Do you remember when you went to the record store and bought a paper ticket to a concert? Or you just went to the box office ahead of the event?
I tried to get a concert ticket from the Ryman Auditorium box office yesterday and was told I can only get the ticket through AXS.
When I went to Elvis Costello a couple of weeks ago, I had a 20-minute hold up at the same box office due to a dead AXS link in the text. I couldn’t retrieve my ticket. The venue blamed it on StubHub. I think AXS was the problem. It was their link.
So, I tried to buy tickets from my phone on the AXS site yesterday for Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs. The app took me all the way to payment method and then wouldn’t let me complete the purchase. I tired again from my computer. I found the problem. They wouldn’t sell me the ticket without me giving them my address and phone number.
That’s when I said fuck ’em. I had already sworn I wouldn’t use them again after the Costello debacle. So, I’m following through with that decision.
Then I checked other ticket sellers. They all wanted twice to three times as much for the same ticket. Fuck them, too.
From now on, I’ll either only use venues who will sell a ticket directly to me, or wait until the day of show. The Ryman will sell me a ticket on the day of show. If it sells out, so be it. I’m done paying $200-$300 for a concert. In 1980, I went to my first concert. It was Foreigner in Seattle. The price was $8.00.
To see a band of the same stature in today’s world, I’d likely pay several hundred dollars. That’s bullshit. And it’s due to the greedy ticket sellers, many who are basically practicing what once was considered illegal ticket scalping. Somehow it’s legal when a big business does it.
So, from now on, I’ll go to small venues, same-day shows, and skip the second party ticket sellers and apps. If it keeps me from seeing a big-name artist, that’s fine. I might love Paul McCartney, but I will never pay the $1,200-$3,000 prices that ticket sellers are asking to see him in Nashville later this year. – dse
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