“Concert-industry insiders routinely engage in coordinated efforts to sell tickets to the public at inflated prices, while disguising their origin.”

“Concert promoter AEG Live is fighting with a ticket-selling agent that it alleges was trying to scalp huge numbers of tickets to Michael Jackson’s run of 50 concerts in London.”

“Similar arrangements came under scrutiny last week, after senior executives of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal they had helped artists and their managers sell their own concert tickets at higher-than-normal prices in an online marketplace.” (Wall Street Journal)

Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor recently blogged about scalping and high ticket prices.

He says: “there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So…

“Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?”