Van Halen Accused of Ticketmaster Scalping Scheme

[Afghan Dave]

http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk/2009/09/01/van-halen-accused-of-ticketmaster-scalping-scheme/

Van Halen allegedly worked with scalpers during its fall 2007 tour in order to pull down an extra $1 million, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The financial paper says the band was involved in farming out of up to 500 of the best seats from about 20 of its concerts with original frontman David Lee Roth to secondary ticket brokers.

In a move that was part of a Ticketmaster initiative named "Project Showtime," the desirable tickets were pulled from the company's system and passed directly to private sellers. These secondary ticketing firms reportedly kept 30 percent of the inflated sale price for themselves and pushed the remaining 70 percent back to Ticketmaster, the band and its handlers.

According to reporter Ethan Smith, the move by Ticketmaster was in effort designed to capture a piece of the sky-high prices charged by scalpers, which can exceed a ticket's face value by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.

Van Halen's manager Irving Azoff -- who was the CEO of Front Line Management, which Ticketmaster then co-owned, and who now serves as Ticketmaster's chief executive -- is said to have spearheaded the scheme. "Project Showtime" fell apart because of distrust between participants, but not before the secondary ticket brokers were given tickets to scalp for Van Halen with Azoff's blessing.

Azoff has since condemned ticket scalping in the press and distanced himself in the practice after the subsequent merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which occurred earlier this year.

[Jonny]

I don't quite understand.. It's late and I'm tired. Someone explain to me.

[HTH AMPS]

I don't quite understand.. It's late and I'm tired. Someone explain to me.

essentially Ticketmaster and the band were cherry picking the best seats (VIP etc) and passing them to ticket agencies (touts by any other name) then taking a cut of the extra they got over and above the face value of the ticket.  just shows how greedy that band have got, its ONLY about the money these days.  it only takes minutes to watch a recent live performance to clarify that.  it's all about slapping the VH and EVH brand on anything they think will sell and charging 10 times what the item would typically be worth.

[Jonny]

Ah.

I understand now.

tw@ts.

[Afghan Dave]

It simply beggars belief just how money hungry you need to be to practice that... :shock:

It could get mistaken for capitalism but this behaviour gives honest "FREE MARKET" capitalism a bad name!  :(
 

[blue]

they've been caught out, but i think ticketmaster, and all the ticket agencies, do it all the time.  it's funny how the touts get all the best tickets for every show, no matter what.

[FernandoDuarte]

 :roll: And people keep giving them money... I think that if you find the 5150 the best amp ever, go ask for MJW or other amp tech to build one to you, same about the guitars!

[Afghan Dave]

I think that if you find the 5150 the best amp ever, go ask for MJW or other amp tech to build one to you, same about the guitars!

You mean his new 5150 III amp and Lobster Head "Wolfgang" Guitar.

[FernandoDuarte]

I think that if you find the 5150 the best amp ever, go ask for MJW or other amp tech to build one to you, same about the guitars!

You mean his new 5150 III amp and Lobster Head "Wolfgang" Guitar.

Yeah... Even more because this Lobster head is a monstrosity! :lol:

[hunter]

Maybe they should just put all concert tickets on ebay, then it would still be capitalism and bad for people with low budgets, but at least it would be official.

[AndyR]

Maybe they should just put all concert tickets on ebay, then it would still be capitalism and bad for people with low budgets, but at least it would be official.

I kinda agree with this sentiment, hunter... but not too sure it would be practical - everyone waiting until the last moment to try and get the cheapest price :lol:

I'm in at least two minds over what's reported here. If people are prepared to pay somewhat more than face value for premium tickets or, in fact, any tickets, then that means the face value for these tickets is actually too low. Whether we like it or not :(

It's not too much of a problem until a bunch of resellers spring up - people who are able to get hold of the product, and then exploit its popularity to make some money for themselves. The actual providers of the product (artistes, sportspeople, promoters, etc) find that a bunch of b@stards are making huge amounts of money because of their effort and popularity. I personally don't really see anything wrong with those providers trying to find a way of gaining access to the income that is generated through their efforts.

Just imagine if we were in a band, went out on tour, and found that we made 100 groats for the work we did. But because we're quite popular, a bunch of other people, with whom we have no contracts or relationship, made 1000 groats just because we went to work, and they didn't pay any of the fecking costs!!!

However, the way this one was or is apparently done doesn't really seem to appeal to our sense of fair play! :lol:

[dave_mc]

It could get mistaken for capitalism but this behaviour gives honest "FREE MARKET" capitalism a bad name!  :(
 

oxymoron?

kidding, i know what you mean. that sucks. :( EDIT: yes i know who i have in my avatar.

[nfe]

Just imagine if we were in a band, went out on tour, and found that we made 100 groats for the work we did. But because we're quite popular, a bunch of other people, with whom we have no contracts or relationship, made 1000 groats just because we went to work, and they didn't pay any of the fecking costs!!!

Quite recently, Trent Reznor went bananas about Livenation selling tickets onto a subsidiary of themselves to resell at a massive hike. He just wantedhis 100 groats and was raging that he had no control over the 1000 groats some of his fans were being forced to pay for his shows.

[AndyR]

^ :lol: Yeah that's the other way of at looking at it, nfe.

I've got no real notion of what a "100 groats for playing" might feel like - if it was enough for me to live on in the state I wanted to, then I'd take the Trent Reznor line - "the b@stards are ripping my fans off"

If 100 groats didn't seem that much to me, I'd probably still be thinking "the b@stards are ripping me off" :lol:

I wonder which camp EVH falls into? :roll: I know which camp we all think he ought to :lol:

[gwEm]

I'm not sure ebaying tickets would increase the /average/ price. often i see normal people losing money selling tickets on ebay - its not much, maybe just a tenner on the original cost.