If you bought tickets in May for a concert in August, can you be blamed if you show up at the venue three months later and expected there to be a show? Several fans found out the hard way the unintended consequences of the so-called “slow ticketing” movement, as... Read more
For a while now, it’s been speculated that tickets to Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour would begin popping up at steep discounts, similar to the way we’ve seen other Verified Fan flops trickle down through to Groupon, or pushed via Live Nation’s $20 all-in ticket deal going on this week.... Read more
The bold gambit that Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s management pulled with her upcoming tour appears to be falling apart in spectacular fashion. After ratcheting up perceived demand through its monetized “Swift Tix” presale system, Taylor Swift ticket prices for the “Reputation” tour have been plummeting, including a recent promotion... Read more
Festival season is right around the corner, and following last year’s pilot-program success, Live Nation is bringing back Festival Passports, which allow fans to attend over 100 music festivals across the globe with a single pass. After they were introduced last year, Live Nation Festival Passports sold out within... Read more
The allegedly final round of tickets went on sale for Springsteen on Broadway, and once again, it was a bloodbath for fans, as high prices and hurt feelings dominated the process, while promoters once again cashed in on the highest price tickets in Broadway history. The latest extension by... Read more
The first thing we thought of when we heard word a while back that tickets for Pearl Jam’s 2018 summer tour would be distributed using Ticketmaster much touted “Verified Fan” system was pretty simple: This probably won’t end well. It would appear that our prediction wasn’t far off, as... Read more
It’s Valentine’s day, which means a number of things here in the U.S., not least of which is every company in the world is trying to capitalize on people’s need to produce some kind of memorable gift for their sweetheart – leading to deals on everything from flowers and... Read more
For some, the Elton John Verified Fan ticket sale went smoothly. They were able to register on time, whatever background system actually fires up to determine who gets codes settled on them, they got the code on sale day, and went through to purchase their tickets to his astonishingly... Read more
It’s been a couple of days, and I’m still confused about one central thing about Live Nation’s Friday announcement that it had settled its litigation with Songkick, purchasing remaining company assets from its one-time competitor. Why did it take so long to happen? Why after embarrassing dirty laundry was... Read more
Wakeman: Pricing and Taylor Swift’s Latest Bit of Bad Press
Guest CommentaryMovies May 4, 2018