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Published: 2012/05/09

The String Cheese Incident Share Their Strategy to Offer Service Free Tickets to Fans

In Chapter Eight of their book Ticket Masters, Relix editors Josh Baron and Dean Budnick outline the means by which the String Cheese Incident successfully challenged Ticketmaster in 2003 for the right to sell up to 50% of the tickets to their shows directly to their fans. In the book, manager Mike Luba describes one technique the group had considered to maintain control of the tickets. “We’d say [to promoters], ‘We don’t want any ticket allotment; people can buy as many as they want; and there has to be no service charge at the box office.’” This would have allowed SCI to parcel out cash to fans and send them to the box office where there was no service charge to buy tickets which the group could then sell directly to other fans (as it turns out the band didn’t need to do this as Ticketmaster ultimately allowed the band to keep its 50% allotment (for the complete story, read the book ). As the video below demonstrates, however, the String Cheese Incident has employed a similar strategy to ensure that ans can receive service free tickets to shows on their upcoming summer tour.

Comments

There are 2 comments associated with this post

me May 9, 2012, 13:52:02

When will bands realize that they have the power? Maybe not as individual bands, but if the bands that most of on this, and similar, sites were to work together they could force the industry to change… Obviously, Phish is at the forefront as they likely make companies the most money (or so I’m guessing). Threaten to take all of that cash out of businesses like TM would likely result in change… not to mention there are other genres of musical talent that would likely align with such an effort (Pearl Jam and Springsteen come to mind). Granted, it would be a huge effort on the part of the musicians & their management… but with the musical and festival creativity that comes from their camps, certainly they could force change… you have to look no further than what SCI has done to prove that point… maybe that means a summer off, or a summer where non Live nation venues, or creation of festival sites, are used. I realize that is asking quite a lot, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only grateful fan… imagine there’s no ticket rip-offs, no scalpers… it’s easy if you try!

Shaun May 9, 2012, 20:26:43

This is great… Now how about if SCI would play more than a small handful of shows each year, mostly all west of the Mississippi??

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