The Ticket Master

You probably won't be surprised to learn that I am on a lot of comedian's mailing lists. Mostly these lists exist just to let fans know about upcoming show dates or when TV specials will be airing. However, the other day I got a very long email from comedian Louis CK. The main point of the email was to inform me that Louie was going on tour this fall, but also to let me know that if I wanted tickets things would be a little different from the normal procedure of buying them because for this tour CK would be selling tickets through his site and his site alone. This was being done to try and cut down on the fees that ticket websites charge, some of which can total up to be almost as much as the tickets themselves. Also, every seat was going to be the same price - $45. Frankly, for a comedy show this is a really good deal. Now, this is not the first innovation CK has come up with, as last year he released a comedy special exclusively through his website for one flat fee, cutting out the cable and distribution companies. That idea was very well-received, made him a lot of money and with almost all of his shows for the upcoming tour already sold out this idea is looking pretty smart for CK as well.

What this basically comes down to is the fact that Louie wants as much control over his operation as possible, which is something I think we can all understand. If you are doing all the work than why should a barely-connected company make millions of dollars off you? (CK clearly has some control-freak in him. After all, what other explanation can there be for why he writes, directs and edits every episode of his TV show himself?) The only compromise CK had to make was finding venues which wouldn't mind pissing these companies off, which means he'll be playing smaller, obscure venues and had to skip some cities altogether. But when you consider the fact comedy shows are worse the bigger the venue, Louie isn't actually giving up all that much. Also, the sting of not being able to perform in Madison Square Garden is probably lessened by the fact that he will create even more loyal fans by doing this. Because not only does it genuinely seem like he is trying to make the whole process easier and cheaper for his fans, there also aren't going to be a ton of people feeling sympathy for companies like StubHub and TicketMaster just because they won't be getting their cut of the pie. I think we have bought tickets to something and looked at the fees, wondering why the hell we have to pay shipping and handling fees when we bought the tickets online and are now printing them from a home computer. In a lot of people's minds it is about time a performer did something with their fans in mind.

As near as I can see there is only one flaw in the plan and that is how they intend to go after ticket scalpers. The comedy special he put out was sold for one low price in an effort to keep people from illegally downloading it. CK thought $5 was cheap enough that people wouldn't feel the need to get it for free and for the most part he was right. The problem is tickets kind of work the opposite way, in that scalpers love to buy all the cheap seats first because they can make the most money by selling them closer to the show's date. It is one thing to get $300 for a $200 ticket. It is entirely another to get $300 for a $45 one. To combat scalpers from selling the tickets at astronomical mark-ups CK has hired people to look for tickets being sold online and if anyone sells their seats for above the printed value he reserves the right to deactivate the ticket and refund your money. While this might deter most people from risking it, if you really want to see his show and were unaware of the policy you might be tempted to pay more than the advertised price. Now that fan shows up and discovers the ticket they bought in good faith doesn't work. I get what he's going for, but at that point the scalper already has the person's money. Since scalpers don't offer refunds the only person getting screwed is the Louie CK fan who spent $75 for a $45 ticket and doesn't get to see the show. If they could figure a way around that than this becomes the perfect idea.

As you would expect people are taking this to the extreme, claiming it could revolutionize the way tickets to shows are sold, but I'm not so sure. Yes, guys like Louie could pull this off, but there are many more acts who couldn't. To stand up to people like TicketMaster you need to have extremely loyal fans who are going to want to come see you where ever you are playing and a career which is on solid footing to know they won't be able to freeze you out going forward. Plus, you have to strike quickly, because the window to pull off a move like this closes pretty quickly. CK is currently the most popular stand-up in the world, but even he couldn't have attempted this kind of thing when he was just starting out and, considering how cyclical the entertainment world is, he probably won't be able to do this kind of thing in a couple years. Thinking it over, I can only come up with around 10 acts who have the right mix to pull this off. So, this probably won't change the way the ticket world works. But, it is still nice to see someone with some power fire some high heat at these companies every now and again to remind them that people would prefer to do business without them.