Had a good time talking to Shad on q this morning, about the amazing prices being demanded for tickets to Tragically Hip concerts on the secondary market.
Got a lot of hate for that one. Reading the comments thread over at CBC reminded me of this:
In Due Course
Building the Republic of Letters, one keystroke at a time
I loved the argument, Joe. There’s a reason I read this blog and not message boards or comment sections. Call me a snob, but that kind of tripe just isn’t worth eating. If you want elevated, cogent conversation, you can’t just invite anybody with a keyboard and an opinion.
I listened to the interview and read the commenters on CBC. Listening skills aren’t very good, are they, especially if you’ve decided a priori to grind an axe.
I guess there are still people who think that rock & roll is rebellion, but people often prefer mythology to reality. Our culture is handing over near-monopoly powers to a very small number of online companies, and by and large we go along with it.
Your interview was great. Listeners’ rage might have been mitigated a little if they heard a few examples of ways artists can reduce the market price of their tickets and hence cut down on scalping. According to an old episode of Planet Money[1], Kid Rock was able to bring down the market price of his concert tickets by doing things like increasing supply (offering more shows), selling many of the best tickets at a true market price, but reserving the first few rows at his shows for fans selected from general seating by lottery.
[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/06/27/196277836/kid-rock-takes-on-the-scalpers
Hey – I thought the interview was very interesting…..and I said so on my facebook page.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/20/new-york-scalper-law-ticket-bots/
Seems relevant