THE MERGER SOUNDS LIKE A DIRTY RUMOR STARTED BY TICKETMASTER PEOPLE TO MESS WITH THE PUBLIC & LIVE NATION… IT JUST WOULDN’T FLY, THINK ABOUT IT…

THE “NEWS” IS NOT ALWAYS CORRECT. THIS REEKS OF TICKETMASTER FOUL PLAY & THE PRESS IS PLAYING RIGHT ALONG.

What do we do now? Now that I do not have tickets. I received that error message then redid my request and was taken to ticketsnow.com. I cannot afford those prices! So, what are you going to do for me now? Please add a second show in Chicago!

The news of the merger is, in fact, true. However, there is no way Congress or Anti-Trust regulators will never let it pass, or shouldn’t at least.

Who gets all those service fees on top of face value anyway? $11.25 transaction fee? For What?

Mr. Springsteen is entitled to and earns face value for his ticket sales.

The greed by Ticketmaster is outrageous and their timing couldn’t be worse.

I will rock with The Boss in L.A. and I will do it for face value.

Perhaps Bruce can sue Ticketmaster.

He can easily afford to hire a lawyer, with all the money he just made by selling himself out to Walmart and the NFL!

This is just like the stunt that Ticketmaster pulled 6 months ago when they sid they were merging with AEG. That didn’t happen and neiter will this. Ticketmaster just like to divert attention from itself when it royally screws up like this. At least we all got to see the man himself for 12 minutes of freedom.

This is just like the stunt that Ticketmaster pulled 6 months ago when they sid they were merging with AEG. That didn’t happen and neiter will this. Ticketmaster just like to divert attention from itself when it royally screws up like this. At least we all got to see the man himself for 12 minutes of freedom.

is this ticketmaster all over the world , imposible to get tickets on ticketmaster in ireland either

Here is the real truth. I could see what was available for the Bruce onsale for Chicago. There were at total of 20 seats available to the public in the first half of the arena. There were 4 tickets inn 113 row 19 and 14 tickets in 122 row 19. That is the truth. What I would like to know from Jam, the concert promoter, and Bruce, is where did all the seats go? There was no presale for this event. So much for Bruce and everyone caring about the fans. First in line means you are sitting in section 102 or 110, the last lower sections in the back of the arena. The promoter, Bruce, Ticketmaster, United Center are all full of crap. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOMEONE CHALLENGE ME ON THIS!!! So much for caring about the fans. If you want a great seat, it looks like you are going to have to pay well above face value to get it. This is caused by the promoter in conjunction with the artist!!! Again where are the 4000 good seats, in the first half of the arena that we should be able to buy as fans? That is thre real question!!!

Here is the real truth. I could see what was available for the Bruce onsale for Chicago. There were at total of 20 seats available to the public in the first half of the arena. There were 4 tickets inn 113 row 19 and 14 tickets in 122 row 19. That is the truth. What I would like to know from Jam, the concert promoter, and Bruce, is where did all the seats go? There was no presale for this event. So much for Bruce and everyone caring about the fans. First in line means you are sitting in section 102 or 110, the last lower sections in the back of the arena. The promoter, Bruce, Ticketmaster, United Center are all full of crap. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOMEONE CHALLENGE ME ON THIS!!! So much for caring about the fans. If you want a great seat, it looks like you are going to have to pay well above face value to get it. This is caused by the promoter in conjunction with the artist!!! Again where are the 4000 good seats, in the first half of the arena that we should be able to buy as fans? That is thre real question!!!

Here is the real truth. I could see what was available for the Bruce onsale for Chicago. There were at total of 20 seats available to the public in the first half of the arena. There were 4 tickets inn 113 row 19 and 14 tickets in 122 row 19. That is the truth. What I would like to know from Jam, the concert promoter, and Bruce, is where did all the seats go? There was no presale for this event. So much for Bruce and everyone caring about the fans. First in line means you are sitting in section 102 or 110, the last lower sections in the back of the arena. The promoter, Bruce, Ticketmaster, United Center are all full of crap. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOMEONE CHALLENGE ME ON THIS!!! So much for caring about the fans. If you want a great seat, it looks like you are going to have to pay well above face value to get it. This is caused by the promoter in conjunction with the artist!!! Again where are the 4000 good seats, in the first half of the arena that we should be able to buy as fans? That is thre real question!!!

Unfortunately the market will bear what the market will bear. If the world rejects the bloated ticket prices then they’ll have no choice but to change the system. I for one will cut my concert going to experience from 5 or 6 a year to 1 or 2. Screw em’.

Even after 45 years the Dead family have it figured out. For their upcoming tour fans bought tix directly from the band through mail order. No fees. Good seats. It can done.

yeah brucie…use all the money you sold out on with walmart and your super bowl escapade to fight the ticket agencies.
of course you won’t…why risk your cozy mansion life.
twit.

I got lucky this tour and got my General Admission tickets at 10:01 AM. Last tour I got booted off and ended up in the nosebleeds at 10:08.

Online ticket buying is a ripoff, ’cause the scalpers get the good seats.

Sadly, with ebay and craigslist, there are many people starting their own ticket “resale” biz on a smaller level, buying 4 tickets and scalping two of them online.

The venue, the promoter, etc, do take a good chunk of good seats as well. Entire sections are reserved beforehand.

I wish it would go back to having to wait in line for your tickets…that separated the men from the boys. Getting up at 3:00 AM and hanging out in the local record store parking lot to get a lottery number. The die-hard fans all got to hang out, sneak a beer and tell concert stories. you’d walk out with the 1st set of tickets and the people in line would cheer (not making this up)

Now I just hit “refresh” and pray that my online connection does not crap out…

If Bruce had any balls he’d call in sick those 3 concerts in the New York area and watch all those fat rich cats bitch and moan in their $1000.00 rip off seats they were stupid enough to pay for. You say you want a revolution well write your represenatives now and make them do their job. First they took away the face value ticket, doesnt exist anymore, then they let the credit card companies “customers” get 1st picks and of course by the time the general public goes on sale there isn’t any no more left, and now finally they’ve gone from exborinate fees and charges to not even selling you the tickets at the regular prices but directing you to their scalper site ticketmaster OWNS to charge you 3 4 5 times the value, and they say Wall Street are the only theives in town

Oh by the way years ago when I went to the Filmore East, tickets were $3.50, $4.50, $ $5.50 including tax, no extra fees and if you went on the day they went on sale at the box office, you could actually get great seats, sometimes front row and you didnt have to blow anybody!

I saw the boss at the LA Sports Arena back in ‘84 and enjoyed the hell out of the show. Besides being a great songwriter, the Boss is one helluva entertainer.

But his role as outraged rock and roll maverick fighting for the common man is wearing thin. His outrageous indignation at the business practices of ticket retailers – at least a good two decades old, and growing – smacks of naivete at best, and disingenuousness at worst.

Ultimately, we chose to do business with the people we do business with, and as the saying goes, if you’re not part of the solution then you’re part of the problem.

The bottom line – rock stars can do a helluva lot more to ensure their genuine fan base get decent tickets at fair prices. And in this economy, they’d better.

It’s O.K. Brucie O’Boy just walk up 2 your ole buddy Obama and kiss his ass like u have the last 12 months and I’m sure he will make it all nice nice.

It’s about time the artists started paying attention to the crap that gets shoved out by Ticketmaster.

TH, did you even read the article or the statement made? If Bruce as the artist were in conjunction with Ticketmaster, why the hell would he come out a day or two later and criticize them?

So, first Bruce teabags the nation on live TV, then he says how upset he is about Ticketmaster. Do something about it. In the meantime, I will be seeing better bands at smaller clubs.

On Sunday night, the TicketsNow site (TicketB_STARD’s scalping site) was selling PRIME tickets for the United Center (Chicago) for up to $900+. On Tuesday, at 10:00 AM all I could find was parking. At 10:01 the seats showed up, but nothing was available. At 11:15, I was offered nosebleed seats behind the stage for $95 dollars. This section was advertised as $65 seats. Bottom line – TicketMaster, as usuall, SUCKS.

Jeff, I saw the availability, the promoter has all the seats. Those seats should be going out to the the public not out the back door. Sometimes the artist has knowlege and some times they don’t. The bottom line is they were not in there for the fan to buy other than 20 seats. Who is responsible for this and shouldn’t Bruce be aware of this. That is the truth on what happened for the Chicago onsale. I think there should be full disclosure. In order for seats to be sold on the Secondary market, they need to first be sold on the public onsale. Where are the seats in the first half of the arena. They are all bunch of lying scumbags. Because of this, the promoter and artist would rather sell the sets themselves so THEY can make the money rather than risk them going out to ticket brookers during the public onsale. Bottom line, fan gets screwed and has no chance to buy seats at face value. Not just this tour Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Just to name a few. THIS IS ANTITRUST!!! Live Nation, AEG, Azoff, Rapino, they all have $$$$ in there eyes. Bruce and your managemnet company, I hope this opens your eyes!!!

This exact situation happened on 2/2 when I bought tickets to Paul Simon at the Beacon Theater. I was redirected to TicketsNow. I didn’t know any better and bought them anyway but now I feel cheated as I’m sure the same bait and switch scheme was at work. This happened at 10:10am, 10 minutes after they officially went on sale to the public.

Was going to DC from the East Coast of your “retarded cousin” Canada in May-
Was going to kill two birds with one stone-
visit my Pops and see the Boss- TicketMaster got me gun-ready and the US is at a loss

Was going to DC from the East Coast (of your retarded cousin) Canada in mid- May… to kill two birds with one stone-
Visit my Pops and see the Boss
TicketMaster got me gun-ready and the US is at a loss…
For the love of God get your shit together- what a fucking scam.

Bruce springsteen should just be quiet. this is the man who sold out to wal mart. springsteen is a hundred year old tool, who is overated. come on remember dancing in the dark. but he never was a sell out till now.

waa, waa, waa…you couldn’t get tickets. when you have a million people vying for 20,000 seats, shit happens. just because you were redirected to the tickets now site doesn’t mean you have to buy the tickets. bruce shows sell out fast – it’s really a matter of luck. calling for a congressional investigation is ridiculous in light of the situation this country is in. my congressman has better things to do with his time. this is the same song that was sung when hannah montana went on sale, when jonas bros went on sale, when barney (the dinosaur, remember him?) went on sale years ago, etc. Stop whining and get a life.

Bruce: sell your tickets directly to the fans, 2 per person limit… simple… tell Ticketmaster to FUCK OFF!!

Same thing with the Morrissey NYC dates….All 3 shows sold out in a matter of minutes??? Then I went on Stubhub to look & low & behold they were already being sold between $115 -$900 what a joke

I’m glad this is finally getting some light of day. I’ve been ticked off with Ticketmaster for months now. Trying to buy Ray LaMontagne tickets to Atlanta they were supposedly sold out through Ticketmaster but had 80 pairs of tickets available. 45 dollar tickets were selling for 500+ dollars. It’s absolute b/s that this has gone on for as long as it has, but it will continue as long as their are idiots who are willing to pay that much.

I also found out by talking to Ticketmaster recently that the “convenience charge” you pay that are usually upwards of 7-9 dollars per ticket is actually a fee set by the promoters of the event. They said the only money ticketmaster makes is the 5 dollar processing fee. I still think its ridiculous when you have a 35 dollar ticket and you pay a 9 dollar convenience fee, a 3 dollar building fee, 2 dollars to PRINT THE TICKET OUT MYSELF, and a 5 dollar order processing fee. Ticketmaster is the devil.

Looks like more people should have listened to/supported Pearl Jam in the 90s when they were screaming about Ticketmaster. A similiar situation happened to me recently when buying tickets.
If you think this is just about people whining cause they didnt get tickets, you should keep your comments to yourself… you’re obviously clueless.

If only people had taken Pearl Jam more seriously over a decade ago…

Ticketmaster, we know you are f-in’ with us and it’s only a matter of time til this shit ends. The pre-sale nonsense has to stop too. One on-sale date please, no presales for amex holders or people who are members of some specific club or bank or whatever … A scenario that has happened many times with me: scramble to get seats on a “pre-sale” date… usually not too satisfied with this “early” seat, i tend to check back on the onsale date for general public…many times better seats come up, which makes no sense. do they corral the presale blokes in one section, the gen public purchasers in others? And also, it seems like when i log in, whenever i search for tickets i tend to get the same areas, especially section 103. but when i dont log in, i get a wider variety of seat choices. And yeah, the service fees have obviously been out of hand for years now too. I really hope the pendulum of fairness swings back in the direction of the concert goer soon.

Further to Betterman’s point…

Right now LiveNation owns many of national venues it sells tickets to and limits the amount of tickets bands can sell direct to their fan bases. This needs to change and the timing couldn’t be better given the recent questionable practices of LiveNation and TicketMaster (and the response from Bruce and Phish), much less the thought of them combining together in future.
It is not unreasonable to consider what larger fan-oriented artists like Bruce, Phish & Dave Matthews Band (who share same manager now), Neil Young, Pearl Jam, The Dead, etc. could do if they joined together to develop and deploy their own ticketing systems to sell all tickets direct to their fanbases, cutting out the current ticketing services. Some of these bands do this in a limited capacity but get a low allocation of the overall ticket pool. They have the collective bargaining power to force change and the fan bases to justify selling all tickets directly to their fans. If bands have surplus of tickets after selling direct to fans, then sell via LiveNation and TicketMaster. That creates new distribution and a provides valuable service. However, the current reality is there is more supply then demand and these bands can and will sell out regardless of which ticketing service they use. It’s absurd for Nathan Hubabrd, CEO of LiveNation, to call The Dead and Phish’s recent on sale sell-out’s as a success on their part. Their services failed repeatedly, frustrating fans not because supply exceeded demand but because their services failed and crashed while tickets were in carts during check-out, among a calamity of other well documented errors. The bands and their fans are the ones who created this success, not him.
These ticketing systems can be replaced if artists would be willing to challenge and renegotiate terms w/ promoters and venues that require them to sell the majority of their tickets through LiveNation and Ticketmaster. The service fees could be lowered (explain to me how fixed service costs get applied as a % of gross when the gross fluctuates), the artists would benefit from additional revenue streams (as they should) and secondary markets for reseling tickets would be limited. Further to that, TicketsNow is a complete conflict of interest for TicketMaster to own. The paradigm for live shows needs to be rethought and now is the time.

This is nothing new people. We have been getting screwed by TicketBastard our entire lives. Guess what, it is not going to change. They are a scandalous and evil company. BUT, they have a 90 share on the market. BASTARDS!!!

TICKETSNOW IS A UNITED STATES COMPANY. THATS WHY THE PRICES ARE DIFFERENT. IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, DONT BUY IT! AND TICKETMASTER HAS RULES ON THEIR SITE THAT STATES LIKE 3 DIFFERENT TIMES THAT YOU ARE AT TICKETSNOW AND THAT YOU WILL BE PAYING A DIFFERENT PRICE. ITS NOT THEIR FAULT YOU PEOPLE DONT READ THE RULES AND THE FINAL TOTAL.

The artists are being ripped off, too – they’re not getting a cut of Ticketmaster’s greedy and fraudulent profits, and fans are being cut off and turned off from going out to see them play.

I’m so glad that Bruce spoke out, and really, all musicians should get involved in this, because it ultimately affects all of them.
And as so many of these posts are saying the same thing – we true music fans are getting shut out of going to many performances.

I also got shut out of purchasing tickets for several performances – last year and this year, when I saw tickets appear and then vanish, and was redirected to TicketsNow, where the price skyrocketed.

The concert industry is in crisis, and everyone needs to wake up. This recession/depression that we’re in is only going to make it worse.
My hope is that there is an organized effort by musicians, the feds and fans to stop Ticketmaster from continuing to destroy the concert music experience, before it’s too late.

i was able to get tickets at the meadowlands, for the nosebleed seats at $95 (only partial view…they should def be 65). however, i never got to the confirmation page because ticketmaster timed out, so i didn’t even know whether my purchase had gone through until after i sat on hold with customer service for 90 minutes to confirm they’d gone through. Ticketmaster is bad news. a few years ago, i had my credit card number stored under my account…then every month for a few months, i noticed a random $9 deduction on my statement with a phone number attached. I googled the number, and turns out that because I had checked that I wanted emails from subsidiaries about deals and promotions, they GAVE OUT my credit card number and were charging me random, unauthorized fees. Needless to say, definitely do NOT store your credit card in your account!!!

Stubhub already has tickets up for the Elton John & Billy Joel show at Wrigley Field, which was announced yesterday & tickets arent even on sale yet…get 2 tix for a low price of $1,000!

Buying tickets is a joke now

Ticketsnow.com has well over 1000 tickets for Bruce in Saint Paul,Mn With prices up to 10 times face value.It`s to bad when the regular working guy can`t afford to go to concerts.

But, Bruce, you are a client of LiveNation who is now in the position of owning Ticketmaster which inlcudes TicketsNow. There is now the potential for all/any of LiveNation’s acts to demand a portion of the profit made from the re-sale of tickets thru TicketsNow. In essence the artist can now scalp their own tickets.
Perhaps this is a simple view of the structure of this merger, but until I see LiveNation rid themselves of TicketsNow I will be suspect of all the artists who have signed with LiveNation.

If Bruce is so worried about the fans getting ripped off why is he charging almost $100 a ticket?
Back in the 70’s when he was in his prime he wasn’t charging that much. If people are pissed about the cost of tickets there is a easy solution…..don’t buy them. Nobody is putting a gun to you heads and saying “pay 10x’s face value or else”! If you don’t like it…..don’t do it.

More fodder for TicketsNow ticket “holders:” I bought tickets in early February for the May 18 show in D.C. A TN rep just informed me (on 5/7) that the vendor they use cannot “honor” their sale of those tickets to TN. The rep said TN could sell me tickets in the nosebleed section (I had originally purchased 2 lower-section seats). I asked the rep what was meant by the ticket notes on the order confirmation that states “Comparable or better.” She didn’t have a decent answer. Please add me to the no-doubt-long list of people who’d like to sue the pants off TicketsNow.

I thought the Ticketmaster sale was going to be on the up and up. So when I heard they added two more shows I would have a good chance to get 4 tickets. I logged on the Ticketmaster web sight at 1150 am and made sure my credit card info was up to date – all was good. At 12pm on the dot the Springsteen Tickets became active so I clicked on any available seats and selected 4 seats and entered the code then it went to 3 minute wait then started climbing to 15 minutes after about 9 minutes it came back to me as no match found. NO MATCH FOUND!!! (WTF) I gave it 3 more tries and even picked 2 tickets – after 30 minutes with the same result – I gave up and turned the computer off. I they really want the fans to get the tickets and not the scalpers the should make a 2 or 4 tickets max and credit card used to buy the tickets must be match at the event – PROBLEM SOLVED – This not only makes Ticketmaster look bad but also makes the fans loose interest in the groups. I remember standing on line for over 20 hours for tickets for Springsteen back then you had to earn your ticket and now you just get ripped off and I feel it is a given and the promoters are in on it. Thanks for shutting the fans out AGAIN!!! Have Fun Performing to all the Corporate Big Wig Family and the Ripped off Fans that were taken along with the Few Lucky Fans that were Very Lucky to get their tickets on Ticketmaster (probably nose bleeds) the scrap tickets. Thanks for the memories. Locked Out Fan.

Well it’s nice to know that Ticketmaster is now admitting that Bruce withholds thousands of ticket for Bruce’s closest and bands member’s friends. This reminds me of Ford vs. Firestone. With Bruce being Ford and Ticketmaster being Firestone and Ford telling Firestone to keep it low key and don’t blame Ford for changing the recommended tire pressure on their Explorers so it drove more like a car rather the a truck. Then Ford comes out and slams Firestone months later. So if you do the math for the five concerts in NJ only and holding back 2,000 to 3,500 tickets would equal 10,000 to 17,500 of the best seats. This explains why the close seat goes for thousands of dollars on scalping web sites sometimes prior to the tickets release date and even days after. Hello Bruce wake up! Did you ever think of checking those floor seat tickets numbers and see who your “close friends” are using you making money by ripping off your true fans? I thought an artist wants to perform to his loyal supporting fans and maybe give a handful of tickets to each member of the band and rowdies. I never hear the super bowl and word series players locking out 3,500 tickets. They only get 5 to 10 tickets per player which is fair. Maybe you could pick one night to perform only to your closest “FRIENDS” and only they can attend and those tickets have their name on it and cannot be sold. Then you can see who really are you close friends and show up. Remember they don’t pay your salary the “TRUE FANS” do. Unlike you many of your fans have not had a pay raise in years; got hours cut, and lost their jobs. Maybe a night out would of made them happy for one night and bring back some memories of your good old days. Enjoy playing in front of your friends resold tickets. I remember one time you heard about a tickets scam back in the 80’s and brought the entire tops nose bleed section to the floor area. That is the Bruce I want to remember. But it is hard to believe this is the same person. It must be nice to be rich as in the words you wrote – “rich man wanna be king and a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything”. Well you are rich and you rule your fans tickets.

pearl jam rock

haha spot on TC

This raises the issue of motive for me. The industry is no longer about the shows, the fans, the producers or the talent. It’s about squeezing every last dollar out of the consumer and screwing those on and backstage out of the fruits of their labor. There are alternatives and choices. Isn’t it time for the ticketing industry to exercise some responsibility?
The secondary market should really be between the consumer and the producer/talent. The ticket guys are just providing a service – and that is all they deserve to collect revenue for.