jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 02/22/2023 - Ticketing Window, The Indie Touring Life, Film Scoring Abuse, Dragging Down Country Music...

All the arts are about getting your s*** out. And getting it out in a way that, if you're lucky, is gonna create a path for someone else to work through their s***. Open in browser Wednesday February 22, 2023 The Roots at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., April 16, 2008. (Paul Warner/WireImage/Getty Images) quote of the day "All the arts are about getting your s*** out. And getting it out in a way that, if you're lucky, is gonna create a path for someone else to work through their s***." - Black Thought rantnrave:// What the Price How it started. How it's going. Today we catch up on a busy February's worth of stories on tickets and ticketing—stories from a month in which attention shifted from TAYLOR SWIFT and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN to BEYONCÉ, whose RENAISSANCE tour went on sale with fewer hiccups than other recent megatours, but all the same dollar signs. As of Tuesday, you could still find "verified resale" floor seats in GIANTS STADIUM for just shy of $5,000 through TICKETMASTER, and similar seats for upwards of $6,000 on SEATGEEK. The latter will also happily sell you secondhand nosebleeds for prices like $715 and $867, though it's hard to imagine there's a Beyoncé fan anywhere in the world who has that much money and is willing to sit in those seats. The relevant question in that case isn't who's getting ripped off for a seat in section 318, but who's being blocked from sitting there. If you waited till the last minute to see Bruce Springsteen Tuesday night in Tulsa, you could have scored seats behind the stage for a rock bottom $6, a fact that people who think the system is just fine have been giddily trumpeting. Those Beyoncé nosebleeds will no doubt be available for a lot less, too, come July. But that won't help the verified fans, the passionate fans, the ones who went through the whole Ticketmaster rigmarole on day one, or the scalper rigmarole on day two (or, um, day zero), and paid a hefty premium for their trouble. And it won't help the Springsteen fans who want to sit in front of the stage, or couldn't get to Tulsa. The $6 ticket may balance out the $6,000 ticket in the bank account of the scalper trying to turn a profit, but it won't do a thing for those early-bird super fans. And it doesn't appear to have changed any minds at the Springsteen fanzine BACKSTREETS, a bible for Boss fans that covered his every musical move for 43 years but announced three weeks ago it's going out of business because of his ticket prices. "These are concerts that we can hardly afford; that many of our readers cannot afford; and that a good portion of our readership has lost interest in as a result," editor CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS wrote. When you've lost the crowd that's been publishing a magazine about you since the 1980s, you might want to pause for a moment and reflect. So. Many. Entities. To. Blame. The SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE deserves praise for airing out a lot of these issues during its January hearing on competition in the ticketing market. But it didn't air out all of them, and its pointed tweet @Ticketmaster on Beyoncé's on-sale day (is that how government now works?) was weird in the sense that it wasn't accompanied by another tweet @SeatGeek (or any number of other resellers). It's going to be hard to fix the system without addressing... the system. If senators AMY KLOBUCHAR and MIKE LEE, who ran that hearing, are in Los Angeles this morning, they might consider dropping in on the POLLSTAR LIVE conference, where at 9:45 am IRVING AZOFF will moderate a "Ticketing Real Talk" discussion with MADISON SQUARE GARDEN chairman/CEO JAMES DOLAN, former US assistant attorney general MAKAN DELRAHIM and stadium tour veteran GARTH BROOKS. One imagines the panel would have as many questions for them as they would for the panel. (No current Ticketmaster employees will be on that panel, but one will be in the room a couple hours later for a separate discussion on "What's Going On in Ticketing?," which promises to drill down into some of the technology and logistics behind that real talk.) Rest in Peace R&B singer CHUCK JACKSON, best known for the early 1960s hits "Any Day Now" and "Tell Her I'm Not Home"... Manga/anime artist LEIJI MATSUMOTO, who collaborated with Daft Punk on several videos and the film "Interstellar 5555." - Matty Karas, curator things fall apart Los Angeles Review Of Books Love Labor: On Touring as an Independent Musician By Eli Winter Sometimes the road makes you question your life decisions.. The Guardian The Hollywood crisis #MeToo missed: 'Every female composer has been through it' By Andrew Gumbel The film scoring industry is largely unregulated, with few protections for assistants. Veterans say abuse is rampant. Rolling Stone Beyoncé Tickets Aren't on Sale Yet. Scalpers Are Trying to Sell Them for Thousands By Ethan Millman For years, fans have bought "speculative tickets" from resellers, who list tickets they don't actually own yet on resale sites. NPR Beyoncé tour sales are off to a smoother start. What does that mean for Ticketmaster? By Rachel Treisman Ticketmaster seems to be feeling pressure and making changes as Beyoncé tickets go on sale. While things appear to be running more smoothly so far, an economist says there's still cause for concern. The Atlantic Beyoncé Tickets Are the New Status Symbol By Shamira Ibrahim Securing a spot at a concert these days can feel like an extreme sport, which has created an artificial hierarchy among fans. The Boot How a Tennessee Bill Banning Drag Shows Is Already Impacting Country Music By Will Groff Senate Bill 3, legislation banning public drag shows in Tennessee, hasn't yet become law -- but its effects are already apparent. Midia Research Filling music streaming's Disney+-shaped hole By Mark Mulligan Lessons the music industry can learn from Disney+. Music Business Worldwide Is the slowdown in big-money music catalog deals officially over? By Tim Ingham Moves from Hipgnosis, Shamrock, Primary Wave, and a big brewing Michael Jackson story have all pumped excitement into 2023's M&A market. Rolling Stone No, Those $1,800 Zach Bryan Tickets Aren't Legit By Ethan Millman "Any tickets offered on resale sites are either fraudulent or will not be honored at the show," a rep for tour promoter and ticketer AEG told Rolling Stone after tickets to Bryan's tour showed up on the secondary market. The Philadelphia Inquirer Bruce Springsteen's fanzine is closing over the Boss' high ticket prices. Here's why it matters. By Mike Newall The driving force of the magazine was a commitment to the idealistic thruline of the Boss's music. It means something, still, that they're able to walk away. May the Boss take notice. game theory Complex These Documentary Filmmakers Are on a Mission To Elevate Hip-Hop Storytelling By Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo Karam Gill and Daniel Malikyar are the twentysomethings behind the Lil Baby documentary, "Untrapped," Migos' "Ice Cold" series, the City Girls' first docuseries, and "G Funk." For the last seven years, the in-sync yet diametric dynamic duo has steadily and quietly worked to be the industry's top music doc guys, and now, they've arrived. Ultimate Classic Rock How Black-Owned Vee-Jay Introduced the Beatles to America By Nick DeRiso Without Vee-Jay Records, they might never have broken in America. Consequence Before TikTok Sounds, HitClips Gave Us 60 Seconds of Pop Perfection By Gab Ginsberg "It kind of wrecked my head these things were so small -- you could put a pile of them in your pocket!" Billboard Live Nation Beats Antitrust Lawsuit Over Allegations of 'Predatory' Behavior By Bill Donahue The accusations from concertgoers must be made via private arbitration rather than a federal class action lawsuit, an appeals court says. Complete Music Update 90% of tickets on Viagogo sold by commercial touts, says New Zealand Commerce Commission By Chris Cooke New Zealand's Commerce Commission this week told the High Court in Auckland that 90% of the tickets sold via often controversial secondary ticketing platform Viagogo are put on sale by professional touts. It also revealed that the consumer rights regulator has received 1300 complaints or communications about the ticket resale site. The Guardian 'It's an insane amount of money': fans feel shortchanged by K-pop ticketing as idols finally hit the UK By Molly Raycraft British K-pop fans are bracing for a bumper year of gigs - but worry that short-notice ticket releases and high prices play into the hands of scalpers. Resident Advisor How to Launch a Web Radio Station By Niamh O'Connor Five radio stations--Dublin Digital Radio (ddr.), Rádio Quântica, Oroko, Skylab and Threads--provide some tips on how to do it yourself. Rolling Stone Defending the Grammys: Harvey Mason Jr. Makes His Case By Brian Hiatt Recording Academy CEO Mason responds to Grammys criticism -- and previews a TV special celebrating hip-hop's 50th anniversary. Bandsplaining The Meltdown of Russia's Music Scene Since the war with Ukraine, dissenting Russian bands have been "canceled" en masse, including many of the scene's original founders. Bands who faced censorship, harassment and intimidation during the Soviet days are now experiencing the same thing some 40 years later. Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Free Speech + Other Dirty Words: Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) By Ryan J. Downey and Tom Morello It's not just Tom Morello's musical talent that earns him a place in the pantheon of musical greats — he's also a passionate advocate for free speech. Billboard If Michael Jackson's Estate Earns $75M a Year, What's It Worth? By Ed Christman Sony Music is reportedly in talks to buy a 50% stake in the pop icon's estate - and it may be worth more than previously reported. Los Angeles Times How Lydia Tár was waiting in a drawer to be brought to life By Todd Field How Todd Field spent hours and hours studying classical music and orchestras before writing his Oscar-nominated screenplay. Lefsetz Letter The Bob Lefsetz Podcast: Fred Rosen By Bob Lefsetz and Fred Rosen Mr. Ticketmaster. what we're into Music of the day "A Love Letter to Hip Hop" Black Thought Video of the day "Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World | Episode 4" Shianne Brown/Yemi Bamiro Final episode of the PBS/BBC documentary series, executive produced by Chuck D. Music | Media SUBSCRIBE Suggest a link "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" Jason Hirschhorn CEO & Chief Curator HOME | ABOUT | SETS | PRESS Redef Group Inc. 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