A must-see = Dispatches on 4od re: secondary ticketing

[sofiahagberg]

This really is a must-see for anyone who is into live music and going to gigs:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-108/episode-1

Cheers,

Sofia

x

[Infinite Jest]

Which is why we really need more promoters/artists using The Ticket Trust, as EoTR does . I'm really pleased to see Radiohead and Blink 182 using it.

[Yokel Again]

Watched this when it was on the TV the other week and couldn't believe it. The Promotors should be ashamed of themselves - basically using these sites to coin it in on tickets using them as primary sites, by selling them to fans by lying that they are 'secondary'. Then they had the cheek to defend themselves by saying people use these sites as a convenience! Scandalous. And don't even get me started on the sites themselves. I can't beleive since this has been on TV there hasn't been more made of it in the music press. Nothing on NME? Nothing in the music sections of the press? No comments from bands? I was surprised Coldplay haven't come out to say anything, being that their gigs were highlighted and they are usually quite vocal on some issues.

This programme really is a must see..

[5co77ie]

Which is why we really need more promoters/artists using The Ticket Trust, as EoTR does . I'm really pleased to see Radiohead and Blink 182 using it.

[eFestivals]

Watched this when it was on the TV the other week and couldn't believe it. The Promotors should be ashamed of themselves - basically using these sites to coin it in on tickets using them as primary sites, by selling them to fans by lying that they are 'secondary'. Then they had the cheek to defend themselves by saying people use these sites as a convenience! Scandalous. And don't even get me started on the sites themselves. I can't beleive since this has been on TV there hasn't been more made of it in the music press. Nothing on NME? Nothing in the music sections of the press? No comments from bands? I was surprised Coldplay haven't come out to say anything, being that their gigs were highlighted and they are usually quite vocal on some issues.

This programme really is a must see..

There's been plenty of comment on eFestivals - we published news beforehand to tell people to watch it, and followed it up with an interview with T in the Park's Geoff Ellis, where he gave a promoters view and justification for it (which was laughable). There's also a number of threads on these forums about it, started long before this one was.

We also challenged Coldplay with their Chris "Mr Ethical" Martin to condemn their promoter for touting their tickets, but there's only been deathly silence from Coldplay about it. Which gets to suggest that Stuart Littlewood of the Concert Promoters Assoc was telling the truth when he said the bands are in on it too. It seems like Mr Ethical has few ethics after all.

Nothing on NME is hardly a surprise - they, like just about every major music &/or festivals publication (but not eFestivals) have been partnered with the touts and have been profiting from touting. The most laughable are the touting scum that published articles saying they are against touting (you know who you are ).

eFestivals tells every scumbag tout that contacts us - which they do very often - wanting us to play their touting game and profit along with them that they're scumbag touts and that putting on a shiny suit doesn't change them from being scumbag touts.

eFestivals has also asked the AIF for their members to go on the record and expose all of the illegal and immoral practices that everyone in the music biz knows happens at all stages around ticketing ... but funnily enough they didn't want to. It seems they'd rather keep on cashing in on their positions at the expense of music fans, in very little different a way to the scumbag touts - tho the AIF were happy to try and publicise themselves as the good guys off the back of the Dispatches programme.

Sadly, there's too few people with integrity within the music biz. eFestivals will continue to call immoral scum the immoral scum that they are.

If you have spare tickets you need to shift, then the place to do it is http://www.scarletmist.com

Edited February 29, 2012 by eFestivals

[Infinite Jest]

We don't want promoters artists supporting any form of secondary 'touting' market. Regardless of who runs it, legitimizing a secondary market is just okaying ticket touting

[Yokel Again]

There's been plenty of comment on eFestivals - we published news beforehand to tell people to watch it, and followed it up with an interview with T in the Park's Geoff Ellis, where he gave a promoters view and justification for it (which was laughable). There's also a number of threads on these forums about it, started long before this one was.

We also challenged Coldplay with their Chris "Mr Ethical" Martin to condemn their promoter for touting their tickets, but there's only been deathly silence from Coldplay about it. Which gets to suggest that Stuart Littlewood of the Concert Promoters Assoc was telling the truth when he said the bands are in on it too. It seems like Mr Ethical has few ethics after all.

Nothing on NME is hardly a surprise - they, like just about every major music &/or festivals publication (but not eFestivals) have been partnered with the touts and have been profiting from touting. The most laughable are the touting scum that published articles saying they are against touting (you know who you are ).

eFestivals tells every scumbag tout that contacts us - which they do very often - wanting us to play their touting game and profit along with them that they're scumbag touts and that putting on a shiny suit doesn't change them from being scumbag touts.

eFestivals has also asked the AIF for their members to go on the record and expose all of the illegal and immoral practices that everyone in the music biz knows happens at all stages around ticketing ... but funnily enough they didn't want to. It seems they'd rather keep on cashing in on their positions at the expense of music fans, in very little different a way to the scumbag touts - tho the AIF were happy to try and publicise themselves as the good guys off the back of the Dispatches programme.

Sadly, there's too few people with integrity within the music biz. eFestivals will continue to call immoral scum the immoral scum that they are.

If you have spare tickets you need to shift, then the place to do it is http://www.scarletmist.com

[seadragon]

Like I said on the fb page too though, it's all very well everyone condemming the touts but there were EOTR tickets being sold for double face value on ebay last year and I didn't see anyone from EOTR commenting on this then or cancelling said tickets which it must have been pretty easy for them to do?

Also I thought the comment that someone else made on fb was interesting that they bought a ticket that someone said was one of a large number of 'guest list tickets' that they bought for way over the face price. Any comment from EOTR on this? Just curious given that everyone is condemming the touts. I hate touts as much as anyone else, but it seems to me that the promoters and organisers are also at fault and could do far more to reduce it happening.

[geofelgie]

EOTR will not be able to cancel tickets very easily - can you imaging the poor stewards on wristband exchange being told to look out for numbers 1087, 1088 and 1089, 3745, 3746, etc etc etc???? And that's assuming they could perfectly identify the seller - not something ebay is helpful about! I'm sure they always keep an eye on guest tickets and would take action regarding future allocations should they have clear evidence of abuse but it is incredibly difficult for a small organisation - they cant possibly afford the same sort of ticket/order tracking systems the big boys have. And we don't want them to - we like the fact that there's no booking fee, just one simple £5 p&p per order.

I found the truly enlightening part was when they revealed that the split of the profits was only 10% to Viagogo and 90% to LiveNation.

I do support efestivals branding of the "scumbag touts" but that would indicate that LiveNation are the real scumbag touts and Viagogo are just their latest pet or fall guy.

[perfectpassion]

Seems that the person on EoTR fb page is talking about the ebay seller I moaned about last year. I don't know what to make of this. Sadly ticket touts seem to be invincible.

You seem to have missed the point Geof, how would anyone get hold of 100 wristbands? After all you need wrists to get wristbands? It doesn't seem like there were tickets to look out for!!!

Oh and btw, there is an address and name on ebay for the seller. The reason I know about this is that that particular seller was involved in a scandal about Robbie Williams tickets in 06 and yes I knew someone who got scammed.

Edited March 2, 2012 by perfectpassion

[geofelgie]

Eh? definitely missed the point....can't see anyone mentioning wristbands, let alone 100 of them.

Names and addresses on ebay are hardly reliable - and don't you only see them if you actually buy the item????? Anyway EOTR sends out tickets by hand - matching ebay details with their purchase records (probably just a bloody long list on a spreadsheet) would be very difficult.

If someone had 100 guest wristbands then chances are they stole them - anyway I'm even further from understanding what EOTR could do about it - you can't cancel wristbands!

[seadragon]

EOTR will not be able to cancel tickets very easily - can you imaging the poor stewards on wristband exchange being told to look out for numbers 1087, 1088 and 1089, 3745, 3746, etc etc etc???? And that's assuming they could perfectly identify the seller - not something ebay is helpful about! I'm sure they always keep an eye on guest tickets and would take action regarding future allocations should they have clear evidence of abuse but it is incredibly difficult for a small organisation - they cant possibly afford the same sort of ticket/order tracking systems the big boys have. And we don't want them to - we like the fact that there's no booking fee, just one simple £5 p&p per order.

[seadragon]

Eh? definitely missed the point....can't see anyone mentioning wristbands, let alone 100 of them.

[saintjudy]

If you all think the bands don't know and endorse this then you're dreaming. Where do you think the ticket money goes?

[seadragon]

If you all think the bands don't know and endorse this then you're dreaming. Where do you think the ticket money goes?

[saintjudy]

I don't think it's quite that easy to generalise in that way. Often they do make a lot on the ticket sales. I think on average a band usually gets between 75% and 90% of the ticket price if it's a gig in a smaller venue or they don't have a fixed price agreement, so this is totally the opposite of what they get for record sales. And of course if they are getting a percentage of the ticket sale price they're not going to complain when touting is done in on a large organised scale like this because they're making out of it too. Also (and not that it's any excuse) bands often also have much higher costs that they have to pay themselves in smaller venues, e.g. accommodation, etc so you need to look at it in perspective.

However, a lot of bands playing at large venues and festivals as part of a tour get a fixed agreed payment per gig and therefore don't profit in the same way as promoters and organisers in these kind of mass touting situations, so it's not always as easy to say the bands are equally at fault.