Popular beat combo Arctic Monkeys have declared jihad on ticket touts by limiting supplies of tickets for their forthcoming tour.
Following the almost immediate sell-out of the pre-sale tickets for their April tour, the Arctic Monkeys have made the following statement:
"We are very aware of the growing problem of ticket touts acquiring tickets and re selling them at vastly inflated cost through eBay and other auction sites. The sales of tickets will be monitored"
So basically, in person you can buy two tickets and via phone/interweb you can buy four. If you have more than three friends, then you'd better starting dumping some folk!
Tickets go onsale at 6pm tonight (2nd Feb) and you'll find the dates about 40 pixels below.
April
13 Nottingham Rock City
14 Glasgow Carling Academy
15 Newcastle Carling Academy
17 Bournemouth BIC
18 Plymouth Pavillions
19 Wolverhampton Civic
21 Newport Centre
22 Rotherham Magna Centre
23 Blackpool Empress Ballroom
25 Hull Ice Rink
26 Cambridge Corn Exchange
27 London Brixton Academy
DiScuss: How cute is Alex, the singer? Is anyone going? Can I come with you? Would this be better if the headline was 'Monkeys vs. Trouts'? Would that be grammatically correct?
how do they plan on stopping people selling their tickets on?
Unless eBay will provide seetickets or aloud or whoever account details of everyone who's selling them (which i'm sure they're not allowed to do) then i can't see this doing much to combat the touting...
new idea
go on ebay, contact seller and tell them what you think of them, it will do very little really but might make you feel better
they should just sell tickets
only in person - then they could vet them and make sure they have a stripey enough jumper on to be an arctic monkeys fan.
i'm sorry, you're wearing burburry. you can't have a ticket. fuck off.
Superb
You're brand of socio-political commentary is fantastic. Would you like to join this club I heard about.
I think it's called the 'Ridiculous Stereotype Club'.
RSC. Isn't that the Royal Shakespeare Company?
*your
geez!
*joke* sorrrrrry!
.
this had me laughing aloud, well done.
I'm
going. But they haven't achieved fuck all!!!
Touts always sell single / two tickets anyway.
if they're that bothered
they should wait til 3 days before the gig and send them out then
that way they can't go onto ebay at least
yes.
that would be a little better.
surprisingly...
this is actually a rather good idea.
thats the most
sensible thing i have read on this site for a while.
however the problem would then be
1)the venue would be 1/5 full
2) having to fight your way through more far more scum than usual from brixton tube
anyway, ebay are the new touts, i went to see fal out boy during the week, and no one outsdie had a ticket, they had all gone on the web, and the scouse monkeys were crying into their piles of £5 tshirts
(i dont mean to offend any scousers)
surely there wouldnt be a problem with touts
if no-one was silly enough to part with heaps of cash to keep them in a job.
but if you're desperate to see a band
...then you do it. I have, plenty of others have. When you've an incredible desire to see something. I love music. Not touts. I'm hungry. I'm-a go make mysel' a fried egg sandwich.
the thing we must remember here
is that it is only the arctic monkeys, and they aren't really very good
yeah but
theres plenty of people who think they are! i dunno.. i love music, and seeing bands, but i dont think theres a band in the world that would make me part with heaps of cash to see them for an hour or so.
unless its a one-off event, theres always a next time. but i would part with shitloads of cash to see Elliott Smith, in retrospect.
websites down
surely a way around this
Is to sell many tickets to one person with friends who want to come.
But have them all on one ticket So the people have to all go in at once, with the buyer having to give simple/normal checking info like with see tickets normally.
for a moment
I thought the title actually WAS 'Monkeys vs Trouts;. And yes, that would be much, much better. I'd be supporting the trouts all the way.
oone reason for this
PROMOTION SPACEEEEEE! there is no way that they are gonna beat the touts. It's a proper losing battle.
Like the war on terror, it's never ending!!!
ooo
tht Alex hes well fit!!!
come on Trouts.
MOnkeys v Trouts
BATTLE TO THE DEATH! Think of how many channel 5 viewers that ould bring in.
Ebay doesn't exactly crack down on them does it?
Probably because it makes them so much money. There should be a 'report this item' button on ebay for if you come accross touted tickets, and ebay can de-list it if some moderator deems it unsuitable.
OR
Police could actually stand outsidea gig where touting is happening and catch all the touts in a big net.
Touts are scum. It annoys me when people defend them as a means for 'have to see' gigs. If they didn't originally buy up all the tickets, chances are you could have bought them at face value.
but...
eBay made a big statement about this when people were selling Live8 tickets. There is *nothing* illegal about selling concert tickets at auction prices that reflect levels of market demand. It's a shade immoral, but that's economics folks. If it was a criminal offence, See et al wouldn't need to draw on contract law in order to enforce a no re-sale policy. eBay can't share seller information as it's against their own confidentiality agreements with their users. I think the only way you could get busted for selling on eBay is if the ticket agent kept a lookout themselves and picked up on the ticket numbers on any photos/scans. They could then trace it back to you and file a claim for breach of contract. Last I checked, such litigation was pretty expensive and questionably worth it...
I failed to get tickets
...pretty much the first time I've ever tried for something and failed. Glastonbury? No problem. But I didn't have a chance tonight!
Monkeys vs. Trouts
would be as grammatically correct as Monkeys vs. Touts.
years time...
be able to catch the arctic monkeys playing your local bar or night club. UNLESS, they make some new songs as the new album is basically Beneath the Boardwalk with two extra.
Wanna see how good this turner actually is or how good he could be!
Damn you eBay...
First I waste all of my savings buying old copies of the Beano now this.
Seetickets' response.
Don't know if it's directly as a result of Alex Monkey throwing a wobbly, buttttttttt I just tried to buy some cocorosie tickets and a new message appeared in the terms and conditions:
"IMPORTANT INFORMATION. PLEASE READ
All tickets purchased on this site are governed by our terms and conditions. In particular, we draw your attention to the fact that all tickets are for personal use only and cannot be resold under any circumstances. Resale or attempted resale is grounds for seizure or cancellation without refund or other compensation. The Event Partner and its affiliates, successors, or assigns may enforce these terms in accordance with the provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (the Act)."
Hmmmm, will it ACTUALLY work?
Or is it just because...
...as was reported a while ago, a lot of people are making money out of this... but the ticket companies aren't getting a cut?
For a while, the ticket companies actually considered using the auction format itself. Do a bit of Googling if you think that's too ludicrous to be true...
Not convinced - just more hype
AS IF they are really doing anything to stop the touts. Lookon ebay and you can see the same person selling multiple tickets for multiple venues. Clearly breaching the ticket regulations but never challenged. Promoters could also help by announcing all nights of a tour at the same time. They aid the tout market by creating a panic buying scenario and holding back extra dates, often until after people have handed over money on ebay. Arctic Monkeys only playing one night in Brixton - are you sure?
touts?
tickets are commodities. life sucks. deal with it.
Q: Monkeys vs. Touts: who will win?
A: Touts.
!
Get less than three friends or TELL THEM TO GET THE TICKETS THEMSELVES, LAZY GITS...
Damn touts. Damn morons paying them.
It might help a bit...
...to limit tickets to two per person, or four per credit card. If somebody is onselling tickets on ebay, and they're a major player for profits, it is better that they not be able to buy say thirty tickets at a time, and auction them off two by two after a show has sold out. Obviously it's not going to stop small-timers, last-minute oppurtunists, or even some of the professionals, but it's going to make it more of a chore for anybody to monopolise a whole pile of tickets before anyone else can get 'em. And if they have to get friends and acquaintances to help the scam, then at least you know that more than one person is going to need to be paid, and therefore, with costs higher, it's a less desirable game.
I had 3 tickets for B&S
at the brum academy last week but then my two friends dropped out and I decided to sell all 3 tickets.
I was too late for ebay and in any case it wasn't sold out so no one was buying them; I thought it would be fine to go to the venue and sell them to people on the door.
Now, I don't look particularly dodgy but no one in the queue would even give me the time of day. I'd made other plans so I was short on time - eventually gave in and sold them to a tout, losing £30 myself in the bargain, and watched him sell them to the very same people I had just approached.
I fucking hate the birmingham academy. And I will have my revenge on that tout.
ouch
bad luck.
bottom line. gigs nowadays, touts always win.
No offence to the Monkeys
But the only way they'll beat the touts and demand for those tickets is by playing a lot more shows and selling the majority at the venue on the day of the event, with names put on the tickets to stop transfer.
Card restrictions don't work very well. the Glastonbury festival uses the same system, and it doesn't seem to do much to stop touts.
I tried
... to buy tickets to resell on eBay for this. I failed, but I would happily have done so.
This demand for Arctic Monkeys at the moment is riciculous. They're not very good, I am a poor student, and I'm more than happy to take money from rich mothers.
Either way, the band still get the same amount of money wether I profit from peoples stupidity or bad taste or not.
You may call me scum, but £250 or so to me is a LOT of money at the moment.
I wouldn't call you scum
Everyone has different reasons for doing things, and if you can justify it to yourself, what anyone else says doesn't really mean shit.
If Pink Floyd reform, I'll be doing the same.
i've never really thought of a profit being made like that
but i've just checked t'ebay and wish i had thought of it.
Publicity
I don't have a problem with the odd person looking to make a quick buck. The full time touts with about 50 tickets on sale are what bug me. They would be easy to stop and blacklist from future purchases if the promoters/record labels wanted. But they don't because you can't beat all this publicity. Touting will only end should the government one day decide to change the law so that any resales above face value were illegal.
um
is it not illegal already?
apparently
there was a Fagin-wannabe tout outside Blackpool winter gardens with an army of mini chavs, he was giving them all some cash and then they were pushing in in the line, buying tickets and passing them onto him, and he was then going back down the queue and selling them to people who got screwed over by this!