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Novel ways to put tickets in fans' hands
By Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY
If you grew up buying tickets out of a shoe box behind the counter of the local record store, those days are long gone. Now, you can often print your ticket from your computer. Soon, you may not even need a ticket, just a picture message sent to your cellphone. From extravagant prices to exclusive experiences, these are some of the ideas transforming today's ticketing industry:

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ADVICE: How can you secure a great seat?

•VIP packages. Some acts pair merchandise with good seats. Others offer something more experiential. Ozzfest may have given away 428,000 tickets this year, but if you want the behind-the-scenes tour and an onstage seat for Ozzy Osbourne's set, it'll cost you a devilish $666. "If you're going to do something, you might as well do it in style," says Sam Wake, 35, of Sacramento, who plunked down $1,700 for a pair of VIP passes to Lollapalooza in Chicago. General admission is $195 per, but "over the course of three days, by the time you add in drinks and food, the difference isn't that much."

•Ticket auctions. Making buyers bid for the best seats determines true market value and lets the act, the promoter and the primary seller keep money that otherwise goes to the secondary market. Fearing accusations of price gouging, some artists limit this method to charity fundraisers, but many are adopting it for regular sales, including Beyoncé, Kenny Chesney and The Police.

•Bundling. Pre-ordering Ryan Adams' new Easy Tiger album (out June 26) from iTunes gets you a password to a pre-sale for the singer/songwriter's fall tour. Bon Jovi flipped that model this week with a ticket pre-sale that included a code allowing buyers to download his new Lost Highway album when it goes on sale Tuesday. "It's a way of rewarding fans for taking an action that shows devotion to an artist," says Ticketmaster executive vice president David Goldberg.

•Secondary sites. For consumers frustrated with long waits and limited selection from primary sellers, secondary sites like StubHub and RazorGator are a dream, allowing you to pick the seat that suits you and your price range. "The fan doesn't have to do two hours of research and spend two hours online with Ticketmaster just to get a mediocre seat," says TicketsNow chairman Mike Domek.

•Will-call pickup. To minimize scalping for their multinight concerts in Asheville, N.C., and San Francisco this summer, Smashing Pumpkins required online ticket purchases, and buyers had to pick up their tickets — a limit of two — the night of the show and immediately enter the venue. Dierks Bentley thwarts resale by promising prime locations to people who buy through his fan club, but he doesn't specify the seats beforehand. "Because we're doing a smaller number, it's very manageable for the box office," says Mark Montgomery, CEO of echomusic, which operates Bentley's fan club. "It eliminates scalping completely."

•High-priced events. Don't expect much of a secondary market for the East Hampton Social, a five-concert series (July 14-Aug. 25) in New York featuring intimate shows by Prince, Billy Joel, Dave Matthews, Tom Petty and James Taylor. Tickets are $15,000 for the series. "Most of those artists are probably getting a million dollars, at least," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the trade publication Pollstar.

•Mobile ticketing. Your cellphone becomes your ticket, when your carrier sends you a MMS (multimedia messaging service) bar code to be scanned at the door. That's what's happening on the 20-city Fergie Verizon VIP Tour. "You could see this deploying at a large scale within the next two to three years," says Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' associate director of music and sponsorships.
[Edited 6/27/07 12:07pm]

Mmh, Prince tried most of these. Personally I hate the auction. Don't understand the secondary sites.

On the whole, I want to buy my tickets in a shop, first come, first serve, if you want to be front row, it'll cost you time, not money. Scalping, while annoying, will exist. Perhaps those shops will have to take some responsibility. The limit of buying 8 tickets etc.