Master of Tickets

I think I’ve been using Ticketmaster online since they first made the service available so I’m well aware of all the quirks inherent in the system of procuring tickets online. The process used to go something like this: First you would get on the site at least 3 minutes ahead of the tickets going on sale and click your refresh button repeatedly on the screen that would eventually sell you tickets. You did this because there was no telling what exact moment the tickets would go on sale and for popular events the first 5 minutes is the difference between seeing the performer up close and barely seeing the performer at all. Once you got in, you would open several windows at once and get them all searching for tickets, not so much to be a jerk, but more because the BEST AVAILABLE option always seemed to come up with nothing no matter what, so the best strategy seemed to be searching for tickets within the individual tiers of the venue. Finally if you got in you would buy the tickets and that was that. If this process took more than 20 minutes without yielding tickets you might as well just give up because the only seats you’re going to get might as well be in orbit. This of course was the idealized process. When Ticketmaster first started online you didn’t have to type in the security word that keeps programs from auto searching and there was no handy timer showing you that “yes, you are actually looking for tickets”. Back in the old days you hit search and just waited while another web page loaded. And this was on dial-up so you were never quite sure whether it was looking for tickets or you’re connection just sucked.

Ticketmaster has changed a lot of this, in fact there have been even more recent changes that will not allow you to have multiple search windows open at once and will ban you for several minutes if you continually refresh a page. This is great stuff as it means it’s a tiny bit harder for the scalpers to get tickets easily through the internet. For someone like me who remembers when Ticketmaster essentially threw the consumers to the wolves and forced us to adopt these behaviors in order to combat the scalpers and attempt to get tickets for a somewhat less inflated price, it’s a bit of a problem. I know better now, but I essentially sabotaged my ticket seeking endeavor by using the old “tools of the trade” as it were. I suppose it ended up alright in the end though. I DID get tickets to Radiohead and they’re in the first few rows of the third tier of seats so it’s comparable to every other time I’ve seen them at least. And I suppose it’s better than the last time I tried to see them when I simply couldn’t get tickets at all, but I wish I had known that after over a decade of online ticket free-for-alls Ticketmaster finally decided to leverage technology that’s been in existence for quite a while to make getting tickets online a bit more of a fair process.

I still think that all events should be “will call” only. If you have to provide a valid proof of ID in person to pick up tickets it derails scalpers pretty quickly.

In Rainbows

Still waiting for Radiohead to tell me that I can download their new album. Just the fact that Radiohead left EMI and is publishing themselves now is awesome, but add to that the fact that the new album is only available online through them and it’s ten times more awesome. Why? People are going to have to work to get the album. Granted, they can get it for free, but they can’t just walk into a store and get it. I just hope that there are people who won’t end up getting this album because it’s only available online. I’ve been to Radiohead shows and one thing a real Radiohead fan knows is that more than half the people there, don’t deserve to listen to Radiohead. They don’t get it, they’re just there because they’re followers, they’re part of the flock. Radiohead has been mainstream since day 1, but they do things they’re own way and you never get the feeling that they sacrifice their integrity in order to sell records. If that were case then the last three albums would have sounded just like OK Computer. Radiohead is a mainstream band with an indie attitude and it’s nice to see them doing their own thing now and spitting in the eye of conformity once again.

Now if I could just get the email telling me I can download the new album…