Concert Tickets   

Attention custys and w00ks — wanna score some free Phish tickets? Just predict the Hampton opener for a chance to win. Good luck to everyone who entered.

That’s right. If you correctly predict the first song Phish plays on March 6th, 2009 at Hampton Coliseum you’ll have a chance to win free Phish tickets.

Everyone who enters gets to take one guess at the Hampton opener.

If more than one person makes the right prediction, you’ll all be entered for a chance to win two (2) lawn tickets to your choice of these shows — Great Woods (6/06), Camden (6/07), Burgettstown (6/18), Deer Creek (6/19) or Alpine (6/20 or 6/21).

We’ll select a single winner via live webcast on March 15th.

If you’re the only person with the right prediction, you’ll win EITHER two (2) pavilion seats to your choice of the shows above OR one (1) ticket to the Fox Theatre (6/16) show. Take your pick, either way you score big-time.

Update (February 15, 2009, 11:00 am) There are already have 100 entries in the contest. The top two picks so far are Chalkdust Torture and PYITE followed closed by Curtain With. Other songs with multiple entries include 2001, Back on the Train, Buried Alive, Divided Sky, DWD, Foreplay / Longtime, Free, Golgi, Mikes, Possum, Tube, Tweezer, Tweezer Reprise, Wilson, and YEM.

Update (February 17, 2009, 12:00 am) There are now over 400 entries and some big new additions to the leaderboard including seven songs with more than 10 picks each. In alphabetical order they are: AC/DC Bag, Chalkdust Torture, Curtain or Curtain With, Down With Disease, PYITE, YEM, and Wilson. Now you late birds have a bit of inside scoop to help you make your pick, so stop reading and learn how to enter. Then take a look at some of our featured entries.

Update (February 19, 2009, 9:20 pm) There are now well over 500 entries and eight more songs with more than 10 picks each. In alphabetical order they are: Backwards Down the Number Line, Divided Sky, Fluffhead, Free, Mike's Song, Runaway Jim, Simple, Tube.

Also added a bunch of great new entries to the list of featured contest entries. Worth a read.

Update (March 2, 2009, 2:00 am) Well that's all she wrote. The call for entries is now over. There were 736 entries, all of which I'll be posting in the next few days. The top 5 picks were: Wilson (34), Curtain / Curtain With (30), Chalkdust Torture (29), You Enjoy Myself (28) and Punch You in the Eye (24). Good luck to everyone who entered, and stay tuned for news about the live announcement of the winner which will take place on March 15th.

Update (March 5, 2009, 1:00 am) As promised, I've posted the complete list of entries for the Hampton opener contest. Can't wait to see who (if anyone) takes home the prize!

Welcome to Vol. 4 of “Who's Got My Extra?” — Jamtopia's series all about the business and pleasure of concert tickets.
See all posts | Buy concert tickets

Editor's Note: I tried to cover the Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger as an update to my open letter to Nathan Hubbard about the Phish ticket debacle at Live Nation but the story has escalated to the point where it needed a full post. Also, huge props to Chris Walters at Consumerist for coining the phrase Satan's Box Office. Genius.

Late in the day on February 3rd, the Wall Street Journal reported that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are “close to a merger” — a deal that would centralize control of concert ticket sales, artist management and concert venues under a single corporate umbrella.

Per the article, the two-headed beast's prospective name is Live Nation Ticketmaster Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Too bad they didn't go with Masternation. It could've been the name and corporate manta all rolled in to one. Plus it would've made for some hilarious antitrust hearings.

Unfortunately, the name won't be Masternation, and if you're a concert ticket buyer there's really nothing funny about the prospective merger.

For starters, Live Nation had just barely rolled out Live Nation Ticketing, a long-awaited challenger to Ticketmaster's alleged but never proven monopoly over ticket sales. With this merger, it'll be back to business as usual, thwarting your chance of seeing sub 30% service fees any time soon.

The one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.
— Bruce Springsteen with Jan Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team

Then, you've got the fact that both companies seems to over-promise and under-deliver on customer experience, with a recent disaster from each making the fees feel all the more painful.

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.

Welcome to Vol. 2 of “Who's Got My Extra?” — Jamtopia's series all about the business and pleasure of concert tickets.
See all posts | Buy concert tickets

StubHub recently released their 2008 Concert Ticket Annual Report. It's an interesting look at concert ticket sales figures for 2008, though a bit skewed as it's based exclusively on StubHub data.

Here's the short version:

The average price of a concert ticket on StubHub in 2008 was $159, up $3 from 2007, with Madonna, The Eagles, and Billy Joel commanding the highest average ticket price.

My favorite part of the report is the upfront by Chuck La Vallee, Head of Music Business Development for StubHub. La Vallee echoes John Barlow a bit, noting that nothing can replace the experience of seeing live music.

Despite challenging economic times, StubHub buyers are willing to invest in the experience they get for the price of admission.

So just how much are people willing to pay for concert tickets? Glad you asked.

Here are the 10 acts with highest average concert tickets prices on StubHub for tours that sold over 10,000 total tickets in 2008:

• 10 Michael Buble Tickets*

  $189 avg. ticket price
• 9 Bruce Springsteen Tickets*

  $191 avg. ticket price
• 10 Michael Buble Tickets*

  $189 avg. ticket price
• 8 Neil Diamond Tickets

  $193 avg. ticket price
• 7 Celine Dion Tickets*

  $198 avg. ticket price
• 6 Hannah Montana Tickets*

  $209 avg. ticket price
• 5 AC/DC Tickets

  $210 avg. ticket price
• 4 Bon Jovi Tickets*

  $217 avg. ticket price
• 3 Billy Joel Tickets

  $224 avg. ticket price
• 2 Eagles Tickets

  $234 avg. ticket price
• 1 Madonna Tickets

  $306 avg. ticket price
• * Also appeared on 2007 list

Not suprisingly, most of the top 10 have been touring for over two decades, so they've got a multi-generational fanbase resulting in high demand and short supply for concert tickets.

And if you'll allow me to break out my crystal ball for a second, I've got a prediction for who will be at the top of the list next year. One word. Britney.

P.S. If you're still reading this, you might be interested in the 2007 StubHub Concert Ticket Annual Report and the 2006 StubHub Concert Ticket Annual Report.

Welcome to “Who's Got My Extra?”

Jamtopia's new series all about concert tickets.

Over time, we'll be taking a detailed look at the business and pleasure of concert tickets, from practical advice like spotting a counterfeit ticket to more esoteric topics like concert ticket derivatives.

This post — Introduction to Concert Ticket Brokers — kicks things off with some foundational knowledge about concert ticket brokers.

If you're like me, you've probably noticed that it's getting harder and harder to buy concert tickets for your favorite events at face value. And yet somehow, concert ticket brokers have plenty of tickets.

Concert ticket brokers have teams of people and automated software buying tickets for them. You do not.

The morning of a concert ticket onsale date, tickets brokers deploy teams of buyers like a shotgun blast to Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster outlets, and even the venue box office. You, on the other hand, are a metaphorical sniper rifle, a one man team with a single shot at scoring the elusive cheap concert tickets.

This sort of swarm buying is common practice, and for the most part these concert ticket brokers are playing by the rules. But not always.

Attention UM fans — here's your chance to see Umphrey's McGee for free in New York City!

Jamtopia is giving away three (3) pairs of free concert tickets for the UM show on October 14th, 2009 — when Umphrey's kicks off a three night stand at the 650 person Blender Theater at Gramercy in New York City.

Each pair of free concert tickets (that's two tickets, btw) is worth at least $60, so if you win you'll have plenty of extra cash for a shirt or beers or, well, whatever you can buy for $60 these days.

Here's how to enter in two easy steps:

• Step 1: Find your favorite Umphrey's McGee concert video on YouTube
• Step 2: Come back here and post a comment below with a link to the video on YouTube and a brief description of why it's your favorite

Here's the fine print:

• You MUST include a real email address in comment submission form so we can notify you if you win
• You MUST be available to pick the tickets up at will call on the day of the show
• You MUST post a direct link to an Umphrey's McGee concert video on YouTube
• You MUST include a brief description of why you like the video you posted
• You MUST enter before midnight Eastern time on Sunday, October 12th

Three lucky winners will be randomly selected from all qualified entries the morning of Monday, October 13th and will be notified by email immediately.

That's about it. Hoping to see some great Umprey's McGee concert videos!

Update (October 8, 2008): Want another chance to win? Visit the Hidden Track Umphrey's Ticket Giveaway where they've got a pair to all three Blender shows for one lucky fan.

Search thousands more concert tickets with the Jamtopia Ticket Finder.