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According to Pollstar’s numbers, the concert industry made more money this year than it did last year, but sold fewer tickets. You can find the WSJ Article here.
What does this mean? Promoters raised prices. Now, how much of the 3% decline in ticket volume is related to the economy versus the almost 8% rise in price is related to the economy is anyone’s guess, but I think this picture could get a lot bleaker if the industry doesn’t come to Jesus. Quick. And I’m not talking about incorrect ticket pricing (this time), although I do still believe the industry is stuck in the dark ages on that front too.
It’s about embracing technology. Tech enables you to do things faster, cheaper, and better, but the concert and live entertainment industry has been slow to really embrace what tech can do for them. Trust me. Some folks are just anti-change (some of our clients are this way).
I read today that the Seattle Theater Group is dumping Ticketmaster in favor of one of our competitors, Tickets.com (too bad, STG - allllllmost a win). The most telling quote in the development is from STG Executive Director Josh Labelle:
“We look at Tickets.com as a technology company, less so as a ticketing company.”
YES, YES! Ticketing is just the beginning. Technology is the evolution. Venues, Promoters, and Artists have to start asking about how the technology in their partnerships (especially ticketing providers) is helping them reach more fans and sell more tickets. We’ve been innovating in this space for years and have tons of tools for integrating into the leading social media networks. I’m not sure how much more simplistic it can be: entertainers generate fans; ticketing companies should be able to connect to those fans, and help those fans reach and connect to each other.
I spoke with a young lady in the promotions business a couple of months ago who was using TicketWeb / Ticketmaster for their ticketing operations because of their “marketing” features. I showed her on paper how she was literally costing her company over a million dollars a year, ticketing fees that her customers are currently paying to TicketWeb that her company could keep if they went with an alternative provider.
What could you do with $1 million additional advertising? To cap it all off, with just a little effort, this marketing moron could have created her own online community around her act and had a marketing machine that was several times more efficient and long lasting (their show is targeted at kids, and several studies show that moms in general are very active online). FAIL.
Until the concert (and live entertainment) industry embraces the technology to improve their operations, they will have to continue to raise prices in order to deliver growth. And eventually (read: THIS YEAR) the customers will have enough and they will collectively say, “No, thanks.”
I recently started subscribing to the Lefsetz Letter. Bob Lefsetz (the author) has been publishing his thoughts for 25 years. He addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself. To say he is an expert is a bit of an understatement.
Anyhoo, Bob’s latest post is one that I think all owners of venues should read. In it, he talks about the perceived value of admission and tries to get you thinking about what it is, exactly, that keeps folks coming out to see shows at your place. Here’s an excerpt:
Music needs to be a good value. It hasn’t been a good value for in excess of a decade. Ever since Robert Sillerman rolled up the regional promoters into SFX. Now prices are high. It’s like sports. But music ain’t sports. And I won’t go to a baseball game on a whim anymore. Used to be $3 and you sat in the upper deck or bleachers and got fucked up and who gave a shit about the game. Now, you’re pissed if you go and the game is shitty. Because you paid a fucking fortune! But, at least the teams are classic, they don’t change. We’re trying to break acts in the music business. We can’t overcharge.
We need some innovation.
Bob has some interesting thoughts on how to increase perceived value and pack the house without giving away tickets. Check out the full post here, and if you are in the music industry, you should mos def subscribe.
I found some very cool news in my inbox this morning. One of our newest BattlePass clients, Xtreme Fighting Championships, has inked a very cool deal with MTV.
XFC President John Prisco and crew put on shows in Tampa to crowds averaging over 10,000, making him the largest regional promoter in the United States. In this deal, the XFC will host tryouts for the MTV reality show “Made”, the winning contestant will then train at the XFC training facilities, and the newly made fighter will debut on the April 18 fight card in Knoxville, Tennessee. The “made” episode will air in 2009.
John is a savvy promoter, so say the least. I encourage anyone in the marketing or public relations fields to read his Anatomy of a Fight Promotion series on mmajunkie.com. His strategy is pretty straightforward: tell an honest story, tell a compelling story, and aggressively court the “free” media to help you tell your story. This MTV deal is evidence of that strategy in action. How much free community exposure will John’s operation get when MTV comes to town and hosts tryouts? How much free national exposure will the XFC brand and franchise-able training facilities get when the show airs on MTV?
John knows the difference between commercials and media – commercials create awareness, media creates action. Oh, and media is a LOT cheaper.
This is where Elite XC got it wrong. They spent too much money too quickly and failed to establish a brand that could compete with the UFC. I don’t know if Prisco is interested in competing per se with the UFC, but it is apparent he has the foundation and skills to carve out a significant share of the market for the sport. And we’re in his corner.
For those of you in the Birmingham area, be sure to pick up a copy of today’s Birmingham News. It features a story about the Biscuit on the front page of the Money section.
http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/news.ssf?/base/business/122770359357760.xml&coll=2
They even included a sweet shot of Biscuit partner Bruce Ayers, owner of the Comedy Club at the Stardome, and a bearded Jeff Gale, CEO of the Biscuit. Thanks to Roy Williams for showing us some love.
This week, Jeff and I had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Southern California to promote BattlePass and our new relationship with Roy Englebrecht Promotions. As you may remember from an earlier post, Roy is one of the nation’s top promoters, and has been promoting fights in California for almost 30 years. Next year marks the 25th anniversary of his Battle In the Ballroom Series, for which we will be the official ticketing provider. Anyway, from this past Friday until Monday, Roy held Fight Promoter University Five, a four day seminar and experiential learning curriculum targeted at wannabe promoters. Since Jeff and I were very interested in establishing relationships with these guys, we decided to sit in on Roy’s classes.
Boxing and MMA Promoters have gotten a pretty bad rap recently, thanks largely to the antics of Don King and a few other shady characters. What I learned, though, is that promoters like Roy adhere to a few solid business principles that make them successful. Here are ten that I picked up this past weekend, that seem to drive Roy and his team.
- Always pay attention to details. The professionally printed fight card won’t make people buy tickets, nor will the police beacons above the ring poles. But, they do convey a sense of uniqueness and professionalism. These sorts of subtle clues can influence your credibility in a big way. Which leads us to #2:
- Credibility is everything. You have to cultivate relationships in business in order to last. The degree to which you can make and keep commitments and continuously deliver a phenomenal product at a great value is directly related to your longevity.
- Have fun. Though Roy got a bit stressed immediately before the fighter weigh in, he always looked in control and like he was loving it. As the night unfolded, Roy took on the persona of a master puppeteer, as his meticulously crafted show unfolded to the delight of the sold out crowd. He was entertaining 1500 people, and having a ball.
Yours truly with Michael Buffer. "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"
- Bartering is good business. You have something of value. You need something of value from another businessman. In a world where cash is king, the act of bartering buoys many a small business. Roy is a mastermind at the act of trade. Professionally printed fight cards? 20 seats. Fight Staff? Internship credit at the local junior college. Even Richard Schaeffer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions (on it’s way to becoming the largest fight promoter in the country), stressed the importance of bartering. Many of their sponsorship deals for their upcoming MMA fight have some sort of trade aspect to them.
- Do good. This one is pretty self explanatory, but for Roy, it is central to his character and his operation. If you do good, good things happen. Not just to you, but to the people around you, your sponsors, your fighters, employees, and so on.
- Empty seats breed empty seats. Roy will barter huge blocks of seats in exchange for products or services. While the exchange itself is valuable, there is also value in his attendees’ perception of a full house. It’s like verification that they are doing the popular thing. If you went into a restaurant at lunch hour and the place was empty, how confident would you be in the quality of the meal? In a more generic business sense, find out how much of your product you can afford to give away in order to establish a sense of presence in the market.
The "Winterfist" Fight sold out completely.
- Try some crazy ideas. Jeff and I got pretty tickled hearing about some of Roy’s ideas. The most memorable was one where he set up a barber’s chair in the back of the boxing arena and ran a hair cutting promotion in the middle of a boxing match. For every crazy idea that didn’t work though, Roy had ten examples of things that did. Never be afraid of risk.
- Know who your customers are. You don’t sell out 19 straight shows on accident. Roy spends no money on radio, TV, or print advertising either. What he does do is create exciting incentives for every show attendee to provide their name and contact information. Roy used a cash prize promotion, a pretty straightforward idea. But, he incorporated principles of showmanship (calling out the winner and inviting them to a ringside seat for one bout) and instant and visible gratification (the winners were paid, in the ring, in front of everyone) to make it almost impossible to resist.
- Great people make a great operation. As part of the curriculum we got to watch one of Roy’s MMA fights. There were seven incredible bouts, many by fighters making their professional debut. Roy’s matchmaker, Arnold Berger, has a huge future in the business. The degree to which he spends his time and effort really getting to know the fighters was evident in the quality of the matches. The two hour show never got boring, even in between the bouts, thanks to Mike Hart, the ring announcer. Mike carried on a conversation with 1500 people with a smooth as butter style. And don’t even get me started on the ring girls. Roy hires right, period.
- Passion breeds achievement, achievement breeds success. This sounds like one of those cheesy inspiration posters, but it is nonetheless true. Only through the continuous relentless dedication of themselves to producing top quality shows has Roy and team been able to enjoy the success they have. You can’t fake it in that sort of pressured environment. Without passion, you burn out quickly.
- Jeff and “Razor” Rob McCullough
Check out Roy’s website at www.battleintheballroom.com.
We’ve said this since, oh -2001. Why do companies break the ticket fee out in a line item to consumers? I’ve blogged about it on several occasions, but our general feeling is that “convenience fees” are hated by customers. I personally helped work the call center for an event recently, and more than one person expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that fees were charged at all.
Now, the company who trained consumers to hate convenience charges by systematically defrauding and flogging them for the past two decades has decided to swipe a page from our playbook. You can read the article here, but basically, TM is trying an “all in” ticketing price. The article implies that this was the idea of Irving Azoff, the high powered new CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment who joined the company when Front Line Management merged with Ticketmaster earlier this year. They will test the strategy on the upcoming Eagles concert tour.
I tried to buy Eagles tickets for the “Hell Freezes over” tour back around 1994, Tickets were $90 for nosebleed seats at BJCC. I can imagine once you factor in all of the TicketMaster fees this time around you may drop two or three benjamins to see Glen, Don, and the crew phone in your favorites.
Regardless, this is a good idea. I have no doubt that Ticketmaster will see better numbers with this experiment, and this may become their standard operating practice in the future.
So let’s see- in the past couple of months Ticketmaster has:
- Merged with FrontLine Management in a copycat strategy to address LiveNation
- Renamed the company to reflect the acquisition
- Named a new CEO, and
- Changed their ticketing strategy
Seems like straw-grasping to me. In their quarterly revenue report, Ticketmaster showed that revenues dropped 76% from the quarter earlier. The economic downturn is hurting them (as it is most live entertainment businesses) and they are trying to respond. Will any of their responses benefit musicians or music fans? Probably not.
We never stop innovating to help our clients sell more tickets. That’s kind of become our motto here lately. We’ve been quietly building the Facebook integration for a few weeks and beta testing it to the hilt, and I am happy to say our super genius dev team has done it yet again.
Now, when you set up an account in TicketBiscuit, you can automatically publish your event to your Facebook page. If you update the event, it will be updated on Facebook as well. There is simply no easier, quicker, or cooler way to connect with your fans and keep them in the loop.
I know what many of you are thinking: “I don’t have time for some kid’s toy!” But think again. Rapidly approaching 100 million registered users worldwide, the Facebook community is expanding into all demographic categories. Those 25- 40 year olds with deep pockets? Over 11 MILLION are registered on Facebook in the United States alone. That will probably be 12 million by the end of the month. The takeaway is that this ain’t just a kids toy. It is a serious marketing tool and can reap mucho benefits. (UPDATE: read this blog post if you’re still not convinced)
Check this page out to learn more about Facebook Pages. Here’s another overview page about the other business products you can get.
If you’ve already set up a Facebook account and want to get this feature hooked up pronto, give us a call.
(Full Press Release: TicketBiscuit Ticketing System adds Automatic Facebook and Eventful.com Integration)
New research released by Juniper states that by 2013 there will be 400 million people using their mobile phones to buy tickets. This makes a lot of sense and seems like a logical next step in the evolution of mobility and Internet transactions. When I worked at Intel, they called the phenomenon “convergence” - that the line between computers and cell phones would gradually blur. Couple this with the fact that people are increasingly willing to purchase online, and voila- the boom of mobile ticketing.
As I have stated before, major roadblocks in the proliferation of this technology are bar code reading issues, lack of reader infrastructure and availability of near field communications (NFC) handsets.
Here’s a link to the full article just in case you’re made of free time, but the salient points are these:
- Mobile will catch on in Travel first, followed by live entertainment and then sports.
- Total gross mobile ticketing transaction value will reach $92 billion by 2013.
- The Far East & China region, together with Western Europe and North America will represent in excess of 80% of this global gross transaction value by 2013.
- Mobile ticketing must “make life easier” for users. In this respect, NFC, with its convenience, is a crucial development.
- NFC will reach its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period (meaning that my prediction of 2009 may have been a little aggressive)
What do you think? Would you be comfortable purchasing tickets over your mobile phone?
I started using Twitter about a month ago. For those of you unfamiliar with the service, it is essentially a microblogging tool, where you post updates of 140 characters or less. This guy explains it pretty well:
The updates can be silly, informative, or completely random. I started twittering to connect and network with others sharing similar interests, and hopefully promote TicketBiscuit without being caught. You can check out our twitter feed here.
So, one month in, I am approaching my 40th post, I’m ranked somewhere in the high thirties / low forties on twittergrader, and I feel like I’m getting to know the tool better. Mark Krejci introduced me to several cool twitter tools like twitterfon, twitfire, and twitterfeed which have made my twefforts easier, and I’ve picked up a couple of other tips as well (thanks to whoever suggested tweet later ).
But, there is still room for innovation (of course). Since Twitter exposes an API I am sure that we’ll see several new tools pop up over the next couple of years (at least until the next hot thing comes along). So, all you developers out there, here’s my wish list:
Bitter: Picks up when @replies are getting testy, announces “twitter fight” to the twuniverse, battle ensues for the amusement of all.
Etiquette-r: Detects when you’re using bad twetiquette (I literally can make up these words all day long), suggests corrections. I seriously could use this.
Toggler: Allows you to maintain separate universes of twitter friends and seamlessly toggle between them, displaying your replies and posts only to the group you choose. I guess you could always create two accounts, but then you would have absolutely no free time.
Critter: A twitter for pet enthusiasts. Can’t you just see the joy in terabytes of microblogs about what Fluffy did today?
Sidesplitter: Short jokes. One Liners. Knock Knocks. 140 characters to make me laugh.
Porntwitter: (forgive the 100% un-clever name, it’s in beta) Not really interested in using it so much, but interested in how it would be executed. This, again, is just a matter of time. I mean, there are porn blogs, right?
Who-Gives-A-Shit-Er: Automatically filters out the truly idiotic / repetitive / annoying posts from the twitterverse. I’d probably be the first victim.
It is highly likely that these tools exist as I write this, and if so, please let me know. Do you use twitter? If so, weigh in on what you would or do find useful or amusing.
At least you got off the Death Star in time...
Ticketmaster announced today that is is cutting about 5% of it’s global workforce, mostly from online operations. This should come as no real surprise, as TicketMaster’s growth strategy as of late has been to buy companies (Paciolan, GetMeIn, TicketsNow, etc.) rather than innovate and win new business. While the move probably makes a lot of sense due to elimination of duplicate jobs in the acquired entities, but I think it signals something broader.
Seth Godin blogged a couple days ago about acting small and thinking big. TicketMaster has the opposite problem. They think small and act big. This act, while it will help in the short term, will not help them compete. They ignore customers and enjoy being the 500 pound gorilla.
Well enjoy it while it lasts, TicketMaster. Because we are coming. Every day we are investing in our online ticketing system help our clients sell more tickets, and your clients are noticing.
Wow. I can’t say that I am surprised by this news, only that it happened so quickly. According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports,
Elite XC, which produced seven of the 10 most-watched MMA matches in U.S. history on two CBS specials in recent months, will be closing its doors at the end of the week.
Check the full article here. The good news is that Gina Carano may be looking for work. And we can use some muscle in the BattlePass Marketing Department. Gina, call me.
Gina Carano
We’re back from the Southeastern Museums Conference today. SEMC is an annual event that pulls together museum directors and operators from the region and gives them the opportunity to share best practices and ideas with each other. They were a great crowd, and we had a very successful time introducing the Biscuit to them. A special shout out to Bob, Rachel, and Kimbelee from Sloss Furnaces - it’s always nice to see familiar faces at those events.
Today I read a great post by Shariar Amin on Subliminal Marketing. This got me thinking: isn’t it a bit ironic that we find it okay to splash product placements all over movies but the practice of flashing an image for 1/3000th of a second is outlawed? (By the way, Shariar’s post is not entirely factually accurate - for the full story on subliminal advertising check out snopes)
I remember earlier this year KFC got into hot waterwith one of their commercials promoting a new sandwich. At one point in the commercial a message flashed on the screen that said you could get the sandwich for free if you mentioned a secret code word while you were ordering. The ironic thing is, you would have had to have TiVo or some sort of DVR to rewind and find the hidden message. They did another spot where they hid a dollar bill in the lettuce on a sandwich. Of course, the mere word of mouth made the campaign wildy successful.
Maybe that’s the take away- by trying to be subliminal and getting busted, everyone will talk about your ad, and you’ll get the exposure you crave. We’re always looking for new and cool ways to spread the word about the Biscuit- so what do you think? Should we dabble into the subliminal?
Maybe we should be more subliminal than this....
I’ve gotta admit, I was a big fan of MMA before but since the launch of BattlePass my fandom has gone almost to the nuclear scale. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited this last weekend’s matchup between seasoned veteran Ken Shamrockand Internet phenom Kimbo Slice.
Only the fight didn’t happen. Hours before the fight Shamrock apparently suffered a cut and was not allowed to fight. his last minute replacement was a previously relatively unknown fighter named Seth Petruzelli.
Petruzeilli knocked him out in 14 seconds. Kimbo was supposed to be the best thing for MMA since, well, (forgive the pun here) sliced bread, but he suffered an embarrassing beatdown at the hands of a no-name. And now, there are allegations that the fight was supposed to be fixed. But before I get there, why don’t you watch the fight in it’s entirety? Seriously, it will only take 14 seconds. Go ahead.
Okay so Seth delivers a beatdown. But Seth isn’t used to the limelight. So naturally, when everyone and their mother wants to talk to the guy who beat Kimbo, our boy Seth tells too much:
“They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him.”
Ouch. You can read the whole article here if you are interested, but this could be big trouble for ProElite. We’ll keep you posted. One of the great things about MMA is that to this point it has been about combat, performance, preparation, skill. this kind of shenanigan would put a black eye on the sport, but it would be nothing new. I mean, there have been empires (*cough cough WWE*) built on this type of tom-foolery. The BattlePass team will actually get to meet ProElite head of Operations Jeremy Lappen at Fight Promoter University V in November, so I’m anxious to get his take on this whole matter (away from what says to the media).
On a side note, I am now a HUGE fan of Gina Carano. Wowza.
*swoon*
Yesterday we continued our absolutely frenetic pace of innovation and released what I feel is probably the coolest TicketBiscuit enhancement since print at home tickets. It represents a HUGE step forward in ticketing, and will definitely help our clients sell more tickets.
You can now publish your events AUTOMATICALLY to Eventful.com
You may have remembered our tip on how to sell more tickets from a couple of weeks ago- when we introduced a lot of you to Eventful.com. For those of you who missed the post, Eventful.com is an event aggregator site- they maintain a comprehensive listing of local events in cities nationwide. It is a very cool service and as of last count had upwards of 7 million users.
Well, thanks to our team of super genius developers at TicketBiscuit, we’ve now made the process of adding your event to Eventful.com as easy as clicking a button.When you set up your event, it will be automatically populated to Eventful and kept up to date as you update it in TicketBiscuit.
Seven MILLION more sets of eyes. Zero additional effort.
We’ve got more innovations like this in the pipe coming your way soon, all geared toward helping you have more successful events and helping you sell more tickets. If you have ideas or enhancements that you feel would be useful to your business, we’d love to hear them. Just drop us a line and let us know.
Last week we added a couple of clients that I’m pretty thrilled to have on board.
Jackopierce
Jackopierce is an acoustic rock band. Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce formed the group in 1988 and they released six albums up through 1997. These guys were really popular when I was in college, and they even came to the BSC campus once and played a live set (they are GREAT live). After a decade long split, the band recently reunited and are touring again – you can catch the dates on their website.
Jackopierce is putting together a limited access show at the Star Hill Ranch in Texas for May of next year, and they chose the Biscuit to ticket the event. If you’re going to be in or around the Texas Hill Country in mid-May of next year, this should be very cool- stay tuned to www.jackopierce.com for details.
Roy Englebrecht
Roy Englebrecht is owner of Roy Englebrecht Promotions, California’s third largest boxing promotions company, and Roy Englebrecht Events. Roy has managed one of the most successful professional boxing shows, the Battle in the Ballroom, for 22 consecutive years. Jeff and I flew out to Orange County in early September to meet with Roy and discuss ticketing his events with BattlePass. Last week, we inked the deal – BattlePass will be the official ticketing company of the Battle of the Ballroom series for 2009, and we will be the official ticketing company of Roy’s Fight Promoter University. This is a huge step for us and looks to be a promising relationship. Check out the Battle in the Ballroom site.
Having proven talent and legendary industry players like Jackopierce and Roy Englebrecht seek us out and choose us to do business with is a great feeling of validation. It shows that our efforts are paying off, and TicketBiscuit is emerging as the premier choice in ticketing. Welcome to the family, guys!
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.
First, let me preface this post. This is not meant to offend, condone, proselytize, or make fun of the gay lifestyle. It is simply hopefully discussion provoking commentary, please treat it as such.
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?
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.
Jeff and I are in Colorado Springs, Colorado today at the Association of Railroad Museums annual conference. We flew out here to introduce our latest product, WhistleTix. WhistleTix is a ticketing solution built for railroad museums and tourist railroads. If you’ve never visited Colorado Springs, you owe it to yourself to visit at least once. The scenery is simply gorgeous – here’s a shot of Pikes Peak taken from the window seat:
So what’s different about WhistleTix? WhistleTix has enhancements that allow trains to change train car configurations on the fly, and has a streamlined user interface to make it easier on volunteers to use the point of sale system. Those features are in addition to all of the great standard features in the core TicketBiscuit system.
You can read the full copy of the press release here.
We had a great time yesterday. Jeff and I met several interesting railfans and train characters, and we’re looking forward to the remainder of the conference. Here’s Jeff hard at work, and a sweet shot of our new tradeshow display in action:
The Biscuit Team (or at least a couple of us) are packing up and heading to Colorado Springs, CO this week for the Association of Railway Museums (ARM) Conference, where we will be hosting a seminar on automated ticketing and mingling with the hardcore railfans. We’ll be blogging from the event AND we’ve got some special news in store for later this week, so stay tuned.
- Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs
It’s been a while since we talked about BattlePass, our first product line extension in the history of the company. BattlePass is doing extremely well, with new MMA Promoter clients being added daily. We launched a myspace page shortly after we released the product, and quickly made “friends” with Dana White (head of UFC), Chuck Liddell, and many other icons of the sport.
Check out our myspace page by clicking here
Speaking of Liddell, did anyone see the fight this weekend?
ouch.
Ah, the secondary market. We primary market innovators honestly get a little chuckle when the industry giants drop the ball like our good friends over at TicketsNow (aka Ticketmaster) did this week.
According to several ticket brokers, TicketsNow was forced by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to temporarily suspend selling tickets for the event earlier this week after there were complaints from angry fans who did not receive their tickets. The company fixed the problem, but then hastily crafted a new policy that it would not allow same-day ticket sales for the remainder of the tournament and would only allow tickets to be sold 24 hours in advance.
Not a good thing when one of your big clients forces you to stop selling tickets. In other news, the price of NFL football tickets is on the rise. According to a recent study by Team Marketing Report, the average ticket price increased by almost 8 percent to $72.20. The two most expensive teams? The New England Patriots (of course) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (wait, what?)
Myself? I am a college football fan. The NFL lacks soul. Discuss.
In these days of 24 hour news channels and information overload courtesy of the world wide web, it’s easy to assume the role of “know-it-all”. And as Gustav roars into the Gulf of Mexico, many of us inject the current common knowledge about hurricanes into our water cooler discussions. For example, we all know-
- Katrina was the most damaging hurricane on record
- Hurricanes lose energy over land, but pick up steam (almost literally) over hot water, and
- Hurricanes make gas prices go up.
BUT- there are many things you DON’T know about hurricanes. For example, did you know that this Gustav is actually the fifth tropical cyclone to share that name? Look it up.
Find out what else you don’t know about hurricanes – check out the quiz hosted by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You just might learn something.
Speaking of learning something- we occasionally post ticket selling tips on this blog, like last week’s post on event aggregator sites. We’re interested in your thoughts on these tips. Are they helpful? Do you have tips to share? Let us know.
If you haven’t yet heard of or used Eventful, you are missing out on a world of free promotion for your venue or event. Eventful is (according to their website) “the leading events website which enables its community of users to discover, promote, share and create events.”
Okay, anyone could say that. But the stats back up their story:
- 4 MILLION events posted online
- 600,000 monthly visitors (according to compete.com)
That’s a LOT of eyeballs, so merely posting your events to Eventful.com will increase ticket sales. BUT, Eventful has an even cooler feature that all promoters should know about. It’s called “Demand.” Again, from their site:
“Eventful’s unique Demand service empowers users to influence where their favorite performers, candidates and other celebrities appear by creating viral grass-roots campaigns to “Demand” them in their town. Tens of thousands of musicians, comedians and political candidates use Eventful Demand to engage with millions of their fans and supporters to find out where they are in Demand.”
How do you use it as a promoter?
1. Visit www. eventful.com
2. Use the button under the eventful logo on the top left to select your location
3. Click the “Demands” Button in the navigation bar at the top.
4. Select “Near You” under the “By Location” section on the left hand side.
A quick search of my hometown (Birmingham, AL) shows that Plies, Dane Cook, and Pretty Ricky are the hot acts. You can search by performer type (Business, Comedy, Music, etc) to hone down the results. Find the hot acts, schedule the hot acts. Post your event to Eventful so all of the demanding fans can see it, and sell mucho tickets. Make sure you have Promotozoa hooked up to yourTicketBiscuit account so all of the demanding fans can invite their friends as well.
But even if you don’t use the Demands feature, you should use event aggregators to promote your events. Eventful is just one type of these event aggregator services. It is definitely the largest and most techno-advanced, with myspace and youtube integration and even an iPhone application. Other similar services include upcoming.org (powered by Yahoo) and Going.com.
The bottom line: more eyeballs equals more tickets sold.
The new "About Us" page is linked in the upper right hand corner of TicketBiscuit.com.
Hey, it’s kind of a slow news day around here, we’re busy connecting with new clients and developing features to help them sell more tickets and make more money per ticket. I did want to let all of the readers know that we’ve posted a company info page to our TicketBiscuit website - so if you’ve ever wanted to know John’s background, or wondered what our corporate culture is like, you can find it there.
Check it out! Click the links on the left hand side of the page to see the details around each topic.
I love the Olympics. It’s partially the spectacle, partially the competition, but mostly the stories and legends that arise from Olympic competition. Like the one that unfolded last night.
Last night the 4×100 meter relay took place. If you missed it, here is the recap:
- The French team talked “smack” to the American team.
- Through three laps, it looked like the French team would win.
- On the last lap, Jason Lesak pulled off one of the most impressive comeback wins of all time, effectively quieting the Frenchies. Check out the video:
That guy cheering and screaming at the end? That’s Michael Phelps, who, thanks to Lesak’s miracle, is still on track to make Olympic history. Well done, team.
Competition is invigorating, believe me. As TicketBiscuit competes daily with other ticketing providers, I feel like Lesak sometimes. Though it looks like we’re at a disadvantage due to scale or market penentration or some announcement of venture capital infusions, I know that we have the right stuff to win. Our ticketing system is intuitive. Our technology is bulletproof. Our service is unparalleled. And, we have a laser focus on helping our clients sell more tickets and helping them realize more per-ticket profit. Winning won’t happen overnight, but we are catching up daily.
Broadway Brett
John brought a great article to my attention today:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/why-ebay-loves-the-brett-favre-trade-ebay-
Since Favre’s earthshaking trade to the Jets, Jet tickets have become THE must have item. The article cites StubHub data that shows over 7000 Jets tickets have moved within the last 24 hours (compared to 36 per week prior to the trade) and the average price has increased from $138 to $252. Probably almost as earthshaking as the Favre trade, though, is realizing that StubHub collects a 25% commission on all tickets sold.
Let me say that again. StubHub collects a 25% commission on all tickets sold - 10% from the buyer, 15% from the seller. Wow.
For yesterday’s action, Peter K (author of the linked article) estimated StubHub’s take to be about $400,000. Now, your venue or organization may not be giving up that kind of coin to the secondary market, but if you are hosting high demand or limited supply events, then you are giving up some.
This is why Dynamic Pricing will be important to the future of the ticketing industry. While no computer algorithm could have foreseen this kind of development (with Favre), we can tell with pretty close accuracy what the optimum price of an event should be. We use historical data from ticket sales, type of artist, geographical area, and venue, then we combine that with real time ticket sales. The result is a price that moves fluidly, approaching market willingness to pay. In short, you get to keep more of that profit being lost to ticket scalpers.
The Favre situation also illustrates a scenario in which the secondary market will still be necessary - if demand for an event suddenly shifts due to new or additional information surfacing after the sale. An analogous scenario is the escalating price of pre-sold tickets (season tickets) to college or pro football games, which increase in value the better that team does through the season. While computers will be able to predict to some extent this uncertainty, they will never do a perfect job due to the human factor involved.
As dynamic pricing becomes the status quo in the future, it will be interesting to see if the secondary market influences after-sale information release for events other than sports in order to preserve its profits.
Tickets for this years summer Olympics in Beijing are arguably the hottest tickets of the year, if not the decade. So it really should surprise no one that fraudsters have jumped in trying to make a quick dime:
Online ticket fraud being fought at Beijing Olympics
Apparently, TicketCity is the culprit, although they are still listing tickets on their website as of this morning. But what about the TicketCity 200% guarantee, you ask? Sorry Charlie, those are only good for events that occur within the US. Hopefully TicketCity will do the right thing, because there is no faster way to sink a secondary ticketing company quicker than selling your customers counterfeit tickets.
Quick Update: I saw this article on the Olympics website about the Chinese government cracking down on ticket scalpers:
http://en.beijing2008.cn/tickets/news/n214485354.shtml
My favorite line:
“Only 26 of the suspects were detained, while the rest were released after they had been fined, warned and “educated,” the report said.”
I love the quotation marks around “educated.”
Battlepass.com
Today is a pretty cool day for us. We’re taking the wraps off of BattlePass – the first and only ticketing system custom built for mixed martial arts events. MMA is one of the fastest growing sports nationwide, with pay per view audiences rivaling those of boxing and professional wrestling. But in addition to the handful of elite leagues like UFC and Elite XC, there are multiple farm league promoters hosting events nationwide.
When we began discussing the concept for BattlePass a few months ago, we discovered that promoting an MMA or combat sport event is an incredibly complex undertaking. Not only do these promoters have to secure fighters and a place to fight, but also have to worry about getting the word out, processing payments, and above all, selling tickets. BattlePass was built for them – it takes all of the challenge out of the administrative side of event promotion.
We’ll be releasing this news to the press later this week, along with news of an alliance agreement with one of the nation’s premier farm league promoters.
BattlePass is cool, no doubt. I think even more than the benefits attached to the features though, it represents a different way of thinking about ticketing. Ticketing can no longer be about processing transactions, it has to be about adding real value to clients and their businesses, integrating systems and functionality to make the whole business better, not just handle the stubs of paper granting admission. We’re focused on the future of ticketing, and we’re making it happen on a daily basis.
Those of you who follow the blog will remember a couple of weeks ago when I cited Marianne Jennings, ticket industry expert and former professor of mine, who, during her keynote at the NATB conference in July, said that Ticketmaster ought to be kicked out of the secondary market. That topic got the most press but it was the broader topic of the presentation that got my attention: The Seven Principles of the Ticketing Industry and What They Mean for its Future.
At the Biscuit, we strive on a daily basis to create innovations to help shape the future of the ticketing industry. We look at the REAL DATA behind ticket sales, and through the identification of trends like increasing percentages of online purchases, or the relative power of purchase suggestion through viral networks, we’re able to innovate and create products to help our clients sell more tickets. So, the insight provided by these principles is very useful to us, as I think it should be for anyone who sells tickets. They address not only the nature of the industry, but also some psychological factors that must influence the way we do business as ticket sellers.
The Seven Principles of the Ticketing Industry (Source: Professor Marianne Jennings and Dr. Stephen Happel):
- Tickets for High-Demand and / or Limited Supply Events are Underpriced
- Underpriced High Demand and /or Low-Price Events Produce Queues
- Time is a cost
- Where There are Nuisances, There are Regulators
- Price Controls Don’t Work
- Allowing Market Participants to Structure Regulation of Their Market Adds Vertical Integration and/or Monopolies to Markets
- Regulation Without Full Information Will Thwart a National Ticket Market
What do these seven principles mean to you, and to the industry as a whole? I’ll share my thoughts on this, as well as the insights provided by Professor Jennings, in future posts. Stay tuned.
Smoking Labrador
Many of our clients are comedy clubs, probably not surprisingly since most of us in the office are huge comedy fans. So, when I saw this article yesterday, I admit I did cartwheels on the inside:
Cheech & Chong reunite for first standup tour in 25 years
Now, I never saw them do stand up - I just wasn’t old enough to get in the club - but I have seen all of their movies several times.
I am REALLY hoping they come to the Comedy Club Stardome in Birmingham. There really is no better place to watch a comedy show, and these guys are living legends.
What’s your favorite Cheech and Chong moment? I personally like the “Smoking Labrador” scene. YouTube it for laughs; I can’t link it here due to some “questionable content,” but check out the screen cap above and you can probably figure it out.
Priceless.
As a son of Alabama, and a one time resident of Mobile, I have been anxiously awaiting the local premiere of this movie. In it, a Mobile native takes an in depth look at the parallel cultures in the town where Mardi Gras was born in the US (no, it wasn’t New Orleans). It has won awards at Edinburgh and Sundance, and has attracted a lot of positive critical attention.
So, naturally, when I heard that the film would be premiering in Mobile at the end of this month at the historic Saenger Theater, I jumped online to pick up some tickets.
Damn.
The $24 ticket price for two tickets rapidly escalated to $44 thanks to Ticketmaster’s fees.
An 83% increase.
How much of that goes to the Saenger? To the film’s directors or distributors? Zilch.
Apparently
Live Nation ticketing is, um, “live”
December 26, 2008 in Commentary, ticketing news | Tags: live entertainment, live events, live nation, ticketmaster, ticketng | by ehoush | No comments
Today TicketNews posted a story about the soft rollout of Live Nation Ticketing, signaling that the giant’s move away from Ticketmaster is still on course. Since Ticketmaster has extensive long term contracts in the industry, the move will take time. As one Live Nation insider put it, it won’t be like “flipping a switch.”
So Live Nation enters the event ticketing space. As a competitor of ours, I had to go check out their system. Live Nation partnered with German-based CTS Eventim to develop the interface, and on the surface it is clean and elegant. They even have a java powered seat selector like the one we feature, although ours is a bit easier to use, I think (of course that assertion is free of bias).
The event I checked out was a Temptations concert in New York. On a $66 dollar ticket the fees were over $15. High, sure, but being in New York there are probably facility fees and parking fees rolled into that amount.
Then I went through the purchase process, and was forced to create an account and provide personal info (including phone number?!?!?!) before I could complete the purchase. This is where we start to see the cloak lift, and as the industry moves away from ticketing fees as a primary source of revenue we can see that they have their intentions aimed squarely at advertising.
Look at the event page- There is a prominent Citi Cards ad. The venue is The Capitol One Bank Theater at Westbury. Rest assured after you buy tickets you’re going to get pummeled with direct mail and email from “Live Nation Partners.” The beast feeds the beast.
I’m glad Ticketmaster now has a big name competitor, but I hardly think this is good for the business. The “360” or “all inclusive” deals that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been making recently are engineered to squeeze every last cent out of the live entertainment marketplace. Exploit the big acts and venues at the expense of the customer. Only play our acts on the radio. Sell your CD in Wal Mart. It will be a semi-profitable bloodbath between the two companies for a while, until the mass public finally realizes they’re being force fed garbage like the Pussycat Dolls and starts to embrace real music again.
Real music won’t be dead. It will be at venues like WorkPlay, or Minglewood Hall, or Exit In. It will be at the local 1200 seat clubs being created passionately by folks who are actually good at it, listened to by folks who appreciate it, and yes, bought by those who value it.
The future of the business looks a bit like the past.