Newspaper reviews on the the failed livenation ticket system

[Steele1161]

http://mashable.com/2009/01/30/live-nation-phish/

Live Nation, which dropped Ticketmaster in favor of its own ticketing system earlier this month, is feeling the pinch today as a rush of fans seeking tickets for Phish’s summer tour slam the site. The system is rendering error messages and simply not loading for many customers as they attempt to checkout.

As usual, Twitter search tells the story best, as users voice their frustrations and vow to never use the service again:


http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/phi ... 6725.story

But the blogosphere was blistering with frustrated fans unable to get tickets on the new LiveNation.com ticketing system, which seemed to crack under the strain of the massive demand.


http://www.earvolution.com/2009/02/phis ... ations.asp

Live Nation, a spin-off of the detestable Clear Channel Communications network, wants to challenge Ticketmaster as the go-to site for tickets. Instead of providing a more fan-friendly alternative, Friday’s performance has resulted in praise for Ticketmaster’s ability to handle large scale tickets sales.

Anyone around for the Pearl Jam v. Ticketmaster brawl in the 90s could never have foreseen a day when music fans would yearn for Ticketmaster as the ticket vendor of choice.


http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/arch ... 46110.aspx


Although Live Nation Ticketing is up and running, when can we expect to see its first big test?

I don’t know what you mean but I can tell you that we’re fully under way. We’ve converted almost 80 venues across the country. We sold out a Dead show at (the 22,000-capacity) Shoreline Amphitheatre last weekend. We’ve got a bunch of big amphitheatre shows already going on sale. All of our North American owned-and-operated venues at this point are converted over. So, if you want a big launch, there you go.

We’ve undergone the largest transition in the history of the industry and so far we’re very pleased with how it’s gone. We’re not going out and making a bunch of noise about Live Nation Ticketing in the marketplace but, rather, leveraging the marketing around an artist and their show to direct fans to LiveNation.com.


http://phish.com/news/index.php?year=2009#story420

PHISH Website - THIS WEEKEND'S ONSALES 02.01.09
We have heard from many fans regarding this past weekend's onsales, particularly the shows that went on sale via Live Nation's website. Many of you experienced extremely long wait times, error messages, and quite simply, an inability to get through and purchase tickets. Clearly, the system was unable to handle the extraordinary demand. We're very sensitive to making the process of getting Phish tickets as straightforward as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your continued support and patience.


More to come....

[SchoolGirlHeart]

and that was just the p*ssed off PHISH fans, never mind the JB crowd.....

"cracked"....?? How about "imploded"....

[SchoolGirlHeart]

If Live Nation had any brains AT ALL, it would VERY QUICKLY reenlist Ticketmaster to sell its shows........

[ScarletB]

Funny to read the same kind of posts from Phish fans complaining that "real fans" can't get tickets. Sounds eerily familiar!

[surfpirate]

It's probably best that artists and venues have more than one choice (Ticketmaster and Live Nation) forcing the two ticketing systems to wise up and improve (and be better than the other) so as to avoid this bad publicity.

Otherwise, what's their incentive to improve? Phish and Jimmy Buffett WILL SELL OUT, problems with the massive online crush be dambed.

And other shows won't strain the system, so not a problem.

But if the venues and artists have a choice between the two, they'll choose the better, more effective system.

Works in theory at least.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

It's probably best that artists and venues have more than one choice (Ticketmaster and Live Nation) forcing the two ticketing systems to wise up and improve (and be better than the other) so as to avoid this bad publicity.

Otherwise, what's their incentive to improve? Phish and Jimmy Buffett WILL SELL OUT, problems with the massive online crush be dambed.

And other shows won't strain the system, so not a problem.

But if the venues and artists have a choice between the two, they'll choose the better, more effective system.

Works in theory at least.

But they don't have more than one choice.... Live Nation decided they would ticket all their shows. The shows being sold by ticketmaster aren't live nation shows. So there's not really any choice that I can see...

[surfpirate]

It's probably best that artists and venues have more than one choice (Ticketmaster and Live Nation) forcing the two ticketing systems to wise up and improve (and be better than the other) so as to avoid this bad publicity.

Otherwise, what's their incentive to improve? Phish and Jimmy Buffett WILL SELL OUT, problems with the massive online crush be dambed.

And other shows won't strain the system, so not a problem.

But if the venues and artists have a choice between the two, they'll choose the better, more effective system.

Works in theory at least.

But they don't have more than one choice.... Live Nation decided they would ticket all their shows. The shows being sold by ticketmaster aren't live nation shows. So there's not really any choice that I can see...

I'm sure the venues and artists and promoters are bound to contracts that will expire ... at which time they'll either be renewed or they'll opt for the other system if it is better. Same thing for Live Nation's experiment with signing an exclusive (3 year) agreement with Blockbuster to be their brick and mortar retail outlet.

[pema]

It's probably best that artists and venues have more than one choice (Ticketmaster and Live Nation) forcing the two ticketing systems to wise up and improve (and be better than the other) so as to avoid this bad publicity.

Otherwise, what's their incentive to improve? Phish and Jimmy Buffett WILL SELL OUT, problems with the massive online crush be dambed.

And other shows won't strain the system, so not a problem.

But if the venues and artists have a choice between the two, they'll choose the better, more effective system.

Works in theory at least.

that is assuming that the artists care about their fans, cuz like you said, certain shows will sell out regardless of whether the ticketing system is fair. Phish has proven that they do. dunno about certain other folks

but overall, i agree that having two ticketing systems is a good thing.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

It's probably best that artists and venues have more than one choice (Ticketmaster and Live Nation) forcing the two ticketing systems to wise up and improve (and be better than the other) so as to avoid this bad publicity.

Otherwise, what's their incentive to improve? Phish and Jimmy Buffett WILL SELL OUT, problems with the massive online crush be dambed.

And other shows won't strain the system, so not a problem.

But if the venues and artists have a choice between the two, they'll choose the better, more effective system.

Works in theory at least.

But they don't have more than one choice.... Live Nation decided they would ticket all their shows. The shows being sold by ticketmaster aren't live nation shows. So there's not really any choice that I can see...

I'm sure the venues and artists and promoters are bound to contracts that will expire ... at which time they'll either be renewed or they'll opt for the other system if it is better. Same thing for Live Nation's experiment with signing an exclusive (3 year) agreement with Blockbuster to be their brick and mortar retail outlet.

True, eventually there will be choices, just not right now. We the consumers are stuck with what they shove down our throats.... Sure, we could vote with our feet and wallets and not see shows, but realistically unless nearly everyone boycotted live music it wouldn't make any difference....

[Dezdmona]

Sure, we could vote with our feet and wallets and not see shows, but realistically unless nearly everyone boycotted live music it wouldn't make any difference....

Aside from Buffett, that's pretty much what we've done the last couple of years.

[magnus & Mr Moon]

If Live Nation had any brains AT ALL, it would VERY QUICKLY reenlist Ticketmaster to sell its shows........

Or put the Chicago tickets on sale for a Monday hoping to lighten the load? That is going to be almost impossible since I can't log in from work and sure can't stroll in after lunch. Ok I will give it up now - I have complained too much and we did get front section seats for Raleigh - just 2 seats apart.

And the comments about the Phis tickets - entertaining and yes Scarlett - for similar to some comments I heard today. Although - had to agree with one of those posters - does Live Nation really care if they sell the show out in 3 hours vs. 10 minutes? Prolly not.

[RinglingRingling]

and let's not forget that neither system takes care of the fans with the "charity fee", the "convenience fee", the "parking fee", etc. it's one band of rapacious bastards vs another band of rapacious bastards, with the only difference being their degree of competence.

[RinglingRingling]

If Live Nation had any brains AT ALL, it would VERY QUICKLY reenlist Ticketmaster to sell its shows........

Or put the Chicago tickets on sale for a Monday hoping to lighten the load? That is going to be almost impossible since I can't log in from work and sure can't stroll in after lunch. Ok I will give it up now - I have complained too much and we did get front section seats for Raleigh - just 2 seats apart.

And the comments about the Phis tickets - entertaining and yes Scarlett - for similar to some comments I heard today. Although - had to agree with one of those posters - does Live Nation really care if they sell the show out in 3 hours vs. 10 minutes? Prolly not.

improvements:

a) do not put high-attraction events on sale the same day. thus Phish and Buffett.. stupid
b) do not put shows from one act in the same timezone together: no Buffett Indy, Chicago, Alpine, and Cinci tickets all on sale on a Sat. morning.
c) actually test the system under max load rather than when you have 4 calls an hour about the Pat Paulsen Reunion tour

[bchlvrs]

We were on two computers and locked out of both. Finally got tickets on one computer after about 45 minutes of trying. Just for fun we looked at LiveNation.com today and lawn tickets are still available for the Raleigh show. WHAT A SURPRISE!! Never knew a Buffett show not to sell out in under 30 minutes!!! Any new word on the Bristow show?? Please post.
Thanks - Phins Up

[Tarheel Tail-Gator]

It's not like Live Nation won't improve their offering.

My biggest beef in the switch is that my out of town Ticketmaster Phone Numbers (Like calling St. Louis for the recent Carolina Panthers playoff game), no longer work.

With everyone purchasing on the internet, the out of town phone numbers never failed me.

[A1A-Keet]

What p*** me off is many big time businesses have the option to their employees to buy a limited amount of tickets before the tickets go on sale officially and frikkin' scalpers get their hands on those tickets and sell them for double face value when really it should be whomevers playing at the venues decision if they go to businesses before the presale at all! Its their show,it should be their choice but because of non PHans of Buffett that greedily make double off the tickets value in turn only p*** off us real PH's!