LiveNation’s New Facebook App About As Useful As Tossing Sheep

Yesterday LiveNation announced they have created a new Facebook app that allows you to choose your favourite artists, receive tour updates and also buy tickets.

The app also divides your favourite artists into three lists: those with upcoming local shows, upcoming distant shows and those who are not currently touring. You can add artists manually or tap into your MP3 directory and upload them from there.

The whole point of the app is help people quickly find and buy tickets and allow them to share their favourite artists on their profile. The app has good intentions, but while it attempts to be user-friendly and convenient, it proves to be more of a hassle then anything else.

Once you’ve logged into Facebook you’ll need to log in again to your LiveNation account. After that, you can begin manually adding artists and venues that you want to receive updates for. If you don’t want to go through this tedious process you can try having the app connect to your I-Tunes library, that apparently can’t even synch up with the artists listed in the “Favorite Music” section of your Facebook profile.

I actually had high hopes for a useful Facebook app to come along but this won’t be it. I think I’d rather spend my time tossing sheep at people or sending booze-mail then using this dumbed-down website version to buy tickets.

The Last Dollar I Ever Made On Ebay

We all know the recent feedback changes made to Ebay are a joke. Not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers is obviously going to create an unbalanced marketplace, and it seems as though Ebay is biting the hand that feeds them considering they make their money off the sellers. You’d think it would be in their best interest to keep them happy, but obviously they have other motives.

Because of the recent changes, buyers can leave negative feedback for a seller without any repercussions, so what’s stopping an dishonest buyer from destroying a seller's reputation that may have taken years to build up? The answer is nothing. Sellers are simply left to swallow this feedback and move on.

And speaking of moving on, that’s what a lot of sellers are doing to boycott this auction giant. One seller in particular has decided to auction off his last dollar ever made on Ebay before he explores other auction sites. The bidding price is already well over a dollar, but is anyone actually going to pay that price? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter since feedback is irrelevant and this seller is closing up shop anyway.

Kudos to this seller (talkn2loco) who has taken action and proven how big of a mockery Ebay is turning into.

You can check out the auction here. Oh, and feel free to bid a ridiculous amount and not bother paying. There won't be any repercussions this time.

The Scoop On Madonna Tickets

Even though Madonna’s tour doesn’t start until October 4^th, most of her shows have already sold out. Ticket sales have been doing very well for her on the secondary market, especially her Canadian shows.

Her show at BC Place in Vancouver ended up selling 50,000 tickets in a record breaking 29 minutes. Being it my hometown, I made an extra effort to scoop up tickets for this show and was surprised at the profits I was able to make.

While second shows have been added for Toronto and Montreal, tickets for the second Chicago show will go on sale to the general public starting June 2^nd.

Because of extra arena shows being added, I’ve just been sticking with her stadium shows. So be on the look out for even more dates to be announced but be cautious with your buys.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster and LiveNation, or you can check out Stubhub for some potential deals.

How To Research "Under The Radar" Events

You can discover under the radar events by paying close attention to the ticket market and watching what is going on everyday. Keep an eye out for low profile artists that steadily increase in popularity. If you are paying attention, artists will appear and you will notice a high demand for tours that are not talked about much.

You can do a quick search for general admission concert tickets on Ebay and monitor the ones that are making a profit on the secondary market. Keep them to yourself though, because chances are the masses will soon discover them.

Aim your radar gun at opening acts that draw fans and industry attention. Spend time following their progress - last year's openers can become next year's headliners. Take the Jonas Brothers for example; in 2006 they couldn’t come close to selling out a show and now they are one of today’s hottest new bands.

Sites like Billboard and PollStar are great places to find up and coming artists. Here you can check out how they're doing and see what kind of demand they’re getting. An artist who quickly sells out small venues is worth keeping tabs on in the future.

There is a big turnover rate for these under the radar events - except for the cult favorites that never seem to break out yet remain consistently strong sellers. When you spot one, they can suddenly launch or drop off the screen completely. So, watch your radar screen - it tells you everything.

It's important to stay tuned into all the latest industry news from sources like Billboard and Rolling Stone magazine. It also helps to have a broad interest in different genres of music. Go to the concerts, listen to the radio, and follow the music industry. Money-making bands don’t come out of nowhere. If you watch the signs and follow the gems, you’ll make quite a bit of money.

There is quite a bit of satisfaction in coming across a money-making band that no one else really knows about. The longer you’re in this business and the more you follow the market you’ll be able to spot these bands before anyone else, it just takes time, practice and lots of research!

Becoming A Ticket Broker

Becoming a ticket broker is simple; all you need is a credit card and a computer to begin your business. It is an easy market to enter because you need very little start up capital. This means you can start out small and grow your business with each sale. But even though ticket reselling is an easy market to enter, it can be a difficult system to navigate because there is very little useful information available to help guide you.

That’s where www.TheTicketBrokerGuide.com comes in. It will teach you what sports teams will make you the most money and what markets you should be targeting. It will also provide you with some crucial tips and techniques the pros use for buying and selling tickets.

So, if you want to start your own home business or just want to make some money on the side, then you should look at becoming a ticket broker. Ticket reselling is a fun industry because you’ll be providing people with the best tickets to the hottest events and making great money doing it! People will be happy to get those front row seat tickets and with our guide you’ll learn how to buy and sell them for the biggest profits.

Professional ticket brokers have spent years analyzing what cities and sports teams consistently provide the biggest payout, but with www.TheTicketBrokerGuide.com, you’ll have access to this information and can begin fast tracking your profits immediately.

I can guarantee you this kind of information is not available anywhere else so I urge you to look around because this guide is one of a kind. We are here to help you and ensure you have a solid head start in this business because most new ticket brokers are uncertain where to begin.

So check out www.TheTicketBrokerGuide.com and order your copy for only $24.99. You'll soon be on your way to enjoying a fun and profitable business. We hope this guide finds you well and that your profits will soar!

4 Big Reasons Why Your Profits Are Decreasing

There is a lot of talk among brokers that profits are steadily declining and soon brokers will become a thing of the past. Some brokers blame the decline of profits solely on undercutters, but there are actually many factors to take into consideration such as:

1) Promoters are charging extremely high ticket prices – they are effectively cutting out the middle man by charging a premium price. Very high face value tickets are the biggest threat to resellers. Promoters are seeing they can hit the equilibrium price themselves so why let brokers reap the profits? Promoters have to find the price point that people can afford so the show will sell out, and also still be able to make a profit.

2) Never ending tours – a lot of performers seem to be on these never ending tours which drives profits down. People have already had their chance to see them so they aren’t willing to go into credit card debt like they were when a tour first came around.

3) The good seats aren’t sold to the public anymore. Very rarely will the top 10-15% of the seats in the house be sold to the public. Those seats are being bundled as a “VIP experience” sold well above the real face value. Casinos also give their high rollers the chance at the best seats in the house so they have first dibs as well. There are also charities or other groups that pay a lot of money to buy blocks of good seats from the promoter.

4) With ticket prices so high, even upper-middle-class fans have to pick and choose what concerts they want to go see and what ones are worth paying a premium for. A few years ago it made sense to see 6-8 shows a year, but now consumers are narrowing their scope to only 1 or 2 shows a year.

Some of you are probably wondering why I didn’t mention the current state of the economy and how it affects ticket sales. The fact is though; there will always be people willing to spend money on luxury items such as concert tickets. The reasons listed above are more direct threats to ticket brokers and they are all things that we should be aware of so we can adapt.

A "Newbie's" Ticket Broker Glossary

If you are new to ticket brokering and aren’t familiar with the lingo, or just in need of a laugh then this is the guide for you!

• Beer money – when college kids are happy they made a $20 profit on tickets, just enough to buy beer with.
  
  
• Club seats – ridiculously overpriced tickets that offer fans cushier seats and a guaranteed loss on the secondary market for sellers.
  
  
• Craigslist – a place to dump your tickets and contend with tire kickers.
  
  
• Ebay – a place to check out the market value and scoop up under priced tickets from panicky sellers.
  
  
• General admission concert – undercutting war.
  
  
• Hannah Montana – glorious profits, buy a new house!
  
  
• Hannah Montana Vegas – complete and utter chaos, sell your house!
  
  
• Hot Seat Packages – Ticketmaster’s “clever” way of scalping its own tickets.
  
  
• Pullers – friends, family or college kids who ticket brokers pay poorly to buy tickets for them.
  
  
• Residency restrictions – pain in the ass, hassle to change billing address.
  
  
• Scalper – must be a shady character who stands outside the venue waiting to prey on unsuspecting buyers and guaranteed to sell fans fake tickets. Comes complete with a mustache, sunglasses and trench coat.
  
  
• Section 216, Row R – something a soccer mom would buy and wonder why she lost money.
  
  
• Soccer Moms – people who get into this business, have no idea what they are doing, lose a bunch of money and quit.
  
  
• Stubhub – yields the highest profits and service fees. Company barely scraping by with a 25% profit on each ticket bought and sold.
  
  
• TicketExchange – another place for Ticketmaster to scalp its own tickets.
  
  
• Undercutters – people on Ebay who start auctions at 0.99 cents and drive down the market.
  

10 Reasons Why 0.99 Cent Ebay Auctions Don’t Work

1. You may think you are setting the market value yourself, but if you set a high Buy It Now price the buyer won’t have a choice what to pay.

2. The majority of the time auctions produce lower returns when there is a large supply of tickets already on the market.

3. Auctions bring down the value in the whole market.

4. You should be waiting for that die-hard fan with big bucks to come along. Why panic and settle for less?

5. You take the risk of getting a few slow viewing days and sell them for less.

6. Some buyers do not pay after they win. If you use “Buy-It-Now’s” with immediate payment required you won’t have deal with non-paying bidders.

7. Experienced sellers scoop up these 0.99 cent auctions and throw them back up on Ebay with BIN’s and turn a profit themselves.

8. You might occasionally get more with auctions, but for the most part, this is not the case.

9. You probably won’t be happy with the winning price, whereas with Buy It Nows you are in control.

10. And lastly, you should never do .99 cent auctions unless you absolutely need to dump tickets ASAP.

10 Reasons Why Fans Shouldn’t Hate Ticket Brokers

1. Ticket brokers provide a service for those who are unable or unavailable to buy their own tickets. But like any other service providers, does anyone really expect them to do this for free? Travel agents arrange vacations for their customers, and part of their profit is gained from the time and effort spent organizing the travel plans.
2. Supply and demand - brokers have something the public wants, so they should be able to charge whatever someone is willing to pay for it. If 50-yard line tickets to the Super Bowl were auctioned off on Ebay at face value, there would be a guaranteed bidding war. Supply and demand will ensure those tickets are worth more than the purchase price.
3. I bought something at wholesale cost, now I am marking it up to make a profit. Newsflash: This is what every business across North America does. Fans only get upset at ticket brokers because it is well known how much the tickets cost. If they only knew how much markup their was on products they buy everyday, they would get outraged at that too.
4. Ticket brokers charge what people are willing to pay. Don’t call us greedy because we are charging too much. Trust me, if no one was buying our tickets, we would lower the price. But the fact is, there are some rich people out there and they don’t have a problem paying that price for tickets so why wouldn’t we sell to them?
5. The majority of brokers buy tickets the same way everyone else does. They log on to Ticket master at 10:00 a.m. using their credit card to buy them just like any other regular fan. So that means that anyone with a computer and a credit card can technically enter this business. (I realize some brokers use spinners or other illegal software programs to gain unfair access to tickets, but this is not a problem with scalping, it’s a problem with fraud.)
6. As with any other industry, there will always be those who will search for loopholes and use underhanded tactics to gain their profits, but this isn’t the norm in the ticket broker business, it’s the exception. Most laundry mats aren’t drug fronts (unless you live where I do!) and most ticket brokers aren’t evil, shifty-eyed bottom feeders like everyone makes them out to be.
7. Ticket brokers have gained a bad rep from selling fake tickets outside the venue before a show, but that doesn’t mean every broker is a criminal. Again, this isn’t a problem with scalping; it’s a problem with fraud.
8. Don’t buy into the idea that Ticketmaster hates ticket brokers. Publicly, they want to appear as though they’re on the fan’s side, but in reality, Ticketmaster loves ticket brokers. At the end of the day, they don’t care who buys their tickets, they care that the tickets get sold and get sold quickly. So, if brokers can help an event sell out faster; believe me, Ticketmaster is only too happy for that to happen.
9. If you want to go to a high profile event and sit in the first five rows, then be prepared to pay brokers prices or spend a lot of your own time trying to get tickets yourself. If you aren’t prepared to pay an inflated price, it’s guaranteed someone else will, and that’s why brokers exist.
10. And lastly, there are just too many people benefiting from inflated ticket prices to care that some bitter fan searching for a bargain is unhappy. Who are the happy ones you ask? Well...

• The promoters are happy because the event gets sold out
• Ticketmaster is happy because they’ve sold more tickets and get convenience fees.
• The venue is happy because more food and beer is sold.
• The artist or team is happy because a higher attendance means more money in their pocket.
• Ticket brokers are happy because they just sold tickets for more than what they paid for them.

Welcome To Broker Buzz!

Welcome to Broker Buzz, your source for the latest ticket industry news and helpful tips to increase your profits! We’re just launching our blog this Memorial Day weekend, so while you’re taking it easy, we’re working on some unique articles for you to enjoy come Tuesday! We want this blog to be for new ticket brokers who are looking for some tips and tricks to get them going and for experienced brokers who want to keep up with the latest news and get another broker’s views on the industry.

We have two contributors on this blog; myself (roadrunnersupply) and my counterpart (buzzoff) located just east of Vancouver in Beautiful British Columbia.

I have been buying and selling tickets for 3 years now and I love what I do. Buzzoff is along for the ride and enjoys writing, so I think we’ll make a good team and be able to provide you with some great articles!

I think we have about 6 articles to get started with for now, but check back often, as we will be adding 4-5 new posts every week! Along with the frequently updated posts, be sure to check out the news sidebar on the right hand side where we handpick the hottest stories that matter to ticket brokers.

Well that’s about it for now. Feel free to look around and enjoy what we have to offer so far. And don’t forget to check back often, we want you back!