STEWART COPELAND

A quick look didn't see it posted here.
Prepare to get screwed over even more:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... master0203

And more recently

http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/s ... aily9.html

I swear this stuff is making me vow to never buy tickets to anything anymore. I'd rather support a street scalper.

The artists should be screaming bloody murder over this.....

[quote="Tamadude"]I swear this stuff is making me vow to never buy tickets to anything anymore. I'd rather support a street scalper.

The artists should be screaming bloody murder over this.....

[/quote]

Maybe that's what we should do: buy from street scalpers
At least then you can choose from who you buy.

[quote="Tamadude"]I swear this stuff is making me vow to never buy tickets to anything anymore. I'd rather support a street scalper.

The artists should be screaming bloody murder over this.....

[/quote]

Indeed they should!

We very nearly got fleeced when we paid a lot of money for tickets at Wembley for The Police which were supposed to be very near the front. (Not Ticketmaster but Seatwave) It turned out that the seats were very near the back which was not good enough because at Wembley you can no longer all pile down the aisles and fight your way to the front of the crowd. Hell at wembley you aren't even allowed to dance in the aisles! Bloody health and safety.

Seatwave did give us our money back when we complained but only a couple of days before the concert when it was too late for us to get decent tickets or even any tickets. We would of course, in the end, have paid the over inflated price to get to see them but fortunately The Police announced an extra date at Wembley and the Saint of Police fans was smiling down on us. (Is there a St. Stewart?)

We eventually bought our tickets for the new date direct from the Wembley box office for about half the price that we would have originally paid to Seatwave and we were about four of five rows from the front.

In future, when I want to see a band, I'm always going to try and buy tickets direct from the venue box office and not from ticket sellers. Whilst these agencies are entitled to their cut for doing their job, it's unacceptable for them to attempt to rip fans off for double the price of a ticket and the bands or at least their management should be on to this.

Hmmph, (arms folded), rant over.

[quote="moonstone"][quote="Tamadude"]I swear this stuff is making me vow to never buy tickets to anything anymore. I'd rather support a street scalper.

The artists should be screaming bloody murder over this.....

[/quote]

Indeed they should!

.....(sorry Moonstone - not dissing your post! That sucks.)....

Hmmph, (arms folded), rant over.[/quote] Quite

Thing is, if Livebastard can screw Springsteen over, I'm guessing that however loud artists scream, it ain't going to amount to a hill of beans.

Personally - I think we need to scream bloody murder. Should you wish to scream bloody murder (or better still, make a strongly argued point), here are some people to scream at:

UK
www.theyworkforyou.com - MPs

US
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dir ... congdir.tt - Congress.

This needs legislation. Just my view.

As (I think it was) sockii said somewhere,

VileNation + TicketBastard = VileBastard.

[quote="Laz"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090210/ap_en_mu/live_nation_ticketmaster_9[/quote]

The massive hole in their 'artists set ticket prices' argument is that Ticketmaster and Live Nation set 'convenience fees' and 'booking charges' and 'postage charges'. And as we all know - depending on the event, they can add 10-20% to the cost of a booking. Oh - and the fact that Ticketmaster sells above face value allocations through a sister company. (As John Landau rather eloquently pointed out, earlier this week - sadly after the event. )

No idea how it works in the US - over here we just have one commission that takes a view nationally - but given that in the US there are already state laws that prevent resale of tickets over face value, would a commercial legal eagle care to give a view on how feasible it is to tie these fuckers up in legal knots at state level?

They deserve each other.

Given that I've bitched about it here, I'm also going to bitch about it to these guys--see story below for names of senators who do not have a final say but do have an interest...


DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Hours after Live Nation Inc. (LYV) and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. (TKTM) officially announced their planned merger, three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concerns about the deal.

Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Tuesday evening that antitrust regulators should review the merger closely to ensure that the combined companies will not gain too much market power.

"We are concerned about the antitrust implications of the proposed merger," the senators said in a statement. "We look forward to examining the details of this proposed acquisition to ensure that consumers are protected."

Kohl chairs a Senate antitrust subcommittee that oversees competition issues. Hatch, a musician, has taken a particular interest in issues that affect the music industry.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the merger earlier in the day, saying it "would give a giant, new entity unrivaled power over concertgoers and the prices they pay to see their favorite artists and bands."

"It must be viewed skeptically and scrutinized with a fine-toothed comb," Schumer said.

The Live Nation-Tickmaster deal, which would concentrate considerable power in the music industry into one company, is expected to get a close look from the Justice Department's antitrust division, and could provide an early test for President Obama's antitrust regulators.

Obama has criticized antitrust enforcement under the Bush administration as too lax.

Despite the senators' misgivings, they have no authority in deciding whether the deal gets approved or blocked. That decision lies with the Justice Department, which must sign off on the deal for it to go through.

Bah. Since when have corporate interests been restrained in any significant way in this country? I'll be surprised if this merger doesn't happen.

They'll probably put it through, with some bullshit regulations in place that don't have any real enforcement power.

That said, thanks for the updates, all. I'll write letters to my congressbeings also, not that it'll matter (since they're all right-wing pro-business fanatics.)