want to have it both ways. They refuse to explain their actions to the public, but then they expect to be treated with kid gloves. Grow up and stop using comment forums to defend your greedy policies.