The always out-spoken Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails decided to take some time before tickets go on sale for the band’s upcoming co-headlining tour with Jane’s Addiction to share his views on secondary ticketing markets or "scalpers".
"As we approach on-sale dates for the upcoming tour, I've noticed lots of you are curious / concerned / outraged at the plethora of tickets that somehow appear on all these reseller sites at inflated prices - even before the pre-sale dates. I'll do my best to explain the situation as I see it, as well as clarify my organization's stance in the matter," Reznor writes on the band’s forums.
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There are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but Most acts in the rock / pop world don't want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this," he adds. "
The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: Scalper). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note."
Nine Inch Nails reportedly get 10% of the available tickets to distribute however they want. Rather than selling them to secondary markets and scalpers to turn a profit, the band offers them as pre-sale tickets. Fortunately for the fans, these 10% are usually the best seats in the house and the band goes to great lengths to keep them out of the hands of scalpers.
"We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets," he says. "We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster's or Live Nation's in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this - it's not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things - because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites."
Reznor concludes by offering some predictions for the future and offering his advice on how we can eliminate scalpers. "My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they'll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme - which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply Become the scalper, eliminating them from the mix."
He goes on to say, "Nothing's going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem - which of course they don't see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don't buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What's in it for them?"
Tickets for the band’s upcoming tour go on sale on March 20. Along with co-headlining with Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails will be joined by Street Sweeper (a new project formed by Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello and The Coup’s Boots Riley). The tour kicks off on May 8 in West Palm Beach, FL.
Report by David Lowe-Bianco.
