Girl Gang Podcast
Welcome to Girl Gang Podcast, a vibrant space where three dynamic women come together to share their unique perspectives and forge meaningful connections.
Join us as we dive into topics that matter, from self-empowerment and mental health to STEM, business, and the hot button issues of our time. Each month we'll explore important conversations that inspire growth and understanding, all while celebrating our individuality and shared passions.
Whether you're looking for motivation, insights on navigating challenges, or just a community to belong to, we've got you covered! Got questions or topics you want us to tackle? We want to hear from you! Let's spark a dialogue and empower each other on this journey together. Tune in and be part of our conversation!
Girl Gang Podcast
Episode 4: From Swifties to Service Fees: Why Are Concert Tickets Breaking the Bank?
Ever wondered why concert tickets seem to be getting more expensive with every tour? Join the Girl Gang Podcast as we unravel the mystery behind skyrocketing ticket prices and the notorious service fees that come with them. With your hosts Rachael, Sarah, and Brandi, we navigate through our own personal ticket-buying adventures, shedding light on where those extra charges actually go. From venue maintenance to local employee wages, we explore the complex financial ecosystem of live music events, all while emphasizing the critical role of buying merchandise to support the artists we love.
We also dig into the seismic ripple effects of Taylor Swift's global tours and the devoted Swifties who make it all possible. The conversation peels back the layers of the ticket resale markets, where bots often outsmart human fans, and questions the fairness of systems put in place by giants like Ticketmaster. Dive into the world of rising stars such as Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish, exploring their influence on ticket sales and the protective measures they take to shield fans from scam artists lurking in the shadows of the resale market.
From the thrill of snagging last-minute tickets to the unpredictability of winning radio contests, we celebrate the spontaneity and magic of live music experiences. Our stories include weather-beaten concert nights and the evolving culture of music festivals, all while advocating for more transparency and competition in the ticketing industry. By supporting local venues and artists, we can help sustain the vibrant community at the heart of live music. As we reflect on the ever-changing landscape of concerts and festivals, our discussion underscores the need for affordability and accessibility to keep the spirit of live music alive and thriving.
Welcome to Girl Gang Podcast, a vibrant space where three dynamic women come together to share their unique perspectives and forge meaningful connections.
Brandi:Join us as we dive into topics that matter, from self-empowerment and mental health to STEM, business and the hot button issues of our time.
Rachael:Each month, we'll explore important conversations that inspire growth and understanding, all while celebrating our individuality and shared passions. Hi everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name's Rachael. My name is Sarah.
Brandi:I'm Brandi, and we are your hosts for this episode.
Rachael:So this week we are going to be talking about concert tickets and fees that are associated with those concert tickets, so we will focus on what are service fees? Where do they go? Ticketmaster has had some lawsuits related to it and our experience in general with buying concert tickets and the fees that have been associated with those tickets, so I'm going to open it up. I feel like Kozy and Brandy you've bought way more tickets than I have in your lifetime. So what's your initial thought, sarah, of concert ticket prices over the years? Fees what's been your experience?
Sarah:It's been crazy. I mean, I'm a big concert and show fan. I mean I know we all are. I love going to shows. There's just something about live music that just itches, that itch I don't know why. It's like a sensory overload in a good way. I absolutely love live music. So concerts throughout college I worked for concert tickets. That was where all my paychecks went, was straight to concert tickets and, honestly, remembering back in college, I don't remember thinking much about fees, Like I'm. We knew there were sales tax or service fees on really anything that we purchased, but maybe a couple of dollars though, right, or maybe it wasn't enough to be like, oh my God, what is this Right?
Sarah:So I'm like I don't remember that until really like I want to say I don't know if it was a little bit right before COVID, or maybe it was just after the COVID.
Brandi:It was before, it was still before we really started noticing.
Sarah:I'm like I'm paying half the cost of this ticket in fees alone. Like that's crazy. What I thought was going to be $80 for $80 and some change Cause you know taxes for me and a friend to go to a concert ends up being like $150. I'm like what the heck?
Rachael:Oh, my goodness, and a lot of those.
Brandi:you can't even escape going to the box office, Like the only thing you save is like the tiny processing fee, which isn't even like a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of them.
Sarah:Like if a service fee, a portion of a service fee, was going to having printed tickets. Again, I'm for it, I love a printed ticket. That's something. I think some of those fees could go to a printing cost. You know, thinking that it's production, it's going towards something so they can keep the venue running, you know, keep the lights on, but it doesn't really seem like that's always the case, right running.
Brandi:You know, keep the lights on, but it doesn't really seem like that's always the case. So, according to like I mean I looked into this cause, I was like where the hell is my money going? Like I want to know.
Brandi:Just like I research, like places I donate to, like I want to make sure what I'm spending my money on goes to what I it needs to, um, so obviously Ticketmaster is standing by. You know what they say. But I also found some independent, like Reddit and other websites that kind of shed some light on where they all go and obviously there's different names for different fees and but honestly all of them say the same thing where at least 50% of that service fee goes to the venue.
Sarah:Whether it's extreme yeah.
Rachael:I was like oh okay.
Brandi:Well, that actually kind of makes me feel better. It helps them pay the wages of the local employees. It helps maintain a venue, because we've all been to some pretty dingy venues and we're all like maybe not you know. So it keeps with the upkeep. It's supporting local, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, at least some of the smaller venues. Obviously, the big amphitheaters are owned by big companies.
Sarah:And they have beer stands and food as well.
Brandi:Oh, that's a whole other rabbit hole. I's a whole other uh rabbit hole. I went down. Oh my gosh yeah that's it sounds.
Sarah:When you say it goes straight to the venue, it seems like a feel good thing and part of me is also like, okay, but like is it still really? I mean, I know there's a lot of other ways that these venues are bringing, you know, income in from their, their bars, or their food or or t-shirts, or I mean I think merchandise goes to the anyways, but that's the number.
Brandi:One way to support your artists is to buy their merch, just so you know. Interesting, I did not know that that's what they get the biggest cut from, because I mean, this can be a whole nother topic like streaming. Spotify won't even pay the artists if they have less than a thousand listens.
Brandi:So even if you, if you get 900 listens, if you're a smaller band, you'd get zero money. And then on top of that, even if you are in like the thousands of listens, you get like a couple thousandths of a cent per stream Interesting.
Sarah:That makes sense for the merch too, because they have, like, you know the artist and you know the album covers and things, yeah.
Brandi:so if you buy vinyls, if you buy, t-shirts from their website, or that's good at least yeah, so that's put a plug in there. Support your artists, get their merch, buy their physical music. Yeah.
Rachael:And sometimes you go and you buy like too many things with their merch, but you know that's, that's a different, or every year you go and you just buy their merch every single year that you see them.
Brandi:I have a concert t-shirt collection.
Rachael:Yes, so there's, you know, a couple of different ways that we have our fees Like. First of all, you know Ticketmaster and what Live Nation combined.
Brandi:So they're kind of like the dominant people, right. So they're one and the same. So I looked into this too. Live Nation is the main company, they're the holding company, and Ticketmaster is a subsidy that they bought, got it. That we'll kind of get into that when we talk about some of the lawsuits, because that plays a factor in it.
Rachael:So that's kind of one piece. So it's like, hey, if there's this big company that there's not a ton of competition, then they can obviously raise their prices. There's multiple types of service fees. So people don't often know, like, is this a service fee, is it a facility fee? Like what does it mean exactly and why is it so much? I know Then you have the venue. So then you're kind of paying, like the venue, the promoters, you also have the resalers as well. So I think these are all kind of aspects and reasons as to why ticket prices would go up. Correct, yeah, okay, that's fair.
Brandi:Yep, yeah. So I think we're like Ticketmaster and SeatGeek. Those are like the two big ones right now, especially in the resale market. They really get a lot of crap because the original purchaser of the tickets pays fees. When you post them on their website, you pay fees To sell them. To sell them, okay, yeah. So if you want to make $100 off a ticket, you have to sell it for $110 because they're going to take their cut and then the person buying your resale ticket pays fees, so they're dipping into it three times. Can you just transfer them?
Brandi:Like could you pay off the?
Rachael:record and be like hey, venmo me this money and then I'll just transfer the person If you're selling them.
Brandi:I'm going random.
Sarah:Stop that now, because you used to be able to do that, but now I think that you have to transfer it within, like the Ticketmaster app.
Brandi:Yes, but you don't have to transfer money.
Sarah:No, you don't have to transfer money. You can transfer Because if I want to send you a ticket because we're not walking in together, I can email you a ticket.
Brandi:But money doesn't have to be exchanged.
Rachael:A can of worms because people could be like scamming people on Venmo and stuff like that.
Brandi:And that happens a lot, because people are like, oh, let's avoid the fees and do it this way, and then they don't do the goods and services I learned.
Sarah:Certain states have laws against ticket scalping and resale tickets, which was very interesting.
Brandi:Whole other countries have laws Interesting.
Sarah:Which was very interesting. Whole other countries have laws.
Brandi:Like if there were and we're going to talk about Taylor Swift a lot in this episode just because her heiress tour broke a lot of records and had a lot of problems because of just the influx of demand People. When she released her year updates, people found out it was cheaper to fly, stay in a hotel and buy the concert tickets than it was to go to a show in the neighboring state in the US. That's crazy.
Sarah:I mean, I would much rather go somewhere new or adventurous than to the local town in Europe, that's crazy.
Brandi:It takes more time, that's the one thing. But it was cheaper because they have laws in place to keep ticket prices down.
Rachael:Interesting. So why was Taylor's Eras tour so expensive?
Sarah:Like in general, she's Taylor Swift one.
Brandi:So what I have read is the artist and their team, their management team, picks the pricing for their tickets, like the face value, the different tiers, like where you're at location, wise, that is based on what they have to give to the venue and how much they want to take out of each. So, between the promoter, venue and artist, they come up with a price.
Rachael:And this is also like her paying her people Cause there's probably like a ton of people like on her production team, like she treats her people well.
Brandi:Oh yeah, so um, but a lot of the money she gets is from her merch, Got it so?
Sarah:our artists so that the venue will pay the artist to come and perform at their venue. Correct, we were talking about that earlier today with you know. My husband said Bill Burr, like Bill Burr still has to pay to come and perform at a venue and like I can see why, you know not saying that he's not as popular as Taylor Swift. But let's be honest, taylor Swift, you know, has kind of taken everything by storm the past couple years.
Brandi:The Swifties are a dangerous group.
Sarah:Oh my goodness, I mean love them, but you scare me a little bit.
Brandi:Yeah, they can take over anything, they want One of our closest friends.
Sarah:They're going to fight for her to get there because it's bringing their venue brand awareness. It's bringing them money. It's bringing people to them. It's bringing the town money because people are coming to.
Brandi:Oh yeah, her economic impact on the places she went, yeah was insane, like, if you're a taylor hater, I'm sorry, but she is. She does help a lot of people. Just make some directly and indirectly.
Brandi:so say what you want, but um, so obviously her tickets are going to be a little bit more. I mean the general economics of supply and demand. But that's also why the resale value was so high was because there weren't enough for the demand. So that's where kind of the resale people get really upset that they're expensive, and that's just people playing the supply and demand game.
Sarah:Right, it's like you're not doing anything wrong, but really.
Rachael:My financial advisor was telling me that he has clients that straight up buy tickets and resell them as like a side hustle and they make six figures just off of reselling tickets and I'm like how the hell can I get into that business?
Brandi:Because it takes a lot of time and you do have to understand you're going to take losses yeah yeah, and it's.
Rachael:It's kind of like a betting game, like you have to like try to find the right place to buy the ticket, find the right market to resell.
Brandi:You have the timing of it you have so a lot of those professional people also have, are the bots so, and that's a whole other that's what you gotta look out for too.
Sarah:It's. It's almost hard to differentiate Like bots are getting good. It seems like Absolutely.
Brandi:Yeah, they're smart, they're smart, they're getting good and that's why, like a lot of artists are upset with Ticketmaster and some of these other ones, because they aren't updating their security like they need to and allowing these bots to come in during pre-sales and buy everything up. And that's what happened in the heiress tour during her pre-sale was, if you were in her newsletter, you got into a drawing to become in the pre-sale. If you bought some of her merch like I had bought her Midnight's Vinyl One I wanted it, but two. I also wanted an extra ticket into the pre-sale Interesting. So I got selected in that presale and it was the hardest thing to get tickets, like I was originally getting them for a bigger group and then I was finally like fuck it, I'm just getting two and I'll bring someone to go with me. You just couldn't find seats together because they were going so fast. Um, and they were actually able to stop the bots there, cause usually they'll come into a presale and just buy everything up Because they have limits.
Sarah:I would think at like a certain point.
Brandi:So people aren't just buying 100 tickets. It's eight at a time, but a bot can still go in in milliseconds and place these. Yeah, a lot faster you know, yeah, and they could have multiple computers set up running these bots Like it's a whole operation, easy. But like Taylor Swift pres bots like it's a whole operation, um, but like taylor swiss pre-sale.
Rachael:They sold out during the pre-sale, so the general population couldn't even buy tickets.
Brandi:And then people in the pre-sale froze up in the queues and weren't even like able to like attempt to get tickets. And that's where, like, a lot of the criticism from the swifties came in was like you guys don't even have a platform that can support this demand. Like Taylor's team had reached out to them Like, if we do this, can you support it? And they were like yeah, yeah, yeah, we got this.
Brandi:I remember that and then they couldn't and there was actually there's actually a class action lawsuit with about 400 people from Swifties about them not being able to get tickets. I don't know if it's actually going to go anywhere, because it's just kind of stay tuned and find out. It's just kind of like a luck of the the draw, like I got lucky and got two tickets, but it's a, it's a whole it's a whole thing.
Sarah:I remember when all that happened and I could probably be totally wrong and probably just something that I heard or a rumor, but I thought when all of that was and taylor's team had had questioned what everything was going on, I thought that she was trying to go off and like sell her own tickets on her own. I, that's still.
Brandi:I thought that that was like. That's not enough time from the time that happened to now. There's not enough time to develop that. And that makes total sense. She has made comments about if she can take things inside for her team to make her fans a better experience she's going to do it. So I have no doubt in my mind that her next tour.
Sarah:you're buying tickets on TaylorSwiftcom. I can see it. That was something I was going to do. If somebody's going to change the game, it would be her Right Exactly.
Brandi:I could see it. That was something I was into. If somebody's going to change the game, it would be her Right Exactly Now. The only other thing about that, though, this kind of goes back to Ticketmaster In their contracts, like they are partnering with, like these big amphitheaters, and basically forcing them to use Ticketmaster Right. So if the venue, like if an artist wants to play at, like the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater here, they have to use Ticketmaster Interesting, and that's another part of their criticism.
Sarah:I know we're seeing some younger artists too, or not as well-known artists. I'm also going wrong with this. I'm pretty sure Alex Warren also tried to sell his own tickets on his own for very, very small venues. He's going to bars still. He's just up and coming getting his name out. I guess this is a little bit more now than it was previously, but anyways, he saw that there were posts on social media about people who were already buying tickets for one of his concerts and he went on social and he's like I don't know where you're finding this, but like there is one source for tickets, it is on this site. This is the release date. Like if you bought tickets, like go and try and get your money back because they haven't been released yet. So I'm like I don't know if that would cause more problems to have all these artists sell their own tickets. Obviously, like you said, it depends on the venue, but I don't know if that would be more beneficial for all parties involved.
Brandi:I don't think each individual artist should do it. It can limit them for sure. Well, they would have to have the money to build their own platform.
Brandi:I could see them picking a third-party platform other than Ticketmaster. And that's like what the big Department of Justice lawsuit is with Ticketmaster is you're a monopoly and you are not allowing any competition to come in and make it a healthy pricing for people. You have no competition. You set the pricing, you set all of this and you're squashing or buying out your competition and like there's laws around that obviously. And that's that's the big one.
Sarah:You just want to go to concerts and hear music and not have to give up an arm and a leg to go and do it Correct.
Rachael:So new information even just came out today on this lawsuit. So what's kind of do we know the next steps? Have they made a decision?
Brandi:I mean it's the courts. I mean this could take years. It could be a settlement. I know there's. I mean this isn't the first time the Live Nations holding company has had a lawsuit like this. I don't know if you guys were involved, but I think this was. I think I was in college and they had lost a lawsuit and I got like eight free concert tickets.
Rachael:Oh, like, I got vouchers.
Brandi:Well, I was also at that time. I was buying like the country mega tickets and stuff when that was a thing, so I was spending a lot of money on live nation, cause that's when they were had their own, like they weren't, they were kind of separate, yeah, and part of the lawsuit was, instead of giving people back their their money, cause that would cost them more, oh yeah, they just gave us ticket vouchers that we could use on shows and I got like eight of them, cause I went to a lot of shows, um, so again, if that's the outcome of it, I'm I'm okay with that, cause I'm going to use them. Other people would probably want their money, um, but that's harder to do, you know, cause when you do a ticket voucher, you're still going to the venue and spending money, and I think so it's a little easier for everyone involved to take a hit that way, is there a difference in the type of venue that you support, like, is it better to go to a smaller venue versus, you know, a big arena?
Brandi:Oh, absolutely. I mean, yeah, it's basically you shopping at a little boutique versus Walmart, yeah, small business versus.
Sarah:Honestly, though I mean I think it depends on, like, the artists that you're seeing and the type of music too, because I mean, I'm all for big stadium tours too. But there's some times where I've seen, like seen, like you know, luke Combs before he was really selling out big stadiums and like, oh, this was so cool that I got to see him before like everything got crazy and with a bunch of fans, um, or go the opposite way with, like, garth Brooks, who he's played at every major stadium ever and he did a whole tour where you're just going to dive bars and he wasn't announcing them and it's it's a personal setting where the fans, the real true fans, get to experience that, because I think that's the one thing that's also just unfair in general, but I don't really know a solution to it is, yeah, the big fans who don't get the opportunity to go and see you know, taylor or whoever else you want to see, because of financial reasons.
Sarah:But it's like I want you to go and see them. Like, yeah, it just sucks, it has to be such a big financial.
Brandi:Yeah, I think it really comes down to like what the performer like they're if they can sell out an arena they're going to go to the arena. Yeah, that makes sense. They're going to get more tickets. They're going to get more people in. You know I can only Like the resale. So Sabrina Carpenter she was originally. She came to St Louis earlier this year and they had booked her. I wish I had gotten like tickets when they first announced it, so it was before she got big like before.
Sarah:She was on the Heiress Tour and everything. She just snapped a finger and popped up. Well, she's been around but made it popular.
Brandi:Taylor had a lot to do with it because she was on the heiress tour with her. But, um, they were at a small venue, they were at the factory and by the time the show came up like she had blown up and tickets were five, six hundred dollars for, like I mean, there's not a bad seat in that venue. Yeah, because it's small, but I'm not paying that much to see her. Again, that comes down to supply and demand. But if they could have switched venues.
Rachael:The price would have gone down.
Brandi:Yeah, because there would have been more available. Yeah, so I'm sure next time she comes she will be at a much bigger arena. You know, you know arena or whatever, but at the time she wasn't big, so her team was like here, this is a good medium sized venue, let's do this one Right, like that. I mean that happens Like they can't control it, the venues can't control it. Contracts are already in place, like by the time they're promoting it to the public, it's, you know, it's too late.
Sarah:It's a business still.
Rachael:This is me just being like the optimist of the world and not thinking that consumerism needs to be as big of a thing. But can't you just sell the concert tickets at the price you're going to originally sell them and it's sold out at the factory and you're not trying to? Or these are people who are buying her tickets and then trying to resell them. That's what it is, yeah yeah, yeah.
Brandi:So it sold out and everyone bought them at FaceTime. It's not the venue upping the price, it was because it's just these other people trying to resell them.
Sarah:Correct, and you're reselling it because you don't want to just make the $500 that you purchased that ticket for. I mean, there's a lot of people who will spend even more money than that for those tickets.
Rachael:And this is where the states come in with certain laws that they have in place, or certain countries have in place, because they don't allow people to do that, which I didn't know.
Sarah:I mean, I knew there was nothing like no federal law or anything for the states like that, but different states have different ones and I did not realize. I mean, I'm an Illinoisan, there's no An Illinoisan. I think that's a word it is. That's what we're called Illinois. We're annoying. There are some states that you have to have specific licensing in order to be able to resell tickets. Yep, and that's not all of them, and I think it was Illinois, new York and there's one more I can't remember the other one but Missouri allows the sale of admission tickets legal events at any price.
Brandi:I mean when they start putting limits on them. That's when these people doing it full-time and part-time are really going to take a hit. Yeah. And so those people are like no, you can't tell me what I can, it's supplying to me and you have to.
Sarah:I bought it, I can do whatever I want with it. Yeah of, like, I bought it, I can do whatever I want with it. Yeah, so one thing I was. I was very and maybe because I live under a rock, but I didn't hear too much about this um with Taylor. I heard about a lot of resale just horror stories and people getting scammed all the time. But I heard about Billie Eilish and her coming into town and her new tour and it's written on Ticketmaster's website underneath her tour description that they have restricted ticket transfers so you can only buy your tickets on Ticketmaster. You can't resell them anywhere. You have to use their platform.
Rachael:But then you transfer them through Ticketmaster as well and you can resell them on there.
Brandi:Yeah, but then you pay them the fee Exactly. So again, that's the artist's way of protecting their fans. But again, who's monopolizing it then?
Sarah:I don't know if that's happened before. The first time that I read that it's happened.
Brandi:No, more and more people are doing that, and that's just to help them. It's to help bots from coming in Right.
Sarah:And that's understandable.
Brandi:Putting them on SeatGeek and you know all the other game time. You know whatever those resale ones are. I've got all of them because I check each and every one when I go to buy resale just so I can get the best deal. But yeah, no, that happens frequently, but people just don't like really look into it.
Sarah:As we're seeing on Tik TOK, all the people were really upset. They bought tickets they thought were real from other platforms.
Rachael:Yeah, Well people are going to take advantage of people anyway, they can.
Brandi:Oh, I got these fake tickets I'm going to. I'm good at making these fake tickets. I'm good at making these fake tickets. I'm going to score money and run have either one of you ever gotten fake tickets?
Sarah:Have you ever been caught in that situation? No, no, no. Have you Knock on wood? I haven't been caught in that situation. I did know a co-worker I had for the Taylor Swift. She got scammed like a thousand dollars from buying tickets she thought was legit for one of her Taylor shows and they were very much not legit.
Rachael:Or one of our mutual friends on Facebook. Her Facebook got hacked. My grandma's got hacked too, yeah, and they almost fell for that because I'm like oh my.
Sarah:God, it's someone I know. It's someone I know, yeah.
Rachael:So multiple people messaged me and they were like hey, I know you're friends with her on Facebook. Like, is this legit? Like, should I reach out to her? Like, I saw her post and I'm like it's not legit. She got hacked.
Brandi:Don't reach out to her. Well, so like there's several of us grandchildren that are Swifties and my grandma was like this isn't real. If I had tickets I was getting rid of, they would go to my grandchildren that want to go. And all of this, like she's like, first of all, I can't even afford them at face value, like why would I, you know, why would I even have these in the first place? But again like yeah, people are getting good at that. And like I refuse. Unless I know the person, I don't buy anything through, like Facebook or anything like that because I don't buy anything through like Facebook or anything like that.
Brandi:Yeah, yeah, because.
Rachael:I don't. It's too easy to get scammed yeah.
Brandi:Even like for St Louis blues. Like I'm on a in a Facebook group and people like sell them all the time. And I'm like there are now people that go in and comment like this is a verified seller, like if it's someone they've bought from before or whatever, they'll come in and kind of promote them like hey, I've used them before, they're legit. And you actually see that in a lot of like festival groups too.
Rachael:Yeah. So we went to dance fest in Kansas city and so this is an example of you probably pay a higher price, but it goes towards a good cause. I feel like, and I feel like I'm much more likely to buy because of that, absolutely. So Dance Fest happens in Kansas every year. It's about an hour south of Kansas City, yeah, and it is at a like kids' summer camp and this is like their giant fundraiser for the year. So they sell festival tickets. You can go all seven days, you can go three days you can do. The fun part is camping in the forest. So you can buy, like, the camping in the forest pass. You can do a car camping pass, you can do an rv pass.
Brandi:They even have two of the larger cabins on site that you can rent, but those go like.
Rachael:For hell. It's like $9,000. But they sold out immediately because you can fit like 20 people in it.
Brandi:Yeah, so yeah.
Rachael:Yeah, so maybe one day, maybe when we all become rich, but so, and then you get like your shower passes, you know all that kind of stuff, and then they bring in vendors and you know you can support local from that perspective. But I feel like that type of setup, like knowing that your money's going to benefit the kids, I'm much more likely to give my money to that versus an arena per se, absolutely, and I don't know. In my mind I'm just kind of I do love music, like I appreciate music, but I'm also the type of person like, hey, if I didn't get the ticket, like it's not meant be, I'm not going to intentionally go out of my way to make it happen, but I feel like some people do get very crazy about it and they will do whatever it takes to track down that ticket.
Sarah:Oh, my gosh. I I'm all about like trying to find the best value for like ticket value, like best bang for my buck, best seat that I can get for that price, but, yeah, at a certain point I'm like it's just not worth it.
Brandi:I'll, I'll give it up, I'll catch him next time or I have.
Rachael:I have like a price in my head for certain people, like I said, Sabrina Carpenter when it showed five $600, I'm like I love her.
Brandi:I'd love to see her.
Brandi:Like the show has gotten a lot of like great reviews, publicity, I'm like, but I'm not paying $500 to see her. Like, yeah, I'll just watch her videos on TikTok, like I, you know. So I kind of have a mental limit in my head, yeah, and then if it goes over that, then I'm just like, oh, it is what it is. I also because I'm I go to concerts by myself all the time, like if I want to go and no one else can or wants to day of you can usually find good deals. I haven't done that before. I've heard people like I bought tickets one time 30 minutes before the show.
Sarah:So I had a friend who actually did that for the Taylor Swift concert in Indiana and I was very scared for her. I'm like make sure they're actually real and you're going to drive. The concert starts at an hour.
Brandi:I bought mine through ticket master. Like I said, for resale, I'm. It's one of those, those websites.
Sarah:Can you still do it online day of, or is it like? Yeah, because it just goes to your phone Cause I'm still thinking like you can do it after the.
Brandi:Like when the openers are still going on. Like you can, oh, you know.
Sarah:I actually I was at a concert once where we had empty seats it wasn't like a full concert and some people came in like no, we just bought tickets 20 minutes ago and like the concert was halfway done, Like we were just walking around outside.
Brandi:Mine was the last minute. Like I want to see them. I don't like this too last minute for me to ask people I'll start see them. I don't like this to last minute for me to ask people making a point of doing that. And, funny enough, the girl I stood next to did the same thing and she was by herself and we became friends because we were just two single girls at the show had the same idea, yeah, and I was like what are the coincidence?
Brandi:you know that this happens. Um, yeah, I also did it for another show and the guy that sold the ticket sat right next to me, you know, and he's like, hey, thanks for buying my ticket today. My friend backed out and I was like no problem, that was the first time that had ever happened.
Sarah:I mean, there, things definitely happen, and I am one I never believed in. Like the radio ticket sweepstakes or like the competitions or whatever you do. Share like this, post this, post a picture Whatever you get free concert tickets. Have you won stuff?
Sarah:I did, oh, recently this was in college, okay, but it was the radio station. I think it might have been like post a picture sponsored by Miller Lite or something and post a picture of you with a Miller Lite and on Facebook and you'll be entered in for free tickets. I don't know, I'm probably a sophomore in college and I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? I have a really cute picture of me holding a Bud Light or a Miller Lite and so I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? Lo and behold, like a month later I got an email saying I won tickets and I'm like, well, is this a scam? I don't know. They had a phone number called it. No, it was the actual radio station like phone number. So like, yeah, you won the tickets. I had to drive out there and go and pick them up. I also assumed there would be some sort's always like a catch or something.
Brandi:But the radio, like if they're a sponsoring station they get yeah like a lot of tickets for promoting the show and sponsoring it. You get x amount of tickets. So they're going to give some to their employees you know to to have, and then the rest of them. What better way to promote a show than being like hey, call in and win these tickets, like Like it was so much fun and they, yeah, they had us in like their little sponsored area.
Sarah:So, yeah, great seats got some free stuff. The funny part was and I I'm actually really curious thinking about this now if it was more about the ticket provider or about the venue. But at that concert that we were at, it was a festival jingle ball, jingle fest, jingle fest, jingle fest is out here Um five different artists that were supposed to be there. Well, it was the night of the really really terrible ice storm that we had.
Brandi:I remember that and I knew a lot of people going to that, trying to go to that show.
Sarah:I won these two tickets and I'm like, and I'm like, well, they were free. I mean we're going to go, Took us like two hours to drive, we had like 12th row tickets. Um, but the security guard who I guess my friend and I were, you know, kind of making friends with um was like oh, I think right, they're like, oh, 12.
Sarah:No, I see that as a two. So they gave us the wristbands to go into the pit and we're like this is awesome. So then, when one of the artists came out and said he was going to do another concert, same place. No one has to buy extra tickets, Like, if you still have your ticket, you're able to get in, that's awesome. So we did, and we still had our Pit Risk fans too.
Sarah:Yes, so we got to go to another free concert with the same pit passes and go and see it all over again. But that made me think. I don't know. I wonder if that was the artist who actually made the payment to the venue to be able to do that remake concert, or if it was with the ticketing company.
Brandi:My guess would be, on how it works, is they probably both decided because it was a bad? Storm, I mean it was my guess is they both, especially the venue, probably wrote it off on their taxes, I mean because they lost a lot of money in just concessions parking, things like that. So for them to bring those people back in quote unquote free. They're making their money back in parking in concessions in beer, that's you know so for them to bring the crowd back on a better date benefits them too.
Brandi:They probably actually made their money back and then more honestly so because they still had the ticket money from the first show, you know. So they made the profit off that. And then you know, I mean I'm sure it wasn't as much as like a normal show, but they still brought people in and did the concessions and all that.
Rachael:So, yeah, people are very committed to seeing their artists, though, because I was at the Post Malone concert when the torrential downpour happened.
Sarah:And people were flooded.
Rachael:Yeah, like people could not get out of the parking lot because it was so flooded. Like it came in that fast and Posty was just singing along and everybody was for it and then eventually they had to evacuate everybody. Or the same thing when we all saw Green Day, and like that huge thunderstorm was coming in and the guy's playing his guitar and he's like you all need to leave now. But I'm going to keep playing this because you know, this is important.
Brandi:Yeah, and he actually stopped mid-song and was like no, keep walking, Keep walking, keep walking.
Sarah:I'll play it.
Rachael:But people are like no like I will suffer through this. Just to hear you, I'll get struck by lightning. To listen to you sing, I will listen to you Exactly?
Brandi:Yeah, because that was a lightning storm for that one.
Rachael:So people care about their music.
Brandi:They do. Yeah, and I think I'm actually you know I'm one of those. I won't get political, but it is nice to see that the Department of Justice is going after Ticketmaster just to bring in some healthy competition. Yeah, Because if you're you know that'll automatically drop prices. Yeah, Now, I don't want it to drop to where it impacts venues. Correct, we want people to keep their jobs, but I think it'll help them long-term because right now, if they have a contract with Ticketmaster or they want this artist to come, they have to use Ticketmaster Like 99% maybe not 99%, but a majority of the time. And I know there's other ways out there. There's other platforms to use, because festivals use them.
Brandi:I have not once bought a festival, a music festival ticket, from Ticketmaster. I don't think I have either there are other, there are other platforms out there.
Sarah:I mean, yeah, like the country mega ticket would be like the closest thing really, because that was Live Nation, yeah, but those are like individual concerts. You know it wasn't like everyone there. Yeah, no, it's usually through their own website, where they have a different. Well, it's not theirs, it's a third party, right? Yeah, the provider gets embedded into their website, but I've never gone to like a multi-day.
Brandi:I mean okay. On to like a multi-day, I mean, okay, I take that back. There's point fest here in st louis, oh, but that's like oh well, they do the amphitheater and the amphitheater uses is a partner with ticket master, so they have to that kind of thing. But like dance fest.
Rachael:We didn't have to. Yeah, when we were young was a ticket master.
Brandi:Um, I've been to incarceration in ohio. They didn't use them. So now in country, thunder was ticket master either. Yeah, so there are other avenues out there in the.
Sarah:I've been to Incarceration in Ohio. They didn't use them. So now Incarceration? I don't think Country.
Brandi:Thunder was Ticketmaster either. Yeah, so there are other avenues out there and the festival world has switched. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't think about that. They still have service fees and stuff because the venue still requires money, right, and the artist doesn't necessarily want to give up more of their split of it. It just comes down to everyone wants to make some money.
Rachael:Yeah, but a little bit of service fees versus a shit ton of service fees makes a huge difference, because when over half of your cost is service fees, or almost half like that's just getting a little ridiculous at that point, that was my beer money that I would have spent at the venue.
Sarah:Yeah, I mean come on, you could have gotten like two or three beers with that.
Brandi:I did, I did read. The average service fee is about 27% of the face value. Oh my gosh. That's crazy yeah.
Rachael:That could be like 10%, that's reasonable.
Brandi:Well, I mean, I was talking to some friends like this whole Warped Tour, you know revival, yeah, this talking to some friends like this whole warp tour, you know revival, yeah, like one. They obviously aren't going to do it the old school way, like that's just not what. Yeah, concert like festivals are the thing now, like they're what's popular, like they're trying to kind of write off when we were young, I think, yeah, and but I mean they're a hell of a lot more expensive than they used to be when they traveled across the country. Yeah, you know, like it was $40. We're going to bring it back, maybe, maybe $5 in service fees, right, if that. Like, because they wanted those teenagers to come in spend their allowance and I mean there are older people there too, Use their last bit of gas money to get there.
Rachael:That's why they're targeting them when we were young people, because it's all of us now that are in our 30s that are like nostalgic, but have the salary to pay for it. Sometimes I don't know.
Brandi:Some of these. I think we're a very privileged demographic of millennials, because there are still a lot of them out there that you know. This is like they save up all year to go. You know, I get, I I'm in all these Facebook groups cause I'm weird and I, you know, do my research and want to learn about the best way to get through these festivals and things like that, and there's a lot of people that are just like.
Sarah:Hey, we saved up for a whole year.
Brandi:Oh yeah, like, but someone backed out and we have no car to get there and I'm like, okay, well, if you don't have part of me. It's like, well, if you don't have a car to get there, I don't know, but at the same time, like, this is like their one thing a year. I mean, for some people this is like their church. Like they go and this is where they like have their people. They just experience things you know, especially EDM festivals Like there's a whole other world.
Brandi:Oh yeah, and you know some people, that's how. It's a community. Yeah, exactly, and that's how, like they kind of recharge themselves. Yeah, you know things like that. So that like they kind of recharge themselves yeah, you know things like that. So that some people want relaxing vacations.
Sarah:Some people want to rage in the forest with a bunch of friends.
Brandi:Yeah, and so, like that's the, you know, that's kind of like the balance here. Like you want people to be able to afford to go, and I think we as a girl gang are very privileged in the fact that we do make the money to where we're like oh yeah, this is. I mean, this is a lot of money, but like we can do it.
Rachael:Yeah, to be fair, we also none of us have kids. So if you also take into fact many of our peers, exactly, we have like two to three children at least at this point.
Brandi:Well, it's actually Even one's expensive. Yeah, we have a little bit extra, but definitely a privilege.
Sarah:I'm not the one who's going to go out and get my nails done and my hair done a lot of the time.
Rachael:Oh yeah, we don't care about that. Yeah, that's just not me personally. I mean, I love to go and get it done every once in a Right priorities.
Sarah:I'd rather spend that $100 I would have used for the nail tech to go to a different concert.
Rachael:Absolutely yeah, just priorities and everyone's different.
Sarah:Some people want to go and get that massage or get their hair done because that's what makes them feel special and happy, and that's totally cool too.
Brandi:I mean, I bought a whole, like when we went to Dance Fest. I bought a whole new rave wardrobe Like I didn't wear other than underwear and my undergarments.
Brandi:Everything else was brand new. I bought all new. I have stuff, but I'm like this is EDM. This is the one time to just wear the weird stuff. Wear the fun over the top. No one's going to look twice at you. Honestly, we were pretty tame compared to a lot of people. Like we played it safe and we I'll probably have to get all new clothes. I have a rave closet now, so you're more than welcome to come over and grab some stuff.
Rachael:The fact that a lot of my festivals were more country hoedown, I got my boots and all I'm I'm.
Brandi:I've been there too, yeah.
Sarah:But not necessarily the right ones.
Rachael:Yeah Well, Girl Gang is taking on Dance Fest again.
Brandi:And we do theme days. Yeah, yeah, dress-up days.
Rachael:Oh yes.
Brandi:But yeah, you know, I feel like there's a happy medium here, yes, where the venues, the artists, the promoters, they get their fair share. But it's still reasonable for the concert goers, because at some point you're going to drive people to the point where they can't afford to go and then you're really not making any money because you have a bunch of unsold tickets.
Sarah:Right, or are they going to switch to? I see a lot more people doing like the concert movies, like the recording of their concert and then putting on Roku or something. Yeah, I'm wondering, even if something were to really mess up and let's say you know the world boycotts, you know the ticket provider or the venues because we're just, we don't have that money, Are people just going to? Are concerts not going to be a thing anymore, Like movie theaters are going to go away because now everything is streamed online.
Sarah:Are concerts going to be streamed online? That would be so sad.
Rachael:I don't think we'll ever get to that point, but I think there is going to be like there's going to be a cap. Yeah, there's going to be a time and a place, because at the end of the day, you still have to make sure that people can afford their groceries, like invest in the overall economy, not just the concert economy. So there's got to be. That's probably why DOJ is stepping in too, because they're like yo, you can't spend as much on concerts.
Brandi:so people can buy other things and like not freaking lose their houses and stuff there's been. So I there's this festival account it's called festive owl that I follow and his all his content is like lineups and like what's happening with all of these festivals around the world, kind of gives you some inside information on like if there's an accident or like someone pulls an artist, pulls out lots of really useful information and he's got a lot of insiders. So there's been so many of them that have had really, really low ticket sales and that's why they do a lot of like lower like, they do the tiered pricing, because they want to get those people to buy the tickets early so they can use that money to basically set up the concert early, so they can use that money to basically set up the concert. Well, they're finding that, with the current economy and everything, that people aren't buying them early because they don't want to risk, they don't want to have their money tied up in something that's happening eight months from now.
Sarah:That makes sense. Work two or two is I don't want to buy the tickets until I see who's actually going to be there. Yeah, I don't think they should do that that's dumb.
Brandi:That's a whole other conversation. But like these festivals that have been around for like a decade are no longer like they're canceling, refunding everyone their money and shutting down because they're not getting enough interest. Because people used to go to five or six festivals, can only go to maybe one or two now.
Rachael:Yeah, they've got to pick and choose a lot.
Brandi:So, not only is the economy not helping, but the service fees are adding up to it.
Brandi:I mean, again, depending on the breakdown, like it does go to people. Like I love my smaller venues and like people being able to work there and basically supporting local, but at the same time, I need to be able to, like everyone needs to be able to afford to live. So I really think it's there's no one right answer, um, and I'm hoping so. Basically, the department of justice is basically going to make live nation sell off part of Ticketmaster, and so I mean, that's what you do with monopolies, like when they I mean, we could get into the science world Monsanto when they bought no, sorry, when Bayer bought Monsanto, they had to sell off a portion of it because they were going to own too much of the industry. Like there's so many laws in place and I'm honestly kind of upset it's taken the government this long to step in but they will basically have to sell part of Ticketmaster in their company shares or whatever, and allow other competition to come in and sell tickets.
Sarah:I'm curious to see how that plays out.
Rachael:So I think overall we love you concerts. We don't want you to go away. I don't think we'll ever get to that point. Can we just make it a tiny bit more affordable?
Sarah:and put that giving back to the community. Factor back into it too, because I like that.
Brandi:Well, yeah, that's true.
Rachael:Come back to the community aspect. So if you're a concert goer, make sure that you keep tabs on Ticketmaster, all the things that are happening there. Do some research. We definitely had to dig in because, you know, all of us were like, why are we getting screwed out of all this money? And we learned a lot as we were researching this episode. So do your research. Support your local venues. Make sure you buy merch from artists Absolutely.
Rachael:Now more than ever Exactly and spread the word of great artists and new people that you think we should check out as we go along and we will definitely keep you guys posted, like when they come up with a decision, we will definitely be talking about it.
Sarah:I'm sure there'll be a part two. Absolutely Let us know what your worst or best ticketing experience has been.
Rachael:Yeah, or you can even text us, because at the beginning of each episode we now have a text the girl gang option. So we'd love to hear from you and until next time, stay bold stay empowered. Girl gang out.
Sarah:Thanks for tuning in to Girl Gang, a Millennial Musings podcast. Don't forget to check out our blog at girlgangpodcastcom and catch new episodes dropping on the 1st and 15th each month. If you loved this episode, be sure to like, follow and share it on social media. Tag us at girl underscore gang underscore podcast and let us know your thoughts, topic, ideas or stories. You might just inspire our next episode.
