The Hollywood Reporter
By Mitchell Peters, Billboard
Nov 20, 2008, 05:52 PM ET
Ticketmaster Entertainment might be experimenting with eliminating convenience charges for ticket purchases, but "they're not going to die off entirely," a Ticketmaster executive said.
After announcing recently that it has acquired a controlling equity interest in Irving Azoff's Front Line Management Group, Ticketmaster president Sean Moriarty said during Billboard's fifth annual Touring Conference in New York that the company will "experiment" with eliminating add-on fees for some Eagles shows.
But during Wednesday's "Two Tickets to Paradise" panel, Live Nation executive vp business development and strategy Greg Bettinelli said the eliminated convenience fees still will factor into ticket prices. Even so, Ticketmaster senior vp Joseph Freeman noted that concertgoers likely will be less agitated if add-on fees don't appear on their credit card bills.
"I've had so many family and friends tell me over the years that they'll happily pay $100 for a ticket, but the $90-plus-$10 drives them bonkers," Freeman said.
Tickets.com chief commercial officer Derek Palmer agreed that additional ticket charges will not go away because "there are actual costs involved," he said. "We spend millions of dollars every year in infrastructure to provide these technologies."
While some on the panel agreed that Ticketmaster's paperless ticketing technology is emerging as a potential weapon in artists' efforts to eliminate resellers from the ticket-buying equation, others said its inconvenience could be hurtful. Paperless ticketing, which has been used by Tom Waits, AC/DC and Metallica, requires concertgoers to bring the credit card they used to make the transaction, along with a valid photo ID, to the concert they're attending.
"Overall, it's going to hurt primary sales," StubHub director of music relations Chuck Lavallee said. "Restricting the marketplace is only going to harm the marketplace."
Bettinelli said the problem with paperless ticketing is that "it doesn't help sell more tickets." He noted, though, that most artist fan clubs will "move toward the paperless model in 2009 and 2010."
Meanwhile, on the secondary market, TicketNetwork CEO Don Vaccaro said, "we're seeing a greater amount of tickets being sold for less than face value, which is a very bad trend. At the end of the day, consumers feel that they're paying too much for tickets at the boxoffice when they see the secondary market selling tickets for less. It's embarrassing for some artists and teams."
On the flip side, secondary ticketing Web sites are seeing more traffic from concertgoers "because they know that they will get great seats, and for much less than what the primary sellers charge them," Vaccaro said.
Showing posts with label secondary ticket market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label secondary ticket market. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Suspicions Run High at Ticket Broker Confab
Participating in a primary ticketing panel were Joe Freeman from Ticketmaster, Josh Logan from the Houston Rockets, Greg Bettinelli from Live Nation, Gary Adler of the NATB, Derek Palmer of Tickets.com, Dan DeMato from FutureTix and Jeffrey Larris from INTIX
As published in the July 23, 2008 • VOL. VII, Number 23 issue of VT Pulse
LAS VEGAS — Is it a marriage of love or convenience? That was the question of the day at the National Association of Ticket Brokers conference at the Wynn Hotel.
At the close of the Friday meeting, Ticketmaster officials had put their best foot forward to convince brokers that they would continue to play an important role at the recently acquired TicketsNow, although it could be a changing, evolving role. For their part, many of the brokers were as intrigued by the offer as they were skeptical.
“Ticketmaster is going to need us in the short term,” said broker Barry Rudin of Barry’s Ticket Services in Los Angeles. “They can’t buy every ticket, so there will be a role for those of us who choose to adapt to the new market. We know there will still be a market, we just don’t know what type of inventory is left over for the brokers.”
Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said his company would not squeeze brokers out of the fold, embracing what he described as a “partnership” where brokers continue to supply much of the inventory, while Ticketmaster brings its marketing savvy and internet reach to more eyeballs.
“Consumers are learning that tickets are always available at a price,” Moriarty said, later adding that before the TicketsNow acquisition “we knew that people would come to Ticketmaster looking for inventory and we knew we wouldn’t have what they were looking for.”
Moriarty said merging the Ticketmaster and TicketsNow platforms created a new tool “that would be very important to the consumer” where he can tell consumers “there’s always a ticket for a price. We want to give the consumers a relatively complete picture of their options.”
Transparency, explained Moriarty, would be critical for the two platforms to work together, a comment that elicited a few chuckles from those in attendance. During an earlier panel on the primary market, several brokers expressed frustration at Ticketmaster’s policy of not publicizing how many tickets are released during an on sale.
“That would be virtually impossible,” said Joe Freeman, senior vice president assistant general counsel for Ticketmaster, explaining that the company’s often contractually obligated to stay mum on ticketing inventory for its venue clients.
“One of our key advantages is our direct tie to the primary inventory,” said Derek Palmer of Tickets.com. Secondary ticketing companies that have the ability to reissue tickets through the primary provider — often through electronic delivery methods like email — will have a clear advantage over brokers who must mail their tickets.
“The way the system currently works, the only people making money from the secondary market are FedEx and Google,” said Greg Bettinelli who is overseeing Live Nation’s ticketing initiative. Bettinelli hinted that the new Live Nation platform will likely feature electronic deliverability for secondary tickets, while Tickets.com is currently working with StubHub to reissue baseball tickets sold on the platform.
TicketsNow CEO Cheryl Rosner said she expected Ticketmaster to eventually develop the means to reissue and electronically deliver tickets sold on the TicketsNow platform, but added the company is currently weighing all its options.
Freeman said the other advantage Ticketmaster will have over small brokerage firms is Internet credibility, adding that “every time a fan comes upon a questionable site, it’s an unsatisfying experience and we all lose.”
It was those calls for change that brought an air of tension over the group, who raised their grievances against a number of primary ticketing issues that made resale harder. One audience member complained that the recent Tom Waits tour’s plan to go ticketless and essentially ban resale was bad for the brokerage community. Freeman replied that Ticketmaster was purely an agent of the artist and had to meet their wishes. Another broker said it was unfair for a team to yank a broker’s season tickets if they sold them to a fan who misbehaved during a game.
At one point during a panel, TicketNetwork CEO and President John Vaccaro said he believed Ticketmaster was attempting to shut brokers out of the business. Freeman called the comment “bass ackwards” and added “we didn’t just make an investment into TicketsNow to hurt brokers.” — Dave Brooks of Venues Today
As published in the July 23, 2008 • VOL. VII, Number 23 issue of VT Pulse
LAS VEGAS — Is it a marriage of love or convenience? That was the question of the day at the National Association of Ticket Brokers conference at the Wynn Hotel.
At the close of the Friday meeting, Ticketmaster officials had put their best foot forward to convince brokers that they would continue to play an important role at the recently acquired TicketsNow, although it could be a changing, evolving role. For their part, many of the brokers were as intrigued by the offer as they were skeptical.
“Ticketmaster is going to need us in the short term,” said broker Barry Rudin of Barry’s Ticket Services in Los Angeles. “They can’t buy every ticket, so there will be a role for those of us who choose to adapt to the new market. We know there will still be a market, we just don’t know what type of inventory is left over for the brokers.”
Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said his company would not squeeze brokers out of the fold, embracing what he described as a “partnership” where brokers continue to supply much of the inventory, while Ticketmaster brings its marketing savvy and internet reach to more eyeballs.
“Consumers are learning that tickets are always available at a price,” Moriarty said, later adding that before the TicketsNow acquisition “we knew that people would come to Ticketmaster looking for inventory and we knew we wouldn’t have what they were looking for.”
Moriarty said merging the Ticketmaster and TicketsNow platforms created a new tool “that would be very important to the consumer” where he can tell consumers “there’s always a ticket for a price. We want to give the consumers a relatively complete picture of their options.”
Transparency, explained Moriarty, would be critical for the two platforms to work together, a comment that elicited a few chuckles from those in attendance. During an earlier panel on the primary market, several brokers expressed frustration at Ticketmaster’s policy of not publicizing how many tickets are released during an on sale.
“That would be virtually impossible,” said Joe Freeman, senior vice president assistant general counsel for Ticketmaster, explaining that the company’s often contractually obligated to stay mum on ticketing inventory for its venue clients.
“One of our key advantages is our direct tie to the primary inventory,” said Derek Palmer of Tickets.com. Secondary ticketing companies that have the ability to reissue tickets through the primary provider — often through electronic delivery methods like email — will have a clear advantage over brokers who must mail their tickets.
“The way the system currently works, the only people making money from the secondary market are FedEx and Google,” said Greg Bettinelli who is overseeing Live Nation’s ticketing initiative. Bettinelli hinted that the new Live Nation platform will likely feature electronic deliverability for secondary tickets, while Tickets.com is currently working with StubHub to reissue baseball tickets sold on the platform.
TicketsNow CEO Cheryl Rosner said she expected Ticketmaster to eventually develop the means to reissue and electronically deliver tickets sold on the TicketsNow platform, but added the company is currently weighing all its options.
Freeman said the other advantage Ticketmaster will have over small brokerage firms is Internet credibility, adding that “every time a fan comes upon a questionable site, it’s an unsatisfying experience and we all lose.”
It was those calls for change that brought an air of tension over the group, who raised their grievances against a number of primary ticketing issues that made resale harder. One audience member complained that the recent Tom Waits tour’s plan to go ticketless and essentially ban resale was bad for the brokerage community. Freeman replied that Ticketmaster was purely an agent of the artist and had to meet their wishes. Another broker said it was unfair for a team to yank a broker’s season tickets if they sold them to a fan who misbehaved during a game.
At one point during a panel, TicketNetwork CEO and President John Vaccaro said he believed Ticketmaster was attempting to shut brokers out of the business. Freeman called the comment “bass ackwards” and added “we didn’t just make an investment into TicketsNow to hurt brokers.” — Dave Brooks of Venues Today
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Blurring Line: State of the Primary & Secondary Markets
Ticket Summit is the leading trade show and conference in the secondary ticket industry. This annual event brings together hundreds of experts and leaders within the ticket community, offering them a chance to establish and foster relationships valuable to their business. This year's Ticket Summit takes place July 23-25 in Las Vegas at The Venetian.
Derek Palmer, Tickets.com Chief Commercial Officer, will be speaking on a panel called "The Blurring Line: State of the Primary & Secondary Markets" on Thursday, July 24. The panel discussion will enable attendees to learn about the different ways the primary and secondary ticket markets are coming together and the potential shifts on the horizon. Hear about the ways the primary market is attempting to extract more revenue from consumers, how the secondary market continues to provide value, ways the two markets are already working together, and how the line between them is expected to blur even more in the coming year.
Ticket Summit features expert panels on various topics pertaining to the secondary ticketing industry. The sessions are designed to provide brokers and other affiliates with the latest innovations and information regarding the ticketing industry.
Learn more about Tickets.com >
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