Changing Channels
Ticket Auctions, Fan Clubs & Beyond

Moderator: Dr. Stephen Happel, Arizona State University
Chris Alexander, Clear Channel Entertainment
Coran Capshaw, Red Light Management
David Goldberg, Ticketmaster
Chip Hooper, Monterey Peninsula Artists
Dave Lucas, Clear Channel Entertainment
Brad Porteus, eBay
Carl Thomas, Tickets.com

Dave Matthews Band manager and MusicToday chief Coran Capshaw called concert ticketing the “last frontier.” Anyone who doesn’t believe that should have sat in on this wide-ranging discussion of the world of fan clubs, auctions, digital ticketing and at least one joke about concert time-shares.

Arizona State University economist Dr. Stephen Happel guided a rough-and- tumble discussion between agents, managers, promoters, ticket sellers and even online tech gurus about how tickets are sold, how they will be sold, and if they will even be “sold” at all.

Fan club pre-sales have been around for years. We’ve already seen the advent of the ticket auction. And for the next change in how we get our tickets, look no further than your nearby sports palace for clues.

Clear Channel Entertainment’s Chris Alexander sings the DMB fan club’s praises in particular.

“It creates a means to have a direct relationship with the customers that’s incredibly important to the bands. They actually communicate directly and are better able to service those fans’ needs with dialogue and feedback from fans to artist,” he said.

Ticketmaster’s David Goldberg pointed out advantages of ticket security for a good fan club.

“A case in point is that the Dave Matthews Band fan club is very vigilant about making sure that good fans get good seats.

“Recently, against fan club rules, some tickets were resold in the secondary market. We were able, using access manager technology, to invalidate the bar codes of those tickets sold against fan club policy. It insures the integrity of the club to be able to ensure that the fans get the best tickets.”

Another way to access good seats are through auctions. Panelists including Monterey Peninsula Artists agent Chip Hooper and Capshaw had reservations about some auctions.

“Where you set the ticket price affects the integrity of the show,” Hooper explained. “I’m not into $500 tickets. It’s not appropriate for my clients, generally.”

But Brad Porteus of eBay spelled it out pretty clearly: His company moved some $750 million worth of tickets last year through auctions.

“We estimate the secondary market size at about $3 billion,” Porteus reported. “That’s $3 billion in revenues the industry is giving up for free.”

Carl Thomas of Tickets.com added, “There is a supply-and-demand curve. Fundamentally, we all have a responsibility to understand how we are pricing these bands and artists when they go out on tour.”

Clear Channel Co-President of Music Dave Lucas said there had to be balance.

“Instead of worrying a few tickets might end up with brokers, there’s thousands in auctions, and people are spending $500 and $700 a ticket. That means there’s a lot of people out there who aren’t going to go to some (other) shows after they’ve paid that.”

New ways of pricing tickets, and determining how they will be distributed and to whom, are on the horizon.

Personal seat licenses are all the rage in pro sports. As new stadiums and arenas are built, financing schemes including PSLs and the “right” to a lifelong ticket to a specific seat, including those for concerts, are becoming standard.

Even “digital” tickets, in the form of an e-mailed bar code that can be stored in a Blackberry or on something similar to a debit card, are being tested in some venues. And it seems everybody’s looking for a way to get in on the action.

“A lot of big companies and record labels are looking for ticketing rights; merchandisers want ticket rights,” Capshaw said. “A whole lot of people are trying to jump into what is the last frontier in this area, and artists have to pay close attention to their rights there, too.”

Lucas got a start out of the crowd when he told Capshaw, who asked if Clear Channel planned to sell PSLs
at sheds, “We’re talking about time shares, where we can move one audience out at intermission and move another audience in for the second half and get paid twice. We think that’s innovative.”

It took the audience a second or two to laugh.

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