wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

(thanks for taking my call Brian. while i was on hold, i was writing. and, unfortunately, when i got on the AIR, i forgot to make my point. thanks for making it for me.)
Concert tickets are like anything else. How bad do you want it? Hopefully, you have the experience that you were looking for.
Recently, I paid $170.00 face value for a ticket to see Steely Dan at The Beacon Theatre. And always I'm hoping it's going to be a real happening experience. Truth is there's not much spontaneity in these shows today. Still, the music was great, and I had a fun time.
It's kinda funny - the theme for Steely Dan's 2009 concert tour is, RENT PARTY. The concert tee-shirt ($35.) shows a cartoon hand turning out an empty pants pocket. Oh, boy... times are "tuff." Help us out. Give us some! of your money.
O.K. And I did.

Ticketmaster has been playing this game for a while. I had to use ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets to a general admission, standing-room-only concert at Irving Plaza. Upon hitting the "select tickets" button, I got bounced to livenation.com and was forced to pay an extra $10. What a fraud.

Stealy Dan is the best example of a band who could not have made it if they started out today. They spent tons of time in the studio and no time touring. It is not surprising, now that people refuse to pay artists for recorded music, that Stealy Dan has to hit the road and charge exorbitant prices. Their albums probably don't pull in money anymore. If you don't want to pay so much for concerts - don't make it the only way artists can make a buck - PAY FOR DOWNLOADS! We are doing this to ourselves. Albums are not as good and concerts are really expensive. It's a simple, predictable result of making recorded music worthless. It's the fans who are not "keeping up with the changes." Stop blaming the record companies. They are powerless compared to fans.

Hi Just missed a call in on your show. earlier this year i purchased two ticket to see U2 online through ticketmaster. From ticket master I was redirected to another site- it was either TicketsNow or another similar site. I do not remember the exact name. However, I ended up paying about $200 per ticket. When I received the tickets in the post, I was surprised to find out that they have a face value of only $58 and came from a company by the name of PrimeTixx, based in New Jersey. Clearly I have bought scalped tickets, unknowingly(this is the first time I have bought concert tickets in the US. I have read the article in the New Yorker, and basically had the same experience that the woman did in her attempt to purchase Springsteen tickets. To whom should I log a complaint and can anything actually be done about this? Should I attempt to claim back the difference from the seller?

What about brownpapertickets.com? They have tiny tiny fees. Hopefully someday everyone will switch to them from Ticketmaster.

I just bought tickets at Irving Plaza yesterday. At the box office window. Thinking (but maybe knowing it wasn't true) I might not have to pay a fee. But sure enough - there's a $3 fee on tickets $20 and under, $5 for $25 and over.

If I'm going to the window, what is with that fee?

Ticketmaster has been playing this game for a while. I had to use ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets to a general admission, standing-room-only concert at Irving Plaza. Upon hitting the "select tickets" button, I got bounced to livenation.com and was forced to pay an extra $10. What a fraud.

The fees that are charged for performances are ridiculous to say the least. Convenience charge? Facility fee? Parking fee? And on top of that, the venue doesn't even allow you to bring in water! They want you to leave broke.

What John is saying is totally true. I worked in New York City in the music industry both on the tour booking side and the recording side, and I noted this change. The industry tries to blame scalpers and illegal downloads, but really the industry is out of step with the technological advances and are reacting rather than having been proactive. The music industry hasn't existed for very long and I think that it might be becoming obsolete.

As for ticket sales, the solution to reducing the fees is for the fans (who have greater access to the artist than ever before) to connect with the artist, and for the artist to be aggressive about taking control of ticket sales. One act that did this with much success is Pearl Jam.

what about web sites like Panadora? what role do they play in replacing radio to expose lesser known artists?

Just about everything is overpriced and what isn't yet will be eventually. You see we criticize the CEOs of banks and corporations as greedy sleaze bags when at close and honest, sincere examination examination everybody is cashing in on the rip-off of get-whatever-you-can economics and you can get whatever you want. What happens? They do get it. Greed has taken over everywhere even food. We are told organic is better and way more expensive but worth it, so we pay for it. We believe, really believe that if it's better for us it's worth more and we pay, rather YOU pay. I've lived on non-organic foods all my 60+ years and although not the healthiest of persons around, I'm still around and my health problems are far removed from my diet other than excesses and personal bad choices and habits which are possible with organic foods too. But the point is tickets; yes, why not tickets too? Why not? Why shouldn't everybody make tons of money, more money than is really needed. Enough money is no longer enough: enough money is now too little, so promote the need to hear the super excellent at superior concerts and drive the tickets up to parr quality. They can get it from you because you will scrounge to get it to pay them. They rip us off and we allow them to. Yikea, am I becoming Sarah Palin!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeek