Earlier this year, Merriweather Post Pavilion became the first major venue in the country to shift from using Live Nation/Ticketmaster for ticketing since the companies merged. As you might remember
Say what you will about Apple, but it’s a company with great brand loyalty and integrity. On the complete other end of that spectrum you have Ticketmaster/Live Nation. Is Apple
There are some artists who have no qualms selling tickets to their shows for whatever the market will bear. Yet, there are a select few who do their best to keep prices under control, regardless of whether they could make an extra few million dollars by charging an extra $10 or $20. This week’s B List looks at eight major bands that could charge more for ducats but don’t.
While none of these bands are “pulling a Fugazi” – a group who famously did their best to keep prices to $5 per show – these acts are clearly leaving money on the table and should be applauded for doing so.
8. Ben Harper – Average Ticket Price = $33.82
When Ben Harper put together his latest band – Relentless7 – he played a number of shows at intimate venues as a warm up before the group tackled more high-profile gigs. Ben’s fanbase is extremely loyal and passionate. If he wanted to charge $50 a ticket for these smaller shows, no one would’ve batted an eye. Yet most ticket prices for these shows were under $20. A classy move by a classy artist.
7. Vampire Weekend – Average Ticket Price = $26.97
Over the past two years Vampire Weekend has blown up beyond anybody’s expectations. Despite ridiculous demand for tickets to their shows, VW has kept average ticket prices under $30 leading to sell outs across the country.
READ ON for six more fan-friendly artists…
Yesterday, many of the shows for Phish’s upcoming Fall Tour went on sale and most fans who tried for tickets seemed to have gotten them according to our survey. Today, Portland, Detroit and both nights of Philadelphia and both nights of Cincinnati go on sale.
Portland goes on sale through Ticketmaster at 9AM, tickets for Detroit will be available at 10AM via Ticketmaster, both nights of Cincinnati are up at 11AM and both nights of Philly close down the action at Noon.
Once again, we’ve embedded a poll for each show AFTER THE JUMP. Once you’ve either scored or missed out on tickets please let us know how you did by filling out the poll below. You can go into more detail about your experience by leaving a comment after the post. Good luck!
READ ON to participate in our Fall Tour 2009 public on sale survey…
If you took part in the lottery for Phish tickets to Fenway or night one of Jones Beach you should find out your fate shortly if you haven’t already. Once
After months of rumor and speculation, it has become official – Phish will play Boston’s Fenway Park. Fenway held it’s first concerts in recent times in 2003, shortly after new
Last week, Ticketmaster took some major heat for an unplanned and accidental presale for tickets for Phish’s four performances at Red Rocks this summer. Fans that thought they had stumbled onto a surprise jackpot had their orders canceled and received an email from David Butler, President of Ticketmaster North America, explaining why.
In an exclusive Q&A with Hidden Track, Luke Sacks spoke with Butler, who is responsible for Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing business in the US and Canada, via phone about the cause of the error, how Ticketmaster is working to thwart scalpers, what band he has seen nearly 50 times himself and more.
LUKE SACKS: Let’s start with the incident last week when tickets for the Red Rocks shows went on sale early. Speculation among fans has ranged from a simple computer glitch to Ticketmaster secretly activating that link so scalpers could get in and do their thing. From your perspective, can you walk me through what happened?
DAVID BUTLER: Absolutely. It was fundamentally human error by an employee of Ticketmaster in our Rocky Mountain region. An experienced person, who has been with us for years, accidentally, in releasing the show to be visible on the website that the on-sale was coming, accidentally made it appear to be on sale against the desires of the promoter or the artist. It was really just human error. She was trying to set it up so the show would be apparent with the future on-sale date so the fans would know it was coming. She just goofed.
LS: So that happened, all these orders were filled and eventually the decision was made to cancel these orders. Who made the decision to cancel the orders and subsequently to send out the $50 credit? Were those solely Ticketmaster decisions? Was the band or their management involved?
DB: To be clear, the mistake was totally ours at Ticketmaster and that’s why we sent out the gift certificates. Our policy is, if there is ever an error and the event goes on sale prior to the on-sale date, even if its on our website, that we will invalidate all the orders and if any money is taken we will refund it because we have to protect the integrity of the artist and the promoter that the show goes on sale as announced to the fans. So that’s exactly what we did.
READ ON for more of our exclusive interview with David Butler…
