[lefsetz.com]

They scalped their own tickets.

Rolling Stones tickets remain unsold after price hike

Where do you think the touts got those seats?

THE STONES THEMSELVES!

This is how it works. The band gets $26 million for four gigs and a private. But that’s not enough. They’ve got to make more. So they take a bunch of their seats, mark them up and sell them to the scalpers.

The scalpers just need to make their investment back. They don’t care if the band plays to an empty arena.

So the Stones play Barclays and the Prudential Center and how many seats do you think are available to the general public, at the public on sale? A few thousand. Most of the ducats flew out during the massive pre-sales. Friends and family, AmEx… And to the scalpers.

How many did the scalpers get?

Probably 2,000 a show.

How much did the scalpers pay?

Probably double face value. Or a $500 markup. That’s a million bucks extra per show. Assuming the scalpers bought the tickets that cheaply.

The Stones could have gone paperless. Could have charged their high prices and played to full places. But they got greedy.

So what happens now?

More shows. Assuming everybody’s health is in order.

But at what price?

Business sucked at the tail end of the last tour. Are enough people really interested in overpaying them to see them now?

This truly could be the last time.

And it’s all about the money.

Not surprising, their greed knows no boundaries...

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

WHINER! ><

So they can just scalp the touts on the open street like that, there would have to be middlemen involved and it's likely the word would get out. Sounds a bit like one of these "conspiracy theories" to me...

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

I agree. Lets exit poll the next O2 show...

"How did you get your tickets?"

A. Ticketmaster
B. 3rd Party Reseller
C. Corporate Handout
D. Rolling Stones/Radio Contest

Exactly, it sounds like a conspiracy theory. And like this man is just talking out of his backside.

I realize he's respected in the music industry - or at least a lot of folks read his newsletters/email missives. He's wildly off the mark though on this topic. And if he isn't, some journalist should do a big expose. Get "60 Minutes" on the phone, somebody!

Total speculation!!! If any blame is out there,it should go to Ticketmaster!!!

Quote
njlstones815
Total speculation!!! If any blame is out there,it should go to Ticketmaster!!!

THIS. EXACTLY. Stones Industries can be blamed for the horrible ticket prices. They cannot be held responsible for all the inflated resellers.

I think the stones themselves are too busy minding their physical health and rehearsing so they don't make fools of themselves in front of the world to have time to create devious ticket schemes, but i could be wrong.

Conspiracy or not, for the Rolling Stones to be as revolutionary as they have been with EVERY aspect of touring, it is interesting how the TICKETING portion of this has NEVER been addressed. Mick and Charlie help design stages and give personal input regarding MERCHANDISE right down to T-shirts. A corporation of their magnatude and their experience and the groundbreaking things they have done in that industry should have had their own outfit selling their own tickets directly since at least 1994.

And bypass TM ? I think Eddie Vedder wants a word with you ;-)

The problem is that they want a guarantee of X millions, so the promoters do the math and just work it down from there. How they came up with the purported £16 million amount is anyone's guess, apparently it sounded "about right" to Keith...the bar's been set very high...

Having said that the article may have a point in that how do you match making £16 million for 4 (or 5 concerts) going forward ? It's just impossible as I'm pretty sure that everyone who wanted/could afford to see them in Europe will have made it to the O2 shows and possibly the same in the US. I for one am not paying that kind of money again to see them anytime soon, especially without Mick Taylor, Jeff Beck and Bill Wyman. It will have to be a lot more work and are they going to go for that? I somewhat doubt it...

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-28 03:03 by gotdablouse.

I will get my revenge by illegally downloading the upcoming pay per view hours after it airs

Quote
ohnonotyouagain
I will get my revenge by illegally downloading the upcoming pay per view hours after it airs

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

[www.spinner.com]

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. ""

Ticket schemes between promoters and managers/agents have been going on forever.

This is worse that "Rockman" buying his Christmas gifts outta the truck of a '58 Chevy....

If the arena is empty, just move to a better spot.

This story is worth a bump...

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

Thankfully Max'sKansasCity helps us to tell the difference between real Journalism (facts) and the pathetic wretched conspirancy tale by leftsez.com.


spinner.com provides facts: (and even so it says "allegedly")
Fall 2007
$1 million
Wall Street Journal.
500 seats
20 concerts
David Lee Roth
Ticketmaster
"Project Showtime,
30 percent
70 percent back to Ticketmaster, the band and its handlers.
Reporter Ethan Smith
Irving Azoff
Front Line Management
etc

That Bob Lefset provides this:

Quote
flacnvinyl
I agree. Lets exit poll the next O2 show...

"How did you get your tickets?"

A. Ticketmaster
B. 3rd Party Reseller
C. Corporate Handout
D. Rolling Stones/Radio Contest

For Sunday's show I got them thru AMEX.

A lot of knee jerk reactions but has anyone been able to refute this? Acts scalping their own seats thru resellers has been common knowledge the past few years. As has the fact that Ticketmaster doesn't control venue inventory, they only sell what they are given.

I think the title of this thread should read, "They Died with Their Bowling Shoes On".

How much did the scalpers pay?

Probably double face value. Or a $500 markup.


Still have to find a scalper so stupid to pay 1,000 dollars for a ticket ...

C

They've been scalping their own tickets since 1989. Do you really think Cohl and
company were going to miss out on a profit generator this important? The Stones
taught the industry how to do it. Here's another news report, courtesy of Rocksoff:

"Ever wonder why concert tickets sell out in seconds? Now we know. An
investigative report by Phil Williams in Nashville uncovered the ticket manifest
(the document showing where all the tickets went) to an upcoming Justin Bieber
concert. Williams discovered that Justin Bieber’s management scalped their own
share of the tickets on the secondary market for well above face value.
This isn’t the first time an artist’s management team held back tickets, and
Justin Bieber is far from the first artist to scalp his own tickets. In 2009,
Keith Urban promised fans affordable tickets at $20 a piece, but only 389 of the
15,000 were offered at the $20 price. And only 1,600 seats were sold to the
general public for Taylor Swift’s 2009 show at Bridgestone Arena. Most recently,
the Smoking Gun posted a leaked copy of Katy Perry’s California Dreams Tour
rider, which showed that Perry reserves the right to scalp her own tickets on
the secondary market at inflated prices."

To repeat: the Stones wrote the book on this practice beginning in 1989.

In the words of the immortal Stonesrule, grow up.

does this mean that keith really didn't play like he was a spring chicken after all???

Quote
Dan
A lot of knee jerk reactions but has anyone been able to refute this? Acts scalping their own seats thru resellers has been common knowledge the past few years. As has the fact that Ticketmaster doesn't control venue inventory, they only sell what they are given.

As well as evading taxes is a very common practice but accussing someone of evading taxes requires some facts. The same goes for this scalping issue. I think.

Quote
StonesTod
does this mean that keith really didn't play like he was a spring chicken after all???

a totally fried spring chicken

Quote
superrevvy

Quote
StonesTod
does this mean that keith really didn't play like he was a spring chicken after all???

a totally fried spring chicken

now you're making me hungry...and here i am in raleigh, north carolina with dinner resers at The Pit BBQ...i was going with the brisket, but i'm switching over to the fried chicken now...

mmm, totally fried spring chicken, with BBQ sauce (accidentally drowns passerby in pool of BBQ-lust drool)

The Stones taught the music industry how to scalp their own tickets? It's been going on forever.