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!!!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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!!!

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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…

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.

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.

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’.

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!!!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 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.