musicNEWS:
Ticketmaster To Auction Tickets?
09-03-03
Keavin
.
Thought you had a hard time getting choice
tickets through Ticketmaster? Thought they cost too much already? Well,
it looks like Ticketmaster is planning to take things even further, which
may put the prime tickets that much more out of reach to those without
deep pockets.
The New York Times reports, Late this
year the company plans to begin auctioning the best seats to concerts through
ticketmaster.com.
With no official price ceiling on such
tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers
for the highest price a market will bear.
The company looks to cash in on the success
of ticket scalping (oops, I mean auctioning) on services like eBay. Ticketmaster
President John Pleasants told the Times, "The tickets are worth what they're
worth," said John Pleasants, Ticketmaster's president and chief executive.
"If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it's actually worth
$1,000 on eBay, the ticket's worth $1,000."
The catch is the extra booty will be shared
between Ticketmaster, the artists, venues and promoters. The ladder three
parties will have to opt into the auction service and Ticketmaster will
walk away with either a flat fee or a percentage of the sale.
The internet future is here today; 51 percent
Ticketmasters ticket sales are conducted online.
Read
the NYTimes article (free registration required)
(Thanks to siNs
Metal News for the heads up on this story.)
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