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precious-things-digest Tuesday, March 1 2005 Volume 10 : Number 044
Today's Subjects:
-----------------
Re: WTF!?!?! ["Johnny Endicott" <jhardrocktoriamos@hotmail.com>]
Re: WTF!?!?! ["Lisa Zwick" <xenacrazy@earthlink.net>]
Re: WTF!?!?! [Nadyne Mielke <nadyne@little-blue-world.org>]
Re WTF [Christina Wong <cwbeemer@yahoo.com>]
Tori on Sirius satellite radio [jeff albertson <woj@smoe.org>]
Extra Dallas Ticket? [Maria Aguirre <toriphilemaria@gmail.com>]
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Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:49:47 +0000
From: "Johnny Endicott" <jhardrocktoriamos@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: WTF!?!?!
Hi Everyone,
I've given this all a lot of thought.
I have many years of experience with this whole issue, having been to over
600 concerts in my life. Perhaps that qualifies me a little bit to have an
informed opinion on these matters.
First, the scalpers are here to stay. There is no incentive for them to
stop. They make vast fortunes doing nothing, and with the advent of eBay
their "job" just became all that much easier. I'm getting ahead of
myself...
Lisa writes:
>
>Has anyone tried calling ticketmaster and telling them what happened? It's
>insane that the only people who got tickets were scalpers. I might try
>calling
>them...not sure it'd do any good, though.
>
Stick with that instinct. It won't do any good. The only thing it wlll do
is get you really mad. Or much more mad. Years back, Ticketmaster was
accused of some "anti-trust or monopoly" thing. The solution was for them
to offer ONE outlet in each "market" where fans could buy tickets without
paying a service charge. That lasted for about 6 months. It went away, and
everyone just forgot about it.
I emailed them after that and asked the simplest question. "Is there still
an outlet where I can buy a ticket without paying a fee". I received a nice
reply. It was trying to sell me tickets to Cats at the Pantages or
something. IT WAS A FORM LETTER COMMERCIAL. I couldn't believe it. So I
tried again, and REALLY laid it out in simple terms. Again, another form
letter, this time telling me that seating charts were available for Denver
or something like that. It became humorous! It took four rounds of
emailing back and forth for me to get the answer. In my fourth attempt I
actually had to put two checkboxes, one that said (yes)___ and one that
said (no)___. The reply? The exact same email I sent with an X in the "no"
checkbox. Customer service at its finest.
A better example is this thing they used to have on their site called "Ask
Ticketmaster". This is an exact quote from their website:
Q: I can't spell Limp Bizkut, so I can't find out about tickets. Help
please! -Carrie / Connecticut
A: If (TIME OUT! THIS IS A REAL QUOTE! I PRINTED IT OUT!)
A: If you can't spell the name of the band, you don't deserve to go to the
show. What's wrong, you're such a fan that you don't have the CD cover to
refer to? If you really want to go to the show, isn't it worth spending 5
minutes to research this on your own? Why don't you learn how to put
minimal effort into fixing your own problems. I'm not here to help your
lazy-ass win the spelling bee.
EXCUSE ME? Can you imagine telling someone that in your own line of work?
Let's consider a couple of things. Maybe "Carrie" is some little kid who
only hears LB on the radio, and can't AFFORD the $20 for a CD, let alone the
$50 concert ticket? I agree that people should try to solve their own
problems, but if they are thinking about giving ME their money, I'LL be
happy to HELP them solve their problems! Or maybe, much like Google, they
could simply add a program which would suggest an alternative, I.E. "Did you
mean to say "Limp Bizkit"? There's simply no excuse for such poor customer
service. At least in a COMPETITIVE marketplace.
The problem we're encountering these last few days is that Tori is doing us
all a favor and playing SMALL VENUES. Think about it, would you rather see
her at the Seattle Supersonics basketball arena, or in the beautiful
Benaroya Symphony Hall? This, combined with her "solo" appearance has
created a huge demand for tickets. Frankly, while I love the band, she
really ought to consider making the "...now the boys go away / Roadside
Cafe" portion of her shows like eight or ten songs, not three. Anyway, the
chance to see her solo is irresistable. Many of you didn't care much for
Strange Little Girls (for some reason I really dug it), and there were
multiple shows in each city, hence it wasn't impossible to get seats in
2001. Now we have a VERY abbreviated schedule, one show per city, many
cities getting NO shows (out here in the west San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix,
Albakerky - someone else figure out how to spell it, call Bugs Bunny or
something!) to name a few, and a very accessible album.
NOW, the SOLUTION. I saw this done for a No Doubt concert in Ventura once.
It was SWEET. It VIRTUALLY ELIMINATED the scalpers.
No Doubt, near the height of their popularity (playing arenas and huge
venues), decided to do a warm up "club" tour. There was a TWO TICKET LIMIT.
Bitch and moan all you want, but it's been my experience that if you sell
three or more tickets to one person, inevitably their little group just
can't resist BLABBING AWAY through the whole concert! Anyway, you could
only buy two tickets, and they didn't send them to you. They held them at
will call. When you walked up to get your tickets, they put a wristband on
you and sent you immediately inside. No coming out to smoke, no in and out,
no paper tickets to scalp, you and your friend were wrist-banded and sent
inside immediately. The only way a COUPLE could possibly scalp a pair of
tickets would be if TWO scalpers both offered up one ticket each. Which
would mean they would have to double their extra ticket's price just to
recoup their investment. Scalpers don't want to go into the show. They
have no soul. They simply want the money.
It worked fine, and the Ventura Theatre was filled with Gwen fans, and it
was killer.
A couple of years later, Alanis did a taping/show at the Whisky A Go Go in
Hollywood. THE WHISKY!!! That place is about as big as my living room!
They solicited suggestions from their fans who were subscribed to the email
list on how to avoid the scalpers. I sent them the No Doubt Solution. THEY
USED IT. It worked great. And I got to see Alanis Morissette at the Whisky
for $15.
Now, I'm not going to lie. I was very lucky and am very happy with the
results of the ticket sale. Perhaps in large part because I usually go
alone to Tori shows. Not only because I have very few friends, or any
friends that are into Tori, but I really don't want to be distracted by
anything at all while I'm watching and listening to her. If you can ween
yourself off of going the Buddy System route, try asking for a single
ticket. Very often there are an odd number of seats in a row, and the
"leftover" seat is available well into the sale. My seats for three shows
are all in the orchestra, rows 20, 16 and 11 respectively.
Two final thoughts: First, the tight schedule simply doesn't allow for
extra nights, but what about extra shows? I understand Tori used to do this
a lot. In San Diego in 2001, at the end of the tour, she played two shows,
back to back, on the same night! If you think it's cool to hear her play
20-25 songs in one night, wait until you see her play 40-45 songs in a four
hour stretch! It could happen... (*fingers tightly crossed*)
Second, as for the Ticketmaster questions, you need to remember that you are
dealing with a monopoly, a monarchy if you will. They have ABSOLUTELY NO
REASON to help you in any way. They won't make any more money by being
civil to you. They will sell the tickets anyway. Think about their name.
Ticket Master. MASTER. If they are the MASTER, what does that make us?
Slaves. Ticket slaves.
Johnny (my slave name)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:39:07 -0500
From: "Lisa Zwick" <xenacrazy@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: WTF!?!?!
Wow...thanks for the very thorough explanation.
I don't go to nearly enough concerts, so I wasn't aware how bad the
situation was. I usually don't even bother with the "bigger" concerts, b/c
it's so hard to get tickets, and I won't pay triple the price to scalpers.
But this time I checked for tickets the second (ok, maybe a few seconds
after) they went on sale, and I asked for one ticket anywhere.
Like you said, selling up to 4 tickets of general admission seats probably
helps the scalpers even more - they can sell as many at a time without
worrying about seats being next to each other.
I love that idea with the wristbands. The only thing that would be a pain
with that is if someone bought a ticket and then simply couldn't make it -
with that system, it sounds like they wouldn't even be able to give their
ticket to a friend. Would be nice if tori would try it once and see how it
goes. But doesn't seem like anyone's asking us for our opinion...
- -Lisa
- -------
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnny Endicott" <jhardrocktoriamos@hotmail.com>
> I have many years of experience with this whole issue, having been to over
> 600 concerts in my life. Perhaps that qualifies me a little bit to have
an
> informed opinion on these matters.
>
> First, the scalpers are here to stay. There is no incentive for them to
> stop. They make vast fortunes doing nothing, and with the advent of eBay
> their "job" just became all that much easier. I'm getting ahead of
> myself...
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 08:01:07 -0800
From: Nadyne Mielke <nadyne@little-blue-world.org>
Subject: Re: WTF!?!?!
On 28 Feb 2005, at 2:49, Johnny Endicott wrote:
[snip]
> No Doubt, near the height of their popularity (playing arenas and huge
> venues), decided to do a warm up "club" tour. There was a TWO TICKET
> LIMIT. Bitch and moan all you want, but it's been my experience that
> if you sell three or more tickets to one person, inevitably their
> little group just can't resist BLABBING AWAY through the whole
> concert! Anyway, you could only buy two tickets, and they didn't send
> them to you. They held them at will call. When you walked up to get
> your tickets, they put a wristband on you and sent you immediately
> inside. No coming out to smoke, no in and out, no paper tickets to
> scalp, you and your friend were wrist-banded and sent inside
> immediately. The only way a COUPLE could possibly scalp a pair of
> tickets would be if TWO scalpers both offered up one ticket each.
> Which would mean they would have to double their extra ticket's price
> just to recoup their investment. Scalpers don't want to go into the
> show. They have no soul. They simply want the money.
This is what Tori did on her first tour with the band, the club tour in
1998. You could buy a maximum of two tickets before the show. When
you bought the tickets, you had to show picture identification, and
they copied down your name and identification number onto a receipt.
You got one copy of it, they kept the other. On the day of the show,
you had to show that same picture ID to get into the venue with one
guest.
It worked, but it was a huge hassle for both the venue and the artist.
It's a huge headache to manage it. Remember, TM is attractive to
venues because they just magically make everything happen -- there's no
concerns about having insane fans camped outside the venue all night,
they don't have to staff their own ticket office, etc etc etc.
There are other ways to get good tickets into the hands of fans. I
know I've waxed poetic about it before, but I have to say it again:
R.E.M. gets it right. For each and every concert, they get a block of
tickets that they sell through their fan club (which they run
themselves), and those tickets are always excellent. They've
threatened to move their show to another venue if the venue doesn't
give them good enough tickets. I haven't seen R.E.M. from anywhere
further back than the fourth row as a result of these tickets. To get
the fan club tickets, you have to be a member of the fan club, and you
can't just sign up the day before the tickets go on sale. It's still
possible for scalpers to get these tickets, because I could order the
tickets and then sell them to a scalper (or scalp them myself), but
it's a lot less likely than the standard TicketBastard on-sale.
<shameless plug>
There's a lot of good advice about how to get tickets in "Little Blue
World". TicketBastard and scalpers are not your only ways to get
tickets. The issues that give information about touring and ticketing
are:
* Volume 1, Number 2 (Summer 2001)
* Volume 2, Number 3 (Fall 2002)
You can buy back issues for $4 each ($6 outside North America), and you
can get a one-year subscription to LBW to get the next issue (which
should be mailed out in early March) for $15 ($20 outside North
America). The next issue includes an extensive interview with Loren
Haynes, the creative talent behind _Welcome to Sunny Florida_. He's
worked with Tori several times over the years, and has a lot to say
about working with her.
Back issues and subscriptions are available at our website:
http://www.little-blue-world.org/
</shameless plug>
/nm
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 11:20:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Christina Wong <cwbeemer@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re WTF
I Don't mean to beat a dead horse but I have not seen
anyone mention San Francisco. I am so upset because I
tired to get tickets during the pre-sale, which I
couldn't do because it was "sold out" in 2 min.
then for the general sale, I tried to get tickets and
at 3 minutes after the tickets went on sale all i
could get was the farthest balcony in the 6th row.
Well, I figured that i just got bad seats so threw
them back in.
I never got to be able to get anymore tickets because
the concert sold out in 8 MIn. 1000 seats sold out in
8 minutes?!?
What is going on? If a diehard tori fan who keeps up
to date with what is going on can't get good tickets,
who is?? Apparently some people are because just the
1st balcony seats on the internet are selling for
$285!!! I swear, they are taking adavantage of fans
where they are charging an arm and a leg just for us
to see her. Just to see her!!!
I'm so fustrated and I want answers! Anyone else had
this experience with the SF show?
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:04:34 -0500
From: jeff albertson <woj@smoe.org>
Subject: Tori on Sirius satellite radio
sorry for the late notice on this! just found out myself. hopefully someone
with sirius can listen (and even record!) this!
woj
- ----- Forwarded message from Nadyne Mielke <nadyne@little-blue-world.org> -----
To: tori-boot@yahoogroups.com
From: "Nadyne Mielke" <nadyne@little-blue-world.org>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 19:14:33 -0000
Subject: [tori-boot] Tori on Sirius satellite radio
According to The Dent, Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast an
interview with Tori on Channel 18 ("The Spectrum") beginning at 5pm
EST. More information about this 2-hour broadcast is available at:
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Channel&cid=1104779639624
(If that URL doesn't work, go to the Sirius website, click on "channel
guide", then select music -> rock -> 18, and click on the "more info"
button.)
It starts at 5pm EST on Thursday, 10 March, and runs for two hours.
It will repeat on Saturday, 12 March, at 8am EST, and again on Sunday,
13 March, at 11pm EST. For people in other time zones, check your
Sirius listings.
So who's got access to Sirius and can tape this for the rest of us? :)
(These are in the calendar, but I wanted to post to the list as well
'cause I want to make sure that we've got this one covered.
/nm
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 17:58:42 -0600
From: Maria Aguirre <toriphilemaria@gmail.com>
Subject: Extra Dallas Ticket?
Hey EWFs,
It turns out I will be going to the Dallas show. However, I don't have a
ticket a yet. There are some ccrappy ones showing up on ticket master
still, but I wanted to check and see if anyone had one extra ticket for the
show they needed to sell. I will be taping the show, so your efforts will
benefit the whole community. Thanks in advance!
.:: Maria Aguirre ::..
toriphilemaria@gmail.com
http://www.toriphilemaria.com
And I know you will always love Sorrow
Is that why you gave her dress
to Happiness?
'Cause it matches her eyes when she cries...
- Tori Amos
------------------------------
End of precious-things-digest V10 #44
*************************************