The Robbie Williams Kerfuffle

"Robbie Williams tickets put directly on resale sites": http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38131028?utm_source=phplist5704&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Robbie+Williams+Kerfuffle

He put choice seats directly on Get Me In and Seatwave.

I say GOOD!

Now there is one caveat, he came out against touts previously, his management signing a petition against it, but the truth is...

The tickets have to be sold at the value they're worth or the tickets must be sold at a fair price and tied to the purchaser.

And the public prefers the former.

Yes, the truth is the public loves StubHub. Because they don't have to buy a ticket months in advance, giving the promoter its float. Ticket buying is a science. In a world riddled with fake news no one knows how to buy a ticket anyway. Do they need to get a credit card? Which one? Many? Do they need to become a member of the fan club? Do they have to make friends with those who have senate seats (i.e. season tickets to all shows at a venue) so they can buy their unwanted ducats? If you think about the cost involved figuring out how to buy a ticket at sticker price, oftentimes a bad seat, your time is better spent elsewhere, making the extra money so you can afford to overpay on StubHub.

Believe me people bitch they can't get a good seat at the listed price. But the truth is, it's a small minority that is complaining. Interface with the public and you find this out. Professional cranks. The true fans? They overpay in order to sit close and they're happy to do it.

That's right, platinum has been institutionalized in America. Used to come with perks, now the perks are a joke, because the acts don't want to provide them and the fans don't care about them. They don't want a faux laminate, they don't want a catered meal, they don't want to take home the seat they're sitting in, just being up close and personal at the show is enough.

The only difference here was Robbie Williams decided to sell platinum tickets on Get Me In and Seatwave instead of a more traditional outlet like Ticketmaster, which now includes the secondary market along with the primary in its listings!

The music business created this monster. I can forgive the punters and the legislators bitching, they don't understand the shenanigans, but in the U.K. it's the promoters and managers themselves who are complaining. What is the fair system they're looking for? One in which everybody pays face value and sits in the front row? That's impossible!

And it works nowhere else. The person who flies once a year does not get upgraded to the front of the plane. The hot new automobile is not sold at sticker, but far above.

What is the principle we're trying to save?

The truth is acts just hate that they're not getting all that uplift, the difference between sticker and sale price on secondary sites. Ergo Robbie Williams's behavior here. And the truth is acts have been scalping their own tickets from time immemorial, for the extra cash. And promoters have made deals with brokers and resale sites too, because they not only want to make that extra money, they want to hedge their bets, get guaranteed income in their coffers.

But the little guy has to be protected.

Who is this little guy?

We live in a world of income inequality. It's not only at concerts that the disadvantaged are closed out. If you want to help those with less, raise taxes, at least in America, have acts stand up to corporations, but in the U.S. "tax" is a dirty word and the acts all have corporate deals to profit from. Talk about hypocrisy.

And people know the score. They know if they want to get something very desirable, they need to pay for it.

So the only problem we have in the concert business is ticket prices ARE TOO LOW! Assuming people want to go at all, some shows you can't give away. But for the stars?? It's income inequality in music too, the winners are rolling in dough, the rest are eking out a living.

Or, you can settle for the listed gross, the price of the tickets as originally scaled. But you've got to sell them closer to the date the show plays, so people know what their schedule is, and you've got to give people the option to transfer the tickets at the price they bought them for if they can't go to the show...

But people don't like this. Everybody's playing the market. If they managed to get their hands on good seats they believe it's their God-given right to sell them at what the traffic will bear. Think about that, the same people bitching they can't get a good seat at face value are the same ones who want to take the uplift, they too are hypocritical!

But money is the great equalizer. Charge what the tickets are truly worth and there's no subterfuge.

But there will be blowback, at first.

The acts will be called greedy, these same acts parading their island vacations on Instagram, these same acts evidencing their highfalutin' lifestyle all over the web.

And you'll get the same complainers wanking they can't get in, the same people who believe you should come to their house and play for free.

So, it's about time we faced reality and like any other business grew up and sold our wares at their full value. Like Robbie Williams.

But everybody in the business thinks he's a pariah.

But I want you to find one person who buys one of these tickets on Get Me In or Seatwave who complains.

No, they love getting a good seat at the show. It's a bargain at that price. Hell, think of the ancillary costs, the transportation, the parking, the food, the ticket price is a deal!

Hmm...


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