Digital Music News are carrying this story about online ticket scalping – a case in which an LA based company calling themselves ‘Wiseguy Tickets’ employed a ring of Bulgarian computer programmers to buy up all the best tickets to high profile, high demand concerts and resell them online for a huge mark-up. Perhaps parting with more thansix times the face value of the ticket is painful for whoever buys the ticket second hand, but presumably no-one is twisting their arm as they click ‘confirm bid’, and as far as eBay is concerned it’s perfectly legitimate (at least in the UK – some US states have laws against it).
So who is at fault here? Blocking the public from buying tickets wholesale with highly organised, bulk buying and reselling operations seems pretty underhand and unsporting, but the scalpers are taking the risk that people will purchase the inflated tickets, so isn’t it just the normal exercise of a free market? Are the promoters missing a trick in the first place? A staggered ebay auction style release of tickets by the promoter, with say 25% of total tickets released 12, 8, 4 and 2 weeks before the gig, with prices starting at a reasonable face value would surely have the same free-market effect. There’s the strong argument that this competetive model would be a disservice to the less affluent fans, but promoters would have the same chance of selling out a venue at the starting price, and could only benefit from any uplift if the tickets ended up being worth more to a punter than the original price – if they were bid up by competing punters, and this would make it harder for scalpers to get hold of tickets in the first place, as to get them they’d have to compete with Joe Public in the first place, paying the elevated prices themselves. It would also go some way to eliminating their profits – why buy from an unofficial auction when there’s an official one happening, and could potentially make more money for the promoter, venue and artist if the ticket revenue is split out between them.
What do you think, internet people? Is sclaping fair practice, or callous parasitism? Would selling online like this just be a way for promoters to benefit at fans’ expense, or would it be a neat way of cutting scalpers out of the loop and rationalising ticket prices for the rest of us?
HMV is increasing it’s investments in the live music business. Having entered into partnership with Luminar to cross promote between live venues and their music store, and having operated a joint venture with MAMA in the same manner for just over a year, they have succeeded in obtaining just over 56% of shares in MAMA, giving them a controlling stake, and another place to promote their own artists and keep an eye on up and coming artists.
If you live within swimming ange of the Isle of Wight, you’ll be interested in the following lineup for Bestival this year:
Dizzee Rascal / The Flaming Lips / Hot Chip / LCD Soundsystem / Gil Scott Heron / Chase & Status / Echo and the Bunnymen / Simian Mobile Disco / Delphic / Rolf Harris / Marc Almond / dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip / Ellie Goulding / Fat Freddy’s Drop / Flying Lotus / Four Tet / Kitty Daisy & Lewis / Stornoway / Tinie Tempah / Vitalic / The Cuban Brothers / Chilly Gonzales / Beardyman / Tunng / Hurts / Nathan Fake / The Gaslamp Killer / The Vegetable Orchestra / Ulrich Schnauss / The Twinkle Brothers / High Llamas / The Antlers / Archie Bronson Outfit / Beth Jeans Houghton / Mixhell / Glen Matlock / Samuel and the Dragon / The Japanese Popstars / The Lost Brothers / Hear We Go Magic / Goldhawks / Countryside Alliance Crew / Laura J Martin / A Genuine Freakshow / Bookhouse Boys / King Charles / Three Trapped Tigers / Worship / French Horn Rebellion / Sisters of Transistors / Spindle and Wit / Starless & Bible Black / The Boy Who Trapped The Sun / Telegraphs / Tim and Sam Band / Unicorn Kid
Notable high points for us will be Gil Scott-Heron and Fat Freddy’s Drop, and Beardyman’s always good value – hopefully a cold winter will mean good weather this Summer
Liberty Media, an investment capital fund that owns substantial stakes in companies like Sirius XM radio and Time Warner, has just put in a bid to buy $410,400,000 worth of Live Nation’s stock, at $12 per share. the offer has yet to be accepted, but it’s a proof of faith in Live Nation’s post-merger abilities, and a reasonable mark-up on the current market price of $11.49 a share. Liberty could perhaps help themselves by making a tie between Sirius and Live Nation, two companies in which they would have a holding were this bid accepted, co-promoting acts for mutual benefit, as HMV and Luminar obviously intend to do.
Hot Chip are previewing their new album ‘One Life Stand’ over on the Guardian’s website (unfortunately only fully available in the UK), via We7′s streaming service.
The album itself is a return to their previous form, mixing heavily electronic beats and samples with roomy, live sounding instruments at will, but always with delicate care and attention, Baroque sounding string synths, trashy Pixies-esque drum kits, steel drums, marimbas[?], vocoders [ sorry Justin ], and flagrantly dance sounding bass lines nestle in together under the distinctive semi-falsetto vocals rising above the tracks, blending elements of electronic music from the last two decades together in a disctinctively stylish way.
Hot Chip may not have the bass-thumping force of other electronic acts like Simian Mobile Disco and the Chemical Brothers, but this album drips energy and musicality. Check out the video of the album’s title track they’ve posted on their Dino-space – if you like it you might consider catching them on their current tour, visiting most regions of the UK before moving on to Europe and America, full listings below.
You can also pre-order the album from their website, getting yourself a free bonus track in the process (but sadly obviating the need for a digital distributor, ho hum…)
After months of speculation and reels of red tape, the world’s biggest live music company has been created by the combination of the two giants Ticketmaster and Live Nation have finally secured approval from the necessary legal bodies to go ahead with their merger. The company formed is now called Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., and TKTM’s stock ceased trading at close on the 25th. According to Reuters, common stock in Ticketmaster will be exchanged for 1.474 shares of stock in the new entity. This news has seen a massive jump in the share price of both companies, and will undoubtedly have a seismic effect throughout the live music world over the coming year.
Displaying characteristic social sensitivity, the Simpsons creator has added one of the most hotly tipped young bands of ’09, The XX (aka Xerox Teens before they had to change their name following a lawsuit) to the line-up he’s curating for next May’s Minehead ATP.
The festival has reinvented the old holiday park venues, and has been regularly selling out, even in the currently depressed market, thanks to its coherent and eccentric schedule, and the attraction of having your own brick built loo to use rather than facing the horror of the festival dookie-pits.
HMV is one high street music chain that has thus far survived the decimation that has killed off Zavvi, Fopp, and other music retailers, and Luminar is a behind the scenes operator of a large group of nightclubs across the UK. According to a report in the Times‘the two companies are discussing the possibility of setting up a small number of pilots that would involve HMV stores and Luminar clubs cross-marketing to each others’ customers.’ This seems like a smart move on HMV’s part, taking a few more of their eggs out of the physical retail market. In the light of the proposed deal between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which if approved would sweep the board on high level gigs, it makes sense for mid level venues to start tying in with big players in the music industry for some marketing support, thereby providing another route to heavliy promoted artists, and safeguarding their territory from downward incursion.
HMV already has its own record label, and close ties into live venues, which are proving more resistant to the general slump in the music market than physical record sales.
Live Nation’s shareholder’s have voted to approve the merger between their company and Ticketmaster. You can read the SEC filing here – the news was at first positively recieved, but now indications are that the stock market is going slightly cold on the two closely linked companies, with a 2% fall yesterday.
As the established venues are finding it harder to make ends meet, and we look over the precipice of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, anticipating the big splash that will be made in the mainstream live music market it’s nice to have little bits of good news, like the government’s relaxation of the music licensing laws, and now the rescue of one of South London’s stalwart little music venues. The back room of the Half Moon pub above Putney embankment has staged thousands of new, eclectic, and independent bands over the years, and would have been lost if the pub had been developed, as threatened, into a Slug and Lettuce, Pitcher and Piano type gastro pub. This may mean nothing to you if you’re living outside London, so just read it as a small triumph for little venues and little bands. Remember that little venue you used to go to when you started going to gigs? The one that was a bit scruffy, but did a good pint and put on the wierd bands you wouldn’t have seen anywhere else? Image how you’d feel if that shut down, and give the Half Moon a little internal cheer… If you’re in the London area it’s another place you might be able to get a gig, and that’s got to be a good thing, right?
After an exhaustive campaign and overwhelming support from the public, we are absolutely delighted to announce that we’ve averted the scheduled closure on 31st January! The Brewery have reconsidered and we are now focussed on getting back to work promoting this wonderful music venue that we love so much. We could not have achieved this without the wonderful response from the public – to those who came down to the pub to show their support, signed the petition, left their comments on our forum, joined our Facebook group and to the bands and artists who didn’t hesitate at short notice to come and perform to save the Moon – THANK YOU!!!
Digital Music News are carrying this story about online ticket scalping – a case in which an LA based company calling themselves ‘Wiseguy Tickets’ employed a ring of Bulgarian computer programmers to buy up all the best tickets to high profile, high demand concerts and resell them online for a huge mark-up. Perhaps parting with more than six times the face value of the ticket is painful for whoever buys the ticket second hand, but presumably no-one is twisting their arm as they click ‘confirm bid’, and as far as eBay is concerned it’s perfectly legitimate (at least in the UK – some US states have laws against it).
