You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2008.
We’d like to welcome Brian Ellis to TicketBiscuit! Brian comes to us from Vertigo Software in Point Richmond, Califormia, joining the team September 29 as a Senior Software Engineer. Brian has several years experience in everything from Sharepoint to Silverlight. He is a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator, a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Master, and a University of South Alabama Research Scholar. Brian has spent his career making software better, and we are excited about him joining the team.
Check out Brian’s Linked In Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cisellis
Our very own Chief Operating Officer John Burdett was quoted in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal today, in an article about recent rankings of Executive MBA Programs. You can find the article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122244975223379303.html
Congrats John!
"Sorry Guv Nah."
I guess the Bobbies in Britain really do believe that the Flipmode Squad is dan-ger-ous. Pollstar reported yesterday that Busta Rhymes was detained and refused entry into Britain. Here’s the link to the full article. Busta was in Britan to do a charity concert with Orange RockCorps. Remember them? I blogged them a few weeks ago (link).
According to the Pollstar article,
Rhymes, 36, was detained at London City Airport by immigration officers, who said their refusal was based on “unresolved convictions” in the United States.
Inside sources say that the “unresolved convictions” had to do with his flagrant abuse of the English language and androgynous fashion choices.
People, in general, hate convenience fees. Being in the ticketing business, that’s something we hear on a daily basis. Ticketmaster may not have introduced the concept of a convenience fee but they certainly are the preeminent harbinger of hated fees in most peoples’ minds. So if so many people hate the fees, why not get rid of them? Well, Ticketmaster is now a publicly traded company. Getting rid of fees would destroy their entire business model, and executives would probably spend some time in prison. Not good. Even with the ascendance of Live Nation as a formidable competitor to Ticketmaster, fees will be a part of the equation – we are stuck with them.
The problem with fees arises with the perception that the Internet is free, therefore all strictly internet based transactions should be free. If I can order tickets with MY computer over MY internet connection and print them out with MY ink, what am I paying you fees for?
Okay, so fees are hated. But, can ticket sellers do anything about convenience fees? YES. Savvy ticket sellers will make them transparent. Solutions like ours allow venues, promoters, and artists to roll the fees into the ticket price and appear invisible to the customer. Will customers complain of higher ticket prices? Temporarily, but right now folks are used to paying more for everything – you needn’t look far to find another doom and gloom story about the economy. The risk is that a price bump will impact sales, but you can likely look at past sales data to mitigate that risk. The “no convenience fees” approach can even be an effective marketing tool, since it is so rare. Your web sales will DEFINITELY increase, sales through your more expensive channels (phone, walk up) will decrease, and in the end, you will make more money.
Interested in trying it? Give us a shout and we’ll show you how.
Clay Aiken is gay. And the sky is blue.
September 24, 2008 in Commentary, celebrity news | Tags: celebrity news, Commentary | by ehoush | Leave a comment
Only because I promised a long long time ago to occasionally write about celebrity news do I mention this. Clay Aiken, in the latest edition of People magazine, has affirmed that yes, he is gay. Now this will come as no shocker to 99.99% of the population over 16 years old, but I can imagine his revelation has broken the heart of many a “clay-mate.”
Why would he do this (this is where I tie this thought to ticketing). Ticket sales for his concerts had been on a downward trend since 2006. He’s recently announced that he’s re-joining Spamalot on Broadway. His career has morphed and his new career will not suffer from this revelation. In fact, it will likely bolster his Broadway fan base significantly. Smart money says his handlers finally gave him the go-ahead for Clay to be Clay.
Ok so Clay was no shock. But I thought this would be a good time to look at five other celebrities who are probably gay, but just not at the point in their careers when they can reveal it yet.
1. Shepard Smith (broadcaster) – The rumor mill was hot a few months ago that Shep is gay, but the most telling evidence is that when asked about his private life in a Playboy magazine article, Shep responded that he doesn’t” talk about those things.” Really? Seems like pretty straightforward question: “Do you prefer males or females?”
2. Britney Spears (singer) – She’s kind of a train wreck but seems to be getting her priorities together as of late. Unlike Lindsay Lohan, who is using who-cares-if-they’re-true rumors of her sexuality to stoke the ashes of her dwindling career, Brit will come out soon and announce that she does, in fact, look forward to a lifetime of “putting a Madonna” on more females.
3. Justin Timberlake and The rest of N Sync (singers, actors) –Come on guys, Lance came out, you can too. Lance Bass came out in a People magazine interview in 2006 and enraged the GLBT community with his use of the term “straight acting gays.”
4. Matthew McConaughey (actor, musician)- Wow, I will catch some flack for this one., but let me present my case. First, he’s not married. Sure, he’s dated the likes of Sandra Bullock, Kate Hudson, and Penelope Cruz. He’s even got a baby with a Brazilian supermodel. I have one word for you : beards. Let’s not forget also Matthew’s much publicized naked bongo party in Austin. What was not publicized as widely is that he was dancing around naked playing the bongos with a dude (Cole Hauser). I have a lot of good friends, I play a mean bongo, and I have a few drinks from time to time, but there has never been a time when I thought the three should mesh into a naked dancefest.
5. Tom Cruise (actor) – So much effort has been put forth into convincing the world that Tom is not gay, we have no choice but to believe otherwise. From the barrage of gay-related lawsuits, to the twisted bizarre marriage to Katie Holmes, the evidence is significant. Ask yourself this: why was it easy to believe Tom was a vampire but it is so hard to believe his marriage is real? Answer: His acting was better in the vampire movie. I have thoughts on why Tom can’t come out, but won’t say them for fear of offending (why start now, right?). I will say that I think it has nothing to do with his career as an actor. And I will leave it at that.
I could go on- there are probably three or four noted country singers, a few pro football and basketball players, and more than one prominent political figure we could add to this list. Who do you think will be next?