In response to Bob Lefsetz’s letter on the LCD Soundsystem ticketing to-do, another from Bob’s mailbag:
I read your comments on the LCD fiasco. All the fans think there is a conspiracy. There might be but NOT where you think it is coming from. Try this order of events and follow the logic.
1) Take a band that wants to retire and go out with a bang.
2) The band has a good following, but, with the exception of festivals has never played for an audience of over 4,000.
3) You hire your promoter (The Bowery Presents) to book the #1 venue in NY (MSG) with a capacity of about 19,500 (including rear stage).
4) You have an old fashioned wait on line really early / overnight and get tickets at the Bowerys venue and make your fans wait out in 15 degree weather.
5) You sell tickets to serve less that ? of the people on line that line, leaving fans unhappy, creating buzz and tweets and blogs.
6) At the same time, you have an online presale and sell about 4K of the tickets in the venue. You know it’s your last show and you know it will sell out.
7) You post on social media a la Sally Field You like me, you really really like me, and how humbled you are by all this you never realized how much the fans love you
8) You then have a Public sale for your tickets.
9) Remember, the PROMOTER controls the tickets and says what gets sold and how. So you sell no tickets on the public sale (except the Amex seats. Those were sold and HAD to be sold via contractual obligation with Amex)
10) You watch the prices skyrocket on StubHub as your fans that YOU let get shut out now have to buy at higher prices on the secondary market.
11) You put out angry tweets about how evil the scalpers are for buying all your tickets. You blame everyone’s favorite scapegoat for the problems YOU created and you unite your fans against a common enemy. At the same time, you now have a buzz about you that you are more popular than you really are. There is nothing like people not having something that makes them want it more.
12) You then, while cursing your common enemy, announce that you are putting 4 shows on sale. And these are scalper-proof by making everyone pickup the night of the show. BUT you need to keep your word that the 4/2 show is the last show so you need to book shows backwards.
13) You need a venue? No problem. One of the venues your promoter books Just by 100% coincidence just happens to have those nights just before.
14) All the fans that got shut out (and those that had no idea what an LCD was besides a Liquid Crystal Diode) but now know about it from all the free press from all the demand you created. You even complain about some tickets offered for sale at $35,000 on stubhub. Anyone with a credit card and an internet connection can post on StubHub. Why not put them up yourself and garner more free press by complaining about it?
Here we are now. Here is where we go next:
15) See 13 above. Those 4 shows will sell out because of that loving fan base you created will buy and you will add more backwards. Your promoter will get you the dates. The by 100% coincidence just happen to have that venue open for you. You continue to add shows. There are 12 days in a row that Terminal 5 is dark. They can (and probably will) add them all. Lets also realize that Terminal5 is the Marquee venue of the promoter Bowery Presents, so THESE shows will turn profit, while MSGis all about PR & break even at best.
16) But what about all those seats you have on hold? You either release the remaining seats into TicketMaster over the next month and a half or sell them on StubHub yourself.
17) As supply enters the market place in the secondary market, the market price goes down to where it probably should be. The lead singer said don’t overpay for your ticket, he isn’t worth it? He’s actually right.
Here are some points to note:
* The capacity of MSG is 19,500. With the rears & tech kills, it is about 16,000. Not 13,000 as claimed by the lead singer.
*Amex seats MUST be sold by contract. Public sale seats are at the discretion of the promoter). I know 2 people that were 1st at a TicketMaster outlet (faster than online, but only for the 1st person on the line) and it was gone before they got any tickets. If they sold any quantity of public sale tickets, they would have at least been offeredSOMETHING.. He didn’t even get offered a set of tickets to throw back. If they sold the same number of tickets on the presale as the public sale, they would have at least been offered something. I was able on a 3G connection (far slower than being at a TM outlet) able to pull up a set of Amex (not public sale allocation) reserved floor seats myself.
*Terminal 5 is always busy. 4 to 6 nights a week, every week. Strange that it is dark for 12 days straight. It’s NEVER dark for that long, so its safe to assume Terminal 5 dates were part of this dog & pony show all along with the secondary market as the scapegoat to enable this miraculous offer to fans StubHub saw no appreciable increase in supply after the public sale.
*Which is more likely? A bunch of scalpers conspired to buy up all the tickets and then not post them for sale? Or what I said above?
You decide for yourself.
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