Talk:Ticketmaster/Archives/2013

This is an archive of past discussions about Ticketmaster. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

History

I would love to see a History of the Beginnings and the Expansion of Ticketmaster. After all... they did not completely fill a void.... there were many local ticket agencies across the country... and then they somehow all became Ticketmaster....Truth4Sale 05:56, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Good history information. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Ticketmaster-Group-Inc-Company-History.html 24.251.93.91 (talk) 07:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Some of that history info in the link above is wrong. For example, it says:

Ticketmaster was started by two Arizona State University students who were looking for a solution to a problem they encountered when buying concert tickets. At the time, the buyer of a ticket was forced to select from the seats that had been allotted to the particular vendor from whom he or she was purchasing the ticket. If the vendor was nearly sold out, the buyer might be forced to buy bad seats even though better seats were available through other ticket sellers. Melees occasionally erupted when ticket buyers, after standing in line for hours at one place, found that the vendor was sold out or that better seats were available elsewhere. The system also was inefficient for promoters and owners of venues, who often had difficulty selling all of their tickets, despite unmet demand.

This is just incorrect. It was founded by Albert Leffler, then the Box Office Manager at Gammage Auditorium on the ASU campus (he was not a student there); Peter Gadwa, a graduate student in Computer Science, and Gordon ??? (name escapes me now), who put up the initial funding. [Source: personal conversation with Gadwa and Leffler over the years.] The problem statement made, though, is essentially correct. Those are the problems the system was intended to solve. I think this happened earlier than 1978, but am hazy on the dates now.

Further, initial solution did not network several computers (as stated), the solution was built on a DEC PDP with dumb terminals. Note that this was not the birth of computerized ticketing, as the article states, Ticketron, Select-A-Seat, and BASS all already existed.

That article also mistates (or mis-emphasizes) Ticketmaster's competitive advantage in the 1980s and therefore misrepresents why it succeeded over Ticketron and others. In short, TM has both a more efficient hardware/software platform and a more aggressive marketing strategy. It was the combination of the two that fueled the company's growth; probably both were necessary for the company to have succeeded in the marketplace as it did. User:dmittleman 19 May 2009

Front page

I think this should be on the front page.--75.55.13.78 00:48, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

In writing that article I attempted to be neutral, which wasn't too hard since I'm a capitalist at heart but hate Ticketmaster. Does anybody have any ideas how one could bring about the downfall of 30% markups? I don't care if Ticketmaster survives or not. --rs2 04:34, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)

There should be more critcism about TM. Like how ticket brokers can obtain codes to TM sales so that they block out people from purchasing blocks of tix during a general sale. TM does little to nothing to stop these middlemen....--Madchester 20:25, 2005 Jun 1 (UTC)

I have to add my opinion here and state that this looks like almost like a yearly report for TicketMaster. Yes, I hate them too, but also agree that NPOV is necessary, but this is just corporate gloss as if it came directly from their website. Of course, I don't know if people would invest time in an article regarding a corporation that they ostensibly dislike... Opinions? Seconds? Refutations? --Sirimiri 00:22, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

I added a link to a page that criticizes TicketMaster.--Jnelson09 20:44, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Where is the history of Ticketmasters? who are the founders? those are simply questions, but I cannot find any info about. Right now, the only logical conclusion is that Ticketmaster is cover for the Mob, who collects 'fees' on everything. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.190.32.200 (talk) 04:16, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Auctioning

Ticketmaster has a new auctioning service now. Buy a ticket, auction it back for profit. Basically, this is legalized scalping... Oh, and TM takes tons of money off of it of course. For example, you list a ticket for $700, TM sells it for $850, and pays you $620.

Don't forget the good ol' practice of simply not having many tickets available when things go on sale, because they reserve them all for themselves and their buddies to scalp. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.185.183.229 (talk) 07:31, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

The auction process has nothing to do with people buying tickets and then TM auctioning them off for them. An auction happens when an event client decides they want to sell a special ticket that can somtimes also include things like a meet and greet or give a part of the auction proceeds to charity or something else. As far as "holding back" tickets that is something that you need to take up with the event client also since they are the ones that decide when and how tickets are distributed. If they choose to do some kind of password protected pre-sale that is their choice since the tickets belong to the event client and not TM. TM is only the agent that is hired by the event client to sell the tickets and has no control over when and how tickets are distributed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.67.104.106 (talk) 11:19, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Ticketmaster-friendly edit

This unsubstantiated Ticketmaster-friendly edit was contributed by a Ticketmaster-owned IP address.. just for the record. —Fleminra 08:40, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Freedom of speech section

I removed the "freedom of speech" section because it did not cite any sources. Is there any evidence that Ticketmaster has ever attempted to prevent someone from describing an event they attended? Has there been any notable criticism of this clause in their terms of service? I agree the clause seems a bit silly, but almost definitely unenforceable. This article has a very anti-TM bias. If you must replace the section, please find appropriate sources to cite. Rhobite 00:33, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

External link

I'd like to add a video interview with Fred Rosen to external links. He is speaking about his background and Ticketmaster's background. Here is the interview. Ammosh11 01:12, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

References

I can't believe there are no sources in this document, how utterly unusable. ILoveConcerts (talk) 19:09, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

It is a poorly-referenced article - I invite you to contribute some useful sources on Ticketmaster. I'm not sure where you'd look other than their website though. Dcoetzee 20:39, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The history of Ticketmaster is tough to reference, but some of the more recent major events have been well covered. I'm thinking of course about the Hannah Montana vs. Scalpers debate; the issues with the Colorado Rockies ticketing system crash; the TicketsNow acquisition was in a paper yesterday, etc. I just haven't had enough time to properly nexus those stories. But I know they are out there. BTW, the Ticketmaster website has so little information about Ticketmaster on it, I don't know where you are looking that I'm not? ILoveConcerts (talk) 23:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Where is criticism?

Where is some criticism about this evil monopoly? 199.117.69.8 (talk) 21:44, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Maybe the article has changed since you wrote this comment in October 2008 but now this article seems full of criticism. And that's a good thing because there is almost nothing good to say about this monopolistic, greedy and evil company. They, like many of the record companies currently trying to take down torrent sites, are what is destroying the music industry!--217.203.131.186 (talk) 00:02, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

acquisition history

Discussing HOW they became a monopoly (by acquiring ticketron, their major competitor, etc.) Since the courts have held that Pearl Jam lacked standing to sue, a lawsuit by concert attendees is needed. After all, it wouldn't be tolerated of the airlines had total controlled of all seat inventory on their planes, without consolidators and travel agency web sites such as Travelocity. Amita eshana (talk) 14:33, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

As far as Ticketmaster being in control of the ticket inventory that is a myth. The venues, promotors, and artists are in control of all ticket inventory and tell Ticketmaster wich tickets they want put on sale or held back for any reason. Ticketmaster is mearly the distributor of the tickets, i have worked for Ticketmaster for almost 10 years and know this for a fact.BXCanada (talk) 11:57, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Settlement with New Jersey?

Not sure where this fits in the current article - its not a lawsuit per se. example news article: http://www.canada.com/Ticketmaster+settlement+reins+premium+priced+website/1323169/story.html

ps I cleaned up the headings in here, 2nd one was broken.

That link doesn't work. What is it in reference to? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.85.90.169 (talk) 13:58, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Pearl Jam Decision

I deleted a paragraph about the Justice Department's decision in favor of Ticketmaster in the Pearl Jam case, because that paragraph quoted a court ruling that appeared to apply to an entirely different case (Alex Campos vs. Ticketmaster: http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f2100/2157.htm). Nothing in that decision states that that ruling had anything to do with the Pearl Jam case.

I also added a reference to a New York Times article detailing the Justice Department's decision not to pursue an investigation against Ticketmaster on Pearl Jam's behalf. (http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/06/arts/us-ends-ticketmaster-investigation.html?fta=y)

Somebody should probably include a section about the Campos case, however.

Notinman (talk) 15:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Fillmore Detroit

There definitely needs to be a lot more hard evidence of some of these charges. I live in Detroit, and the Fillmore DOES not have its own parking, but does recognize parking across the street in Comerica park. So is the parking fee covering that?

And I've never been forced to pay for parking through ticketmaster, to any venue, ever. Not the Fillmore either.

While I think the fee breakdown and percentage explanations are great we need straight evidence, because what I see here is rather unfounded. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mechem (talk • contribs) 13:26, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Isn't scalping illegal?

Why's it legal for a "big corporation" to do it then? 97.118.63.76 (talk) 11:52, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

"Scalping" has largely been legalized. The laws you're likely thinking of have largely been overturned. Wdr1 (talk) 17:25, 11 January 2011 (UTC)