EP#728: Bryan & Krissy take an entire episode to break down the current craziness in live entertainment ticketing. From availability to prices, venue hogging to scalping, starving artists to shuttering festivals, there is plenty of blame to go around! So the two people LEAST qualified to discuss the matter....discuss the matter. Watch EP #728 on YouTube! Text us or leave us a voicemail: +1 (212) 433-3TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram: @thecommercialbreak Youtube: youtube.com/thecommercialbreak TikTok: @tcbpodcast Website: www.tcbpodcast.com CREDITS: Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits Written, Voiced and Produced by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the current crisis in live entertainment ticketing?
Chapter 2: Why are Taylor Swift concert tickets so expensive and hard to get?
When people are selling Taylor Swift sixth row tickets for $15,000, $20,000, $25,000, and there's lots of people willing to pay it, why wouldn't you?
It's basic economics, supply and demand.
It really is. Now, so I want you to imagine yourself in a situation. I think I know the answer to this for me, but I want to ask you. You're lucky enough to get in quick and you get $350 seats front row or second row, third row, really close to the stage. And then someone falls sick a couple weeks ahead of time, and unfortunately, you're unable to go.
Travel, the commercial break needs an extra episode like we always do, whatever the situation is. And now you've got these extraordinarily valuable tickets that you can't use.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is the dear friend and co-host of the show, Chris Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris. Best to you out there on the podcast universe. How the hell are you? Thanks for joining us. I am watching reels from the recent Florida Gators win of the national NCAA March Madness Tournament, if you will, Chrissy.
Who would have thunk it? The one year Brian decides not to do the brackets and pick all the number ones to go all the way to the final four is the one year that all the number ones go to the final four.
I know I picked all four of the final fours. You did. But then to actually go to the championship that my boss.
Who'd you pick?
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Chapter 3: How has the live music and concert industry changed financially?
The venerable... All rock, you know, I don't even know what, what do you, Nu Rock, I guess would probably be the best, Nu spelled N-U Rock. 2000s. 90s, 2000s band that had some hits, no doubt. Chester Benningfield.
Just like No Doubt.
Just like No Doubt, that's right. Just like No Doubt. They were like Nu Ska or something, Ska Rock or something like that. But Linkin Park was one of the,
first on the scene with this brand of kind of hip-hop, rock, heavy metal, you know, synthesized beats, rapping, if you could call it that, and really in-your-face hard rock, along with some other melodic kind of more, I would call more grungy stuff. They kind of mixed it all together, this mishmash rock, and they hit on something like a cultural zeitgeist.
They had a moment where they were really popular and And Chester, the lead singer of the band, now they had not been as popular for a number of years, but I think they were highly regarded with their fans. And Chester died. And what did he die of? An overdose? Did he die of an overdose?
I think so. Or hanging.
Oh, suicide. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, he unalived himself, as they like to say on the Internet. He unalived himself, I think. I don't want to misspeak about that because I don't want to be disrespectful to Chester. Chester Bennington death. Let me see here. Death. Yes. Unalived by hanging. Mm-hmm. And the details aren't important.
What's important is that he unalived himself in a moment when Linkin Park was not at their zenith. They were not at their most powerful. They had seen their moment. Like oftentimes this happens with every major musical act. They see their height. They fall from grace in the public's eyes. The public gets sick of hearing all about it, hearing the same song over and over again, whatever it is.
And then they go away for a while. And then everything old becomes new again. And they see a resurgence in popularity. We're seeing that all over the board, all over the map right now with 80s bands, 80s bands and musical acts, 90s bands and musical acts. Some have stayed.
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Chapter 4: What role do Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and ticket brokers play in ticket pricing?
We heard this with, who else? We've heard this about Katy Perry. We've heard this about, who else just had to roll back her shows? Jennifer Lopez had to roll back, cancel her shows. Who are the two guys, the one that plays piano? Not White Stripes, but one plays piano, one plays bass. Do you know who I'm talking about? Black Keys.
Oh, yeah.
The Black Keys had to cancel all of their stadium dates and arena dates and go to smaller clubs. This is happening more frequently. The reason is because you and I have less money to spend on tickets right now because every ticket that we buy is exorbitantly expensive because you can't get them when they go on sale at the normal price. And even at the normal price, they're exorbitantly expensive.
Comedy shows, entertainment, live show, all of it. And there's a complicated hodgepodge of reasons why that is. But the artist can no longer afford to go to a place like, say, Dodgers Stadium, like Lincoln Park was scheduled to play, and only sell two-thirds of the seats.
They need to sell 100% of the seats in order just to make the kind of money they need, probably to cover the costs and get a little bit of money themselves. And so rather than take the chance that they won't, even... Six months ahead of time. And they can see it coming down the pike. They decide to go to an 18,000 seat venue rather than a 60,000 seat venue.
So they have a chance of breaking even and making money themselves. It used to not be like that. There were lots of concerts that I used to go to when I was a teenager and in my 20s. It wasn't sold out. But now you won't go to a not sold out concert because they can't. Same with planes. Yeah. Same with planes because you cannot make money with a not sold out venue.
The venue charges as much as possible to the band. The crew does. The equipment's expensive. The merch is expensive to make. And then you've got to deal with Ticketmaster, Live Nation, StubHub, Vivid Seats. It is a complicated thing that is going on. And it's not just one bad guy. There's many bad guys. And then many people who are just trying to make a living doing this.
I'm going to see a lot of concerts this summer. Already got a lot of concerts lined up. And I'm thinking about divesting of some of those concert tickets. Because quite frankly, I... It's expensive to travel to go see them. Like I wanted to get Oasis tickets. I got Oasis tickets in Chicago.
But now I'm realizing that everybody along the way is going to charge me an arm and a leg to get there, to stay there, to be there. And the tickets were, I had to buy them through Ticketmaster because Oasis put a stop to StubHub and places like that selling them. Now I've noticed that StubHub does have the tickets and they're selling them.
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Chapter 5: Why are artists downsizing venues and cancelling shows?
And that's not even adding into the question about whether or not StubHub, Vivid Seats, and any number thousands of ticket brokers that are out there. And now the evil part about this is, and I say it's evil. I don't argue with anybody making their own money. But the evil part about this is, is that just like everything else in our life, it has become a coaching business.
people are coaching other people how to be independent ticket brokers, to take those tickets that you so desperately want to the band, to see the band, the music, the comedy, whatever it is, teaching individuals like you or me, how to use bots and multiple computers and IP addresses and masking systems and all this and selling them that software and subscription services to be your own ticket broker so that you can get the ticket for Taylor Swift that my daughter so desperately wants and resell it to me forever.
Thousands of dollars more.
Yeah, crazy. The resale market's crazy.
Yes. This has become an MLM. Essentially, it's an MLM. And even though there's a real product involved, the independent ticket brokers can charge whatever they want, and they do. So some people say free market, baby, free market.
But are we getting to the point where you can only afford to go see one concert every two years because you're going to pay $3,000 to see even the shittiest of bands who normally you wouldn't even think twice about paying $50, let alone $1,000, but that's just the way it is now? Free market, I agree with, and so does my phone.
Free market, I agree with, but sometimes I think it has its limitations. Yeah. And so that's why the commercial break is now selling tickets.
We've become a ticket broker.
We've become a ticket broker. Welcome to the commercial break brokers.
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Chapter 6: How do ticket scalpers and independent brokers operate?
And by the way, this is a big air duct behind him.
Yeah, this is a Georgia ticket broker he's talking to. We'll get to that part, but.
We've spent the last year trying to understand how this happened. Ticketmaster is kind of the fall guy in this. Talking to artists. Here's an example of like a deal memo. Scalpers.
He made over $34,000 in one month.
And executives. Is Ticketmaster a monopoly? At the company's controlling concert ticketing. Why does StubHub deserve the biggest share of that woman's purchase? This is the story of how the industry got here and how it might soon change. We can get those Sundays. Hold off on Saturdays still, though, okay?
On a Friday night in L.A., the emo rock band Something Corporate is playing a reunion show at the Hollywood Palladium.
Hi, how are you?
Fans have been paying about $70 for tickets to the tour.
I woke up in New York City from my sleep behind the wheel.
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Chapter 7: What are the hidden costs and profits distribution in concert ticket sales?
Only the best for you. That's why I'm at La Strada. Eating soft-shell crabs and three-day-old bread. So I learned at the time that he was buying tickets. He was paying people to stand in line or doing it himself. Stand in line.
That used to be what you did.
At the box office, buying the tickets and then reselling them on this black market that was very virgin ground at the time. Very young. But he was making $200, $300, $400 sometimes on a ticket on the most in demand of concerts. Most tickets he was making $50 or $60 or $100. But he was doing it in volume and he was building an organization. He had four or five people working for him.
He had an office down in Buckhead. He was doing it and he was well connected in the music industry. A lot of times the bands would give him their tickets. I've heard of that too.
Yeah.
And we'll get to this in the story, but... The bands would give him their tickets. Let's say a guy like Ari Shaffir comes into town. Ari Shaffir comes into town. And Ari has 20 tickets available per the contract to give away at his disposal. Not the best tickets, but good tickets, right? And he says, yeah, Brian, Chrissy, and what other hangers-on Brian wants to ask me to send to the show?
And maybe a couple of other people that I know in Atlanta. But I got 10 of those tickets left. Not Ari, but a lot of times, bands and musicians, especially when the tickets are in demand, they will give those over to someone that they know that will then resell them. Maybe not directly to the ticket broker, but kind of directly to somebody who knows the ticket broker.
And then that's a way that the band would make a little bit of extra cash for the night, especially the bands that were on a run. The Hot Band, Linkin Park, not included in that. But you understand what I'm saying. Jen Lopez, not selling her tickets to the ticket brokers.
Wasn't Justin Bieber, wasn't there a thing about him doing that?
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Chapter 8: What solutions or perspectives do Bryan & Krissy offer on the ticketing chaos?
Suggested scooping up seats. He's a pretty big shithead, so I decided to go the way of. To a Jonas Brothers show.
I think I made like three or four hundred bucks, and it was, that thing came out of my phone.
I like how Dwight Schrute, there's a picture of Dwight Schrute behind him.
That's true.
It's classic. That's classic. I was hooked. His operation remained tiny. He was still teaching. Scraping by. Until desperate for enough cash to score super lucrative tickets. It was Van Morrison in Clearwater, Florida. He reached out to an acquaintance with deeper pockets.
So I called Kevin up. I was like, I need $2,000 to get these. And he didn't even blink. He's like, sure.
And I was like, who was it? He said, Van Morrison. I was like, never heard of him.
What?
Who's never heard of Van Morrison?
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