bearkiss

Possibly one of the worst ideas I have ever heard - can you imagine the long line to get into a sold out arena show?!


Ticketmaster is using the Miley Cyrus 2009 tour to rollout its biggest experiment in paperless ticketing yet in an effort to limit ticket scalping. According to a press release, "All tickets will be sold exclusively through paperless ticket delivery which means fans will not receive a physical concert ticket for their entry into the event." Ticket buyers will be required to bring the credit card used making the purchase and a photo ID to the concert venue in order to gain entry. All groups must enter the concerts together, and ushers will issue "seat locator slips." Information about the paperless ticketing for the tour is available at ticketmaster.com/mileycyrus.

Superman07

Sounds good to me. It sounds similar to Fandango or Movietickets.com - you just never get a ticket. I sucks if you like to hold on to your ticket stubs, but I think the big issue it's trying to combat is scalpers (as your excerpt states - source btw?). Without the tickets people can't buy up slots they never intend to use. In theory this should keep prices down.

TripWire

don't they do this already?
any will call paperless ticket I buy for I have to show my credit card and ID at nyc venues.

Chrisedge

great idea except for no ticket (stub)...I have seen similar things, will call only (w/ ID) then you get lead straight into arena....

Giantrobo

On the face it doesn't sound bad. Screw Scalpers. Both Legal (TM) and others.

But don't for one minute believe that this will keep ticket prices down. They can always come up with reasons why ticket prices will need to go up.

SeekOnce

So what happens if something came up and I can't go the concert I paid for already?

cdollaz

They did something similar for the Tom Waits shows last summer. It was a breeze. Swipe your card and get in.

FrozenMetalHead

There's a very simple solution with TicketMaster - For only $6 a ticket, you can add insurance to your ticket

Supermallet

This is what I want to know. I've had to give away concert tickets in the past because I couldn't make it for some reason.

Dusty Bottoms

I really hate this idea. I believe they did it on a limited basis with the AC/DC shows. What if you are going with a group, and one person buys the tickets? If the original purchaser can't go, are you out of luck? If they allow the pickup name to be changed, then that does nothing to prevent scalping.

Also, there are times when I can't be near a computer at the onsale time. I sometimes have someone else pick up a ticket, and I pay him for it. Now I would have to provide him with my credit card or Ticketmaster account information.

If nothing else, I just happen to like having a ticket stub. I've been keeping mine for over twenty years. I'm sure Ticketmaster has already thought of that. Pretty soon, you will be able to buy a commemorative ticket along with your concert program and t-shirt.

Heat

I think it's a good idea. Anything to stop the secondary ticket industry.

Decker

Don't they have their own secondary ticket company to rival Stub Hub? I think this is a bad idea. Here in Vegas, the entire floor is usually taken by the casinos and folks with connections. Without Stub Hub, I would NEVER get good seats to any concert.

wendersfan

What if you lose your credit card? What if you want to give someone "tickets" to a show as a gift?

Scalping may be a problem but this is not a solution. This is just another way for Ticketmaster to increase profits.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

There will still be a secondary market. The scalpers will just need to go to the venue with the purchaser. What it will do is create fewer tickets on the secondary market and drive the price of those available tickets way up.

cungar

Huh? How's that going to work? You need to have the scalper's credit card. You think they use a separate credit card for each purchase? What are they going to do lend the credit card to 300 people at each show? I seriously doubt scalpers will be meeting people at venues to sneak them in.

Dusty Bottoms

I've seen that happen. The Rolling Stones played a few small venues including the Roseland Ballroom in NYC on the 40 Licks tour. There was a limit of two, and it was will call only. You had to get a wristband and enter the venue as you picked up the ticket. Scalpers met you to pick up the tickets and walked in with you. If you wanted to go with someone, two scalpers met you to walk in with you and your guest. You were basically paying for your ticket, the scalpers ticket, and a huge markup on top of that.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Exactly. And it happened at the AC/DC shows that tried this out last year. The costs are just passed on to the buyer. Some interesting comments here:

http://www.ticketnews.com/Miley-Cyru...lusively693017

Travis McClain

My friends and I have frequently bought tickets to sit together, and arrived separately. Thanks to having Crohn's disease, most of my concert-going has come to a complete stop, but this would still affect my friends. (Of course, it would affect them going to shows without me, so screw them, anyway!)

Supermallet

Min, you have Crohn's too? Sorry to hear that. Luckily mine has not stopped me from attending concerts.

Travis McClain

Yeah, I was (finally) diagnosed in '04. Some days I almost feel like a mostly normal person; some days I'm lucky if I see any part of the house other than the bathroom and the bedroom. You know how that goes, I'm sure.

Between 1998 and 2004 I saw an average of about ten concerts a year; many of these were large festival type tours, so I was seeing about 20+ acts annually. Since I developed Crohn's, I've seen, like four? Maybe five? I didn't make it to anything at all in '07. I don't go for two main reasons:

1) Early on, when I was still figuring out what living with Crohn's meant, I bought tickets to a sold-out Kenny Chesney show. I even joined the fan club to ensure that I got the tickets, so add $20 for that on top of the price of the tickets. The night before the show, I felt alright. The day of the show? I was so miserable I handed over the tickets to a neighbor I barely knew. (She did repay me for them a few weeks later, though.)

2) I live in the Louisville area, and most of the shows that interest me are almost always booked during the KY State Fair. It is a traffic nightmare to approach the fairgrounds during those two weeks, and I've had too many instances of needing to abruptly get to a bathroom to risk sitting in traffic on my way to see a show.

It bothers me periodically, because I loved concerts and ballgames. Still, I try to be contented with every day that passes and I'm not back in a hospital and not worry too much about missing out on those things. The nice thing is that I managed to see most everyone in concert that interested me by the time I was diagnosed. There are one or two I haven't gotten to yet, and a handful of newer acts that have since come along that interest me, and I keep an eye out for the right opportunity.

Entirely off topic, I don't know if you know (or care) about it, but there is a social networking site just for us Crohnies that I have found tremendously helpful. It's WeAreCrohns.org, and I've not only learned some useful things about the condition and treatment options, but I've met some very friendly, understanding people there, too.

sauce07

I like the concept but making the enitre group enter together wont work.

Hixx

Seems like it's the only solution really and they've got to do something to reign in the out of control scalpers and "brokers".

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Ticketmaster is also banning the listing of tickets for Miley Cyrus shows on TicketsNow.

rw2516

Yep. And they had all the tickets right there in the store. A big stack with rubber band around them. They would just peel them off the stack. For the reserved seat shows there they had a seating chart you could look at.

islandclaws

Fuck TM. So now, in addition to waiting in even longer lines, I won't get a physical ticket? For someone like me, who collects all of his ticket stubs, this is most disappointing news.