Good tickets for gigs - who gets them?

September 30, 2005 1:54 PM

So I trundled along to Ticketmaster.co.uk to get Wembley tickets for Bon Jovi. I've been to a few different gigs in my time - and always the best "premium/gold" seats are completely sold out before we even get a look in. Is there a secret way to get these tickets, or are they instantly booked up by media/music types?
posted by wibbler to media & arts (12 comments total)

Probably scalperbots.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 1:56 PM on September 30, 2005

On a related note, why is Bon Jovi now more popular in the U.K. than in the States?
posted by punkfloyd at 1:59 PM on September 30, 2005

Here (Winnipeg), you can get the good tickets by subscribing to the e-mailing list of the radio station sponsoring the concert. They have a pre-sale mechanism that allows you to get the better seats.

The other trick here is to know a person that works for the phone company that sponsors the arena. They can order tickets 10 minutes before the normal availability. This is easier than it sounds, since it includes all the customer service reps, field techs, etc.

These specific cases won't help you much, but maybe there's a sponsoring radio station or company there that you can look up.
posted by pocams at 2:01 PM on September 30, 2005

Here (in the u.s.) I've gotten pre-sale passwords (and pit tickets!) by subscribing to the newsletter of the artist/band that I want to see. Ticketmaster often has pre-sale events that last one day, and the only way to log on would be have the passwords and to know when the pre-sale event is of course. I don't know if that's true for the U.K. though.
posted by Kimberly at 2:05 PM on September 30, 2005

A pal got me fifth row floor seats to REM last year when they came to town. He's a member of their fan club, and got to buy tickets way in advance of them going on sale thru TicketMaster.

It made me realize how spoiled I've been, just seeing bands in smaller venues without assigned seating. Damn stadiums (stadia?).
posted by hamfisted at 2:07 PM on September 30, 2005

Or, subscribe to the mailing list/fan club of the bands you like. Sometimes they'll offer special deals/'exclusive' seating/presale of tickets. Some bands that do this that I can think of off the top of my head: Tori Amos, NIN, Einsturzende Neubauten, Radiohead. I have no idea about Bon Jovi, however.

I once got front row seats to Radiohead's Los Angeles show back in 2000 by subscribing to their mailing list/message board, and getting tickets through them.
posted by spinifex23 at 2:08 PM on September 30, 2005

As other people have said, you need to sign up to mailing lists - I'm on loads (and vainly hoping that, just once, Matthew Good will tour the UK).

Also, I think that the new album had some kind of link-thing or something on the disc that gave buyers access to the golden circle tickets.

On a side note - who did the cover artwork for the new album - one of Jon's young kids?
posted by TheDonF at 2:12 PM on September 30, 2005

Basically, what other people have said. The tickets are pre-sold, but not particularily to insiders, just people who are a tiny bit more active in their fandom. Places to look for pre-sale opportunities:

- Specific artist fan clubs or online mailing lists. Some of these involve a fee, but then offer a meet and greet opportunity with the bad. Others are simply signing up for the mailing list, and you'll get emailed the pre-sale password, along with a bunch of other crap. I got 4th row seats for Blue Rodeo just for being on their mailing list for less than 2 weeks. I get 2nd row seats every year by being on Cirque du Soleil's list.

- Promoter mailing lists - House of Blues, Clear Channel, etc, have mailing lists that promote their shows, often offering up pre-sales, as well. I haven't used HOB's pre-sale for seated events lately, but I often get tickets to shows that sell out in minutes once the public sale starts. Small promoters have these, too, so if there's a genre you're particularily interested in, find out who the promoters are in that arena and get on their lists.

- Venue mailing lists or priority clubs - Small clubs often have mailing lists with advance notice of shows and pre-sale. Higher end arts venues (think symphony hall, not arena or rock club) will often offer pre-sale to their charitable supporters. I just picked up some great seats to Barenaked Ladies at Massey Hall, because I'm a member of Massey's FriendsFirst program, which basically means I pay Massey Hall a ridiculous amount of money in order to be able to buy tickets during pre-sale.

- Radio station mailing lists - They will often have listener pre-sales for shows they promote, as well as promo contests for list members to win tickets to shows.

At the end of the day, there's a good chance that a large number of tickets still aren't available by these methods. Especially for big shows the first row is almost entirely given over to radio station contest winners. But if you play with the mix of places you're willing to submit yourself to being spammed, you can get tickets on the floor for nearly any show.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:26 PM on September 30, 2005

Bon Jovi did send out a newsletter with pre-sale links for their US shows in the NYC area for me. Sign up on the official website and I'm sure they'll have something similar for the UK.
posted by riffola at 3:17 PM on September 30, 2005

Is there a secret way to get these tickets, or are they instantly booked up by media/music types?

Here, I'll tell you the secret, step-by-step.

1. Find an ISP with a fat network pipe.
2. Build the fastest 1U server you can afford.
3. On said server, install special software: (a couple of options).
   
   
   • Option 1: Sophisticated OCR software. Good luck finding it or finding someone to write it for you.
   
   
   • Option 2: If you can't automate the CAPTCHA process, you can at least streamline it. The main server opens up multiple connections to ticketmaster, relays the images to your remote connection in a string, so instead of typing one word at a time, you write small nonsensical sentences. This can shave a few precious seconds off the time.
   
   
   • Option 3: Streamlining pt. 2--get a group of friends to connect to your server, send out multiple CAPTCHA's.
   
   
   • Option 4: Streamlining, pt. 3--Create a free service--porn works well--and have your new picture updates scheduled at 10:00am. When users come for the porn, they are forwarded TicketMaster CAPTCHA's. Basically have potentially thousands of people doing the work for you.
   
   

As you might surmise, I've had some experience with this. I didn't personally scalp tickets, but I was acquainted with someone who used one of the processes above.

Scalpers are scum.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:04 PM on September 30, 2005

In Australia, the main ticket agency is Ticketek, which has a club you can join called "My Ticketek", which supposedly offers you advance information, more of a choice, and access to pre-sales.

I joined one year to be sure of getting good Cure tickets.

My Ticketek

Some credit card companies also have a club which you can join for an annual fee which gets you preferential treatment. There's a thing called "VISA Entertainment" for instance, which is already offering ColdPlay tickets for next June.

VISA Entertainment.

I'm sure the same is true in other countries.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:41 PM on September 30, 2005

I've gotten tickets before the official sale date using the "American Express Front-of-the-Line" service. Basically, but it with your amex and you can buy it early.
posted by duck at 8:21 AM on October 1, 2005