Now artists are no better than touts!

In a recent, revealing story by the Milwaukee Business Journal - writer Mark Kass reveals some of the inner mechanisms of one of the world's hardest working (performing live) bands on the circuit - showing how Jon Bon Jovi, the band's CEO, has effectively pulled the reins from promoters in handling the maximisation of ticketing revenue by setting variable pricing and numerous VIP packages.  In the past year, the band has played 74 shows in 15 nations, grossing $203 million in ticket sales and $20 million in merchandise.

Bon Jovi recognized in recent years is that the secondary ticket market was making all the money from the front row tickets at the band’s shows. To keep that revenue, Bon Jovi has put together several VIP packages that include the front row seats. The band added six rows of seating close to the stage with 200 seats that are separated from the rest of the crowd. The prices for the first row tops out at about $1,500, which includes pre-show hospitality, parking and gifts, and allows fans to take home a custom Bon Jovi chair that they sat in at the show.

The Smoking Gun website uncovered one of the most ridiculous riders (agent-promoter artist stipulations) perhaps ever seen publically recently, which, interestingly, also noted that not only the first ten rows were reserved for Katy Perry to sell on the secondary ticket market - but also possibly more tickets.

While this practice is long been played out in the live music industry - where promoters make ticket inventory available for the artists to rake in money from the secondary ticket market, rarely has it been documented and so clear.

So it's not the first time we have covered this at EU Ticket News. Taylor Swift and Neil Diamond were also caught with wet paint on their hands last year.

And here's some interesting inside information on Ticketmaster promises to artists:

I had a long conversation with a promoter who told me that with regard to a show he was promoting, Ticketmaster was guaranteeing the secondary market for the act. Let me explain this to you.  A certain number of tickets are pulled from the manifest and ultimately sold on TicketsNow.  Ticketmaster guarantees a certain gross payment to the act for these tickets, far in excess of the usual payment per ticket.  If the tickets don’t sell at the predicted high prices?  Too bad for Ticketmaster.

Blame the acts for this.  Ticketmaster Is taking the heat.

The Smoking Gun website uncovered one of the most ridiculous riders (agent-promoter artist stipulations) perhaps ever seen publically recently, which, interestingly, also noted that not only the first ten rows were reserved for Katy Perry to sell on the secondary ticket market - but also possibly more tickets.

While this practice is long been played out in the live music industry - where promoters make ticket inventory available for the artists to rake in money from the secondary ticket market, rarely has it been documented and so clear.

So it's not the first time we have covered this at EU Ticket News. Taylor Swift and Neil Diamond were also caught with wet paint on their hands last year.