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Furious at this legalised ticket touting charade !!


tonybassplayer
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Firstly, as previously suggested the artists don't give a sh&t so forget that angle. Nothing will change in a society obsessed with market forces and some idiot will pay a thousand pounds for a Kate Bush ticket. And while I'm on her case; shows up after 35 years and plays a bunch of shows at HER convenience in guess where? London!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I recently got tickets for the black keys and was quite chuffed until I found out the place I got them was another of Ticketmasters offspring and I'd paid pretty much double the starting price. What's the point of Ticketmaster if they are going to give a huge percentage of their tickets to getmein and Viagogo? The only time you can get tickets from Ticketmaster, is if it's a small band or if you are really spawny. I agree with Tonybassplayer, sign the petition and get these pesky legalised ticket twits shut down !

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[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1418409570' post='2630062']
I guess the internet is really to blame for the current situation, I was lucky enough to get tickets for Pink Floyd at the Nordorf Robbins gig at Knebworth Park back in the late 80's?

...
[/quote]

1990.

Absolutely amazing gig. Too many artists to mention.

Silver Clef Award winners gig.

Every artist that had won it up to then played.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Clef_Award

There's a DVD of it.

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Whilst not trying to justify ticket touting, I can see the rationale for using the ticket agencies.

Rehearsal space, publicity materials, venue booking fees, transport costs, PA costs - the list goes on and on and will have been paid for upfront.

You decide you need £90 a ticket to cover those costs and make a suitable profit.

Then you have a choice - you can either pay people to take that money for you and deal with any complaints plus credit card fees and tie up some more money in the process - or you can sell the whole lot at face value to an agency and get your investment and your profit back in one hit.

The actual mechanism is very similar to a supplier - retailer relationship, but the 'trade prices' are advertised on the product being sold.

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[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1421532631' post='2662500']
Whilst not trying to justify ticket touting, I can see the rationale for using the ticket agencies.

Rehearsal space, publicity materials, venue booking fees, transport costs, PA costs - the list goes on and on and will have been paid for upfront.

You decide you need £90 a ticket to cover those costs and make a suitable profit.

Then you have a choice - you can either pay people to take that money for you and deal with any complaints plus credit card fees and tie up some more money in the process - or you can sell the whole lot at face value to an agency and get your investment and your profit back in one hit.

The actual mechanism is very similar to a supplier - retailer relationship, but the 'trade prices' are advertised on the product being sold.
[/quote]

That's all fine and is what has been happening ever since I can remember, and very likely a lot longer. What is new is the agency then putting only a portion of those tickets on sale at face value (plus their booking and admin fees) and selling the remainder at many times face value (again plus their cut for providing this wonderful service). These are tickets that have never been available to anyone, the proceeds of which are lost to the music business, as the the secondary side of the agencies put absolutely nothing back in.

All the amendments just knocked back in parliament were intended to do were to make the process transparent. Apparently they would prefer people to remain in the dark over precisely who we're buying the tickets from.

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[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1421542001' post='2662646']
All the amendments just knocked back in parliament were intended to do were to make the process transparent. Apparently they would prefer people to remain in the dark over precisely who we're buying the tickets from.
[/quote]

The government loves to not do things on the grounds that they believe that markets should run themselves free from government interference as much as possible. And that's a lovely little idea that works right up until entire industries and economies collapse due to mismanagement.

Or maybe they've just payed some ministers off. It's very difficult to tell the difference between the 2... if there even is a difference.

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[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1421544313' post='2662658'] Well according to published figures, Ticketmaster turned over £77,899,000.00 in 2013. That's a lot of VAT and business tax there. It's going to take a lot of persuasion to slaughter the golden goose that just keeps giving... [/quote]
Point taken - that's a big chunk of cash, but it doesn't tell us anything of Get Me In's turnover nor of the proportion derived directly from Ticketmaster providing tickets directly to Get Me In. It's probably fair to assume it isn't peanuts though. And that's the point really.

The market is far from transparent. HMRC said in response to that C4 programme that they were unable to take any action on individuals or companies using these secondary sites because they didn't know who they were. There must be an awful lot of tax and VAT avoided that could easily be collected by implementing these amendments, but nobody can do anything but guess the tax revenues evaded due to the opaqueness of the market.

I feel it's generally a good idea to to know who you're buying from (something that is regularly recommended when trading on this very forum) to allow me to make a decision whether I want to buy from a fan, tout, company or criminal. I'd also quite like to know exactly what it is I'm buying and whether that purchase will get me into an event, and that's all these proposals address.

And Milty is right, many Conservatives argued against the proposals on the basis that the free market should decide prices and that people should be free to sell tickets on the secondary market. That the amendments didn't attempt to curtail these freedoms seems to have evaded them, unless of course they were simply trying to obscure their real reasons for voting down any changes.

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1418374383' post='2629596']


Indeed. I took my seven year old daughter to see a pub blues band last weekend. She really [b][i]got[/i][/b] what the music was about and felt a real kinship with the bald, overweight, dull musicians who were going through the motions and almost staying in time. The long noodling guitar solos in E really impressed her too.

It's definitely the way forward.

:mellow:
[/quote]

What's wrong with being bald? Do tell.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just received this group email from Stewart Lee (comedian), makes interesting reading on this subject:

[indent=1]Dear All [/indent]

[indent=1]TICKET TOUTS - RUN TO THE HILLS [/indent]

[indent=1]As you may have noticed Stub Hub, Viagogo and E-bay have been touting tickets for the current Room With A Stew Tour at up to £99, a nearly 400% mark-up on seats, many of which are in publicly subsidised venues, the utter bastards. [/indent]

[indent=1]I have contacted Stub Hub and Viagogo about this, they have of course pointed out it is all technically legal, and will not be drawn into discussion about the difference between law and ethics. [/indent]
[indent=1]If you go into Stub Hub's office on Great Portland St you can try and eat as many free sweets off the desk as possible while you argue with the bloke there, even though it's not his fault and he just has to use words like 'platform' over and over again to avoid commenting on anything.[/indent]

[indent=1]The culture secretary Sajid Javid has said the only people that oppose touting are 'chattering middle classes and champagne socialists'. He also wants the arts to be more 'accessible' to justify subsidy. He has not replied to any of my e-mails, and nor has the shadow culture secretary. [/indent]

[indent=1]I oppose touting because I want my shows to be accessible to all, so that everyone can come and hate them as equals, and I cut corners to keep tickets as cheap as venues will allow me to make them (don't play ATG theatres, no ad campaign, Premier Inns etc etc.) I don't see why this is 'champagne socialism', and if it is, I am all for it. Also, let's face it, I don't write £99 shows. That said, I don't think they will shift these mark-ups to my audience anyway.[/indent]

[indent=1]Iron Maiden, who have a giant robot of a monster on their side, are now taking on this issue, God bless them, and I urge you to support them and fill in the forms below. Also, drink their Trooper beer. It is ace. I will not pretend to be a Maiden fan but who cannot like Run To The Hills and 666?[/indent]

[indent=1]Incidentally, I am adding more dates to some of the sold out shows so there should be no need to buy over the odds tickets from these twats. There won't be another date at Kingston but for god's sake just go into London this Autumn at Leics Sq Theatre rather than pay £99 for the back row of the Rose Theatre on an evasive website.[/indent]

[indent=1]Please spread this around and end this nonsense.[/indent]
[indent=1]Artists shouldn't have to have their tickets sold at higher rates than they want them to be sold at. It is wrong. The Free Market, in this case, can f*** off. [/indent]

[indent=1]MESSAGE ENDS[/indent]

[indent=1]S[/indent]

[indent=1]Iron Maiden's message, please click here to read it:[/indent]
[indent=1]http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=4ed22b50518a2d4aaa7dcb375&id=eeb04217b9&e=df2ab12090[/indent]

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[url="http://blog.dice.fm/post/107997788494/the-consumer-rights-bill-and-what-you-need-to"]http://blog.dice.fm/post/107997788494/the-consumer-rights-bill-and-what-you-need-to[/url]
This is a very interesting article - well done for posting.
This kind of stuff is in the pipeline when your government start selling off utility and transport companies - effectively abdicating responsibility to 'market forces' aka Dick Turpin and co. The best advice I've seen on this thread is to vote with your feet, or;
Buy the dvd of the show and have it delivered to a mate - preferably in London or somewhere more than 100 miles away. Make the 3 hour journey. Ring his doorbell - he'll answer but ask you to wait an hour. Then when you're let in queue outside his kitchen (he's asked a few neighbours around just to make a queue) for 15 minutes to pay his missus around £14 for a warm beer in a plastic tumbler and the greasiest burger you ever saw. Go for a pre-gig tinkle (queue of course) in a toilet that your mate, his missus and two children have prepared for you by weeing on the floor for a week. Find a good spot in his lounge (standing) 20 mins before gig time. Your mate will load the dvd at 7.30 - but the tv ain't goin' on 'til 8! Your good spot is now a bad spot - Mr Doeverythingatthelastminute, who's 5" taller than you has just barged in front of you. And now you need the toilet again. You guys know the rest...
I've attached an old ticket stub to remind everyone that there was value for money once.

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Stewart Lee (again) in the Guardian today.
The more I find out about this the more annoyed I get.
So I am having an annoyed Sunday morning :angry:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/08/secondary-ticketing-legal-but-not-morally-right-sajid-javid

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[quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1423392213' post='2684162']
Stewart Lee (again) in the Guardian today.
The more I find out about this the more annoyed I get.
So I am having an annoyed Sunday morning :angry:
[url="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/08/secondary-ticketing-legal-but-not-morally-right-sajid-javid"]http://www.theguardi...ght-sajid-javid[/url]
[/quote]
+1 ... beat me to it

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[quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1423392213' post='2684162']
Stewart Lee (again) in the Guardian today.
The more I find out about this the more annoyed I get.
So I am having an annoyed Sunday morning :angry:
[url="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/08/secondary-ticketing-legal-but-not-morally-right-sajid-javid"]http://www.theguardi...ght-sajid-javid[/url]
[/quote]

That was a bloomin' good read. If I've got this right, our best hope of bringing an end to ticket tout tossery is to unleash the Iron Maiden fanbase upon them. With Eddie to the fore.

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