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Madonna Reinvents Herself As a Ticket-Scalping Profiteer


Camacho

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so all that crap on the AL album about money not being important was a load of bullsh*t.

this tour is gonna flop so bad!!! :manson:

No,it's not gonna flop.In fact,I can already tell you that this is gonna be the most successful tour of 2008.Madonna is on track to make even more money than the Confessions tour made.

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As a member of ICON,I'm getting my tickets through the pre-sale.I would NEVER pay more than face value for a concert ticket and nobody else should,either.I stay away from scalpers,whether it's on Craigslist,ebay or whatever.The only reason that scalpers are in business is because DUMB people pay them.I refuse to do that.Get your tickets through normal means,people, and there won't be a problem.

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Can someone give me a quick recap of what's going on here and what's causing this uproar without having to go through 21 pages of comments?

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as of this moment (10:09 am-5/14/08) stubhub has 1469 tickets on sale for the MSG show on 10/7/08. MSG holds around 16,000-18,000( i think) for concerts. 209 of those tickets are floor tickets and the rest are all over the arena so people will still have plenty of tickets to choose from when they go on sale. unless more tickets are released before the on sale date most people should be ok getting tickets. granted, that still doesnt change the fact that its a rip off and she's allowing it!

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i did a little reading at stubhub and now i'm kinda confused. stubhub didnt buy the tickets for the shows, theyre just offering a safe and convenient way for fans to buy tickets from other fans. granted, they make a profit from allowing people to use their service but they didnt actually go buy 1500 tickets and then turn around and put them up for sale. since the tickets havent gone on sale yet i'm assuming it's madonna herself or live nation who is offering the tickets for sale at these utterly ridiculous prices and not fans since they dont have access to them yet. is this correct?

from stubhub....

Q: Where do these tickets come from?

A:

Unlike other ticket websites, StubHub is not a ticket broker and we don’t own the tickets you purchase on our site. We started StubHub to provide an active marketplace where fans can gather to buy and sell tickets.

The price of tickets in a listing is determined by each individual seller. We're an open marketplace, which means that anyone can sell tickets at StubHub

Who are the sellers?

Among the fans selling tickets at StubHub are:

season ticket holders who cannot attend every game,

licensed ticket brokers,

ticket holders who have changed their plans,

ticket holders who are unable to attend an event, and

ticket holders with extra tickets to sell.

As a buyer, this allows you to choose from the widest possible selection of tickets to buy. Sellers may be individuals, businesses, ticket brokers, corporate sponsors, promoters, fan club members, contest winners, or just about anyone who wishes to see their tickets end up in the hands of another fan.

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This is terrible news for the concert industry. I don't mind Madonna making money, but legitimising scalpers will only push up the price of concert tickets generally. Just wait and see - now that the door has been opened, the day will come when most tickets will be sold through scalpers like Stubhub instead of original ticket brokers. This means we'll ALL pay more, and lots of real fans will be priced out of the market.

Why does Madonna need to do this? Doesn't she make enough money already? Money is great, but there comes a point when morals and the greater good should also be considered. Some fans are such blind devotees that if Madonna started to invest in child pornography, or illegal trading in body parts, you'd support that too: 'Well it's gonna happen anyway, she might as well make some money out if it.'; 'It's not her fault that these things exist; she's just being a smart businesswoman'.

Between this scalping issue and Madonna's treatment of Australian fans, I am seriously starting to doubt whether I can continue to be a fan...

Edited by ipex
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Between this scalping issue and Madonna's treatment of Australian fans, I am seriously starting to doubt whether I can continue to be a fan...

Add those with the fucking shit live vocals, fugly album's artwork, waiting for ages to release GI2M and not to mention the mediocre album.

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You cant believe everything you read, especially from a scalping website.

i did a little reading at stubhub and now i'm kinda confused. stubhub didnt buy the tickets for the shows, theyre just offering a safe and convenient way for fans to buy tickets from other fans. granted, they make a profit from allowing people to use their service but they didnt actually go buy 1500 tickets and then turn around and put them up for sale. since the tickets havent gone on sale yet i'm assuming it's madonna herself or live nation who is offering the tickets for sale at these utterly ridiculous prices and not fans since they dont have access to them yet. is this correct?

from stubhub....

Q: Where do these tickets come from?

A:

Unlike other ticket websites, StubHub is not a ticket broker and we don’t own the tickets you purchase on our site. We started StubHub to provide an active marketplace where fans can gather to buy and sell tickets.

The price of tickets in a listing is determined by each individual seller. We're an open marketplace, which means that anyone can sell tickets at StubHub

Who are the sellers?

Among the fans selling tickets at StubHub are:

season ticket holders who cannot attend every game,

licensed ticket brokers,

ticket holders who have changed their plans,

ticket holders who are unable to attend an event, and

ticket holders with extra tickets to sell.

As a buyer, this allows you to choose from the widest possible selection of tickets to buy. Sellers may be individuals, businesses, ticket brokers, corporate sponsors, promoters, fan club members, contest winners, or just about anyone who wishes to see their tickets end up in the hands of another fan.

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as of this moment (10:09 am-5/14/08) stubhub has 1469 tickets on sale for the MSG show on 10/7/08. MSG holds around 16,000-18,000( i think) for concerts. 209 of those tickets are floor tickets and the rest are all over the arena so people will still have plenty of tickets to choose from when they go on sale. unless more tickets are released before the on sale date most people should be ok getting tickets. granted, that still doesnt change the fact that its a rip off and she's allowing it!

Thats also the best seat locations in the arena they have.

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ew.com

Madonna teams with ticket seller StubHub

May 14, 2008, 01:12 PM | by Chris Willman

Has Madonna taken to scalping her own tickets? Not exactly. But many music fans feared a bad precedent was being set when StubHub — a popular eBay-owned website where individuals and brokers resell sports and concert ducats — announced they’d forged a “partnership” with Madge and her promoter, Live Nation. Some assumed this meant blocks of tickets would be directed to StubHub, where they typically go for a much higher premium. Not so, says Chuck La Vallee, StubHub’s head of business development for music.

“She’s not going to be selling tickets on StubHub,” La Vallee says. “StubHub doesn’t own inventory, ever. It’s an endorsement, with Madonna saying: 'Look, if the show is sold out, you can still find tickets here.'” The company won’t discuss terms of their deal with the superstar, though The Wall Street Journal reported that Madge will get a flat fee as well as a percentage of the income from the tickets being resold for her tour. StubHub doesn’t owe Madonna or any artist money from secondary market sales, so what’s in the cash handover for them?

For starters, their logo on all the print ads and promo e-mails for her tour, offering StubHub a leg up on rivals like Ticketmaster’s TicketsNow site, not to mention Craigslist. More importantly, Madonna’s imprimatur lends legitimacy to an industry some still associate with Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s shady scalper, Mike Damone. But won’t every artist be stampeding to get a piece of their StubHub action now? “I don’t know if it’s quite a stampede,” laughs La Vallee. “We’ll weigh our options on an artist-by-artist basis.”

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ew.com

Madonna teams with ticket seller StubHub

May 14, 2008, 01:12 PM | by Chris Willman

Has Madonna taken to scalping her own tickets? Not exactly. But many music fans feared a bad precedent was being set when StubHub — a popular eBay-owned website where individuals and brokers resell sports and concert ducats — announced they’d forged a “partnership” with Madge and her promoter, Live Nation. Some assumed this meant blocks of tickets would be directed to StubHub, where they typically go for a much higher premium. Not so, says Chuck La Vallee, StubHub’s head of business development for music.

“She’s not going to be selling tickets on StubHub,” La Vallee says. “StubHub doesn’t own inventory, ever. It’s an endorsement, with Madonna saying: 'Look, if the show is sold out, you can still find tickets here.'” The company won’t discuss terms of their deal with the superstar, though The Wall Street Journal reported that Madge will get a flat fee as well as a percentage of the income from the tickets being resold for her tour. StubHub doesn’t owe Madonna or any artist money from secondary market sales, so what’s in the cash handover for them?

For starters, their logo on all the print ads and promo e-mails for her tour, offering StubHub a leg up on rivals like Ticketmaster’s TicketsNow site, not to mention Craigslist. More importantly, Madonna’s imprimatur lends legitimacy to an industry some still associate with Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s shady scalper, Mike Damone. But won’t every artist be stampeding to get a piece of their StubHub action now? “I don’t know if it’s quite a stampede,” laughs La Vallee. “We’ll weigh our options on an artist-by-artist basis.”

but isn't stubhub already reselling tickets for 2000 $ . and she's endorsing them? :wacko:

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Guest Glamorama
Oh also, if she wanted to avoid scalping, she could do a number of things to make sure the tickets go to her TRUE fans at reasonable prices instead of doing *this* to get even more money from whoever is stupid and rich enough to fork out thousands of $$$ for a concert.

This is 100% true

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Guest Glamorama

Madonna makes money from Ticketmaster sales ie she makes money on all tickets sold - whether to the scalping website StubHub or the fans. This Stubhub deal is ENTIRELY about making more money by whatever means.

She has signed a deal with Stubhub so she'll earn extra money from scalping her fans. You can argue that scalping happens anyway which is true but nonetheless she is endorsing it and making it easier.

She SHOULD be looking at ways to prevent scalping instead of benefiting from it.

Is anyone actually surprised though?The woman is quite rightly regarded as totally greedy.

I'm neither surprised nor angry. Few people agreed with me at the time but during the American Life era Madonna signed a huge deal to promote the Gap clothes who were being targetted by human rights organisations for their use of child slave labour to make their clothes in Asian sweatshops. This was at the time she was saying how awful materialism was on her American Life album while at the same time earning money off the back of child abuse.

That was the time I stopped loving Madonna - I still like her music but I dislike greed and I stopped respecting her as a person thanks to her greed and hypocrisy. I don't wish to be lectured on Malawi or Kabbollocks or making the world a better place by a woman who endorses theft from her employers (ie us her fans)

What's more this is an APPALLING PR move. Going to see Madonna is not a huge novelty anymore as she tours so often. Now that she is aging she will find it more difficult to sell records and gain new fans. Pissing off her fanbase like this will probably not affect sales for this tour but seeing as she will be touring every couple of years she will soon be playing smaller venues to fewer people.

I think she's accepted that her days as an artist relevant to the music scene are ending and she wants to make as much money as possible.

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Guest Glamorama
Oh dear...here we go again. :confused:

No - I'm way over that.

It's just that she has a history of shady deals like this Stubhub deal that benefits only herself and involves scalping other people.

I mean it's not illegal but it shows that money is her greatest motive for doing what she does.

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By signing a deal w/Live Nation she is at the mercy of making sure her shows bring in every penny they can. We will probably start seeing insane merchandising with her name pretty soon too. At the same time, aren't tickets a little cheaper this tour than the last??

I can understand the stubhub thing is lame but I'm not bothered as I think with minimal effort at Ticketmaster we should all be able to get decent seats. If this was the first tour in 15 years and everyone was going nuts to get ticktes I would be annoyed, but I don't think tickets are going to be difficult this time everything considered. Stubhub will most likely be for people with money to burn who can't be bothered to check back at Ticketmaster a couple of times.

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Guest Glamorama
By signing a deal w/Live Nation she is at the mercy of making sure her shows bring in every penny they can.

But is it absolutely necessary to get involved in scalping her fans? What does that say about her opinion of them?

She already charges absurdly high prices for her shows and sells them all out.

LiveNation or Madonna already make a fortune by selling tickets at face value. This deal is exploitative regardless of whether people will accept it or not.

The record industry shot itself in the foot by getting rid of singles forcing fans to buy an album for 1 track. Then they closed Napster which meant that fans realised that the record business was ripping them off and started downloading for free.

Livenation/Stubhub etc are going to do the same for live gigs. People don't like being ripped off. And if Madonna is going to tour every 2nd years she will be playing smaller and smaller venues each time if fans know that she is trying to profit from dishonest business practices ie only a small hardcore of rich fans will remain with her.

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Madonna makes money from Ticketmaster sales ie she makes money on all tickets sold - whether to the scalping website StubHub or the fans. This Stubhub deal is ENTIRELY about making more money by whatever means.

She has signed a deal with Stubhub so she'll earn extra money from scalping her fans. You can argue that scalping happens anyway which is true but nonetheless she is endorsing it and making it easier.

She SHOULD be looking at ways to prevent scalping instead of benefiting from it.

Is anyone actually surprised though?The woman is quite rightly regarded as totally greedy.

I'm neither surprised nor angry. Few people agreed with me at the time but during the American Life era Madonna signed a huge deal to promote the Gap clothes who were being targetted by human rights organisations for their use of child slave labour to make their clothes in Asian sweatshops. This was at the time she was saying how awful materialism was on her American Life album while at the same time earning money off the back of child abuse.

That was the time I stopped loving Madonna - I still like her music but I dislike greed and I stopped respecting her as a person thanks to her greed and hypocrisy. I don't wish to be lectured on Malawi or Kabbollocks or making the world a better place by a woman who endorses theft from her employers (ie us her fans)

What's more this is an APPALLING PR move. Going to see Madonna is not a huge novelty anymore as she tours so often. Now that she is aging she will find it more difficult to sell records and gain new fans. Pissing off her fanbase like this will probably not affect sales for this tour but seeing as she will be touring every couple of years she will soon be playing smaller venues to fewer people.

I think she's accepted that her days as an artist relevant to the music scene are ending and she wants to make as much money as possible.

:clap:

I agree with everything you have said. Remember this is a woman who sang "imagine no possessions no GREED or hunger" on RIT.

And preached to us in IGTTYAS "we live for the material world, we are all enslaved by the material world ulitimately it will be our undoing".

Has she forgotten she made the AL album?

I wonder does her Zohar tell her to SCALP her fans? I wish someone would "shine a light "on her blackberry and tell her not to rip off her fans!

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I don't know all the facts about this scalping controversy. The only way I would have a problem with it is if Madonna herself is holding tickets back from Ticketmaster and icon and giving them directly to Stub Hub. That would be the only way she is scalping her own fans.

However, I don't think that's the case. They are getting them from ticketmaster as scalpers always have. From what I can see, she is just preventing the scalpers from ripping her off by getting a amount of what they collect. Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society. If someone wants to sell something for more than they paid for it and someone wants to buy it, why shouldn't that be allowed? If that's wrong, then ebay would have to shut down now.

If you don't think paying more than face value is worth it, then don't go to ticket brokers or scalpers.

I guess people are saying Madonna should stop scalpers. But it's not clear to me by not being involved with Stub Hub that would happen. Scalpers would still exist. There will always be people who are wiling to pay more than face value for a ticket. It's not clear to me these people will be her most dedicated fans. Most hard core fans know exactly when the tickets go on sale at ticketmaster. I'm sure if you go to ticketmaster at 10 a.m. Monday you will be able to get a ticket. A lot of the people who will buy from Stub Hub will be more casual fans or curious people who had no idea when the tickets went on sale, but now decide they'd like to see Madonna.

I think they are ample opportunities for fans to get tickets either through icon or ticketmaster, so I think this whole thing is a tempest in a teapot.

Some people act like Madonna's charity should be her fans, not people with AIDS in Malawi. She wants to make money from her concerts and her hard work. I don't see why that makes her greedy. I really don't see the problem as long as she isn't herself giving the best tickets to Stub Hub.

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I was logged on for the UK presale AT 10.00am the best seats I could get were almost 3/4 of the way back.

I don't believe for a minute the best seats went in the presale they have been held back for ticket resellers and VIP packages.

The same happened in the US presale, crap seats available and yet the front 10 rows available on ticket reselling companies.

Why is it other acts can look after their fans and yet Madonna can't? Is this really anyway for her to treat her fans.

I really thought when she hooked up with Live Nation her fans would get a good deal. I believe Madonna and her team could do

more for fans they just can't be arsed. I don't expect charity from Madonna but having supported her for 25 years I expected a chance

to get a decent seat for her tour without having to pay rip off prices. Oh well......

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Madonna makes money from Ticketmaster sales ie she makes money on all tickets sold - whether to the scalping website StubHub or the fans. This Stubhub deal is ENTIRELY about making more money by whatever means.

She has signed a deal with Stubhub so she'll earn extra money from scalping her fans. You can argue that scalping happens anyway which is true but nonetheless she is endorsing it and making it easier.

She SHOULD be looking at ways to prevent scalping instead of benefiting from it.

Is anyone actually surprised though?The woman is quite rightly regarded as totally greedy.

I'm neither surprised nor angry. Few people agreed with me at the time but during the American Life era Madonna signed a huge deal to promote the Gap clothes who were being targetted by human rights organisations for their use of child slave labour to make their clothes in Asian sweatshops. This was at the time she was saying how awful materialism was on her American Life album while at the same time earning money off the back of child abuse.

That was the time I stopped loving Madonna - I still like her music but I dislike greed and I stopped respecting her as a person thanks to her greed and hypocrisy. I don't wish to be lectured on Malawi or Kabbollocks or making the world a better place by a woman who endorses theft from her employers (ie us her fans)

What's more this is an APPALLING PR move. Going to see Madonna is not a huge novelty anymore as she tours so often. Now that she is aging she will find it more difficult to sell records and gain new fans. Pissing off her fanbase like this will probably not affect sales for this tour but seeing as she will be touring every couple of years she will soon be playing smaller venues to fewer people.

I think she's accepted that her days as an artist relevant to the music scene are ending and she wants to make as much money as possible.

I totally agree with everything you've said here. M has become SUCH a hypocrite. I still like her music, but I've lost a lot of respect and affection for her, and now I only buy something when I *really* like it; my days as a collector are over. For instance, I didn't bother buying '4 Minutes'. I'm sure she won't lose any sleep over this, but I do think her greed and hypocrisy will come back to bite her on the arse.

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I don't know all the facts about this scalping controversy. The only way I would have a problem with it is if Madonna herself is holding tickets back from Ticketmaster and icon and giving them directly to Stub Hub. That would be the only way she is scalping her own fans.

However, I don't think that's the case. They are getting them from ticketmaster as scalpers always have. From what I can see, she is just preventing the scalpers from ripping her off by getting a amount of what they collect. Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society. If someone wants to sell something for more than they paid for it and someone wants to buy it, why shouldn't that be allowed? If that's wrong, then ebay would have to shut down now.

If you don't think paying more than face value is worth it, then don't go to ticket brokers or scalpers.

I guess people are saying Madonna should stop scalpers. But it's not clear to me by not being involved with Stub Hub that would happen. Scalpers would still exist. There will always be people who are wiling to pay more than face value for a ticket. It's not clear to me these people will be her most dedicated fans. Most hard core fans know exactly when the tickets go on sale at ticketmaster. I'm sure if you go to ticketmaster at 10 a.m. Monday you will be able to get a ticket. A lot of the people who will buy from Stub Hub will be more casual fans or curious people who had no idea when the tickets went on sale, but now decide they'd like to see Madonna.

I think they are ample opportunities for fans to get tickets either through icon or ticketmaster, so I think this whole thing is a tempest in a teapot.

Some people act like Madonna's charity should be her fans, not people with AIDS in Malawi. She wants to make money from her concerts and her hard work. I don't see why that makes her greedy. I really don't see the problem as long as she isn't herself giving the best tickets to Stub Hub.

the only way they would even agree to make a deal with madonna is if she gave them advanced (or an allocation) of tickets - what else would be the purpose of them giving away half of their earnigs if they didn't get something for it - they don't need her permission to resell. for her part if she wants $1000 or $2000 per seat why doesn't she just charge that instead of hiding behind a "i should get my cut from them reselling my hard work" - price the tickets for your hard work and fuck the scalpers. this is just greed - nothing more, nothing less.

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I was logged on for the UK presale AT 10.00am the best seats I could get were almost 3/4 of the way back.

I don't believe for a minute the best seats went in the presale they have been held back for ticket resellers and VIP packages.

The same happened in the US presale, crap seats available and yet the front 10 rows available on ticket reselling companies.

Why is it other acts can look after their fans and yet Madonna can't? Is this really anyway for her to treat her fans.

I really thought when she hooked up with Live Nation her fans would get a good deal. I believe Madonna and her team could do

more for fans they just can't be arsed. I don't expect charity from Madonna but having supported her for 25 years I expected a chance

to get a decent seat for her tour without having to pay rip off prices. Oh well......

I agree, stubhub has 4,000 tickets now for the NY shows.

I would go see her, she is going to be 50, you never really know how long she will be able to put on high energy shows even though shes in great shape.

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