Hard rock icon AC/DC is the latest band to use Ticketmaster’s paperless technology. Select seats for the upcoming Black Ice World Tour will be available on a strictly paperless basis, while other seats will still be available as conventional hard tickets.
Although the band has not made an official announcement about the move to go paperless, several AC/DC listings on Ticketmaster.com carry a disclaimer that hard tickets will not be issued. “Please note that tickets for fan club members, as well as specific sections can only be delivered via Ticketmaster’s Paperless Ticket Delivery and are non-transferrable,” the notice stated.
As of Wednesday morning, September 17, only the band’s November 15 gig in Washington, DC, and the November 28 show in Vancouver, BC, carry the paperless notice. However a September 15 staff posting on the ACDC.com forum stated that the ticketing policy would be the same for all dates and venues.
“Tickets for the Fan Club will be paperless,” the staff post read, “so scalpers will have a hard time fulfilling that. Good luck to them.”
According to other posts by forum staff, 10 percent of venue tickets will be reserved for fan club members, who are limited to a total of two tickets. The face value for tickets will be in the $90 range, with public and fan club onsales starting simultaneously over the weekend. Further announcements on AC/DC’s move to paperless tickets are expected in the near future.
Ticketmaster introduced its paperless technology earlier in the year, listing singer-songwriter Tom Waits as the first artist taking advantage of the system for his 2008 Glitter and Doom Tour. “With Paperless Ticket there is no waiting in will call lines,” the press release stated. “All it takes is a single swipe of a credit card at the door of the venue and a photo ID check by door staff that leads to a quick, secure, and simple way to experience live entertainment.”
Recently, Metallica also joined Ticketmaster’s paperless ticketing ranks, debuting the technology in Europe for a September 15 concert at 02 in London, England.
Although more bands are beginning to use Ticketmaster’s technology, industry constituents and fans alike have been wary of the consequences of going paperless, particularly because of the limitations placed on buyers’ handling of tickets.
“Ticketmaster may find that this backfires on them,” Mike Masnick, a writer for TechDirt.com, said in a recent post. “Part of the value of the ticket is its resale value. Remove that and you lower the value of the ticket, meaning fewer people willing to buy those tickets at existing prices.”
Readers replied to Masnick’s post with their own stories on the shortcomings of paperless technology. “My grandmother buys all of my cousins tickets every year, and, as cool as she may be, I don’t really intend on forcing her to accompany me to a John Legend show,” one reader commented. “I have tried my hardest not to be cynical on this one, but the reality is that there is nothing convenient about this. It’s just one more way for Ticketmaster to make my events a little less enjoyable.”
However, despite the recent paperless trend, TicketNetwork CEO Don Vaccaro noted that hard tickets are still in high demand among event fans. “Venues are going to have to decide whether they will expend the time and energy to explain all the [ticketing] options to their customers,” he told TicketNews in July. “And, I think they will because consumers will pay a premium to be able to freely transfer tickets.”
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Some of us like to keep the ticket stubs as souveniers. I have 4 shoe boxes full of old ticket stubs and enjoy looking through them and remaniscing. Ticketmaster, are you going to take that from me now just like you take an extra 13.50 for every ticket I buy? You all are nothing but well dressed crooks! There is no bigger scalper in the business than Ticketmaster! Off with your balls!!
Cabo
To join the fan club it costs $40 and then you could only get 2 paperless tickets. Any other paperless tickets were gone within minutes of the sale starting. Stub Hub has floor seats for $4000. How did this new system help? It didn’t. Screw ticketbastard and screw ac/dc.
This is just another way for Ticketmaster to make money !
By forcing us to go electronic, they can get all the transactions for everyone’s purhchase through their coffers and squeeze even more cash out of us in booking fees and handling charges.
The sooner we all REFUSE to buy via Ticketmaster, the better it wil be for all of us !
As a move to stop scalpers, all this does is make it legitimate for Ticketmaster to scalp us even more.
I for one am SICK TO MY STOMACH of being cash raped by these bastards.
There is no place for corporations where ticket sales are concerned and I will NEVER buy via Ticketmaster even if they have a 1p sale.
Pearl Jam had it right when they refused to honour tickets redistributed by any corporate cash grabbers.
I say SCREW Ticketmaster and every band that uses them. I’d rather miss the gig than buy through those moneygrabbing wankers.
Please dont refuse my comment on basis of language – this is how strongly I and over 10,000 people in a recent internet survey feel.
By all means use things like b******S in stead , but please dont censor the strength of feeling, because it is THAT strong among the people who MATTER – the fans.
I like the fact that the fanclub tickets are paperless. It will stop the scalpers from joining the club just to resell the tickets for a huge profit. Now, only the real fans who are hardcore enough (or have the money) can get the tickets. AC/DC is also giving you all your fanclub money back if you don’t get tickets. That is not something a band does if it wants to just screw you out of money. As far as Ticketmaster, I think they are doing this not to cut out scalpers, but to save on cost of printing and distributing of tickets. I read that the fanclub reserves 10% of the tickets in the venue, so that means that 90% of the tickets will be potentially available for scalpers to buy instead of the normal 100%. Basic supply and demand will mean that the tickets should make the scalpers more money, not less. That is based on the assumption that the demand is still there. Judging how AC/DC sold out the first show in Rosemont, IL in less than 8 minutes, I would say that the demand is still there.
Regardless if there was paperless or not, the scalpers, not ticketmaster or AC/DC are the ones that are raising the cost. If all of the tickets were paperless instead of just the fanclub seats, the scalpers would be out of luck.
I’m a scalper and the only reason we make our money is because you are too lazy to get off your fat a.. and get the tickets when they go on sale.Too bad for you. Next time you go to work tell your boss that you will work for free for the next week.Why take the money from us? we just want to make a living just like you.
Response to D
Refusing to honor those Pearl Jam tickets hurt the fans who’d paid all that money. The greedy corps still got paid.
Great for ticket master bad for me – all of the big events in Florida I buy sets of 2 tickets for my friends now that I have 4 extra tickets sets that are not tickets no one wants to go now so that’s $852 I’m not going to get back and 8 seats will be empty, is this what the band is after I feel scalped.
this is some of what my buddies have said to me – I go down to the show to early, also the want the ticket in there hand, all of them asked me what is the receipt they give you is made of? Bet its paper, How dose the usher know what seat you are in? What happens if you get up go get a drink come back and someone is in our seat? This is my one and only paperless event I will attend, I’m done with them.
This is a great idea, but only if the entire arena goes to this method. Right now, only about 3000 tickets are paperless, so the majority are not.
Once they go to the entire stadium being paperless, then we can finally cut out the scalpers. People are worried about the resale value?!? Too frickin bad. I’m sick of getting crappy seats (or none at all) because scalpers and ebay aholes snatching them up.
If your grandma or anyone else buys tickets for you, too bad. Buy a prepaid Visa or MasterCard, and get them yourself. We could actually see an end of the scalper industy finally!
I bought tickets to the ACDC concert in April and like things do 5 months out, something unavoidable has come up and I can not make the show. So I’m out $200! I can’t even give the tickets to friends to at least have someone enjoy it. Sure go after scalpers if you want to but by doing this you’re also seriously screwing over real fans with bad luck. Thanks! I think I’ll be sticking to smaller name bands at venues where…crazy idea…I can buy tickets at the door!!
This is stupid by Ticketmaster and/or the band. Okay they don’t like scalpers, I don’t like standing in line for an hour for 19,000 people to have their credit card check, then their ID checked, then go stand in line to see if you have anything that is not permitted in the facility. Oh, and don’t forget if you buy as a gift, you must escort your gift to get their tickets, cause it must match you credit card and ID. What about those shows that go on sale 4 months in advance, you buy early to get a good seat only to get stuck with the tickets and can not even give them to your friend or sister. This sucks and will make me cut back on my purchaes from any vendor that choose this method of delivery.
I called Ticketmaster about their new system. You have get your tickets from the box office with showing your credit card (not any credit card the exact one used, so if you changed cards sorry SOL). Oh, don’t forget your photo ID or guess what SOL. Oh if you buy your parents tickets to their favorite performer and it just happens you live 1,600 hundred miles away, best book your plane ticket, casuse they are not getting in without you “the buyer” to show your CC and ID. Is this progress?