Archive | July, 2009
Set up an Alert on Google News
Go to Google News and set an alert for “your favorite artist” tour. This will serve as a “lookout” for any touring news from your favorite artist. Some artists announce their tours piecemeal, 5-10 dates at a time. If the dates are announced piecemeal don’t despair your town will most likely be announced in the coming weeks. This is just the first sign that you need to be prepared.
How To Buy Concert Tickets Step 1
This starts my series about how to buy concert tickets and make sure you are the person with the great seats for face value. The whole series will be posted over the next week.
The first rule of buying concert tickets is PLAN AHEAD!!
1. Join your favorite artists mailing list and fan club.
You will learn their tour dates. Some artists even have presales for members of their fan club before tour dates and ticket sales are announced to the general public go to the artists’ website and sign up for their mailing list. Generally the fan club presales have the best seats that are available to the general public. Fan clubs generally cost $20-$40. If you factor that into the cost of the ticket, that is just $10-$20 extra per ticket. That same ticket may cost $100 more on the secondary ticket market.
No Doubt Tickets at Gibson Amphitheatre Purchasing Options Analysis:
Update: prices are falling for the Wednesday show tickets are $10-$20 less a ticket than yesterday’s analysis.
Once again, No Doubt makes their triumphant return to Southern California starting on Wednesday with 7 shows over the next two weeks. No Doubt has sold over 75000 tickets at close to $90 each for these concerts. Kind of makes you wonder why they would even go on tour anywhere else.
These No Doubt tickets were hard to acquire. If you were in on the fan club “tour club” presales there were basically no good seats available that are not a pain in the ass to use (meet someone in a back alley and have them walk you in the venue hoping they’ll get both of you into the show).
Prices have not start falling quite as much for the 2nd and 3rd Gibson Amphitheatre shows and the first show has. There are still several good deals and tickets at, close to, or below face value for those who care what the $numbers say on the ticket. They are more tickets on the secondary market for the 7/27 No Doubt show which means that if you don’t care which day you go, take a closer look at the 7/27 show.
No Doubt Tickets for 7/27 at Gibson Amphitheatre start at $95 for decent Loge seats on the secondary market. To move up to an okay orchestra seat will set you back around $165 a ticket. Good Orchestra tickets start at $225 a ticket. No Doubt tickets for the Pit start at $250 a ticket.
If you want to see No doubt I would buy the tickets in a decent Loge location. I would wait a few days and hope to pay $80-$90 each. If you have plenty of money or are the Biggest No Doubt fan a great Orchestra seat for just over $200 would call my name or you would have the option to go two nights in decent Loge seats.
The No Doubt ticket market on their 7/28 show is a little tighter but close to the same as the 7/27 show. Decent Loge seats start at $75 each. Pits will set you back around $300 a ticket.
Tickets for the last show of a series of concerts tend to be slow until the very end when generally they pick up. If you are looking for tickets for the 7/28 show I would purchase now. For the 7/27 show I would wait till Friday. Remember to always only buy from people who have tickets in hand or their office. This is the way to avoid the markup that makes broker tickets expensive. If you need help finding who owns the tickets hit me up on twitter @ticketanalyst.
No Doubt makes their triumphant return to Southern California starting on Wednesday with 7 shows over the next two weeks. No Doubt has sold over 75000 tickets at close to $90 each for these concerts. Kind of makes you wonder why they would even go on tour anywhere else.
These No Doubt tickets were hard to acquire. If you were in on the fan club “tour club” presales there were basically no good seats available that are not a pain in the ass to use.
No Doubt tickets at Gibson Amphitheatre have been hot since they sold out almost as soon as they went on sale. Lately the shows have become unexpectedly lukewarm. The box office is virtually sold out for all the Gibson shows so if you are thinking of catching a release, it is doubtful they will release more than 10 tickets for any of the shows. The first show Wednesday night has tickets available on the secondary market stating at about $75 each in the Loge but quickly jumping up to $95 each. Good Loge No Doubt tickets, which I define as in the first 5-7 rows and not all the way off to the side run $110-$125 each. Finally the best Orchestra tickets for No Doubts’ first show at Gibson are running in the $200 range. There are no No Doubt pit tickets available on the broker market for their first show. If you are dying to go see every No Doubt show in Los Angeles and don’t have tickets for every show yet, tickets for the first show at Gibson are not obscenely priced.
Come back tomorrow for an analysis of No Doubt tickets for their 2nd and 3rd nights at Gibson Amphitheatre. I will finish the week with my analysis of No Doubt tickets for their concerts next week at Verizon Wireless in Irvine. I will give one nugget on the Verizon Irvine tickets now. If you want No Doubt pit tickets in Irvine, Sunday night has the least expensive pit tickets for their seven Los Angeles area shows.
HOW DO TICKET BROKERS GET THEIR TICKETS ?
Most tickets that brokers sell are never available to the general public. At large venues, most of the orchestra seats are sold to season ticket holders. They are much more expensive than if someone purchased them for an individual event. That is the “cost” for that guarantee of better seats.
Unsold season tickets are then made available to the individual artist. Believe it or not, it is the artist who decides how many of the unsold PRIME SEATS are allocated. They may choose to:
- Distribute to their fan club for resale.
- Use them to promote the concert.
- Give them to business associates and friends.
A good example of this is the recent Springsteen debacle. Springsteen alleged that Ticketmaster attempted to defraud his fans of the best seats in the house. In reality, Springsteen held the 2000 BEST SEATS in the arena for people he knew or politicians and other public figures who needed to be “seen” at a
his concert . The only way to get the best seats was from a broker whom had been sold tickets by those insiders. The people making the most money were the INSIDERS WHO WERE ALLOWED TO PURCHASE TICKETS.
In most cases, ticket brokers make only 10 to 20 % of face value but the insider may make 500%!
WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO USE A TICKET BROKER?
TICKET PRICES ARE GOING DOWN. For example, tickets for a certain engagement are not selling and prices are coming down. Keep an eye on the show on ticket websites for the month leading up to the event. Get an idea for how many tickets are listed and note that 2 or 3 times a week. If supply is staying the same or just barely moving down, wait to purchase. If there 5-10 sets of tickets gone each time you check back, it’s time to purchase before prices start going up. What do you do? Go to ticketliquidator.com check out the price and pick out the seats you want. You go to ticketliquidator.com because they are the cheapest website for tickets. This will allow you to find out the top price you should pay from a broker. Once you find out the price from Ticket Liquidator, call your local brokers to find out who owns them and buy from the person that owns them. This way you avoid the service fee that Ticket Liquidator charges on top of the price shown on their website. Buying locally from the ticket owner generally allows you to avoid the shipping charges, as you can go and pick up the tickets.
WHY USE A TICKET BROKER ?
TICKET ANALYST RECOMENDATION: These four shows are the shows that youcannot afford to miss on the fan club presale. Conducting every presale at the same time will limit the ability to buy tickets for all of the shows. If you have money to burn in your attempt to see all four shows, your best bet will be to try and buy tickets for the Henry Fonda and the Echoplex. These shows will be infinitely harder to get tickets on the secondary market due to the fact that they’ll be will call only. To get in to each show you will have to be escorted in with the original purchaser. To make scalping impossible the ticket limit should be one for these two shows.
The Wiltern and Palladium shows should be easier to purchase tickets for. Being larger venues there are more tickets that will be held and be potentially sold out the “back door”. Live Nation also has a VIP program at the Palladium where you can purchase a season (from now till the end of the year) for about $5,000-$6,000. The $5,000-$6,000 includes 4 tickets that are will call only for every show from now till the end of the year. If you like Grizzly Bear, The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Brand New, certain Boston band touring on the 20th anniversary of one of their most popular records, and a couple of bigger bands this might be the way to guarantee yourself tickets for the NIN show. If you are interested in that program I can get you contact information. I must stress that this not a one show package and you must purchase the whole season.
If you want to go to one show and don’t care which of the four it is, then I recommend you trying for tickets for the Hollywood Palladium. The show being on a weeknight after school starts and at the largest
venue should make it the easiest to purchase tickets for, even though it likely won’t be easy.
If you have not signed up for NIN fan club, now is the time to do so. Make sure you practice logging in and buying tickets ahead of time. Know exactly how the system works if you want a chance of getting
tickets for these shows.
Saturday
Fox Theater Pomona Tickets
Flaming Lips Tickets
This is one of the smaller venues on the tour and holds around 2000 people. Definitely be a hot indoor show compared to a cool evening show at the Greek.
TICKET ANALYST RECOMENDATION: Given that they are playing with the popular Ghostland Observatory and a lower face ($40) than at the Greek Theatre I would get these tickets as soon as possible. Try the Glass House record store to see if they will have any to sell with no service charges.
Flaming Lips tickets presale password: MARS (Friday 10am)
Gibson Ampitheatre Tickets
Pearl Jam Tickets 9/30 at Gibson Amphitheatre
Pearl Jam Tickets 10/1 at Gibson Amphitheatre
Pearl Jam Tickets 10/6 at Gibson Amphitheatre
Pearl Jam Tickets 10/7 at Gibson Amphitheatre
Pearl Jam Tickets 10/9 at Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl
So Pearl Jam is playing a lot of “smaller” shows around Los Angeles. This is GREAT news for anyone who has been a Ten Club member and got their order in this past week. Everyone else is going to be attempting to purchase tickets in the Orchestra and getting tickets in the Loge, if you’re lucky. I would be willing to bet that every ticket reseller in the country is going to try and buy tickets for this show.
TICKET ANALYST RECOMMENDATION: If you HAVE to go try to buy right away and buy whatever you can get. If you WANT to go, wait it out give it a month and start checking Ticketmaster every day. They are most likely going to release seats and more likely than not they will be better than the tickets you will get during the on sale. If you really want to chance it wait till a week or two before the show and start checking ticket brokers. Mezzanine tickets could easily end up below face value. The face value is high for the amount of shows, close to $90 after service charges, so only buy front Loges close to the center if you are looking to make some quick cash.
Citizen Cope tickets at House of Blues Sunset Strip
Citizen Cope tickets at House of Blues Anaheim
TICKET ANALYST RECOMMENDATION: Try to buy the $5 Citi (546616 most likely password) tickets as soon as possible, otherwise try to get the box office to buy the tickets within a week or two of the on sale. The presale has not sold out but Citizen Cope shows have sold out at venues twice the size of the House of Blues. Be careful at the House of Blues Anaheim box office though as they have told me a show was sold out and only VIP tickets at 3x the price were available when they were still available on Ticketmaster.
Ani DiFranco tickets at The Grove of Anaheim
TICKET ANALYST RECOMMENDATION: Buy a good seat if you can get it on the on sale otherwise expect to spend $25-$50 over face for a decent ticket between now and the event.
Beastie Boys tickets 9/19 at Santa Barbara Bowl
Beastie Boys tickets 9/20 at Santa Barbara Bowl
TICKET ANALYST RECOMMENDATION: I’m not a huge fan of these shows. Other people I have spoken to in the ticketing community are. The past few times they have played locally the shows were not very popular such as their shows at the Long Beach Arena and Gibson Amp. If you can get GA pit tickets I’d take them and go if not I’d wait and try to buy under face later. There are also very good Tickets available for their Hollywood Bowl Shows in Ticketmaster currently.
Rob Thomas Tickets at Gibson Amphitheatre
TICKET ANALYST RECOMMENDATION: Not huge fan of this show. Good seats will be hard to come by as the fan club and packages took most of the good seats. If you want good seats for this show you will have to buy from brokers who own season seats or way overspend for the Gold and Silver packages. Currently tickets good seats are $80 over face for decent seats. Those prices are sure to drop as more tickets come onto the market this weekend. If you can get a decent Orchestra 1-5 ticket in rows A-M for face, buy it. Otherwise, you should wait a month or two and a lot of good seats will come on the market. I would not expect to pay much over $125 a ticket for a good seat for this show.
Other On sales this week:
Friday:
Elephant tickets at The Glass House
Saturday:
G. Love and Special Sauce Tickets at the House of Blues Anaheim
Note there is a Citi $5 ticket offer-546616 will most likely work as the password.
The Killers of Comedy at the Grove of Anaheim
So let’s talk about Jonas Brothers tickets at Staples Center. The hottest band around!! Every other tweet on twitter is about how the tickets are sold out for the Jonas Brothers. Let’s debunk that myth. Let’s talk about what happens when you over saturate the market also. This is the show that everyone wants to see, yet there are no public outcries about how all the brokers bought tickets and the kids couldn’t get any this year as there were on their first tour with Miley. Why is that? By adding a third show the promoters were able to kill the secondary market for all the ticket except the best of the best. While there are less than 30 tickets unaccounted for for each of the first two nights there are still almost 2,000 available for the third and final night.
By satiating all the demand, prices on the secondary market have fallen below face value for seats in the lower bowl for their Saturday night concert. Currently you can buy 2 tickets for Saturday night from Ticketmaster for $89+$12×2 +$5 +$0-$20=around $210. If you were to get advice on which broker to call you can buy the same 2 seats or better for around $160. You can buy seats in the 100’s level for even less with a little know how. Jonas Brothers tickets in the 100’s could even be had for as little as $115 for two tickets with a little legwork. To get into the arena on Saturday night tickets start at just $30 each, less than the price on the ticket after Ticketmaster fees. There are currently 1500-2000 Saturday night Jonas Brothers tickets on the secondary market. If you don’t need the best seats in the house, it’s time to surprise your kids and take advantage of those who gambled and lost that they’d be able to make money on the Jonas Brothers at Staples Center.
Follow me and message me on Twitter to get advice on which brokers to call to buy tickets at these prices.
Jonas Brothers Tickets at Ticketmaster
This weeks’ Los Angeles ticket on sales:
Wednesday
Power 106 FM’s Powerhouse ’09 with Jay-Z tickets@ The Honda Center
This show has never been a good seller in the past and been near face value or below every year for the best seats. Jay-Z and Mary J Blige were also a weak outing last year.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: If you want to go hold off on purchasing and keep an eye on Ticketmaster for a release of good seats and the secondary market for dropping prices.
Cobra Starship Tickets @The Troubadour
Cobra Starship is going on a little tour to promote their upcoming album. With a single featuring Gossip Girl Leighton Meister they appear to have their 15 minutes of fame coming up. They are underplaying their popularity which should make for quick sell outs across the country.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: If you want go buy on Wednesday Well this one is Sold Out in less than an hour. I wonder if Gabe called Pete to thank him.
Friday
Franz Ferdinand Tickets @ The Hollywood Palladium
Not too sure about this show. It has been a while since they have had a hit song, landing just a little airplay here in the States with the single from their last album. This show MAY sell out, eventually. I will update later with how the show is selling.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Wait till Saturday and buy at the Palladium with no Service fees if you are dying to go. Fan Club presale going on now password is “fanclub”
Grizzly Bear Tickets @ The Hollywood Palladium
This show will most likely sell out, though not in the first few weeks. They were able to sell 2800 tickets a few weekends ago between the Wiltern and Troubadour.
Ticket Analyst recomendation: Definitely buy before the show but you can wait and buy one of the next few Saturdays at the Palladium to save $10 a ticket.
Placebo tickets @ Club Nokia
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Should be a good show buy your Placebo tickets quick. Unfortunately this is one of the last venues you can’t get around service charges, your $26 ticket is going to cost $40 pretty quick. There is currently an Amex presale happening. Promoter presale on Thursday will update with password later.
Motorhead tickets@ Club Nokia
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Wait and hope to buy with no service charges
Black Crowes tickets @ Club Nokia
They’ve been weak and oversaturated in the secondary market the past few times they’ve played
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Wait and hope to buy with no service charges
The Sounds tickets @ The Key Club
New album out, special Spin Magazine show. Not many tickets likely available to the public. Last time they played was at Avalon Hollywood and it was definitely sold out.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Buy early. Presale password is 546616 good till Thursday at 10 PM
Saturday
The Killers tickets @ The Hollywood Bowl
This is one of the hardest venues to get good seats for. If you are looking for Pool seats it is doubtful you will get them on the on sale, only on a release. Center Garden and Terrace boxes will most likely only be available on the secondary market.
Ticket Analyst recomendation: If you want to go for sure buy something in the first three tiers. If you want the best check Ticketmaster every day for a release of great seats. Friday’s presale password is KROQFAIRYTALE
N*E*R*D tickets @ Avalon Hollywood
It’s been a long time since this was a $200 ticket on the corner of Wilshire and Western. Last time their Wiltern Tickets were not big sellers.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Hope you can buy at the Palladium to avoid service charges. Being a smaller venue it may sell out but you will have a few weeks to buy before it does.
Heart tickets @ The Greek Theatre
Another band from the 70’s doing the summer tour. Playing this weekend at the OC Fair with poor sales ( Heart Tickets @ The OC Fair/Pac Amp )
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Wait and buy tickets on the secondary market, tickets for A Center should be $20 above or below face when the show gets here. Presale is Thursday morning, passowrd is BARRACUDA.
Regina Spektor Tickets @ The El Rey
Last time she was in town she sold out the Wiltern
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Buy quickly,SOLD OUT immediately. If her new single has any traction it could be $100 to get in the door. Friday’s presale password is “laughing”
Daughtry tickets @ The Music Box at the Fonda
Market was way oversaturated when they played the Orpheum last time around. That may reduce tickets on the secondary market and limit below face value transactions.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Want to go? Buy from the nice girl at the Fonda Box office to reduce the service charge you need to pay.
Demetri Martin tickets @ The Grove of Anaheim
Demetri Martin was a big hit in March at the Fonda, now increasing capacity by 600-700 tickets. He should be able to take it to the next level.
Ticket Analyst recommendation: Likely to sell out sooner than later.
If you are looking to go see Coldplay in Los Angeles the weekend of July 17-18 you have two options. Coldplay tickets are available for Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and the Home Depot Center. The show at the Home Depot Center is less popular and for good reason. If you have never been to the Home Depot Center it is just like most other stadiums. The seats are FAR away from the stage. As of this writing there are decent seats in section 110 in Ticketmaster. http://bit.ly/47nbg This is the second best section in the stadium though will still leave you a ways away from the stage but will end up running you $230-$240 for two tickets. Okay orchestra Verizon Wireless tickets will set you back about $165 each on the secondary market. If you can afford the prices, these tickets will give you a much better experience.
Those of you who do not mind standing up for the whole show can find some good Coldplay tickets for a great price. The front “pit” tickets are general admission for the Coldplay tour. GA pit Coldplay tickets will set you back around $175 each at Verizon Wireless in Irvine. This will get you as close as possible for this Coldplay show. The pit at Irvine Meadows is pretty small and restricted to 250-300 people. The GA Coldplay tickets for the front area at the Home Depot Center will set you back $120-$130 a ticket on the secondary market. Definitely a better buy than most other tickets but still a tough place to watch the whole show. The Home Depot Center pit tickets will put you in the company of 2,000-3,000 other people.
My recommendation: If you want to go to the Coldplay Home Depot Center show buy good seats from Ticketmaster now- http://bit.ly/47nbg or wait a little while longer to pick up tickets below face value for worse seats. If you want the best experience go to the Irvine show and pick up GA pit tickets or upper Orchestras now on the secondary market. Also note that parking is included at Irvine Meadows and will set you back $20 at the Home Depot Center.
