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Something’s Phishy

Posted on Monday February 2, 2009 at 02:01 PM 7 |

The Internet is awash with tales that last week's Live Nation ticket launch for Phish concerts was a disaster. Was it as bad as everyone is making it out to be?

  • Phish

    Trey Anastasio (L) and Mike Gordon get in the groove on the final day of the Coventry festival in Phish's home state of Vermont.
    August 15, 2004

    (AP Photo)

    2 |

All of the Phish dates reportedly sold out quickly. But the huge demand on a new ticketing system apparently created an army of frustrated fans, to the point where the band was compelled to issue a statement.

“Many of you experienced extremely long wait times, error messages and, quite simply, an inability to get through and purchase tickets,” the band posted on its Web site. “Clearly, the system was unable to handle the extraordinary demand. … We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your continued support and patience.”

Live Nation had not released a statement at press time. The launch came on the heels of a Pollstar interview with Live Nation Ticketing CEO Nathan Hubbard, who noted the Dave Matthews Band went on sale without a hitch.

The interview drew its share of comments as Phish’s tour went on sale the same day as the interview posted.

7 Comments leave a comment RSS

  1. 101
    BREWHEAD wrote:

    02:51 PM, Feb 02, 2009

    It took a little while maybe 45min to hour to get into the system but I scored four lawn tickets to the Phish show at Post Gazette Pavilion. That time frame was expected because it took just about the same amount of time to get my Dead tickets in VA.

    Watch this video spoof on getting Phish tickets

    Crossed Eyed and Painless

    www.youtube.com/watch

  2. 1
    jason_scarano wrote:

    03:08 PM, Feb 02, 2009

    I got 6th row in sect 103 for Alpine Valley and when going to the checkout page I got a "Internal Server Error 500." FAIL!!

  3. 1
    MoneyWalks wrote:

    03:24 PM, Feb 02, 2009

    The onsale crashes are only the tip of the iceburg.

    Typically with a failure of this nature, everyone puts on a happy face like we're reading here from the band and the ever-pompous Hubbard.  But in the background the stage is set for a monumental dispute over the accuracy of the ticket sales accounting.   The honeymoon-specifically any sense of trustworthiness-between the band's personal business management and Live Nation is likely to be damaged to the point where it cannot be repaired.   The types of problems described on the blogs point to serious problems and corrupted data in the back end of this POS ticket system - the core databases where the money is accounted for, or in this case...likely to be "reconstructed" accounting ... are the type of problem that leads to legal problems.  Live Nation will pay.  And now you must wonder how many tickets are distributed which will have invalid barcodes.  Imagine the hassles awaiting ticketholders when their tickets are scanned at entry and access denied.  Hubbard shrugs it off and makes it all sound so simple.  Simple is as simple does Mr. Hubbard.  

  4. 5
    tbowa41 wrote:

    04:03 PM, Feb 02, 2009

    The frustration level was insane after waiting 45 minutes plus, dealing with error messages and lockouts. You finally get to select your tickets and fill in the necessary information only to have your seats vanish in front of your eyes, seeing  "Internal Server Error 500." and being kicked back out to the waiting room only to have to start the entire process once again.

  5. 363
    hooterville wrote:

    04:06 PM, Feb 02, 2009

    congrats Hubbard...after your self righteous interview with Pollstar last week you and your company have done the impossible....you've made Ticketmaster look good.

  6. 1
    KCNorthlander wrote:

    05:50 AM, Feb 03, 2009

    Live Nation has demonstrated that they are not in a position to manage anything larger than a medium sized tour. Perhaps they should leave the major acts to companies better equipped to meet the needs of their customers.

  7. 107
    randyjregan87 wrote:

    12:13 AM, Feb 05, 2009

    apps.facebook.com/.../1743400.

    Facebook cause to help stop the atrocity that is ticket issues

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