“Garner said, adding that the company would also like to capitalize more on the secondary ticket market.”

Of course Live Nation would like to “capitalize” on the secondary ticket market since they are probably the biggest ticket suppliers to brokers in the country. I have long suspected that LN’s promoters get a lot of the good seats that end up on the broker sites for many times upwards of face value.

When Live Nation bought out Music Today, I had hoped LN would take a more band & fan friendly approach to the business, but I guess that was a waste of time.

Moreover LN employs an antiquated approach to the music scene. Today people can go to concerts anywhere in the country and abroad, but LN’s system does not allow fans to identify artists they want ALL tour information on. LN has a narrow old school approach to the market and hopefully they will lose their share of it based both on prices, supplying brokers who inflate ticket prices and becasue they have failed to make changes in line with the way all segments of the fan population actually buys concert tickets.

If I was a musician/band I would steer clear of them in every way shape and form. Anyway, it is time for the bands to take ticketing into their own hands as much as possible. Live Nation and not the fans or the bands will always come out ahead otherwise.

BLD, NYC

“adding that the company would also like to capitalize more on the secondary ticket market.”

DOESNT ANYBODY SEE WHAT IS SO WRONG ABOUT THIS???

The person that wrote this article needs to get his/her facts straight. What do you mean Ticketmaster doesn’t sell tickets “hosted” Live Nation. You should look around about 1/4 of the listings on their sight has the Live Nation emblem at the bottom of the page. The “writer” is comparing apples to oranges talking about ticketmaster’s fee for a philadelphia show to a live nation fee in NEW YORK! Have you ever been to New York? Do you know how much a value meal costs in New York? By the way ticketmaster has always charged those kind of fees. Hell once I bought a $10 ticket for $27 from ticketmaster.

let me say, i worked for live nation and house of blues as an assitant to a major promoter and i have never once seen the practice of the company selling tickets to scalpers and on their secondary site. i think the conspiracy theorists are a trip. there would be no way for the promoter to get away with this without the band knowing given the accounting and the access the acts and their management have to the ticketing systems (the major acts anyway).

not saying 1350 isnt a big service fee, but just pointing out a fact i am familiar with.

You guys are right. Ticketmaster should be the only company in the country who gets to sell tickets to concerts.

Are you serious?

I applaud any company who is taking on Ticketmaster. They have had a monopoly on selling tickets to most sporting, music and theatre events for years. And now comes along a company who is giving them a run for their money, and everyone is up in arms about it?

Seriously BLD, Bands handling their own ticketing?? Yeah, thats exactly what I want to be doing in between practicing, playing shows and writing songs.. Working on my own ticketing system.

Retarded.

Of course we need a Ticketmaster competitor – but shouldn’t that company charge LOWER fees instead of higher ones!? That would be a real step in the right direction.

For the idiot in the room…The guy who is suppose to know what he is talking about… Here is a quote from an article released 2 hours ago about Live Nation and Ticketmaster. “Even after ending the ticketing relationship at Live Nation venues, Rapino said “Ticketmaster still sells tickets for 47 percent of the events that Live Nation promotes.” Look it up on Google. Jeez, come on man!

I just looked for tickets for Less Than Jake at the TLA in Philly. The 20 dollar ticket had an 8 dollar service fee. Thats more of a rip off then Ticketmaster, they were at least only 6 bucks for similar tickets. Hopefully the box office continues to be service charge free or the only shows I will go to are the House of Blues and the Troc.

I hate you Live Nation, all you do is rip people off!

Wow, Live Nation actually manages to be more of a ripoff that Ticketmaster. I didn’t think anyone would have the balls to push it that far.

I am going to show may age here, but man, I remember when I could get TICKETS for a show – a good show, for $13.50.

What a crock o’ shit!

I’ll never pay fees like that.

I actually bought some theater tickets on line the other day (through TeleCharge I think) and there was a service charge for “will call” tickets. What, there’s an expense involved in the method of ticket delivery where they don’t have to do jack?

I don’t get the print at home charges. It’s my electricity, my printer, my paper, my ink. They should be paying me to print the tickets.

As long as stupid greedy musicians continue to deal with these companies it will never stop. It’s not selling out man!! .. It’s buying in. They can’t make money off of cd’s anymore so they are bleeding everything else and the musicians are complicit.

you say… “The 20 dollar ticket had an 8 dollar service fee. Thats more of a rip off then Ticketmaster, they were at least only 6 bucks for similar tickets.”

but do you notice that live nation doesn’t charge you to print your tickets, nor do they charge you a $5.00+ “order fee” on top?

just sayin’…

If there is a per ticket fee, why don’t they just build it into the price of the ticket?

$29.50 + $13.50 = $43.00

I know that part of that money goes to the promoter and part goes to the ticketing company, but I don’t need to see it. Ignorance is bliss.

The ticket costs $43.00. Not 29.50 plus a “ticket fee.” The customers don’t need to know and don’t care who gets what % of what. All they really want to know is how much? And that number becomes so hard to determine with the ticket, ticket fee, order charge, convenience charge. By the time it all adds up the tickets really cost about 30-50% more than the advertised price.

The ticket price seems like a bait and switch tactic to me.

what some people dont know is that ticketmaster has to pay the promoter, the venue, the artist etc. portions of the service charge. ticket master only makes about 20% of the posted fee. they have long agreed to be the ‘evil’ of the equation, but actually all parties are equally greedy

Wow…I used to like live nation cause they didnt charge the extra fees like that, at least ones that werent that much…

How do you suppose the bands are going to take ticketing into their own hands? Set up their own ticketing companies? And then how do they pay for what that costs? WITH FEES!!! Duh!

Generally the venues decide who will provide their tickets.

Ticketing is a service and a business and ticketing companies, as such, have a right to make a profit off the service they provide.

It’s part of the cost of live music. If you don’t like it, either stand in line at the box office or don’t go.

How do you suppose the bands are going to take ticketing into their own hands? Set up their own ticketing companies? And then how do they pay for what that costs? WITH FEES!!! Duh!

Generally the venues decide who will provide their tickets.

Ticketing is a service and a business and ticketing companies, as such, have a right to make a profit off the service they provide.

It’s part of the cost of live music. If you don’t like it, either stand in line at the box office or don’t go.

I remember way back when Live nation entering the game was just a rumor. But as it turns out is more or less more of the same bull shit that we have had to endure with ticketmaster.

$13.50 to ensure that their ticketing program sucks and kicks off users just as their trying to purchase tickets.

$13.50 to sit in a waiting queue for 20 minutes to buy nosebleed seats!

$13.50 to drive away fans and stick up as far as they can!

rumor: live nation techs getting fired in mass

Grow up and make a decision to go to a concert or not, and pay for the ticket or not.

The market will decide what can be charged.

I work at the 930 club in DC and we use tickets.com

Livenation can die

Ironic that I should read this on the Rolling Stone website.

Don’t let this article fool you into thinking Rolling Stone will be of any help.

————-
As a benefit for my $12.50 ticket fee and $6.00 venue fee, I get a “free” subscription to Rolling Stone, with automatic renewal! Getting out of this subscription requires much more than a couple of mouse clicks.

This offer is a benefit included with today’s purchase and is limited to one per household and U.S. residents only. You can opt out of the subscription benefit a any time by contacting Rolling Stone Customer Service via the toll free number listed inside every issue or by visiting rollingstone.com and clicking on the Customer Service link on the home page. Additionally, if you would like a rebate of the $12.95 subscription value, mail a copy of today’s confirmation page with this completed form to the Rolling Stone Refund, P.O. Box 8243, Red Oak, IA 51591. Velvet Rope Guarantee: Your subscription will be automatically renewed annually at a guaranteed low price. You will receive a notice 30 days before a bill is sent. Cancel at anytime for a 100% refund on un-mailed copies. Enjoy the concert!

However – ticketmaster has NEVER added on a “parking fee” to EACH ticket! How does livenation have any right to add on a fee for a service that I may or may not partake of? That is like a restaurant automatically charging you for dessert at the beginning fo the meal – maybe you wanted to share a dessert – maybe you don’t want dessert at all – how DARE they charge for something that is optional!

I’m with you on the parking fees. We might have been willing to paty the ticket and sevice fee(25%). But $6 per ticket for parking! It’s one car, or what if we decided to park off property.

LIVE NATION DOES NOT PROMOTE A FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT…

Since they do not provide us an option of how many cars will be parking per order, we should all drive separate cars to the venue to get the most out of our fees. I guess live nation doesn’t assume a couple or friends may possibly carpool.

well all i can say is..as a long time concert supporter..I quit!!! I no longer will go to these shows and be robbed. I once saw The Boss for 4 1/2 hours for 9.75 total!!! hahah..now we see a marginal band at best for 75.00 and they play for a total of 45 minutes..and now they say..even if we walk there we get charged 6 bucks to park..I hope everyone just stops going..and put the greed out of bussiness..keep pirating the music people!!! because we are losing big time!!!!

13.50? I just paid a fee of 24.50 (20%)per ticket for Coldplay Darien Lake.

I wish my fee was only like the measly feel discussed in this article! A few days ago I forked over an approximate $20 fee! You know, I bet we could pursue a class action lawsuite over the parking fee. I don’t see how it is legal for myself and my friend, who will be riding in the same car, to both be charged a parking fee. Essentially, one of us (the one not driving) is being charged for a service not rendered. Last time I looked, that is illegal, no?

I wish my fee was only like the measly feel discussed in this article! A few days ago I forked over an approximate $20 fee! You know, I bet we could pursue a class action lawsuite over the parking fee. I don’t see how it is legal for myself and my friend, who will be riding in the same car, to both be charged a parking fee. Essentially, one of us (the one not driving) is being charged for a service not rendered. Last time I looked, that is illegal, no?

Oh and one more thing, that was on a $35. ticket! Not sure what the math comes out to…. that would make my fee like 60% of the cost of the ticket itself??

Live Nation has succeeded in ruining Phish’s reputation for making sure the fans get to the tickets before the scalpers. Speaking with experience, I beleive the architecture of their online ticketing system to be fundementally flawed.

At 12:00:00 PM, PDT, they were “sold out” online instantaneously. Tickets could be selected, but never actually purchased. A direct call to Shoreline confirmed that the venue was not technically sold out until about 12:30 PDT. The direct quote was “we just sold out about 8 minutes ago” –this was at about 12:45. The 30 minutes of clicking on my part in-between showed no love. But, I just got the same tickets at twice the face value via a scalper site (shorlinetickets.com) -no waiting.

Comparatively speaking, I got Hampton tickets, no muss, no headache, via Ticket Master. A smaller venue and arguably higher demand event. Ticket Master is a pain in the ass, but at least when you get in their electronic line you know you have tickets waiting at the end of the transaction.

A Shoreline representative explained to me that Live Nation was chosen because they had lower fees and had not incurred the same “issues” as Ticket Master of late. Pardon me, but I’ll take a few prematurely leaked tickets and a $15 handling fee over 2 x face-value and crappy customer service any day.

Does anyone know if these fees can be avoided by buying your tickets at the venue’s box office or is that just wishful thinking?

I bought tickets to a Coldplay concert at the Meadows Theatre in Hartford from Live Nation. Thought I had great seats directly in front of the stage (for a premium price, of course). Each ticket had a row and seat number. Turns out that the tickets were General Admission and even though designated on the order and the ticket, in reality there are no seats. The row and seat numbers, I was told upon complaining, were just for the vendor’s internal use. Live Nation refused to exchange them for seated tickets and refused a request for a refund. On to small claims court.

BJ

It’s not just the ticket companies because hidden fees (and taxes) have gone out of control. It’s hard to know the real price of anything these days. When looking through concerts, you get your heart set on a show and then wham, when checking out you get the surprise of the extra fees. At that point you’re already set on going so you often begrudgingly pay the fees. You are mislead into making a purchase that you might not have otherwise.

Way too many other industries are riddled with the same hidden fees and taxes. Order cable or satellite TV, lots of surprise fees. Cell phones ditto. Home phone service, hotels, airlines,… The list goes on.

Deception and dishonesty abound with companies with hidden fees. I’m frequently quoted an incorrect price before buying a service, I’m refused the price in writing up front with all fees, and only after I order the service, is the true cost revealed.

It happened with Dish Network when I asked how my bill would change if I ordered a new DVR, they neglected to mention the “DVR service fee” of $7/month which showed up as a surprise on my bill. Now I’ve already spent $300 on a new DVR so I’m locked in.

AT&T provided misinformation about packaged pricing for cell phone service when added to my home phone and internet service from them. I even recorded the phone call and have the terms clearly defined yet after I spent hours deciding on a phone, and received the phone, my bill was different than quoted. Even with the recorded call, they refused to honor the terms. When will it stop?

Something needs to be done to ensure the consumer has simple, clear, upfront, and honest information about the true price of buying a product or service so they can make an informed decision. Let the companies divy up their costs internally and simplify our already overcomplex lives.

I think laws need to be passed so that companies selling a product or service must list the FULL price up front.

I was looking forward to see Cake which at today’s prices is about a $15 band after everything is totaled out. THey are not worth $50 so guess what Donny won’t be going. I understand they have a lot of space left to fill. But I think th Angelika center in Houston should be left to fend for itself- I understand it is drawing huge crowds for all events and beating demands. I know that life is unfair and it’s what you want to charge but all I ask is don’t do things that make it very hard for me to find solutions on my own. That has happened to me and Psychologists told me I can’t be in their program because they have an angenda from God that doesn’t involve White males and the men backed off after that and ran scared. Ok that doesn’t involve Lie Nation but still you are enabled people who have connections to live a better life than me. I accept that and that I have to work with what I’m given in life and use God’s window. But I still deserve a better way than this to go through life, I don’t expect the initial help of the others that they if they aren’t in engineering or Med School get through affirmative action or by skipping all the steps and then the girl has to walk them through everything because she is scared that the other guys will just have sex and not provide for her. I can do other things and be cool but this inability for me to solve on my own the American way does put me in a moving away disorder and I could afford Cake but I’m not contributing to the problems by doing that. I am not going to do that after they put me in a Waiting position as is sung about in a certain Cake song. I realize they have rate a professor now and in the Cosby era they were trying to ruin the grades of students with quits changed to F and I needed to overcome my parents crap and start over at another undergraduate program and I guess do anything without the affirmative action progressive liberals calling the shots or learn to act like the nerdy tolken white male they mock so I can do PSychology and worry about being blocked from the career later. And You are not better than me just given what you need to not be like me. I’m not mad but still I must start to overcome the damage sometime… You know I just saw a percision concert with the original Baroque instruments, soloists, Organ, chorus, religious leaders and I was up close. This show was near flawless sound and a celebration of God. Who do you think God likes more Cake and Live Nation or the Bach Society who put on this show and arranged it for free? It was a world level performance. $50 is just too much for general admission, next they’ll expect me to pay $500 before scalpers for the Stones and you know $100 for 2 and dinner and then you have to take her out on the weekend and wine and house payments later- where’s the lunch special and iced tea that the girl’s split amongst each other and count every last penny in the process for the guys? You could choose to help me out with work and wages and then Donny can acomodate to the imbalance in the rock world’s level of pay. But you refuse to do this saying it’s inflation, the recession and the “global” economy and we are the most intelligent people on earth who make this happen until with the sex and other buffers you believe it. Oh well, I guess I”ll always be waiting to see Cake!

I am with whoever said to put the fee into the price of the ticket. If no one ever mentioned the $8 ticket fee and $6 parking fee (both per ticket) then I think it would be ok. I wouldn’t know where the money was going and it’d be ok. However, since I do know I am PISSED! Services that used to be free are now costing more than the ticket itself. The artists don’t get a cut of that, the venue does. I get that fees are going up, but I’d rather use Ticketmaster (like the venue I work at does) and not be ripped off. I am looking at paying more for two lawn seats than I did last year and there is always the lovely “you can’t drink here” that exists. The whole thing is ridiculous and needs to change. I think if everyone stopped paying the fees, they’d have to at least reduce them because of poor ticket sales.

Artists are going to be upset when they see that they are unable to fill a venue because the venue is charging the fans more than they are willing to pay. If you hide the fees, then maybe people will pay, but too many people know about them now and are pissed. Why charge so much just because the economy is crap and you can’t afford the hundreds of people working the venues? Either let some people go or suck up the lost money because if enough people stop buying tickets, the artists will stop playing there. The artists don’t get the extra money, the venue does. Artists are not going to want small shows because of a greedy venue.

I’m trying to find a way to let the management of Journey and Heart know that I won’t be seeing them at Saratoga in September. The so-called $65 tickets actually cost $79.50 with the $14.50 in Live Nation fees added. I can afford it. I’ve paid more. But I can’t rationalize telling someone a product costs one price and then charging them 22% for the privilege of actually purchasing the item. It’s outrageous, and I won’t pay it. For a family of four, the ticket fees amount to just slightly less than buying an additional ticket.

for smaller shows that you know won’t sell out right away just go to the box office of the venue the day they go sale and avoid all the fees. youll be surprised theres usualy no lines since everyone wants the comfort of buying from home. i usually do that here in chicago for hob, metro, and the vic, aragon, usually its about four of us who are going to a show,so i take the train for 2.50 to get there and come back, buy the tickets and avoid the 9.00 per ticket fee-just take a book, a magazine,your ipod or what not along for the ride. $2.50+an hour of my time-saves me $36 to me its worth it.

oh by the way if you think that live nation holds tickets-Ticketmaster actually holds good seats and then resell them on their own scalper site called tickets now. which they purchased in 2008. so why not screw us over with high fees- hell screw us over again by keeping great tickets thus making less tickets available to the fans and then jusr resell them to the hardcorefans for more dough-kudos Ticketmaster good going.

what ticketmaster should do is just add a flat 15 percent service fee on all their tickets and thats it. a $40 ticket should be about $6.00 for service fee-totaling to $46- a $100 ticket $15.00-coming out to $115 and so on. It is a rip off to be charged $6.50 on a $17 ticket-a fee i once paid for when i invited 2 friends out-thinking it wouldnt be so bad about 50 bucks to hang out with friends and have fun-i paid $19.50 on service fees-$51 dollar for the tickets and $19.50 for the fees-$70.50 for hot hot heat-which i could only keep thinking thats a whole nother ticket that i just paid for and will not get.they could have charged me $3.00 per ticket fee and that would have been cool but $6.50 for a $17 dollar ticket. common thats about%40 per ticket.I went to the fye store with my friend asked for the 3 tickets and them pulled out 60 bucks and them bam its $71 how?
%6.50 on a $17 dollar ticket thats close to %40and yes i could have not bought them-but i was already riled up to go n see them-i had told my friends how good the band was and that and i was buying and i was already at the store. It was to late to turn back. From then on i always try to avoid ticketmasters service fees.

Ticketmaster and Live nation should just charge %15 percent on the price of all thei tickets sort of like a tax and avoid all the confusion and all their greedy inflation. add that %15 percent to the ticket so we don’t have to feel ripped off watching how were paying $8 extra per ticket as were checking out. %15 per ticket from venues that hold 300 people to venue that hold about 2,000 where talking about numerous venues all over united states and hundreds upon hundreds of concerts year round trust me youll survive-and youll win people over-

p.s why do i get charged about 1.50 for facility fees or venue charges if suposedly ticket master service fees go to paying venues-plus don’t venues make a shit load of money of $4 dollar sodas and $6.50 beers add the $2 bucks for facility fees per ticket add $15 to $20 dollars per car on parking- just saying.

charging a “ticket fee” for each ticket…but how the hell are they going to charge a parking fee on each ticket as well?

what a nightmare.

QrJXKb comment1 ,

$14 service fees on a $50 ticket i have done before with Ticketmaster enough times. This Livenation ticketing is some serious crap. I am finding these $14 charges on $20-30 tickets. More than half of the ticket price. I am in Charlotte, NC, not NYC. This place has a hard enough time getting good crowds without this BS!

Ya know, if I EVER see a “parking fee” I’m going to go ballastic.. I DON’T EVEN OWN A CAR.

I ride a BICYCLE or TAKE PUBLIC TRANSIT.

yeah, let’s just park the metrobus on their property for a show.. sure..

If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.

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a9p7wq

Was going to get 4 lawn tickets for a show. They each ticket was 12.50 a piece. Then they tried to charge me 13.50 per ticket for a convenience fee. Also I cant go to the box office for this show so im not going to go now. They were going to charge me more in fees than for the tickets. Wow!

just went to purchase lawn seats to a livenation venue through ticketmaster tickets were 30 dollars then i was charge 24 dollars total in venue parkin and ticket fees was gonna buy 4 tickets now im just not buying any

Very goood!!!

Vans Warped Tour via Live Nation:
Adult……….$23.75
Parking………$6.00 (per ticket!)
Charity………$0.2 5 (huh?)
Ticket Fee…..$10.00 (can’t avoid at box office either)
Ticket Tax……$1.62
TICKET TOTAL…$41.62

$42 for a $24 ticket!! 175% of ticket price!! Way to go you F***ING BLOODSUCKERS

I was so ticked with my Warped tour ticket I complained to LiveNation and got nowhere. I filed a complaint with the NC states Attorney Generals office. Waiting to hear back. I equate the $6.00 parking and $.25 charity fee to shopping in a store, and having a store employee out something in your basket that you do not want, and force you to pay for it. Everyone, please file complaints, or lets start boycotting both LiveNation and TicketMaster events.

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Also, for some reason, American Express card holders were given an entire week pre-sale notice on the Steely Dan concerts in PA. Now who really has American Express any more? Business people, mostly. I tried to get a card but it takes a week to 10 days to get one, so it wouldn’t have done me any good.

I’m really going to age myself here. But – I remember going down to the Fillmore East box office, getting my ticket for $4.50, and seeing TWO major great 60’s rock bands, plus light show, movie clips, loudspeaker music, healthy snacks, good vibes, etc. Everybody laughed when the “no smoking” sign went on. ALL the seats were good views, but if you found an better empty seat nearby after the show started, you took it. If you STOOD UP in front of your seat, everyone elled “Down in front”, so no one’s view was obstructed. Now its a major ordeal to get tickets and go to a show, why I rarely go!