April 23, 2025; General Q&A
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Key Insights:
Personal Updates 🐶 The speaker welcomed a new puppy, which led to unexpected challenges balancing personal life and responsibilities, including struggles with puppy-related issues during travel. ✈️ The speaker experienced travel difficulties, leading to an apology for a missed meeting due to being stranded on a plane without communication.
Ticket Industry Updates 🎟️ Ticketmaster has reinstated sending One-Time Passwords (OTPs) via email, alleviating the need for unique phone numbers, providing temporary flexibility for users. 📰 A recent executive order aims to improve transparency in ticket pricing, which may affect how dynamic pricing and additional fees are presented to consumers.
Industry Speculations 🌍 The speaker expressed skepticism about the potential impact of an executive order, predicting a focus on transparency in ticket sales rather than substantial changes to ticket resale markets. 🤔 Transparency in pricing is crucial, as many customers are unaware of fees associated with ticket purchases, and the speaker hopes for clarity in final ticket costs.
World Cup Ticket Expectations ⚽ World Cup tickets are expected to be among the most expensive ever, with prices starting significantly high and potentially bundled with multi-game packages rather than single tickets. 🎟️ A competitive lottery system may be implemented for ticket sales, complicating the buying process for individual games.
Concert Ticket Strategies 🎤 The speaker advised against purchasing added concert dates, especially when demand and inventory levels may not justify the investment, sharing a personal lesson learned about K-pop shows. 💡 Artists typically release new music ahead of tours to generate excitement, which can skew demand and ticket sales; lack of new material can hurt ticket performance.
Sports Event Insights 🏒 The speaker discussed the differences between sports and concerts, noting that season ticket holders consume most inventory, resulting in higher prices for publicly available tickets. 🎯 A suggestion to follow local sports teams and sign up for their newsletters was made to gain access to presale codes, enhancing the chances of securing tickets.
AI and Ticket Reselling Predictions 🤖 The speaker acknowledged the potential for advanced AI in predicting ticket market trends but emphasized that current models might not account for nuanced variables affecting ticket sales. 📅 While AI could be beneficial, it remains in early stages, and the speaker recommends a cautious approach to relying on it for ticket resale decisions.
Actionable Advice: 🐾 Balance personal life and responsibilities; pet care can lead to unexpected distractions. 🏷️ Take advantage of Ticketmaster's email OTP feature while it lasts, and prepare additional accounts if possible. 🤝 Stay informed about pricing transparency and advocate for clear breakdowns of ticket costs. ⚽ Monitor World Cup ticket information leading up to the event for strategic purchasing. 🎟️ Assess concerts critically before buying added dates; focus on original shows with established demand. 🏀 Engage with local sports teams for potential ticket opportunities and presales. 🤖 Remain skeptical about AI predictions in ticket resale; keep learning from market experiences.
Timestamped Summary
[00:00-06:30] The speaker shares recent life changes, including the challenges of managing a new puppy who had to stay home due to a common parasite. The puppy's daycare situation improved after three weeks, allowing the speaker to resume work more effectively.
[06:30-10:30] The speaker apologizes for not attending a previous meeting due to travel issues. They acknowledge a good turnout in the absence and express eagerness to discuss relevant ticketing topics that have developed since.
[10:30-14:00] Ticketmaster made a significant change by allowing One-Time Passwords (OTPs) to be sent via email again. This adjustment could assist those with multiple accounts, ensuring smoother access without needing unique phone numbers.
[14:00-18:00] The speaker discusses potential implications of a recent executive order, emphasizing that it may lead to increased transparency in ticket pricing. They hope that consumers will gain clearer insights into fees and pricing dynamics.
[18:00-22:30] The executive order might reduce speculative sales in ticket listings, where tickets are listed before the actual sale occurs, potentially leading to customer frustration if orders are not fulfilled.
[22:30-27:00] The conversation shifts to World Cup ticket expectations, highlighting the high demand and costs involved. The speaker warns potential buyers about the likelihood of expensive packages and a possible lottery system for ticket sales.
[27:00-31:30] As the conversation continues, the speaker urges caution regarding sports event tickets, stressing that the ticket market is more unpredictable compared to concerts and that season ticket holders often dominate availability.
[31:30-36:20] They reflect on the history of ticket pricing dynamics and share personal tips for following sports events, stressing the importance of local team knowledge in ticket reselling.
[36:20-41:00] The speaker shares thoughts on the Beyoncé tour, noting the importance of original shows over added dates due to potential oversaturation in ticket sales and advises against buying into added show hype.
[41:00-46:20] Questions arise about artist performances impacting ticket sales, particularly surrounding how festival performances might affect overall demand for future shows.
[46:20-50:00] The impact of current trends in ticket purchasing behavior is discussed, including the influence of social media on ticket demand.
[50:00-54:00] The conversation concludes with remarks on the evolving role of AI in predicting ticket sales, expressing skepticism about AI fully capturing the complexity of the ticket market but recognizing its potential for future integration.
[54:00-56:00] The speaker thanks the participants and confirms plans for a follow-up meeting in the future, encouraging them to reach out with any questions.
(00:08) Um, anyway, sorry about that. How can I Let's see. Uh, do not disturb maybe. Um anyway, so yeah, I' I've just been all over the place and uh you know, just really excited to just kind of do a whole bunch of nothing. Yep. Yep. Uh get back into uh also my uh you know, per you know, that really matters.
(00:39) But the other kind of insane thing that's been happening this month is I I got a new puppy. Like last fall, we got a new puppy and the uh the puppy's been going to daycare because uh you know the puppy at home buying tickets and stuff just doesn't really work. I had this in this great vision that he would just sit in the play pen and just kind of watch me buy tickets and that's not how it's been going at all.
(01:02) So he uh he's going to daycare and like at the beginning of April he uh he came down with like a puppy like parasite like an internal thing. It's pretty common, but he can't be around other dogs. He can't go to daycare. So, like he got kicked out of daycare and it takes 3 weeks to like get rid of it. So, he's been That's the other thing is like I've been on the road crazy.
(01:22) He's been home not able to like go to daycare or anything like that. So, he just got a positive sample uh yesterday. So, he went back to daycare today so so that I can actually get some [ __ ] done during the day. So anyway, yeah, it's just it's been a crazy month, man. And and I know I again, all this leads up to uh my apology for uh for like two weeks ago.
(01:46) I felt very poorly. And uh yeah, I was sitting on a runway, no water, no no W. It was one of those smaller planes, so no Wi-Fi. And like I'm just sitting there like freaking out cuz I'm like I had no way to contact anybody to let them know I wasn't going to show up. And so yeah, anyway, sincere apologies. We'll make up for it tonight.
(02:08) But yeah, man, it's been a it's been long-winded answer for your question, but it's been it's been a hell of a month. I'm I'm I'm ready to I'm ready to not be in the air for like a couple weeks. Yeah, no worries. No worries. [ __ ] happens. Yeah, it does. It does. Um let's see. Go ahead.
(02:27) We actually ended up having like I don't know a decent turnout for when you didn't Oh, no. So, so so then there was just a group of us that like we ended up just chatting and we we had like a talk God damn it. We had talk for four hours. That's good. That's good. Oh, [ __ ] That makes me feel worse. Um we're going to be recording tonight, right? Of course.
(02:49) Okay. All right. Very good. Uh yeah. [ __ ] man. Um but actually, you know what? It actually kind of worked out a little bit in the sense of a lot of we we'll talk about this right out of the gate, but but Ticket Master just made a huge change um with with allowing OTPs to go through email again.
(03:11) And so a lot of the stuff we would have talked about two weeks ago would have kind of been null and void after this email change. So, like, you know, still would have liked to have had the discussion, but uh certainly we'll get this recorded and and and make sure the folks who were here last week um get to hear it because uh man that that that's a bummer cuz I it's always better when you know there's a bigger audience for questions.
(03:35) No offense, Jay. No offense to you, but uh just always better to have a you know larger audience and more people participating and uh gives me some more content to discuss and stuff like that. So um do you want to uh do you want I don't know. Have you have you pinged this thing? Have you uh done a reminder at all? I haven't seen it.
(04:00) I have like in our general announcements channel and then I sent it out like a bot that DMs everybody. Uh we had a couple of that express interest. So I imagine we'll have some stragglers uh pop. Yeah, that's cool. All good. Um yeah, and that's fine. And uh something that I would really appreciate is is I don't remember, you know, I don't know kind of how the discussion went a couple weeks ago, but I'm sure some some questions or some uh some good discussion points came up.
(04:26) Doesn't necessarily have to be a question. just maybe I would love if you could kind of chime in with with what you guys uh we could even do that now if you wanted just so I could have them ready to go. But is there anything that came out of that discussion or that impromptu chat that kind of would make some good discussion for tonight? Uh we like while we were waiting we had like some general chats about tickets.
(04:47) There were some newbies in there that were asking some general questions. Yeah. People talking about some recent stock with like uh Beyonce J Hope not performing as well. Sure. Yeah. Um and then yeah, then it just turned into like kind of just a really general discussion about everything. Okay.
(05:07) JH Hope um you know, we'll talk about email, we'll talk about Beyonce a little later. God, I wish I could throw her off a [ __ ] cliff. Um yeah, we'll we'll talk about Jenny as well. You know, K-pop has not been uh J K-pop has not been kind in 2025. Um, we'll talk about K-pop a little bit and kind of what's going on there. Um, I want to talk about taking away the the price ranges which makes my job infinitely harder.
(05:41) And then one thing that I also wanted to ask is I don't know if anything came about it. I just seen a headline. So, I'm just uh regurgitating headlines, but I seen something that um Donald Trump was attempting to make a change for ticket Oh yeah, we haven't talked about that yet. Okay, that's Yeah, that's a nice that's okay. Yeah, I got a lot to say there.
(06:04) And you know, everybody wanted to talk about it right away when it happened. And I you know, now that we've had a couple of weeks of marinating it and and and uh just kind of see what's going on, we will uh we'll definitely talk about that. Yeah, that's a nice chunk of time. I got lots to say and you know general consensus is going to be uh you know the sky is not falling.
(06:31) Let's let's not get ahead of ourselves. Uh this stuff happens stuff like this happens once every five or 6 years and I know most people have not been around five or 6 years to experience that but uh this is not the first second or third time that they've tried to uh quote unquote make major make major changes. So we'll talk a lot about that.
(06:51) I forgot we hadn't talked about that yet. Um, so yeah, what anything else from the chat? I mean, obviously, yeah, that's probably a big one. Just the unknown, the big question mark. Um, anything else from that chat that you think would be good? Uh, not the top of my head. Jaden himself might have some questions, of course.
(07:11) He had he's has been in the session for a little bit, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna put you on the spot, Jay. Yeah. Yeah, I think for me uh something I've kind of been thinking about dabbling with is uh sports events. Uh and I guess more more tour or like even Coachella or festival tickets. Uh and just trying to understand like especially the ones where you have the option to buy like a 3-day or a 2-day ticket.
(07:41) Uh like example I deal a lot with Formula 1. I like go to F1 Miami and you know I have some niche hospitality stuff where I buy a 3-day ticket for $1,500. Uh and I'm selling Sunday at you know $1,100. I'm selling Saturday at another you know 600 bucks and Friday 300. So all in I'm you know selling a $1,500 ticket all of a sudden for 200 two two two grand give or take. Right. Sure. Yeah.
(08:07) And those are those hospitality that's something you have access to locally or which one is that? The hospitality you mentioned something about hospitality. Obviously those those are those are hospitality tickets I assume or something. They're not club ticket. I mean you can buy individuals. You don't have to buy it in a group of 10 or whatever.
(08:28) But I I mean anyone can I can send you the link right now and you can go buy it and list it on you know stuff or wherever else as individuals. So, you know, you got to pick and choose your battles. At the same time, uh I do thankfully also have a contact at who's directly like a broker of the Miami Dolphins and all that stuff. So, you know, I'm on text basis with him and he's like, "Yeah, I put six tickets in your account and you know, I'll deal with payment later." So, that helps.
(08:53) You know, in all honesty, there's some, you know, Yeah, getting those up front certainly helps out a little bit, right? Um, yeah, you have some certainty that hey, you could, you know, buy them and, you know, you'll have a locked in price so you could list them whether or not you may or may not have them.
(09:11) So, for sure. Yeah. The general admission tickets obviously. So, it it makes life a bit easier, right? Yeah, for sure. You know, the the general consensus and we'll definitely talk about some sports cuz we'll talk about NHL and NBA playoffs a little bit. But, you know, my main my main thing about sports and my biggest recommendation out of the gate is is uh start local.
(09:34) Start with your local team, whatever professional sports team that is. Uh start there and start with the sport that you watch the most and understand the most and keep up with the most. Um and it's, you know, the great example is this F1 thing, right? Like, uh I I don't follow F1, uh as much as I should. Um, and you know, and so I don't buy F1 a whole lot.
(10:01) Uh, mostly just because it's expensive and you know, if again, if you don't follow sports, I I don't recommend buying a sport you don't necessarily follow. Uh, individual games are okay. I'm really talking about season tickets and and and the like here. But, you know, the toughest thing with sports is they the catering is to the season ticket holders, right? Uh they get the best price.
(10:29) They get the the the locked in location. Uh so, when you're talking about single games during the season and especially during the playoffs, you know, everybody's asking about NHL and NBA playoffs right now. Well, yes, there are public on sales, but uh essentially for the most part, uh the teams are pricing those individual games at around market value or what they think market value will be.
(10:56) So, not only is the you know, you're it's all performance-based, matchup based, you know, buying the third round of the NHL playoffs is going to depend on who's playing who. But when your season ticket holder has paid $90 a seat and the the single game price at the public sale or a pre-sale is $225 a ticket or 250 a ticket, like it's very hard to compete with those season ticket holders who have a much better rate than you do.
(11:25) Um, so yeah, sports are a little more complicated. They're not as straightforward as concerts. Um, I talk about them a little bit, but you know, it's really tough for me to go into like season tickets and stuff on a large for a large audience because uh, you know, sports teams cancel uh, especially now, sports teams have what's called consolid um, consolidation deals, meaning they only deal with one or two major brokers.
(11:52) They don't allow anybody else they think is reselling into to have a seat at the table. And so, you know, you'll have like the Washington Capitals deal, you know, Encore uh Encore tickets in Maryland uh paid like $2 million for that deal and they get like $1,200 tickets per game. But also, when you would get that many tickets and there's no other resellers that have a large amount of tickets, you can kind of control the market.
(12:21) So they work with the team to control that secondary market and that kind of stuff. And a lot of people don't don't know that goes on. They just see these crazy prices for these sports games and they're like, I want in on that and it's not that easy. But we will definitely talk a little bit about sports tonight with NHL and NBA playoffs looming and going on right now.
(12:43) Um, so yeah, we've got lots to talk about actually. So Jordan, if you're ready, we can we can start. Let me know when you're recording and we'll get started. Have been for about 13 minutes. Oh, fantastic. Okay. Well, we'll we'll double up a little bit on uh we'll double up a little bit on on the sports stuff.
(13:09) Um let me get you make some good points there, Joey. In terms of, you know, teams like with F1, it's a bit different cuz it's drivers and teams. So you're not necessarily better performing poorly or badly. And you know there delineation is with with F1 it's they go from country to country.
(13:26) So you know each country has their own regulations and currencies. In my case I dabble mainly with the American countries cuz hey I know US and Canada right to your point and there's so many different and there's so many different sections and things to consider and you know free tickets being offered by partners. So there there's and yep uh all of those things.
(13:48) F1 in Miami is going to perform differently and have different characteristics than F1 in Austin, right? Uh Austin is not as sexy of a party city, a bottle service city like Miami is. And you're not attracting that clientele. You know, your your private jets are typically not or will go to Miami over Austin or Vegas over Austin, stuff like that.
(14:10) So play in um it's just more complicated. It's just more comp there's a lot more variables and it requires sports, you know, you can buy an artist for resale without having really listened to them. But sports, you really need to kind of follow the team, follow the sport, know what's going on.
(14:32) Uh because there's a lot of very, you know, matchups and is someone, you know, is Ovetchkin playing? Is he sitting? That kind of thing. Um, you know, those all factor in. So, we'll talk about sports a little bit tonight as well. Do you cover anything with the World Cup in general, like FIFA? Is there an option? Is there a resale market or is not celebrated? Oh, uh, there is there is a resale market.
(14:55) Um, we'll talk about World Cup as well. We'll talk about World Cup as well. I just marked that down. So, yeah, we got lots of stuff to talk about. I don't want this thing to run for days and days. So, let's get started. And Jordan, if you think of anything or something I trigger something, a question that you've seen pop up or in your DMs or whatever, as always, please share that so I can so I can discuss it.
(15:17) Um, anyway, let's get started. Um, thanks for being here. Uh, Jordan, thanks for recording. Uh, I am Chokei. I am your ticket provider. Uh, I want to offer a sincere apology to, uh, the folks that that were here like two weeks ago. Uh, and I was a no-show. Uh, I had some travel issues that day. Uh, travel day from hell and was sitting on a on a flight with no Wi-Fi and no way to let Jordan know that I was uh, unavailable.
(15:48) So, I know there was a nice crowd here and I hear you guys had a nice discussion. I'm going to try to cover some of that stuff tonight. You guys were discussing, but please accept my sincere apology if you were here. I did never want to waste anybody's time, so I apologize about that. Um, right out of the gate, I want to talk about a couple of things uh just kind of going on with ticket master in the industry that is uh to anyone that is flipping tickets uh on, you know, a a small scale or a large scale. the the biggest thing that has
(16:22) happened in the last couple of days, maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't. Um, Ticket Master out of the blue brought back the option to uh send your OTP via email. Uh, for the last since basically the the fall Taylor Swift dates. Uh so since like September October uh the only option if you're entering a queue or essentially doing anything around the ticket master site was to get your OTP sent via text message which uh that creates a new problem to solve in unique phone numbers. Uh phone numbers are expensive.
(17:04) Uh and I understand that you know um that was a big hurdle for a lot of folks. So at least for the time being that problem is no longer a problem uh in that you can now have your OTP sent via email which is a major major thing. Um you know a lot of there's a lot of domino effects there both positive and negative depending on how you want to look at it.
(17:34) Uh, one of the things, the biggest things is obviously it eliminates the the the immediate need for text or unique phone numbers. Um, the the thing that I want to add here that will loom over this entire conversation. Everything that I'm saying is we do not know number one why uh email OTP was brought back. We don't know how long it will last.
(17:59) Uh, it could be very temporary. Um, you know, master, as we've said, is always changing stuff, altering everything they're doing behind the scenes. So, I I never uh advise folks to um to make any rash decisions immediately after, you know, uh any reaction decisions after ticket master does something like this because they could easily change it uh change it back to text only uh next month or whenever the [ __ ] they feel like it.
(18:31) Um, but for now, um, this should relieve a little pressure for some of you that are on a smaller scale that may not, uh, have the cash flow to pay of numbers, may not have, uh, scaled out that much. Um, so this is going to create a little, you know, relieve some of that pressure of you'll be able to have multiple accounts, uh, do some more stuff without that OTP text and phone number thing looming.
(19:02) So, that should help some of you out. Um, I would take advantage of it while it's here. And what I mean by that is for all the calls that we're going to do, and we will have a couple of calls. I know we've been a little slow the last couple weeks, but we will have some calls this week. Um, my advice would be uh if you don't already have um additional accounts built out uh emails with ticket master accounts and that sort of stuff.
(19:30) Uh I would certainly start to do that. Uh I would like to preface by saying I do I have not been through the process. I do not know if you know c can you create a new ticket master account uh without needing any unique phone number? I don't know the answer to that. Uh so you will need to play around with it a little bit. But the good news at the end of the day is um you can enter a queue without needing a text message.
(19:58) So, if you have accounts with phone numbers maybe that uh you don't have access to anymore or you cancelled or whatever, um you know, those accounts you could certainly start using immediately. Hypothetically, I would advise you to take advantage of that. Um you know, my if if I had to guess why this is happening, my guess would be uh cost.
(20:23) um you know when when you have when you force millions of customers to use uh an OTP via text message situation, somebody's got to pay the bill on the infrastructure to make that OTP via text run. Um and and as you might imagine, doing something via text only is significantly more expensive on the ticket master side than doing something via email.
(20:50) Um, so my guess is that that uh it is a costsaving measure because it's just not plausible to force that that text message communication between customer and ticket master uh on the scale that ticket master is doing right now. So again, if I had to guess, I would probably say it's it's a it's a semi-permanent change, at least for now.
(21:11) Uh but don't take my word for that. Literally just me kind of spitballing a little bit. Um so that is email OTP. The other big news that that has come out in the in the month of April uh that we have not really direct discussed is uh the executive order that came about at the beginning of the month uh with uh Mr.
(21:39) Kidrock himself uh and you know all these promises and threats and etc etc. I've gotten a lot of people asking my thoughts. They're scared about what this means. They don't understand. Uh, is it a big deal? Is it not a big deal? Let me break it down just as easy as I can. And please keep in mind that all of this again is speculation based on what I have seen over the last 20 plus years in this industry.
(22:10) Um, my number one, the sky is not falling. Um, if I'm not concerned, I I would say that that y'all should not be concerned either. Um, you know, my personal uh my personal take on this and what will actually come out of it is that uh there will be a little bit more uh transparency added to the ticket buying process.
(22:37) What do I mean by that? uh when you are a customer uh going to buy a ticket, all the fees are on the back end at checkout for some sites. They're all in on some sites. Uh it's not really consistent. Uh I think that this will force uh it will force the secondary marketplaces, StubHub, Vivid Seats, Tickpick, even Ticket Master. I hope um to essentially be transparent about what a ticket costs out the door, including all fees, everything.
(23:07) what you're actually paying at the end of the day upfront instead of uh sneaking that in on the back end. Uh and also possibly even a step further of breaking down what the fees that are charged, what they're for, you know, convenience fee and venue fee, facility fee, blah blah blah. Um you know, we don't think twice about it now.
(23:33) uh and people can complain about it, but but uh nobody really knows what those are for, why they exist, why they're there. I I think we will get some transparency with that. Um and you know, I I my personal hope is that we will even get some some transparency with ticket master. Uh as we all know, ticket master kind of does what they want as far as pricing is concerned with dynamic pricing.
(24:00) they can adjust that pricing in real time up or down as much as they feel like. Uh and you know there have been times that even a ticket that you cart is more expensive in your cart because dynamic pricing has happened in that short time frame between when you cart it and when it actually makes it to your cart.
(24:18) Um I you know I would like to see a lot of transparency with that. We have now gotten to the point where Ticketmaster has even taken away the ability to see the price range on like in the source code of an event page. Uh if you you know my calls forever, my writeups have always included the the cheapest price uh and and the most expensive price and then I kind of uh go in and set the price ceilings uh you know guesstimations from there.
(24:46) Recently, about 2 weeks ago, Ticket Master took that away. So, as it stands right now, when you go to buy a show, you have no clue what pricing will look like ahead of time, which I can't name another industry that is completely makes the customer blind by with no knowledge of the pricing ahead of time. I would like to see this executive order uh you know, whip that into shape a little bit.
(25:13) I think that ticket master should uh be forced to not only share the full pricing. I would like to see a a venue seating chart uh with pricing broken down by parts of the venue so people can see that. The other thing I would like to see is uh you know ticket master alerting a customer if something has been dynamically priced.
(25:34) uh you get notified of that very clearly in the buying process and and ticket master is clear and transparent about what that ticket actually costs originally before dynamic pricing took place. Some of this is wishful thinking. Uh but I think that all of these things would be net positives for the industry. Um we you know ticket is a very nontransparent industry and as we know when customers don't understand something uh then they just assume that it's a scam or it's a bot one of the two and a lot of that I think a lot of that
(26:11) confusion could be cleared up with some transparency regarding pricing and what people are paying and being upfront about that. Um, the other thing that I think this will really, really I hope it does is it will get rid of what's called speculative selling, spec sales, spec listings, they are exactly what they sound like.
(26:35) Uh if you've ever wondered how there's listings on StubHub for a concert, a tour before that tour actually goes on sale, um those are mo for the most part uh they are spec sales uh spec listings where someone is listing uh the last row in the upper level, the last row in the back corner of the lower level, the last row of the floor uh and they are listing that uh hoping to get a a nice big sale and then they will fill that order later once the market has settled down a little bit.
(27:08) Um, you know, there's a lot of problems with that. A lot of those problems showed their reared their ugly head during Taylor Swift. Uh a a show that that just got out of control pricing wise and a lot of uh people that took spec spec orders uh did not fulfill their obligation and actually fill those orders, leaving a lot of Taylor Swift fans um you know kind of in uh out to dry with no tickets, no nothing.
(27:39) Um, if you want to read about a speculative uh disaster that happened recently, uh, go look up articles about the masters from this past year. It happened like two weeks ago in Augusta. Um, essentially what happened was there were a ton of guys that took speculative sales. Um, and then, uh, someone, an employee from StubHub, uh, actually leaked the list of people that were selling tickets for reasons we don't know.
(28:11) Augusta, the Masters, is one of the most anti-resale uh, organizations there is. So, they took that information and cancelled a ton of tickets, which created a mega short supply. Uh, mast's tickets are normally uh like $2,000 to $2,500 a ticket. They got all the way up to like 157 uh $20,000 a ticket. And those are actually, you know, people paying that much because they were they had short they were short orders and had to pay that to take care of their customers.
(28:42) So, I hate specelling. I think it's a it's a black eye on the industry. I think uh there's not really a whole lot of um a net positive about it. Customers don't understand why it happens. They don't understand why they get moved, uh why their tickets get delivered super late.
(29:02) Uh they assume it's just a bunch of shady stuff and really it's just somebody it's like short selling a stock. Uh people are short selling that and trying to uh fill it later um when prices have hopefully dropped. Um, but it prices don't always drop and it creates on those big events, it creates a can create a cluster [ __ ] So, if you're interested in spec selling stuff and reading about something that happened, go read about the Masters.
(29:26) It was an it it was a complete disaster. Uh, just a complete mel all the way across. So, in short, I I think that this executive order will focus on transparency um of pricing. Um, I think it will focus on banning spec sales, I hope, especially after the Masters. Um, and then also, you know, they did mention about the the bots act um and kind of enforcing that a little more.
(29:54) They're talking about the 2016 uh act uh bots. Um it's been around for a decade, but it's only been enforced a handful of times. Uh, I would certainly, you know, like to see them enforce that the um on folks that are using automation uh to to obtain tickets and and just to be very clear on where I stand with bots.
(30:24) Um, my two lines in the sand are uh bying the queue and uh any type of auto art situation. Those are my two lines I don't cross personally. uh you know, if we're getting really technical about it, using something like uh an Insomniac or a Jansancy that uh creates new devices on each tab is technically uh circumventing limits, but that would be a lot harder to enforce than someone who is uh bypassing a queue or doing autoart to uh you know, nonhuman behavior.
(30:59) So, I'd like to see them crack down on on bot users a lot, too. Uh but those are the the areas I think I you know unless I'm reading this completely wrong. I think uh it it will end up uh not it's not going to shut down resale. It's not going to you know there's too much money in this industry. There's too many artists.
(31:19) Kid Rock at the front of the line that uh scalp their own tickets out the back door. Kid Rock is notorious for being the worst at that. and I have been in the room when the talks between Kid Rock's team and Live Nation happened. So, I can confirm on a a firsthand basis that that goes on. Um, so I don't think this is going to be the sky is falling situation that a lot of people might be scared about.
(31:43) Um, for those of you who have not been in the tickets for more than a couple years, uh, this happens every five or six years. some big thing happens and it prompts uh congressional action and um and they try to do stuff to stop it. Um so those of us who have been in the industry a while kind of roll our eyes at this stuff, but there has never to be fair never been the actual executive order regarding this.
(32:13) Uh but still uh not to get political because literally the only thing that I care about is how this executive order affects my industry. But I don't believe that uh there's enough competency in this administration to actually uh do something widespread like shut down this industry. Um so I'm not concerned about it.
(32:33) Uh you know, again, if you want to read about some stuff, uh I would recommend reading about the Masters, I would recommend going back um doing some Google searches on Bruce Springsteen Tickets Now 2009. Uh that was a big deal. uh where ticket master accidentally sent uh customers to a resale site to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets and that was when everyone thought that everything was going to shut down and be over and it would end up being just fine.
(33:01) So, this happens every 5 to 6 years. It's not something that I would be super duper concerned about. uh and I I hope that it will actually bring some net positives and transparency to um to the industry and hopefully help customers understand a little bit better about what they're buying uh where it's coming from and and kind of you know what they're paying for it.
(33:26) Um any questions about any of that uh the email OTP uh or the executive order? Um any any questions about anything that we just covered? Okay, cool. Um, so, uh, let's see. The next thing I want to cover, cuz I get asked about it a lot, is World Cup. What's going on with World Cup? I want World Cup tickets. It's going to be a big ticket.
(34:02) What's going on? Um, I don't want to piss on anybody's parade here and I don't want to be Mr. Negativity, but I do just want to set some expectations about World Cup. Number one, it will be the most in demand ticket of all time. Um, but also it will be one of, if not the most expensive ticket of all time. Uh, FIFA is notorious for for being one of the most corrupt industries uh there or one of the most corrupt companies there is.
(34:30) Um, and so there we've already seen a little bit of what pri glimpse at what pricing might look like, what ballpark are we playing in. Uh, some of the teams, if you were a season, some of the teams that are hosting a site, let's for the example, we'll use Los Angeles. Um they offered tickets to they offered hospitality uh kind of VIP tickets to uh season ticket holders and um the the pricing that was offered tickets started at $4,000 a ticket and you couldn't just cherrypick the semifinals or one game or two games.
(35:12) You had to buy at least five games. So, five games at a minimum of $4,000 a ticket. Um, so for a pair of tickets, you were at minimum paying $40,000 for a pair of tickets. Um, every ticket to every game won't be that expensive. What they are doing right now is essentially, obviously, they want to sell as many expensive VIP hospitality packages as they can.
(35:41) Uh but they're also kind of dipping their toe in the market, seeing what people will pay. If they have very strong sales, which I don't believe they have, then obviously they can make the face value of those individual games a little higher than what they thought they could. Uh but from what everything I understand, uh they have had a tough time moving those hospitality packages because they're trying to sell them across multiple venues, multiple cities.
(36:07) Not your average person does not have a private jet to just jump on to jump from from game to game in Kansas City, San Diego, LA, and Dallas. Um, so they're very expensive. They what we've seen has been very expensive. Um, but what we what you guys care about the the single games and kind of the general offering for these tickets, we don't have a ton of information.
(36:34) My guess would be that that as we get closer to summer, we would start to see something. If I had to guess, I would guess there will be some kind of extensive lottery. Um, how they're going to do that and execute that properly, I do not know, but there will be some kind of lottery for the opportunity to buy ticket.
(36:56) Uh but again, my guess is semi-finals, finals, and stuff will mostly be sold in in multi-game packages, whether it's three games, five games, whatever it is. Um they're going to try to sell as many of those multi-game packages as they can. Uh, so it is not going to be like the Copa situation that we did last year where it was kind of a pre-sale and you could buy tickets for whatever game you wanted and it was reasonably priced and it did very well and if you bought you you are very happy about it.
(37:25) Uh, it's not going to be like that I don't think. Um, my guess is it will be a lottery situation and it will at least start off with uh forcing you to buy three games, five games, something like that. I I do not know what pricing will look like, but my my overall sentiment here is it's going to be expensive.
(37:44) It's going to be a very very very tough ticket. I would not be surprised if they did not even go a step further and link tickets to your passport. Um I don't know what they're going to do. There's also the looming issue of we're not not to get political again, but there's a lot of issues with people from out of the country coming into the US right now.
(38:06) that is going when you are talking about teams and fans and all sorts of stuff like that. Um you know you may have some lowered demand because people from out of the country um do not want to take the chance on fooling around with the current situation with that the US has going on with um people entering the country.
(38:26) So you might you know it's going to be very interesting to watch play out. I will have all the details once they become available. Uh but yeah just temper your expectations. It's not going to be a cherrypicked pre-sale where you can buy, you know, the the the semifinals at, you know, $200 and move on about your business.
(38:45) I don't think it's going to be that easy. So, um, but, you know, I would think start starting in June, July, we would start to see more information about that. And of course, I will, uh, I will share it. I will share what I know as soon as it becomes available. Uh any questions about World Cup or anything else that uh has been going on tonight? Cool.
(39:09) Um something else while we're on the topic of uh sports, uh well, real quick, just something I want to note. I mentioned it real quickly earlier, but one of the changes that Ticket Master has made lately is they have taken away the ability to be price ranges. Um, which doesn't sound like a huge deal, but for me personally and what the service that I provide to y'all, it it makes my job infinitely harder because I don't even have any kind of foundation.
(39:40) I have nothing. I know nothing about what pricing looks like. So, I'm I'm going based on kind of previous tours and and previous previous situations, uh, which may or may not end up being accurate. So, I'm hoping this this changes a and they adjust it back. um hoping maybe the executive order does something.
(40:03) But just keep that in mind over the next couple of months that uh I'm going to do my very best to to make accurate uh predictions on what kind of price levels will be and price ceilings for lower level and upper level and stuff. But just keep in mind I have literally nothing to base it off anymore. So I am I am uh I'm I'm doing I'm I'm going to do my very very best with the information that I have, which is not a whole lot.
(40:28) So, just keep that in mind. But it does I I feel like it's worth mentioning that uh you know there's a show where you know I say don't you know buy lower level under 125 and it ends up being a $250 lower level ticket across the board. Like don't you know don't come at me because I, you know, literally I have nothing to work off of when I'm making those kind of predictions except for what's happened in the past.
(40:54) Um, I do want to talk a little bit about sports that are currently going on. It's it's one of the better times in sports right this second. Uh, we have the NBA playoffs going on. We have the NHL playoffs going on. Both are in the first round right now. Uh, if you do not follow sports, if you do not follow hockey uh or basketball, I would encourage you to casually follow those things.
(41:17) You don't have to sit down and watch every single game, but turn on a game in the third period of one of these hockey games. Um, you know, check the stats, read the news the next day about what goes on. Um, because the story lines and the matchups and stuff that happen in the first round will directly impact uh the later rounds uh and then even maybe the finals for stuff that we will hopefully uh be doing some tickets for.
(41:43) and you want to be up to date on that and kind of know what's going on even loosely. Uh so we will be doing uh you know first round of NHL playoffs uh and NBA for the most part is a little dicey. Uh a lot of fans choose to save their money. They don't spend big money on the first round if they think their team's going to advance the second, third round, the finals, etc.
(42:09) So first round can be a little dicey. the the one exception big exception here uh is the is the uh Toronto Maple Leafs playing the Ottawa Senators right now. That is obviously a big game. It's two Canadian teams. Canada, you know, hockey is a religion in Canada. So, that is kind of the exception to the rule. But for the most part, um you know, first round sports playoffs is a little dicey unless you have a monster matchup or some other variable that plays into that pricing.
(42:38) um rivals, rivals playing each other, stuff like that. So, we will do um we will do some stuff for the later rounds. Here is something that I would recommend if you were on this call. This is one of the bigger tips I will drop. Uh go look at what teams are left, NBA, NHL. It should be something like maybe 12 teams uh in each league.
(43:02) Go sign up for the email list for each of those teams. Literally takes 10 seconds per team. go sign up for the email list because NHL teams in the past, NBA teams in the past, especially the Lakers have been known to send out unique codes for playoffs. The Yank the Lakers have done it like the last 10 seasons. So, go sign up for the email list for the Lakers and every other team because not only will they give you a heads up about when playoff tickets are going on sale, uh any pre-sale password that's going on, but there are a handful of teams that
(43:35) will send out unique codes for those playoff games. And if you have that unique code, it's obviously going to be a big advantage. So, take 30 minutes to go look up what teams are left for NHLN NBA um and go sign up for that for those email lists because that information both now and in the future will will be valuable at some point.
(43:59) There will be a time you you'll be you'll be grateful that you signed up for that. Um so, uh definitely take the time to do that before you forget. Um but anyway, uh keeping on the track of sports, one thing to keep in mind with sports, and a lot of people ask me, why don't I do more sports, call more sports, uh sports are a lot more complicated than concerts.
(44:23) Uh not only do you have to somewhat keep up with the sport, the league, the storylines, the players. Um but, uh sports teams also have the unique aspect of season ticket holders. uh season ticket holders are going to eat up most of the inventory um for these playoff games and the inventory they don't take up um you know you have to keep in mind that the single game price for those playoff games are going to be in most cases significantly higher than what your season ticket holder paid because again they have been supporting the team all year long. uh you know they
(44:59) paid for their playoff tickets 3 months ago, that sort of thing. So the season ticket holder price for a seat might be $90. That same seat, you know, in a similar section in a row might be $275 at the public sale. So, you know, the the the teams uh for the most part recently have have priced those they do their best to price those single games at at or close to market value on the secondary or what they think the market value will be.
(45:34) Um and so that it becomes a little dicey there because not only are you paying significantly more uh than other than your competition in some cases uh but also they are trying to um they are trying to price those tickets as close to resale as possible because obviously they're a business too. Um so you know so we will talk uh we will talk NBA NHL playoffs.
(45:59) Uh the next round should probably be going on sale maybe end of this week. Certainly we'll have some stuff next week. We won't talk about every single one. Um uh but again we most most of it will just be me kind of posting the content uh with the links. There's a pre-sale password. Uh you know uh the other kind of unique aspect here is you're buying blind, right? You're buying the next round before the team's even advanced.
(46:27) Obviously, if a team does not advance, you get a full refund, but uh matchup is a big part of the puzzle for sports, and you don't you won't know what the matchup is ahead of time. So, you could, you know, if the Maple Leafs end up playing, you know, uh the M the Montreal Canadians, that's a monster ticket.
(46:49) If the if they end up playing, you know, uh [ __ ] who's a garbage team that's left? Tampa Bay where it's very tough for someone from Montreal or Toronto to get to Tampa Bay and vice versa. Um, you know, that is a much different ticket. Uh, so it's it's tough to do recommend sports because so much hinges on the matchup that we don't we usually don't know ahead of time.
(47:14) So keep that in mind. But just for those of you asking, we will do some NHL and NBA playoff stuff. Uh, but a lot of it will kind of be the same notion of here's the information. Um, and here are the possible teams they could play and then I will try to break down whether you know what the best and worst case scenario is.
(47:35) But there have been plenty of times I bought playoff tickets thinking it would be a grand slam, no pun intended, and it ended up being a garbage ticket because of who they ended up playing or there's a ton of other factors that go in. Um, you know, the other thing is uh playoffs uh typically are on a very small window. So like it's like normally a week or less, typically a couple of days.
(48:00) And so you're talking about travel time, booking travel re uh travel uh accommodations and stuff for your fans that are buying these tickets. So there's a lot going on, a lot of moving pieces, but the the general consensus here is um we will cover NHLN NBA. I would encourage you to become a casual fan of either sport for the next uh you know, four weeks while these playoffs play out.
(48:23) Um, and you know, for those of you that are looking to get into sports, uh, I would certainly do not want to discourage anyone. Uh, my advice is start with whatever your favorite sport is, whatever sport you watch the most. Um, if you do not watch hockey, don't start off trying to go buy an NHL season ticket package.
(48:45) Uh, start off with whatever sport you know the best and start off with whatever your local team is. uh don't you know a lot of these teams are very sensitive. They don't in a lot of cases allow outofstate fans to buy because they assume it's a reseller or they don't want you know away opposing fans in the door. Um so a lot of these teams will uh require you to send in an ID or prove that you live in you know a certain state or city or zip code even.
(49:15) Uh so that will uh that will play in as well. So, if you are looking to kind of dip your toe in, I would start with this the sport that you watch the most or are most familiar with and start with your local team there. Uh local is always best. Uh something else on that note, a couple of these uh sports playoff ticket on sales will have uh a res what's called a residency restriction, which is exactly what it sounds like.
(49:44) uh in an effort to not uh to prevent away fans from getting in the door as best they can, some of these teams will require a billing credit card zip code um within 100 miles of the stadium or whatever the situation is. You have to you have to have a credit card billing in these three states. Um so that is also a factor. Please be aware of that.
(50:07) Do not get upset at me if there is a residency restriction that pops up during checkout of some of these N uh NBA NHL playoffs. Uh that is way way beyond my control. Um, so let's see. Uh, any questions about sports, um, or anything anything in that in that realm? Quiet group today. He got disconnected. Uh, did did every did did my whole spiel about sports go through? Did we have any questions about sports? Did I did I get cut off? You only got cut off for like a second. Okay, cool.
(50:58) Uh, any questions about sports, sports, playoffs, season tickets, anything like that that we can talk about? All right, we're short on questions tonight, guys. Um, which is okay. Uh, which is okay. Um, let's see. Uh the last kind of big topic that I had to talk about was was Beyonce. Uh you've probably started seeing some headlines about that tour starts uh I believe in I don't know a couple of weeks, week or two.
(51:34) Um and it starts in Los Angeles and makes it its way east. You know, a lot of the headlines are about uh the shows about sold out. Uh it becomes a conversation about ticket prices being too high. that sort of thing. Um, you know, my commentary here is when when I did my original Beyonce call, uh, you know, it was what, two LA shows and I think she she added four, so it ends up being six or seven.
(52:02) Uh, that's a lot of [ __ ] shows. And like I have said all along, there Taylor Swift is Taylor Swift. Beyonce is not Taylor Swift. I don't care what her fans say. No one on planet earth can sell tickets the same way Taylor Swift does. Uh and and her resale prices show that. So, um you know, this brings up one of my personal rules that I think is very important that I'd like to share.
(52:29) Uh, you do not have to take this to heart or make it your Bible or anything like that, but my typical rule in general is I do not buy added shows and I do not buy uh the second leg of a tour. So, if an artist tours in the spring and then adds more dates in the fall and does a second leg, I do not buy that.
(52:52) And the reason for that is because um once there is a proof of concept, once people have seen, let's use Chris Brown as an example. That is a great example. Uh you know Chris Brown, if you bought Chris Brown and listened to my advice about Chris Brown, you you were printing money for most of those shows.
(53:14) I think Chicago, last I looked, Wrigleyfield is like a $300 nosebleleed on $49 tickets. A lot of the shows are like that. Um, he has since added uh added some shows in those same markets. He added a couple of new cities. New Orleans, I know, was one of them. Go take a look at like the prices for Wrigley Field versus the prices and the ticket counts for New Orleans, which is one of those added dates.
(53:43) Um, a ton more people bought uh a a shitload more people bought that New Orleans show because they they did they weren't confident in the original dates. It's Chris Brown in the stadium. I'm not buying that. And then once they saw how good it did, then everybody fomos into the added shows. Everybody fomoed into the added Beyonce shows after the originals did well. That sort of thing.
(54:09) And once that ship has sailed, once there are too many people on the boat, then it starts sinking. Um, and that is why I typically do not buy added shows. It's very tempting. It's easy to FOMO in, especially if you skipped the original dates that are doing very well. Oh man, well, I'll just go all in on these added dates.
(54:30) Well, unfortunately, everybody has the exact same idea as you. And when too many people get on that boat, it starts to sink. So, um my advice is always to uh have conviction. Uh ask your questions ahead of time and be confident one way or the other for the original dates and and even even getting a little deeper for the East Coast dates that will go on sale first uh in the morning.
(55:01) Um once those East Coast shows do well, you're you obviously see more people once there's a proof of concept, you see more people getting on that bandwagon to buy Midwest and then West Coast. And so a lot of almost every time on a successful tour, uh the East Coast will typically have the lowest ticket counts because there was not a proven concept.
(55:23) There was nothing. There was no precedent to go off of. Once there is precedent, everybody tries to jump on and make their money. Um, so in general, uh, you know, this Beyonce thing, the original shows did well. I think her shows in DC, uh, over July 4th weekend are still doing decent. her Houston shows are still doing decent, but the cities where she added, you know, Metife and LA, especially LA being the first uh group of uh tour dates, um you know, that there there's just too many people trying to sell and not enough demand to
(55:59) sell, you know, six stadium shows at 80,000. That's that's half a million tickets. Like, that's a lot of [ __ ] tickets. there are a handful of people on the planet, maybe only Taylor Swift, uh that that can handle that kind of stuff. Um, so, uh, yeah. And the other thing that you know the other reason that I didn't buy and didn't recommend buying uh the the ad shows on top of my do not buy ads rule uh is that uh you know I think we do we will have a social media boost here where once assuming the set list is
(56:37) good and in you know um includes fan favorites and she does a great job and the the production and stuff the set design once we start to see those videos from LA I do think it will give a boost to some of those later shows, but it is always tough to be the guinea pig on a major tour like this. Um, because there's no social media content to get people fomoed in to attending.
(57:02) Uh, going back to Taylor Swift, you know, Taylor was a, you know, an 8 $900,000 ticket, which is still crazy, but it it was uh a $1,000 ticket, $800 ticket until those first couple of shows. Phoenix was the first uh weekend and then Vegas. Once we got the first three or four weekends of those shows and people saw that she was playing three and a half hours, they saw she was playing X Song uh from X album, uh you know, all of the insane set design and all that stuff.
(57:34) That is when things really really kind of entered another dimension for Taylor. Uh so that's why your your later shows that summer um you know started to go haywire because of the social media stuff and then tickets were disappearing because they've been on sale for 9 months. So, uh, you know, I always advise people to buy these shows, uh, that have the most amount of runway, and by that I mean the most amount of time before they actually happen.
(58:04) Because in most cases, having more time to sell, more time for social stuff to uh, show up on social media, um, to get people excited about the tour, that kind of thing. Uh, typically it's not a bad thing. Not every time, but most of the time. So, uh, you know, Beyonce, some people are really struggling with with some of those added Beyonce shows.
(58:26) And, uh, you know, there are lessons to be learned there. Uh, but again, if you want an easy one, my easiest one, uh, that I've had for about 15 years is I don't buy added shows. with exceptions. Handler Swift's an exception to almost every rule, but uh I don't buy added shows and I don't buy second legs because most of the time the ship has already sailed uh and you're just going to have lower much lower margins and much higher ticket counts.
(58:51) So, um any questions about Beyonce or any uh anything on that note? Um, not specific to Beyonce, but some of those things you're talking about I think relate to like Jenny and J Hope. Like I found some common occurrences, you know, being LA and San Francisco. Like there seems to be a buzz around California with artist and I don't know, you know, reasons why either there are maybe too many brokers in that area or the, you know, customer base just isn't spending as much, right? That's one aspect I can think of. And then with I
(59:29) think if I'm not mistaken with Jenny, that second show wasn't announced until after the first show was sold, right? So yeah, at that point, how do you determine, hey, maybe, you know, I've heard like looking at the venue, if there's no event for the next day or two potentially means, hey, they already have something in the works, right? Yeah.
(59:50) I mean, look, you know, added shows are killer. Um, you know, even speaking about that Jenny show specifically, here's the thing that really, and this is a lot of K-pop. I if that Jenny show had been priced reasonably where you know your top price was $1.99 or 149, a second show would have been fine. They both would have printed money.
(1:00:13) When you're talking about the entire orchestra was $425 a ticket plus fees. So, it's $1,000 out the gate to start with for a pair of tickets. It's really tough to find. You've only got so many customers that are going to pay 67 8 $900 a ticket to make that worthwhile, right? And so, that really comes down to experience where, and this is even me, I got caught up in Jenny. I had no [ __ ] business.
(1:00:41) I bought uh I bought a bunch of those center orchestras at 425 per ticket and I took a [ __ ] bass on them. I mean 80 you know 80 I 80% loss on some I mean I took a bath and glad they both sunk together but it's the learning lessons from the show. Did you disconnect? Chokei may have had a disconnection here. Are you there, Chi? Uh, yeah.
(1:01:26) Sorry about that. I'm having I'm having issues where my Discord keeps freezing. Um, anyway, you know, I you're right. It's about the lessons that you learn. been, you know, looking back, hindsight's always 2020, but I'm I'm looking at this, I'm like, what the hell was I thinking spending 425 a ticket for, you know, back orchestras.
(1:01:48) Like, I had no business. That was a stupid decision. I got caught up in the hype. I got caught up in the FOMO. And, uh, you know, it's very easy to do. But, um, as far as your question about added shows, it's really, really tough. uh you know unless you go venue by venue to look at their calendar.
(1:02:09) Some venues are very good about having a full calendar on their website. Uh some are not at all. Uh so looking at that calendar uh and trying to guess, you know, is there room to add um you know logistically where is the next show? So, she's playing LA uh on a Friday and the next show on Sunday is in Dallas.
(1:02:32) You know, yes, there's an open date to add on Saturday, but realistically, it's very tough for production trucks to get that far. You know, if that show is in San Diego, which is right down the road, that's a different situation. Um, so, you know, the best thing you can do is look at the venue schedule. Is there physical room to add? And then if there is, where is the next city they're going to? How many miles is it? Is it possible to essentially make that drive overnight? Uh, typically the general rule is production truck drivers aren't going to
(1:03:04) drive more than 8 hours. Um, so if something is more than 8 hours away and you can't do it overnight, like getting out of the show 11:00, break down 1:00 a.m. and you're in the next city by 10:00 a.m. for setup, then then they're not going to do it. And typically your shows, your drives are going to be more like four 4 to 6 hours um just for ease of everybody.
(1:03:26) But yeah, those are kind of the two things that you can look at is is there physical room at the venue to add a show and then where are they going next and does it make logistical sense uh where they could add a show and still make it to X city the next night to uh to perform. Um, so you know, we have seen a almost every tour has had added shows and you know, one of the biggest uh I'm going to as soon as this call's over, I'm going to post Lady Gaga just added some added dates for her tour that's doing very very very well.
(1:04:02) And one of the downsides for these uh verified fans signups through ticket master is what they're essentially doing is they are collecting data on how many people sign up for a specific city so they know they can gauge the interest level and guess which cities get are the first to get ads are the ones that have the most signups.
(1:04:24) Right? And that seems pretty straightforward. That seems pretty simple. But we forget that at the end of the day, whether we are buying a ticket master ticket to flip or to attend, we are still the product that Ticket Master is selling. Like the tickets are one thing, but the people buying them are are are kind of their focus.
(1:04:46) And so they are doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes to gather data in order to adjust pricing uh to match closer to the secondary or add shows. and that sort of thing. And they're very good at it. They have spent the last 15 years um collecting that data and that is why they don't offer that data on you know that data on sales and that sort of stuff is not offered anymore because Ticket Master is using it uh to try to increase their bottom line which creates headaches for us.
(1:05:21) But um yeah, added have been a true aggravation this year. Uh, you know, I I have my thoughts on added shows. I think from a fan point of view, to have a Thursday night show that you buy tickets and and make arrangements to go travel to and then for them to to add a Friday show, uh, it's just kind of just a kind of a just a slap in the face.
(1:05:42) Uh, it's like, you know, it's not a slap in the face to your fans who are traveling and trying to make plans and stuff. Obviously, everybody would have bought The Friday Show if they had known that. Um, so there are reasons they do that, but it's just kind of deceptive all the way around. Uh, but yeah, if you if you are trying to figure out about added shows, the two things that you can look at are the venue schedule and uh, you know, how far what the distance is between uh, the city you're trying to figure out whether they're adding in and whatever city
(1:06:10) they're going to after that. Um, so anyway, but we will have I'll have a post up about two things. One will be uh a sign up for Lady Gaga. She's added some shows in LA and she's added San Francisco. Um and uh the other thing will be a uh sign up for uh a pre-sale tomorrow for Lil Wayne.
(1:06:36) Uh he is doing a one night thing at in Madison Square Garden uh for his new record uh the Carter 6 um which has been anticipated for feels like my entire adult life. Uh so yeah, we'll have those two signups tonight. Wayne will end up being generic, I'm guessing. But sign up, assuming it's not generic always.
(1:06:57) Uh and then Lady Gaga will be locked to whatever uh city uh that you sign up for with your ticket master account. And there's only two cities there. So you're either doing the LA ads uh or I believe San Francisco is a brand new market for her on this tour. So that is what most people will probably aim their signups at.
(1:07:17) But, uh, we'll have that and and we'll talk about Wayne. Uh, I'll have a write up later on tonight for that. Um, and then Gaga pre-sales will be next week. Uh, so we'll talk about those next week. But you want to get both those signups done tonight just so you have access to those pre-sales. Um, any questions about anything that we've talked about tonight or otherwise? I had a couple questions for you, Chi.
(1:07:43) Yeah. What's up? So like you mentioned about your loose requirement about not going for added shows. Um so then like what's your opinion on something like Lady Gaga for example? That's a good question. Um you know right now Lady Gaga see here's the thing it Lady How do we want to put this? Lady Gaga seems pretty invincible right now.
(1:08:13) And the reason for that, it is it is a different situation adding shows in a uh an arena versus adding shows in a stadium. Um adding shows in a stadium, you know, your your Beyonces and stuff, you know, that is no small feat to to sell 60,000 extra tickets, especially if you're adding two, three, four, five shows.
(1:08:37) Uh if these were in stadiums, I I would probably stay away because they're in arenas. Um, and realistically, uh, you are, um, you're going to have to have a decent Q spot to get tickets, right? Assuming it's a four ticket limit on a 20,000 capacity, you're going to have to have like 5,000 or less to touch some tickets hopefully.
(1:08:59) Uh, so that kind of that puts it in a little bit different boat. Um, I will certainly um, you know, I will be pickier for LA than San Francisco. Again, this is assuming that she is this these are the first San Francisco dates, so I'm pretty sure they are. Um, so yeah, again, I will probably bend the rule a little bit on Gaga for LA, uh, I think most of the attention will be on those new dates in in San Francisco, uh, but when something is doing as well as Gaga, I mean, I think, you know, some of those shows are a5 or $600 get in. Um it was expensive to
(1:09:36) begin with, but it's just, you know, printing money right this second. Um and also the other thing to factor in here is her her new album is is getting just crazy buzz from critics, fans. It will end up being kind of a summer anthem album, I think. Um, so you know, I will certainly I will be selective in LA on those added shows, but I this is one of those things something doing this well.
(1:10:08) Um, and again, just to compare it to what we talked about earlier with Chris Brown, um, how do you want to say this? I don't think that if you if you're talking about music artists over the last 20 years or 15 years, uh I think Lady Gaga is in a very very small elite circle with you know your your Taylor Swift and um you know your uh your Harry Styles and artists like that.
(1:10:39) Um so you know I think that uh I I think that Gaga will certainly be a small exception. bend those rules a little bit. Uh but again, there's certainly a little bit of subjective stuff that goes into making that decision. uh but for the most part uh I just think a good general rule for those who are still learning uh and and don't have the that don't have 10 or 20 years of precedent to reflect on uh you know a general good rule that that works out nine out of 99 times out of 100 is is not to buy those add at a shows or second legs. Um, but I will I will bend
(1:11:17) that rule here a little bit for Gaga just because of you know she also like pillar set at Coachella which is something else I wanted to mention for those of you that are still here. Um, another tip I want to drop just that I I I don't really have an opportunity to talk about this in writeups.
(1:11:33) Something that I have found great success with and you may or may not. What you need to do, go read every single review of Coachella that you can get your hands on from big publications, uh, Pitchfork, uh, newspapers, whatever. Uh, and and you are looking for the artists that were kind of like the surprise set of the day, you'll you'll hear I would go even go back and watch some of the live streams from Coachella.
(1:12:01) They post them on their website. They're on YouTube at this point. those full sets they they uh do live streams of. There is always artists that come out of Coachella, they they put on a hell of a show, word of mouth, uh you know, buzz, uh and and they end up doing a fall tour and and capitalize on that and and they end up doing very well in our awful lot of people's radar because they they they got their big break at Coachella.
(1:12:28) Um so Coachella is notorious for that kind of stuff. So I would recommend going and reading. And you're not looking at the review. You know, you're not looking at what they have to say about the, you know, the headliners, but the the smaller acts, uh, you will find them mentioning some smaller acts that they were really impressed by, and those are the artists that you should take a deeper dive into, and when that artist goes on tour, uh, you will be ready for them.
(1:12:54) Um, but one of the other things about Gaga, uh, her reviews, uh, of her set, at least from weekend one, she had, uh, some audio issues weekend two, but weekend one, I mean, some people called it like one of the greatest Coachella performances ever, uh, with her production and stuff. So, that stuff matters as well. Um, Coachella is a pop culture force uh, and and certainly paves the way for music pop culture for the next 9 to 12 months.
(1:13:21) Um, so it's certainly something you want to pay attention to. Same thing with La Palooa. It's not quite as big of a pop culture force, but La Palooa is a big one and and bands that that have a really great set uh and have huge word of mouth at Lala uh you know, you will see them do a fall tour and and they will have a lot of hype behind it because of somebody heard about them at Lala or read about what they did at Lala and stuff like that.
(1:13:45) So use these music festivals to your advantage. It's a great way to discover new artists that are up and coming that you may not know about uh that uh that that will be a hot ticket in uh you know a couple months after that. Um what else you got Jordan? I had another question because like about uh Chris Brown like you mentioned how well he's doing and etc.
(1:14:09) Um how did you know or how did you figure that he would do well? Because in my opinion, if I looked at Chris Brown from the outside perspective, he's a a cooked artist, right? Yeah. No, and I I think I even like if you go back to my write up, I think my first sentence was like I think a lot of people are going to look at this and and see Chris Brown and see stadiums and just say, "No [ __ ] way.
(1:14:30) Are you kidding me?" Um, what really kind of piqued my interest, number one, he did an arena tour last uh, fall and and and I I stayed away for the exact reason that you just said, and that was in arenas. Um, but it did very well. It did very very well, which was very shocking to me.
(1:14:51) But really, what really got me was the press that the tour got about those VIP meet and greet photos where like Chris Brown was taking these ridiculously sexual photos that went viral with like these fans that had paid $1,500 to take a picture with Chris Brown. And that was where my wheels kind of got turning.
(1:15:12) I was like, "Okay, yes, this did well, but it's not like Chris Brown's pumping out radio hits right now." But obviously he still has a huge core group of diehard fans that are paying this insane money to take these crazy pictures. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, just go Google like Chris Brown meet and greet photos or something. You will see.
(1:15:34) I mean, you know, possibly not safe for work, but yeah, just these ridiculous sexualized photos of Chris Brown with his female fans. Um, you know, so that was kind of what triggered it a little bit. Um, also, and I hate to say it, just kind of a hunch, uh, if if if I think that that the majority of people are going to stay away from something, uh, then, you know, I think that it it will do very well because simply just due to low ticket counts.
(1:16:06) I mean, if if every single person was buying their ass off originally for Chris Brown, the market would look a lot worse because there would be three times as many tickets. Um, another example of this Unfortunately, I was not on the correct side of history here, but another example of this is the My Chemical Romance tour uh in stadiums that went on sale late last year.
(1:16:29) Most people looked at that. They said, "My Chemical Romance playing a football stadium? You got to be [ __ ] kidding me. No way. I'm staying as far away as possible." And a lot because so many people stayed away. uh you have very low ticket counts, very little uh inventory on the resale market, which is certainly driving up those prices.
(1:16:51) Again, if everybody had bought their ass off for those first MCR shows at, you know, New Jersey and stuff and the ticket counts were three times as big as they are now or they were, then, you know, I think it's a different situation. So I think that again trying to anticipate a little bit about what your competition might be thinking uh what what you know again tickets sometimes that stuff on paper looks like it's a grand slam on paper and it just flops for whatever reason and then the opposite happens too where it looks like a disaster on paper and for whatever
(1:17:23) reason possibly because everybody thought it was going to be a disaster um it it comes together nicely because there's not a lot of inventory out there for resale or what have you. Um, so yeah, there was a couple of different things that factored in there. Um, but yeah, a lot of people faded those Chris Brown shows and then they tried to overcorrect and make up for it on those added shows and as you you can see, you know, in places like New Orleans, uh, that that is not working out well.
(1:17:56) So, um, again, a lot of this stuff comes with experience. I'm I'm shooting off the mouth, you know, with 20 years plus under my belt, it's a lot easier for me. Um, but, you know, I'm trying to give uh a couple of just nuggets of what my thinking process looks like. Um, so that those that are paying attention can can hopefully use those to try to form their own opinions and moving forward on on what they think something will do.
(1:18:22) And again, there's no there's no set in stone uh formula to decide this stuff because there are hundreds of variables that go into whether any kind of show does well. And that is one of the most frustrating and exhilarating parts of tickets is every single show is its own show and there are no, you know, no answers or uh formulas that fit into a nice little box about whether something's going to do well or not.
(1:18:54) Um so that's kind of what makes this thing a little bit exciting and and a little bit infuriating. But uh yeah, I mean that was kind of my biggest thing was looking at the arena tour last year factory and that a lot of people were going to were going to pass on it um which probably would lead to low ticket counts and then uh you know looking at those those VIP um but I'm trying to those VIP photo uh meet and greet ridiculous viral things that went viral last year.
(1:19:22) Um, you know, one of the things that I do tend to do when I'm I'm just kind of looking at a tour in general is I'll look up the artist on Google News. Um, and I'll just kind of see what kind of press he they have gotten over the last, you know, two or three months. Um, and you know, if you go look up Lady Gaga on Google News right now, a lot of her coverage is about her new record and then also about her her Coachella performance.
(1:19:47) the the weekend two is, you know, people are talking about the audio issues, but if you go back to weekend one, you know, people are just are just going nuts about the the performance and how iconic it was and stuff like that. So, uh, what people are saying about an artist prior to when the tour goes on sale, I think makes a big difference, um, uh, or can make a difference, uh, and certainly give you a a decent, um, a decent look or kind of a decent hand on whether something might do well.
(1:20:18) Uh, it's not a, you know, again, not a set formula, but, uh, I've had success with it in the past. So, uh, it's being shared makes a lot of sense. I do have another I do have another question, but I want to see I want to see if anybody else has anything that they want to ask beforehand because it might take you down a rabbit hole. Oh boy. Maybe, maybe not.
(1:20:45) All right. Well, we'll we'll end on that one. Uh any other questions about anything that we've talked about or otherwise before we jump down this rabbit hole with with Jordan? On the topic of Coachella. Yeah. Like I've noticed I think I don't know was it Jenny I believe who performed at Coachella.
(1:21:06) Do we see that people who perform at Coachella ends up and if they have a tour prior to it may not do as well given someone's like hey I'll go to Coachella and see you know 20 other artists along with whoever X or Y. Right. And and I guess that was my first question. And then even with Jenny, do you think one of the factors was she used the show like those shows to launch her album to your point earlier of hey people haven't really listen to the album the social media isn't there as much maybe with K-pop things like that.
(1:21:34) Yeah. Yeah. So twofold. Number one uh something that a lot of people don't know is these major festivals have what's called a radius clause. Um and what that means is uh it's different for every festival but the artist playing the festival cannot play a certain radius of the festival within x number of months before and after.
(1:21:57) Like for instance La Palooa it's it's it's 350 miles uh 6 months before the festival and 6 months after. So essentially, if you're playing La Palooa, uh you can't play within a 350 mi radius, which is a good chunk of the Midwest, uh with, you know, basically the entire year or most of the year of La Palooa.
(1:22:18) Coachella, I don't know exactly what it is. It might be a little different because Coachella's in the desert. kind of secluded from everything. But certainly like you're not going to see unless it's a warm-up show or an official after show or something, you're not going to typically see your Coachella artists playing um playing LA or playing uh what else is near [ __ ] playing California in general.
(1:22:43) But you're going to have your radius clause and obviously they're trying to prevent that, right? They don't want uh people to go see an artist uh in their hometown that's close to Coachella or close to Laala Palooa. They'd rather them buy a ticket and come see them there. They see that as competition. So yeah, there are those uh radius clauses that exist and and again your headliner like a Lady Gaga is going to have more uh leverage or flexibility around a radius clause than uh you know a lower tiered act.
(1:23:15) Um, but yeah, I do think that plays into it for sure. But I think the bigger thing here is Jenny played those shows basically with no new material, right? There was nothing for a fan to be excited about except for Jenny herself, which is fine, but I personally believe she had released that record uh at the beginning of the year or in February or March around when those shows went on sale and fans had time to digest that record and fall in love with it.
(1:23:44) I think it would have been a different situation uh for sure. And typically that is how artists do things. Um the tour it comes first comes the the album and then comes the tour. Um because again fans want obviously want to hear the old stuff that they fell in love with but it's always great to have new stuff as well.
(1:24:05) Um, so yeah, I do think, you know, I think that Jenny show looking back at it there really, you know, if you make a list of of positives and negatives about that show, like, and I mean before, you know, ahead of time, before it actually happens, there's a lot to hate looking back. It's like it's really expensive.
(1:24:25) There's no new stuff. She's playing Coachella. Um, just like a ton of stuff. I'm I'm actually really annoyed at myself for not recognizing those things and and and and pissing on the show from the start. But, uh, you know, again, it's very easy, even when you've been doing this for multiple decades, to get sucked into that FOMO, um, and and just get caught up in the hype.
(1:24:53) And it's very easy to do. I will say we're talking about rules tonight. Uh, my I have added a rule to my hard rule list. I will not be buying K-pop until we get a proper BTS reunion. Not a lead singer, not one or two members until a proper BTS reunion happens, which we may or may not ever get.
(1:25:17) Um, you know, K-pop has been just destroying. Just K-pop has been awful in 2025. I have taken massive, massive losses and every time I get caught up in the hype and think it's going to be different. So, personally, I mean, I will still do K-pop writeups, but um you know, my personal rule is I will not be buying K-pop until we have a proper BTS reunion that takes place.
(1:25:47) Um Jordan, what is your rabbit hole question? And then we will probably end on that note. We've been going for uh almost an hour and a half. And uh yeah, so Jordan, what you got to to end us to end tonight? Well, like I know because of like what you've said personally about like yourself in technology, you don't use a whole lot of tech.
(1:26:09) You're uh a little bit older as you've mentioned. Um, but I just want to know like your thoughts or if you've seen anything about like people integrating a advanced AI into ticket reselling because I've seen things for example like box office Fox that has like AI predictions on it's like oh they they believe that this show will do good and they're apparently pulling data on uh listeners uh me mentions in the news headlines things of that nature.
(1:26:35) But sure, in my opinion it's kind of [ __ ] right now. But obviously, yeah, uh I believe like if it's done properly, like an AI could probably help predict things a lot easier and find things like that Chris Brown uh stuff as an example. Yeah, I I think that's a really really great question.
(1:26:57) I I think you kind of answered the the question yourself. I think right now um you know I don't know that AI is able to factor in all of the variables that we've talked about some of which we don't even know it's a variable until after the fact right uh just to give you an example uh you know uh Cubs baseball you know I'm looking at Wrigley Field right this second I live in Chicago uh Cubs baseball you will have on random Saturday afternoon games in July and August, June, July, and August that will get up to 125, 150 a ticket for bleachers for no other reason
(1:27:40) other than it's a beautiful day out. There's no rain. It's not too hot, not too cold. It's beautiful day to be outside watching baseball and that will determine the market. It's going to be very tough, I think, uh, for to teach AI. I mean, you can, but, like, I just think variables like that that aren't as obvious as, uh, you know, streaming numbers and stuff like that, um, uh, that logistical variables that will play in.
(1:28:10) Um, I I certainly think you're right that AI in the future could be a decent tool. I know there are a bunch of these, you know, this analytic companies that are essentially taking data and blah blah blah and they're trying to make everything a scientific formula and I just again I don't think that enough of tickets um fits into that neat little box for it to be super um to be super successful.
(1:28:35) Not to say that it's it's to be written off. I don't believe that. But I would certainly not use that as my number one like be all end all right now. Do I think in five years uh if tickets still look similar to what it does right now um could AI play a factor in that? Yes, absolutely. Definitely. I do think that.
(1:28:57) Um but again, I think we're in the really baby stages. I mean, you know, you think about what the internet was like 15 years ago, so 2010. I mean, we were like two years into the iPhone and like the iPhone couldn't even take like you know couldn't even send like you couldn't even send like big video like just as we've come so far in 15 years we forget what things were like especially if you're younger uh you forget what things were like in 20 you know 15 years ago that really wasn't that long ago so you know in 10 years uh I think AI will
(1:29:35) look completely different but Uh I certainly think that in a couple of years, four or five years, um that that AI could certainly become a solid tool, but right now I just think uh you know, a lot of it is analytics driven. They're basing it off of previous tour data. Uh and and we are we're moving at the speed of light in this industry as far as ticket pricing, uh resale pricing, all of that stuff.
(1:30:08) I mean, you know, it was post pandemic that the the entire landscape has just changed with with human behavior and so human human social social behavior and and going out and and experiences and stuff. Um, so I just think that there are a lot of variables that play in here. I think that AI is too new to factor in all those variables and and spit out a a proper result.
(1:30:34) Um, not saying it's completely useless, but I certainly would not put a whole lot of stock in it right this second. Uh, but I do think that in three, four, five years, uh, that that could certainly change for sure. Cool. I I agree. But like with the way that I've been keeping track of things, how things are progressing, I think like it could even be potentially sooner than 3 to 5 years. It definitely Yeah.
(1:31:00) No, I don't. Uh I think a lot of that hinges on what the actual ticket landscape looks like. I mean, it's very, you know, you got to remember like even the ticket master Q, like we didn't have a ticket master Q until like 2018, 2017. It's it's still under a decade old. Um before that, it was first come first serve on every single on sale.
(1:31:20) It was the wild west. So, you know, I think what um I think the pace at which the ticket industry moves will uh and AI could play a part in that. AI could accelerate uh the the landscape changing. But I do think that tickets again is not uh you can't teach a college course on tickets. Uh I same reason I can't write a guide.
(1:31:47) If I wrote a guide on tickets, it would be as big as the Odyssey, as big as the Bible. Uh, it would be 400 pages. I still wouldn't cover every nook and cranny. Um, tickets is just kind of a you you learn it as you go situation. And so, I think uh it, you know, I I think that that will certainly factor in.
(1:32:06) Obviously AI is smarter than all of us, but um I do think that it will take a little bit of time, but I also at the same time believe that AI could accelerate uh the the changing of the ticket landscape in certain areas for sure. Definitely. Cool. Um all right, awesome. On that, we're going to put a bow on this thing. Uh recording will be up.
(1:32:30) uh if you missed it and uh any questions, please send me a DM or tag me in the chat. I do I check chat as as oft as I can, but if you need something, DM me or uh tag me in chat and uh I will get with Jordan. We will do this again toward the second half of May. And I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about.
(1:32:50) Thanks so much for joining. Thanks for being a part of it, Jordan, as always. Thanks for being great to me. I appreciate it. Um and uh guys, I'll have some stuff up tonight. We'll have a couple of calls up and uh let's make a little money this week. Thanks so much for being here. I'll talk to you all very soon. Thanks, Troy.
(1:33:03) Have a good one.