Comments on: Cool Kids Ticket Sales

By: Will Baude

Will Baude — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 02:11:38 +0000

I think the rationale Julian cites in the last sentence of the comment above probably does a lot of the work. People who spend a lot of time on the internet hunting for information about the group are likely to be the same people likely to talk up a good show, and that word of mouth is valuable both economically– since it helps to sell future shows, cds, etc.– and psychically– since nobody becomes a rock star just because they want the money.

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:31:04 +0000

Maybe. As I said above, clubs have a variety of reasons for not doing that (though there is some price discrimination re: seating at some fancier performance events, of course) which, whatever their merits, aren’t likely to change right away, so I figured better to gloss that. One reason has to do with those network effects: to the extent that the most die-hard fans may nevertheless not be affluent enough to compete in a pure auction, there’s an incentive to not crowd them out. Consider what the musical Rent did when it opened: It sold very cheap tickets for the first few rows to people who camped out and waited. They did this, not because they’re especially charitable, but because they recognized the PR benefits of cultivating who’ll be hyperdevoted and talk up the show, even if they can’t necessarily afford a primo ticket price.

By: PJ Doland

PJ Doland — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:24:36 +0000

Wouldn’t it make considerably more sense to try and charge those most desperate to see the show the most money?