How to Buy Concert Tickets. There are several ways to get tickets to see your favorite artist or band in concert when they visit your area or even in a city across the country. Some ways include the old fashion way of standing in line at the box office, but some of the best ways are on the internet. The first step is finding out when and where the event will take place. To find information on upcoming concerts there are several great sources on the internet such as pollstar.com, livedaily.com and citysearch.com. Also many bands, theatres and venues have websites where you can subscribe to a mail list that will keep you up to date. The major box office websites such as Ticketmaster and Tickets.com are so have list you may join and do not forget the old fashion way of listen for announcements on your favorite radio stations. Many stations have online websites where you may sign up to receive email notifications of upcoming shows. Tickets for most concerts are in high demand. Most shows sell out in a couple of days and some sell out in minutes. So how do you get the best tickets? If the artist or band has a fan club, consider joining it. Many fan clubs will hold presales and make tickets available to club members first. Even this is not a grantee of getting the best tickets and you still may not get any tickets. Most fan club presales have a set allotment of tickets for any show, generally less than 10% of the ticket. Radio stations may also sponsor presales for the show. Once again you will need to sign up for information at the stations website. Just like the fan club presale there are only a limited number of tickets available. Many theatres, venues and concert promoters also have special clubs you may join that give you the privilege of buying tickets before they go on sale to the general public. Once again only a small number of tickets are available to these members, so just being a member is not a grantee of getting tickets. Also these memberships can cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars, plus there are generally additional services fees added to the cost of the tickets. Another way of getting tickets is to buy season tickets. Many theatres and venues sell season tickets. This is the most expensive way of obtaining tickets. Season tickets can cost $5,000, $10,000, $12,000 or more due to the fact that you are buying the same ticket for every show at that theatre. If you had no luck getting tickets in any of the previous ways there is always the general public sale. You can find the date of this by the artist website or fan club, the theatre website, radio stations, newspaper or special sites like pollstar.com. All remaining tickets, that have not been sold during any of the presales or given to radio stations for promotional purpose, will be sold during this sale. You can generally purchase ticket during this sale by one of three ways. You can buy tickets online, by telephone of at the box office or at a box office outlet. Tickets go on sale at all three places at the same time, and all three are selling tickets from the same pool. So what to do if after all of this you still have no tickets because the show sold out to fast or you missed the sale. Can you still get tickets? Yes, tickets are still possible. There are five primary ways of obtaining tickets after a show has sold out, or getting the better seats. Ticket prices will generally be higher, due to the free market the holder of tickets may sell at any price they wish. This price is general determined by the popularity of the event, amount of tickets available and the demand of the tickets. One of these ways is to visit websites like Stubhub that lets fans and season tickets holders sell their tickets. Be advised that Stubhub will add a service fee of 10% to the purchase price of the tickets. Ebay also has a great deal of tickets being offered for sale. Once again these tickets are being sold by individuals who may ask any price the wish. Most tickets sold on Ebay are sold buy auction, where the price is determined by the highest bidder. You may also check your local newspaper or online classified sites. Many of these have sections where tickets maybe sold. Probably the best and most reliable source for tickets besides the box office is TICKET BROKERS. Ticket brokers like www.perfectseats.com, www.ticketbulldog.com and www.bluefishtickets.com have a large selection of tickets for you to choose from. Ticket brokers also have a well informed and trained staff that can assist you during your ticket purchase to ensure you are getting the best tickets for your needs. Also if any problems should arise with you purchase, they will be there to help and they grantee all tickets they sell. The worst way to purchase tickets for an event is from a ticket scalper on the street out side of the theatre. There are many problems with buying tickets this way. One the tickets maybe counterfeit or stolen and you will not be allowed into the venue. Two, in many cities this is illegal and the person selling you the tickets may be an undercover policeman. In either way you will miss the concert and maybe out of the money you spent to purchase the tickets. Likewise buying ticket through Ebay of the classifieds have some of the same problems. The tickets could be stolen, counterfeit, or in the case of tickfast tickets sold to more than one person. In any of these cases you are going to miss the show and be out of your money with no where to turn because the person who sold you the tickets can not be found. We hope that you find these tips helpful and enjoy the show! |
