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Comment by droithomme | Hacker News Reader

> "If I can help it, I will never order another ticket from them again."

I find these to be weasel words.

I don't use Ticketmaster. Full stop.

If your concert uses Ticketmaster, I'm not going to that.

It's not a problem because all the cool acts don't use Ticketmaster. Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway. And if I wanted to see those, I'd go to Vegas, and at least get a comped all you can eat buffet as well.

Brown Paper Tickets is an alternative that is fair and reasonable. Oddly, many fantastic acts I've see such as The Orb use them for ticket sales instead of the vile corrupt corparate boondoogle that is Ticketmaster.

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/

Ticketmaster was corrupt and horrible 30 years ago. If you are still using them or claiming to buy tickets from them for any reason then you're either a corporate shill or terminally clueless.

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The acts do not dictate the ticketing agency, the venue does. These ticketing agency will have an exclusive for every event at the venue. Occasionally, an artist, usually via their fan club, will sell tickets themselves using services like Brown Paper Tickets.

If you want to see a concert that can sell out very quickly, buying tickets online is the only option. The only time I have used TM is the past several months (I go to a lot of shows), was for a concert that eventually sold out in two minutes.

You're not serious, are you? As a person who goes to dozens of concerts a year, not using Ticketmaster would be a huge hassle.

Let's take just one example: I'm going to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in NYC. I have three options to get tickets directly:

-Ticketmaster

-In person

-Over the phone

Since I don't live in NYC, I don't want to give my CC number to some random theater employee over the phone, and I am not going to skip seeing my favorite band in the world, what do you suggest I do?

> Since I don't live in NYC, I don't want to give my CC number to some random theater employee over the phone

I seriously wonder why people are so paranoid about their CCs. Most cards have really good fraud protection with pretty much zero liability, and there's also the option of a virtual CC. E.g. some banks like Citicards allow you to generate a temporary CC number with a very low limit, and then you can safely give that number to any merchant over the phone or internet.

>I am not going to skip seeing my favorite band in the world, what do you suggest I do?

See them somewhere else, in a venue that hasn't sold out to Ticketmaster.

Because people should spend potentially thousands of dollars just to avoid seeing one artist at a venue using Ticketmaster - this is ludicrous.

There were a couple of times I had no choice this year but to go through Ticketmaster because they were the only times when the day & location aligned. I had little choice when booking an Iron Maiden ticket, or a ticket to two Dream Theater shows. I generally avoid Ticketmaster when I can and when it is convenient enough to do so, but I'm not going to idiotically avoid going to a show I want to go to and sacrifice enormous time & money to not use Ticketmaster.

The reality is that Ticketmaster is largely immune to a ticket purchase boycott - their involvement in owning venues mitigates the effect of a boycott because they're the only way to see a huge swath of entertainment.

Ticketmaster is immune to a ticket purchase boycott because of people like you who will go to great lengths to justify why they have no choice but to continue purchasing their tickets.

I agree. Patronizing a company diametrically opposed to one's interests is terrible. Disproportionately, music lovers seem to be the first to deride TM but defend why they won't use anything else.

What choice do they have? Music is not fungible. You can't substitute Kanye West for Michael Bublé, or Miley Cyrus for Bruce Springsteen.For most shows, there is only one online option. An increasing number of venues don't even sell advance tickets in person any more, and when it is an option, it has additional costs in time and effort, as well as risk of missing out completely.

The choice is to not participate. Boycotts are not supposed to be easy. This discussion reminds me of the "It's impossible to not use Facebook" arguments.

Buy the music, not the live performance. A live performance is usually suboptimal because the audience is noisy, the venue's acoustics aren't wonderful, the performers have done the same sets for the last three weeks, and you have to make a significant effort dealing with transportation and the like.

Just buy the music. Cut ticketmaster out, cut live nation's venues out, and listen to a great performance with good acoustics in the comfort of your own home as often as you wish. For much less money.

So the alternative is to spend $1000+ just to avoid Ticketmaster? Yeah, you go do that - you're not going convince many people that this is rational, or going to happen. Most people don't even have that luxury.

Basic economics isn't on your side here, putting the blame on others for the situation that is almost wholly Ticketmaster's fault is laughable and disgusting.

Buy a prepaid vanilla visa. Give credit card info over the phone.

Give regular credit card over the phone.

Buy tickets on craigslist (at least not directly supporting TM)

Go a day early, buy tickets at the venue.

Have friend buy extra tickets at the venue.

> Only lame old decrepit acts use Ticketmaster anyway

... and a few little sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, and NHL (for primary sales).

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