Intern Edition Summer 2008

As the official countdown begins until I see Radiohead in Camden, NJ next week (five days, by the way), I am reminded of the pre-In Rainbows tour two summers ago when I purchased tickets to both nights of their Tower Theatre run for 450% above face value. Both nights sold out within seconds, and I was at work that morning anyway. So imagine how wide my eyes opened when my friend called me a few weeks later and said those fateful words, “There is still a way to get Radiohead tickets.”

Of course he was talking about ticket broker sites like StubHub, where I eventually traded my tax refund for Thom Yorke. The next question is inevitably, “Well, was it worth it?” and the answer an equally inevitable and resounding, “DUH.” So does that mean those slimy scalpers are right – that they play a fair game in an open marketplace, that whatever someone will pay is what a ticket is worth?

Parents of pre-teen Hannah Montana fans would beg to disagree. Getting to see the Disney pop princess in the flesh on her 2007 tour was the biggest ticket of the year, with the biggest cash-in for scalpers, too. Tickets regularly sold out in seconds (sound familiar?) and would instantly and suspiciously appear on ticket broker, a.k.a. scalper, websites with markups of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars. Diva moms of divas-in-training caused such a stink about being outclicked at ticketmaster.com that they inspired several states to pass the Hannah Montana law. Seriously. This piece of common sense legislature prohibits “ticket brokers” from using software bots to snatch up large blocks of the best seats in the house, getting around queues and ticket limits, in order to resell for a disgusting gross profit.
The Hannah Montana law may have satisfied a few Disney fans, but doesn’t mean much when taking into account the legislature allowing scalping adopted by several states just a few months before the frenzy, establishing a laissez-faire approach to the ticket marketplace.

Artists like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke have spoken out against these broker sites, but not just because of a moral issue – if they can’t stop them, they want a cut of the profits, too (and in an era of 360 deals and nonexistent record sales, can you blame them?). Late last year, a group called the Resale Rights Society united over 400 bands who wanted to collect fees from sites that resell tickets, but it seems like they’ve made little headway. Radiohead fans were gouged once again by Ticketmaster and their “partner site” TicketsNow on this year’s tour.
The most recent news of artist vs. scalper is Tom Waits’ new photo ID policy that has been met with mixed reactions. Obviously the ticket scalping problem is not going anywhere, and the larger Ticketmaster monopoly issue is certainly a Goliath. However, artists and promoters could certainly price tickets smarter from the get-go and bypass Ticketmaster whenever possible (see: Phish).

While I can’t argue that sometimes seeing your favorite band is virtually priceless, I would much prefer to reward the artist with my hard-earned money instead of a faceless, opportunistic website.

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