WGME Vol. 3: An Open Letter to Nathan Hubbard, Live Nation Ticketing CEO

Posted Feb 01, 2009 at 5:58 am CT by Todd Levy

Welcome to Vol. 3 of “Who's Got My Extra?” — Jamtopia's series all about the business and pleasure of concert tickets.
See all posts | Buy concert tickets

Dear Mr. Hubbard:

On January 30th, 2009, just as Phish tickets went on sale through Live Nation's spankin' new ticketing system, Pollstar posted a now sadly ironic interview entitled “That's the Ticket.”

The interview starts off on the topic of your infrastructure's readiness for prime time. Pollstar asked, “when can we expect to see its first big test?” You replied:

I don't know what you mean but I can tell you that we're fully under way… We’ve undergone the largest transition in the history of the industry and so far we’re very pleased with how it’s gone.
—Nathan Hubbard, CEO Live Nation Ticketing

You may be fully underway, but I hope you're not still pleased with how it's gone. Your new ticketing system is definitely not ready for prime time.

Trying to buy Phish tickets from Live Nation the past two days was a labyrinth of temporary waiting rooms, KITT inspired loading bars, pathetic error messages (see below), repeated requests to sign in, apologies for the inconvenience, illegible CAPTCHAs (again, see below), and ominous timers that ticked away to zero sending once-loved tickets back to the orphanage you call general inventory.

And that's not to mention your 877 number, a robotic seductress forever promising that “fans come first” but literally and figuratively unable to comprehend the phrase “buy tickets.”

It was an epic fail.

Here's just a sampling of the painful cries your online ticketing system expelled as it crumbled under the weight of Phish ticket buyers this Friday and Saturday:

An error (500 Internal Server Error) has occurred in response to this request.
Sorry! You are not authorized to view this page. Please check the URL and try again. You may be able to find what you’re looking for by visiting our LiveNation.com home page.
There was a problem. An error occurred. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again.
Sorry, we could not find the tickets you requested.

That's not to mention some of the most mind-numbing CAPTCHAs ever generated. The one at right is 100% un-retouched. I dare you to guess the first word.

But the worst part of the failure wasn't the technology train wreck.

It was the emotional roller coaster you created for fans as your system slowly doled out tickets and quickly snatched them away over and over again. One minute you're sitting pretty in the pavilion then seconds later, BAM! — you're staring down the barrel of an internal server error.

Mr. Hubbard, if fans really do come first at Live Nation, I hope that you'll put some of your arena-sized profits to good use — improve your user experience, ramp up your technology infrastructure, and lower your fees.

You have the power to make live music more accessible to real fans. Wield it!

Sincerely,
Todd Levy

P.S. While I'm all for a little competition in the marketplace, I gotta tell you the past few days made me nostalgic for my old pal Ticketmaster.

P.P.S. Don't even get me started on VIP Nation.

Update (February 2, 2009) This letter was mentioned in a post on Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily blog, Phish Fans Furious As Live Nation Fails First Major Ticketing Test. Thanks to the author Daniel Kreps for the link.

Update (February 4, 2009, 12:00pm) Oh man, this is unbelievable. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that Live Nation is in merger talks with Ticketmaster to create an obvious monopoly in the online concert ticket space. Per the article, “the combined company would be called Live Nation Ticketmaster, and would merge the world's biggest concert promoter with the world's dominant ticketing and artist-management company. The resulting firm would be able to manage everything from recorded music to ticket sales and tour sponsorship.” Mr. Hubbard, I just don't get it.

In the previously mentioned Pollstar interview you lament Ticketmaster's fees as being one-size-fits-all and lacking transparency. And when asked about the clash of the Titans scenario in a Billboard interview published that same day you say bluntly, “We are focused on our own business.” But now, here we are less than a week later and it turns out you're going to turn your attention away from the fans, away from servicing the artists, away from fixing your infrastructure, away from trying to figure out how to lower fees to get more fans into your venues and you're going to spend a ton of time and money fighting regulators and working on a merger deal with the very beast you've been working so hard to break away from. Seriously Nathan, what gives?

Update (February 5, 2009, 12:00pm) Live Nation and specifically Nathan Hubbard has responded to the outcry from Phish fans through an article on Billboard.com entitled Post-Phish, Live Nation Ticketing Pledges Improvements.

Update (February 6, 2009) I've started a new post to cover the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger and the whole Bruce Springsteen / State of NJ investigation into Ticketmaster and TicketsNow.

Update (February 8, 2009) This letter was mentioned in a release on CelebrityAccess MediaWire entitled Something's Phishy At Live Nation's Ticketing Website. While I can't condone their use of the Ph, I can condone their mentioning Jamtopia, so thanks.

More Live Nation Phish Ticket Disaster Coverage

Phish Fans Furious As Live Nation Fails First Major Ticketing Test [Rolling Stone]
Phish Onsale Tax Live Nation’s System [Billboard]
This Weekend's Onsales [Phish.com]
Live Nation's New Ticket System Fail Whales from Phish Demand [Mashable]
Phish too big for LiveNation.com to handle [Brooklyn Vegan]
Live Nation's Ticketing Servers Have Phish Fans Bouncing Around The Room (In A Bad Way) [Idolator]
Phish Phans Phrosty Over Live Nation's Phailures [Earvolution]
Phish Tour Release Crashes Live Nation Ticketing Service This Morning [National Event Company]
Open Thread: Phish Summer Tour Onsale [Hidden Track]
Post-Phish, Live Nation Ticketing Pledges Improvements [Billboard]
Springsteen, Phish Have Beef With Ticketmaster, Live Nation [Spinner]
That's the Ticket [Pollstar]
Billboard Extended Q&A: Live Nation CEO of Ticketing Nathan Hubbard [Billboard.biz]
Twitter Posts Tagged #livenation [Twitter]
Live Nation, Meet the New Boss - Same as the Old Boss [Sound off with Dave]
Arena-Sized Profit Gains at Live Nation [Digital Music News]
Post-Phish, Live Nation Ticketing Pledges Improvements [Billboard.com]
Something's Phishy At Live Nation's Ticketing Website [ENCORE]

Crosseyed & Painful: Still Waiting

A video tribute to the Live Nation virtual waiting room by YouTuber livenationsucks.

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Search thousands of concert tickets on Jamtopia.

John from Boulder, CO || Jun. 3, 2009 at 05:48 PM | #

Two of my friends and myself got a total of 24 tickets to the Red Rocks shows- enough so most of our friends can go to at least one show (we ticket-buyers are going to all 4 shows). I did some research before the tickets went onsale through TicketMaster because I knew it would be tough. You can’t just log in at 12:00 and expect everything to go smoothly. You need to be prepared so when the tickets go onsale you’re ready and you have a Plan A, Plan B…I even had a Plan C and D. I can’t give away my secrets, though. Sorry!

jeff Nach || Feb. 11, 2009 at 10:25 AM | #

I think EVERY MUSIC FAN SHOULD GET TO BITCH SLAP NATHAN HUBBARD, JIM KOPLICK, AND ALL THE OTHER MUDSURFERS AT LIVE NATION AND TICKETMASTER. I THINK WE NEED TO RALLY MUSIC ACTS AGAINST THESE scumbags!!!!!

Editor’s Note: Jamtopia does not condone bitch slapping.

Justin Enis from New York, New York || Feb. 5, 2009 at 04:32 PM | #

Hey Todd,

I would like to thank you for commenting and sharing your story on my blog, the National Event Company Blog.

The word that i would choose to use to describe this letter is PERFECT. I also read that PollStar article in which they interviewed Hubbard and I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. For this to occur to a secondary ticketing company would be one thing, but for Live Nation - the kings of concert promotions - is another. I researched some of the comments left on Live Nations page that day and most of them were in praise of Ticketmaster. Now for something like this to occur to Ticketmaster days later is absurd. I simply cant fathom where these companies funding and services are pointing to because they evidently aren’t properly funding their mainstay (ticketmaster.com website). I hope this message does get through to Mr. Hubbard and I am eager to see your next letter to the Ticketmaster heads.

Thank you again for taking time to comment on my blog and i hope to keep in touch,

Justin Enis
http://blog.neco.com

P.S. I would have simply cracked up and realized the world has gone mad after attempting to fill a CAPTCHA like that - HA

Marty Jackson || Feb. 4, 2009 at 03:24 PM | #

PeterB, who is going to open those millions of envelopes, place orders, print the tickets, mail the tickets, and service the tickets once they hit the mail? Who is going to deal with Will Call & account for people who lose tickets or decide to use Will Call as their delivery method. It’s amazing that people still complain about fees, yet they ask the world of their ticketing companies and don’t understand when things don’t go 100% smoothly.

PeterB || Feb. 3, 2009 at 05:43 PM | #

By far and away the worst experience of my life. I spent at least 2 hours with livenation on Friday both calling and attempting to get on via the website. From the calling perspective, either give me a busy signal, or, put me in queue. But, don’t tell me you value me and that you are connecting me to an operator when you are just going to tell me that you are busy. And, if I have to say “BUY TICKETS” one more time to a machine I am going to kill somebody!!! All my effort in approximately 4 hours of work, yielded one Great Woods ticket…..one! I went back in to get another and they were sold out.

Skip from CA - you must work for a ticket agency, or, you possess a superpower that allows you to get tickets.

I wish phish would adopt the arcane method that Grateful Dead Tickets used. Fill out a 3x5 index card with the shows you desire, money order, and mailed on an exact postmark date. This will weed out the agencies and the less than faithful fans.

Jason from NC || Feb. 3, 2009 at 02:22 AM | #

Well I have outlined my experience right here!

http://gphomesales.com/phish

Editor’s Note: This is brilliant. Jason sent a Trojan horse to Nathan Hubbard in the form of a free pizza from Pizza Rustica in Beverly Hills, CA. Inside the pizza box was a letter outlining Jason’s painful 4.5 hour ordeal trying to buy Phish tickets from Live Nation, culminating with a Live Nation phone rep selling him 6 parking passes instead of tickets! The delivery driver successfully hand-delivered the pizza and note to Mr. Hubbard at Live Nation Headquarters. There has been no response so far.

Photos: Pizza entering Live Nation HQ | Letter taped inside pizza box

Marty Jackson || Feb. 2, 2009 at 10:29 PM | #

It happens to the best of them. There is just simply nothing any server can do when several millions of people hit the same website within 10 seconds. Ticketmaster’s site blew up this morning and posted a “routine maintenance” message for 3 Bruce Springsteen shows that went up for sale today.

Consumers need to be more educated and realize that popular ticket onsales are messy and not everyone gets tickets. If you really want tickets to the show that has 100 times the demand of available seats, then you should have someone at home trying on the computer and someone at a Blockbuster location… and you should both be calling Live Nation on the phone at the same time. Good luck, no need to whine if you’re prepared to fight for tickets to these popular shows.

Matt from wisco || Feb. 2, 2009 at 05:37 PM | #

The “trick” for me was to sign in after you made the ticket request and it showed you an actual $amount for the tickets you requested…but again, this took me 2.5 hours to figure out. But this would only help out those who were able to get that far…

ps-this was even 1hour after a lady on the livenation phone # said that alpine was sold out…so…?

Todd Levy from Chicago, IL || Feb. 2, 2009 at 02:58 PM | #

@ drew and Cocasio -I scored my tickets (Alpine lawn) about an hour after the onsale. There was no “secret” per se. Just a ton of patience, reloading, back button, etc.

My buddy actually pulled a single Alpine pavilion after an hour of seeing the “Sorry, no tickets” screen which you’d think wouldn’t even appear until there really were indeed no tickets.

drew || Feb. 1, 2009 at 10:40 PM | #

how did you get tickets hours after they went on sale?? 45 minutes after they went on sale, it said on my screen that the shows were sold out, and there were no tickets available (im talking about saturday, not friday)

jb workman from oklahoma city || Feb. 1, 2009 at 06:31 PM | #

nice article, i pulled nice pav seats over and over again only to be error’d out by the time i got to the end of the process. after several HOURS i did end up with lawns to all of the shows i wanted to go to, something closer would have been nice. live nation is a joke. i never thought i would miss ticketmaster but i sure do.

skip johnson from california || Feb. 1, 2009 at 04:50 PM | #

I was able to score 24 tixs to various shows all by myself…i think the system crashing was GREAT…it meant i could still possibly get tickets an hour after they went on sale…which is more hope then i get with TM. So everyone who didnt get tixs didnt try hard enough. I sent out directions to about 100 people and i would say 95% of them got tickets. Everyone stop your crying and read a book…this isnt the first time this has happened!

love
phisto.

ps PT sucks.