This Grandma always wonders how tickets to concerts sell out in minutes after they are released on line. We mortals have to go through machinations with bots, finding pick up trucks or limos to show we are real people, have to write odd phrases that auto correct makes us crazy over, and get bumped out of the website, while ticket scalpers and brokers somehow bypass these hurdles. I think they must pay hundreds or thousands of people commissions to buy for them, although I have never read or heard this. We grandmas even want to take our youngest grandchildren to concerts and cannot wait. Yes, this crazy Grandma brought our first to the Wiggles (no longer in vogue, cannot believe I am now “dating” myself with grandchildren!) when he was not yet two years old. Of course, we want the best seats we can get in our price range.
This Grandma previously explored how to secure good artist and concert tickets and wrote a blog on tips on joining fan clubs. Although written in 2013, the tips in that post are still valid today. I think I just recently unsubscribed from the Wiggles fan club.
Time marches on, but we grandmas still want to be heroes to the parents of our grandchildren and to our children by being in the know about the newest and best of everything–tips on getting great concert and artist tickets included. Now, in 2015, we have SONGKICK.COM! Mention this new website, which specializes in ticket sales through artist’s websites and fan clubs, to the parents of your grandchildren, and show how much grandma knows about the newest and best. Still sign up on fan clubs for the grandchildren’s favorites. Songkick.com is another tool to get the earliest notification and access to concert and artist tickets.
How did this grandma find out this website was not just another broker or scalper site like stub hub?
On December 18, 2015, the New York Times had an article that “Adele Moves to Thwart Scalpers and Put Concert Tickets Directly in the Hands of Fans.” How? She teamed up with songkick.com, and the article tells us all about it and all about the website. The partnership seemed to work in Europe but not so much in the U.S. Songkick sold 40% of Adele tickets in Britain, but only 8% here in North America, according to the author, Ben Sisario, and “[w]hen tickets went on sale Thursday, fans on social media complained about technical problem and tickets that appeared to sell out in minutes.” Yes, the article mentioned that “the ticket scalping market–estimated to be worth $8 billion a year–comes under increasing scrutiny and criticism. This month the New York attorney general looked into resale listings on sites . . . .” We grandmas just care about getting great tickets at reasonable prices, and sometimes, just getting tickets at all. I hope we in the U.S., when the authorities look into this, find out why and get us access to the 40% like Europe.
If you want to know more about Songkick, go to the New York Times article which gives you its history and story.
The artists are concerned about scalping too. According to the New York Times, “Adele is using Songkick, a site that sells tickets through artists’ websites and fan clubs. It says it has blocked 53,000 sales to probable scalpers.” The article ended “that Mumford & Sons wrote a long note about scalping on their website this week. “We want all of our fans to be able to come to our shows.”
Listen to the artists. They love their fans so we grandmas need to show ourselves as fans. Become a fan club member for special treatment for you and your grandchildren. Ask the grandchildren who their favorite artists are and sign up as a fan club member through grandma’s name and email address. It will be interesting and a chuckle when some Whip artist asks our age as a fan! And, of course, sign up on Songkick. We grandmas rock!
Joy,
Mema
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