Two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl

I don't think ppl understand the ll that we all go through thing differently.   I always hear "well I had anxiety, I got through it" or " we all get depressed,  get over it".  And it really pisses me off bc these ppl making theses statements have no idea what it's like to have empathy.  Some things roll off our backs and some things we cannot shake.  I get so pissed when ppl say oh what's the big deal,  get over it.  I think they are literally too emotionally moronic to understand that concept,  so let me break it down.   

Say you have 2 fish, in their own bowls with same amount of water.  Now image that every time something negative happens in your life,  you remove a spoonful of water.   Someone dies,  lose you job,  fight with a friend, money troubles, health problems etc.... Each spoonful can really add up and now this fish is left with a depleted bowl to live in, making things harder for him.   Now when someone says well I got over it just fine,  you should too it's like taking a spoonful of water from the full bowl.  It's just a spoonful,  you won't even notice.  But take that same spoonful from that bowl with barely any water in it.  That spoonful if going to have a bigger impact on that poor fish already struggling to survive then the fish in the bowl that's full.    but here the fish in the full bowl swimming around saying I'm fine,  you should be too.  Like wtf?  Can't that fish see that it doesn't have the same amount of fucking water?  No, bc 1) they are fish  and 2) mostly importantly they can't see beyond their own bowl.  

The day the (live) music died

It’s only the beginning of March but already the summer concert season is already upon us.  With huge headliners like Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Metallica, U2 and Coldplay its shaping up to be a great summer of live music.  But there is nothing worse to crush your concert going dreams then missing out on scoring tickets when they finally do go on sale.  You get so excited that your favorite artist is coming; you start re-listening to their back catalog, maybe buy their new album on vinyl and check updates on social media about pre-sales and fan clubs just to ensure you are prepared when tickets do go on sale.  You think you have everything covered until 10:01am and all tickets are sold out.  How can this be?  Disgruntled, you head over to a secondary market site only to discover that hundreds of tickets are available at an astronomical price.  That high you had when the concert was first announce is now replaced with anger, sorrow and disgust.  It’s not easy being a live music fan these days.  The highs and lows are just too much and is it even worth the stress and aggravation?.  And artists wonder why sales have slumped? Well for some anyway. U2, the band you either love or hate failed to sell out a North American tour in one day this year the first time in decades. Granted places like Toronto sold out immediately but it took some time (an extra day or 2) to sell out in some marketplaces.  It’s not because ticket prices have been increasingly getting higher ($70 for a General Admission floor ticket is quite reasonable in today's market) or lack of new material (many fans want to hear the classics  from the Joshua Tree on this 30 year anniversary tour) so what else could it be?  Could people just be getting too pissed off to even bother anymore?  Have loyal fans become so jaded from getting screwed over with the ticket buying experience that they would rather stay home?

There has been lots of news about these ticket “bots” and how they are destroying the concert buying/going experience. There has been some progress to help put an end to this unfair practice.  Even former US President Barack Obama signed the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016 which makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets to popular events so it’s a step in the right direction But are bots really to blame that tickets to a 30,000 seats arena sells out in less than a minute?  No, there is a much bigger problem.    

This week, one of my favorite artist (Depeche mode in case you were wondering) announced a north American tour that I have been patiently waiting for since I got wind of their European tour.  Last week the band announced over social media that they are going to try something new.  Their website posted “And this time, they're doing something different. Before scalpers and bots, true fans would line up at the box office for days to get tickets. This is the same thing, but online” So this is essentially like the good old days where true fans slept outside on a sidewalk to get tickets to a show they were dying to see but without a physical line.  A virtual line of sorts and for anyone at very front for each city stop gets a meet and greet with the band.  Sounds promising.   I signed up and reserved my spot.  Unlike a real line, this virtual line is not clear cut.  Options to help “bump” you up in line are listed and per-ordering the new album bumps you up the most.  Second is signing in and sharing on the dreaded Facebook, referring people via email and promoting the tour through twitter.  It reminds me of the days in elementary school when the school would get their students to sell magazine subscriptions to fund-raise and they would show you all the neat prizes you would receive if you sold the most in your class to get you all pumped up to sell. Then you would just get your parents to buy the bulk of the subscriptions because it was easier then standing outside of a grocery store soliciting strangers. Many people on social media were quick to point out that it’s just a brilliant marketing scheme to increase sales for the band’s new album.  It worked though. Some people bought several copies to move them into the number one spot for their corresponding city only to find out later they had moved to number 3 when the polls closed, missing their chance to meet the band.  Another fan was quick to point out that if she had to solicit her friends and family in order to go to a concert, she would rather stay home.  Too much work for a life long fan.  “Its  not fair that you had to buy 100 albums to make it to first place. That doesn't make you a more LOYAL fan, it makes you a fan with a higher disposable income”.  While I applaud the bands efforts to stop bots and scalpers, I don’t think this is the way to do it.

The bigger problem is the amount of tickets that are released to the general public.  People are so quick to blame these "bots" that they don’t understand that bots can’t buy what is not there to buy.  Its estimated that only 40% of ticket are available to the public for any random event, even less in high demand markets (Toronto) or for more popular artists (U2).  And if you are thinking that pre-sales are the way to go, think again.  Last year when people were up in arms when so few people got tickets to see the Tragically hips “last” tour, Only 3.5%  of all tickets were made available to the fan club.  So this leaves me wondering how many tickets will be made available to the registered Depeche Mode fans for this  pre-sale? The magic 8 ball says outlook not so good.  

For fun, I went onto Stub hub and of course, there are tickets listed, even though no tickets have been released yet.  None.  No pre-sale, no fan club, nothing.  So I contacted stub hub to inquire as to how these tickets got there.  I got the same two scripted responses;

"John R.: Great question! Some of our sellers have good relationships with vendors and venues, so they get early access to tickets before anyone else. Almost like a special early access pre-sale”

 Me: But there are no pre-sales yet, they haven't started.  What is stub hub doing to prevent this type "inside trading"?

John R.: Rest assured, you're 100% covered by our FanProtect Guarantee. This means you’ll get the tickets you ordered in time for the event, and they’ll be valid for entry. If there’s any issue with your tickets, then we’ll work to find you comparable replacement tickets or provide a full refund if comparable tickets are not available.

Me: Thanks but that doesn’t  really address my question

John R.: In terms of "inside trading," how people get their tickets and their relationships with Vendors, Venues, and Teams is THEIR business. If they acquired them legally and they wish to sell them on StubHub, they are welcome to.

Me: I understand that but you still are not answering my question. Basically you are telling me that stub hub knows that they are selling tickets from people that have an inside edge and since they are not deemed illegal, stub hub doesn’t care as long are they are making money?

John R.: As long as tickets are acquired legally, they are allowed to be sold on our site.

Me: Understandable. but again, what is stub hub doing to prevent this type of practice from happening? my guess is nothing. am i correct?

John R.: There is no reason for us to take action on this type of business.

John R. has disconnected.

And agent # 2

Me: I’d like to know how tickets are being sold to an event that hasn’t gone on sale yet?

Amanda C.: Sure I'll be happy to explain. When you buy tickets at StubHub, you are buying from other fans, who have chosen to sell their tickets. I apologize for the confusion that this has caused, however there are many different ways that fans are able to access tickets prior to a public on-sale date.

Some of these examples include:

Pre-Sale access for venue package holders

Pre-Sale access for season ticket holders

Being a member of a FanClub

Me: no pre-sale has started, no fan club sale has started and I am pretty sure there are no season tickets available on the ice during the regular hockey season at the ACC so how does anyone have access to floor tickets to a concert.  How are these tickets available and what is stub hub doing to prevent this unfair practice?

Amanda C.: In any case We Rest assured, you're 100% covered by our FanProtect Guarantee. This means you’ll get the tickets you ordered in time for the event, and they’ll be valid for entry. If there’s any issue with your tickets, then we’ll work to find you comparable replacement tickets or provide a full refund if comparable tickets are not available."

Note the same scripted response.  Clearly stub hub has no interest in their fans as long as they are making money and they aren’t going anywhere.  If you want to blame anyone for not getting floor tickets to Dave Matthews, blame the venue, promoters and agents that have early access to these highly sot after ticket and the companies that allows third party sellers to hock them.   Last month, Robbie Williams management team was accused of selling tickets directly to the secondary market for almost double the price. This is the same company has previously called on the government “to take stronger action against resale sites”.  The only way to prevent this is to go after the secondary marketplaces and make it illegal to sell tickets that were obtained through inside connections or at the very least, put a cap on the amount you are legally allowed to charge, (or over charge) on each ticket.  Ticketmaster has implemented some measures to stop people from buying tickets just to resell like having credit card entry only tickets but let’s not forget this is the same company that automatically redirects you to their own resell site when the venue has sold out.  

You can also forget about going to the government for help because on July 1st 2015, the government of Canada made changes to the ticket speculation act that allowed re-sellers to make a profit off of authenticated tickets.  During a press conference last year, Prime minister Justin Trudeau was asked if the federal government could take steps to address fairness in concert ticket sales because of the controversy of the tragically Hip tickets being snapped up for the over-priced resale market. He says “the music and ticket industries ought to be able to police themselves, but that the government would be willing to follow up on the issue”. We are still waiting. 

Now that it’s the morning of this Depeche mode fan club pre-sale, I check my email stating my spot in line, my unique password and instructions on how to buy tickets.  I’m in the second group so I will be able to try for tickets a whole 30 minutes after the first group.  The email says it spent all last night sifting through the potential bots and scalpers to ensure real fans get their tickets first.  How can they?  How can anyone tell if someone just signed up to buy tickets to sell?  Answer: they can’t.  So even though my spot in line is promising, I know that all the good seats will be gone before I even get a chance to try.  So my options are nosebleeds or pay and arm and a leg to buy them on places like stub hub.  I don’t like either of my choices.  Luckily I  have been around the concert block to know what there are other options and i have had a chance to see them a few times and have great memories from those concert experiences.  A time when going to a concert didn’t cause this much stress, anxiety, money and time.  It’s a hard pill to swallow when something that brought you so much joy now causes so much frustration.  I’m not a mind reader but I know how this is going to play out and I wonder why I am even entertaining the idea of trying.  For education purposes, lets give it a go

Update

I hate being a forgone conclusion.  As predicted, the pre-sale was a disaster.  I lost count how many people went onto social media to bitch about how ticketmaster dropped the ball and how angry they are that they missed out on tickets.  I was one of the “lucky” ones and scored some seats in the nosebleeds.  I guess I shouldn’t complain but this is total bullshit and I knowingly walked right into it.  I have yet to receive a refund on a previous order I had to cancel because of another ticketmaster error so I took this as a perfect opportunity to inquire about this event as well.  20 minutes of the phone on speaker waiting for a rep to come on and finally someone picks up.  Same regurgitated answers until I get transferred to a manager.  I had a very informative 25 minute conversation with him discussing my displeasure of the whole ticket buying experience.  He said that it was the first time they tried this type of pre-sale, that it did not go over well and that the site could not handle the traffic that left many fans getting errors when trying to type in passwords or placing orders.  At least I got an explanation but then I asked what is Ticketmaster is doing to help the fans that got royally screwed over today and what they are doing to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, especially when the tickets go on sale to the general public in 3 days.  “While we can’t guarantee that everyone will get tickets to every event we are  striving to put fans first”. I ask since the public on sale is not for 3 days if Ticketmaster would put tickets aside for those fans that missed out on tickets because of its own site error. “Well there is no way to tell who is a real fan”  Well they do because they check credit cards and accounts to make sure order are from fans and not bots.  “We don’t put tickets on hold”.  I respond so you only put tickets on hold for the venue, executives, Management, promoters, radio station’s, the media, contests, celebrities, big wigs etc but not for real fans? So you are telling me that last year when a Pearl jam gig got postponed because of the Toronto Raptors advancing in the playoffs that Eddie Vedder went on to stub hub to get those court side seats?  After a brief pause and a change of tone, he leveled with me saying that he doesn’t have an answer. I already know the answer anyway. 

The one last thing I asked before I thanked him for his time was how many tickets were made available for the Depeche mode fan clue pre-sale.  About 4000.   Only 20 percent were available for the fan club.  I’m actually surprised it was that high.  One of Taylor Swift’s shows held back 86 percent of tickets. It was reported that only 1,740 tickets were for general on-sale out of 12,118 tickets. The management company and the promoter got 3,700 tickets, while more than 5,700 were for credit card holders and other “insider” deals.  Now add in the bots to that remaining 14 percent and you’d be better off to by a lotto ticket and pay the band to play in your back yard.  

I go back to my old methods of ticket purchasing and try again this time it pays off and I get a couple of tickets on the floor.  I am the luckiest person alive and I’m busting with excitement again! Of course I have to wait 7 months until the actual concert but you can't smack the smile of my face.   For me, it’s worth it to see one of my favorite bands but those highs and lows can really get to you and I understand why so many people are choosing to just stay home and watch it at home.  It’s not easy being a live music fan these days.