nps2005

3500 winners for the Madison Square Garden show? That's 7000 tix. MSG holds way more than that (somewhere close to 20,000). So this particular contest accounts for less than half of the tickets available for that venue... That's starting to sound lame.

there is probably a lot of cover-your-ass going on

Although I didn't get a chance at presales for their tour earlier this year, and am still waiting to see what happens with this 06 tour (if anything), I'm just as happy to put on their cd and bop around my house :) So I'm not really speaking out of frustration, but just pointing out that what they are trying to do with the presale is not so revolutionary or "new"--it has been done before by others, with sometimes better results, and they could benefit from studying those other examples before embarking on something like this. I don't either. But I do think it is in their interest (as it is for most artists) to take more control over their business affairs. The music biz is filled with stories of artists who let other people handle their business only to get the short end of the stick.

Erm the $25 is slightly over the $20 processing fee you would have to pay to ticketmaster, so that "not enough money" excuse is BUNK. This WHOLE thing is done on computer--coldplay membership, ticketmaster sales--so again BUZZZZZZ. There is no reason for rudeness, I agree. But much of the bad feelings could be avoided if the system was better developed and explained. And if the emails were sent out when they said they were sent out. Again BZZZZZZZ. Prince sold out ALL 90+ arena shows last year for the highest grossing tour of the year. And he didn't need an opening act! But guess what ALL MEMBERS who wanted to, got tickets during the presale! At some of his shows, fan members occupied the entire floor section and 1 tier of the arena. Considering that purchasing a ticket thru ticketmaster would cost an add'l $20 for "processing fee" and the $25 membership was well worth it.

But the way this presale has been / is being handled is HORRIBLE and unprofessional. There are no excuses for this other than laziness, passing the buck, and artistic over dependence and reliance on corporations which do not care about music, the concert experience, or fans. I have read comments by folks who are saying "give them a chance this is a big undertaking!" BOOLSHET! Last year Prince had the highest grossing tour, playing over 90 shows, all at arenas/stadiums. And he managed presales through his website quite effectively. Here is what he did: 1. First, he took ownership of the presale process himself. Which means he did not rely on record companies, ticketmaster, musictoday, concertmaps, or any other promotional company. For earlier tours, he had used a password presale option through Ticketmaster. However, this proved unreliable for two main reasons: (1) passwords were getting traded, sold, and horded by scalpers; and (2) passwords did not guarantee that his fans were getting the best seats in the house, since Ticketmaster, promoters, record companies, venues, American Express and others would usually grab up the best seats before they are even in the pool for sale. 2. He charged a nominal membership fee which required each site member to sign up, associate their account with a name, address, and credit card. The fee was a one-time $25 for lifetime membership. By linking each membership to one name, address, and credit card, it ensured that purchases were done by THAT member, and made it possible to enforce ticket purchasing limits and enforce will call pick up by the member. Currently, Coldplay's site only requires you to enter an email address to log-in. What exactly does this ensure? Nothing. Anyone can have an email address. You can't even go into your user "profile" and change your email address if you need to. 3. His site sold presale tickets themselves in advance of any public sale or presale elsewhere. Here's how it worked: - Before the sale of any show, his site would make a presale available. - At the end of the presale, his site would PULL those tickets from the pool of general sale tickets, beginning with the BEST SEATS. - AFTER the seats were pulled (marked as "Artist Comps") the rest were then made available to ticketmaster, promoters, others. - All tickets could only be picked up by purchaser WILL CALL the night of the show, which severely limited scalping. **The only caveat that upset some people was that you did not get your assigned seat the day you purchased your ticket. HOWEVER seats were assigned in the order of purchase (first come first serve) during the presale block.** So it worked like this, for example. Let's say for Prince's NYC Madison Square Garden show, during the presale 500 tickets were bought. That means his site PULLED the first/best 500 seats from the arena BEFORE they were made available to anyone else. Fans that bought presale tickets were then assigned seats from that 500 block on a first come first serve basis, depending on when they bought their tickets during the presale. And when I say FIRST / BEST seats, I mean starting from orchestra pit, row 1, seat 1 couting out 500 seats. At Prince's shows fans / members got better seats than any "stars" or "VIPS" who were used to a "hook up" because those seats were guaranteed to members of his site. This system worked out very well with little complaints. It was the result of several attempts by Prince to take control of all aspects of his business affairs, and after trying other methods. He had used Ticketmaster for a while for presales, but at one soundcheck when he realized that his members seats were scattered around the venue, he said "OH NO, Y'all are supposed to be upfront" and he started doing the sales himself. Bypassing Ticketmaster for presales, also meant that fan members did not have to pay any Ticketmaster fees (usually $15 - $20) for "processing" their tickets. Basically Prince sold the tickets himself through a presale, and then bought those seats out from the venue before they could sell any tickets. They had no choice but to provide the best seats. And *THAT* my friends is how it should be done. And *THAT* is why there is no excuse for other artists to not do the same. All it requires is INDEPENDENCE and GOOD BUSINESS sense. But when you rely on others to handle yours, you will get what you get. After 25 years Prince learned this the hard way. Hopefully Coldplay will not take that long. Coldplay, make trade FREE and FAIR--take control of your business, handle yours, and do the presale YOURSELF.