It’s Pre-Sale Wednesday!!

That’s right kids – today is pre-sale day for many of you out there!  I honestly and truly hope things went well.

I grabbed myself a cup of coffee (while I really wanted buttery popcorn) and sat down to check out the happenings this morning.  I even ventured on over to DDM to gain a quick check of the insanity…

Overall, I think that many found the change from DDM to Artist Arena to be nothing short of chaotic.  For every tale of triumph, there were two or three rants of frustration.  Apparently, VIP tickets for Foxwoods were sold out before the sale even started (a SLIGHT exaggeration on my part – but only by a minute!), and I think the same could be said for Fillmore.  Both presales are now sold out to the best of my knowledge – which is pretty amazing and I’m thankful that the UK sales didn’t go quite that way for us.  We’d have had heart attacks for sure.

I definitely have seen some differences in the way presales are handled under Artist Arena that I’m willing to share.  Again, this is just MY view of things – if you didn’t find it this way or don’t agree, so be it.

1. If you’re really wanting to sit anywhere from 10th row forward and want to do presale – you’d better consider VIP, unless we’re talking GA in which case – that’s an entirely different animal.  I hate saying that, but I’ve yet to see a situation where someone has done regular presale and gotten anywhere farther to the front than 10th row.  If you don’t want to go VIP – consider waiting and trying your luck at a general sale (see below) or go through a broker – don’t send me hate mail for suggesting either of those things.  🙂

2. On the subject of the cost of VIP: I go to enough shows to know how much tickets cost these days, and the fact is – if you want up front, you’re gonna have to pay for it unless you’re extremely lucky.  I am not.  It’s up to you to decide how much is too much.   Done.

3.  Don’t be surprised to see VIP sell out quickly here in the states.  People want up front and are willing to pay for it.  Period.  In the UK presales, I didn’t see that same type of frenzy.  I don’t know what that really says about our US culture other than we want top-of-the-line luxury things yesterday and are willing to go into serious debt to get them.

4.  I think Artist Arena plays a sort of game with their ticket allocations.  They set aside a lower number of VIP seats/tickets per show to begin with, wait for them to sell out and then add more as necessary.  This probably accounts for part of the reason why when you go to the site you’ll see VIP sold out, then refresh and see there are some available…I’m not positive of this….but I suspect it to be the case.  I think this helps to create demand, and it also allows Artist Arena the opportunity to say VIP is sold out.  This is made VERY clear when the day of the regular sale approaches and every single VIP is suddenly sold out, and then just as suddenly there are a few more VIP packages made available for a limited time.

5. Make SURE you’ve set up your Artist Arena account ahead of time.  That takes precious time.

6.  You can’t buy regular pre-sale & VIP tickets in the same “cart”.  That means you either do two separate purchases or work it out amongst your friends to each buy a show’s worth of tickets.

7.  We had trouble with the system going wonky on us at times – we found that we had to logout completely and try again.  I know, it wastes time – but if nothing else is working, you might be left with this option.  I sincerely hope that when the full tour is announced that presales don’t all take place at the same time (they haven’t been thus far and the system has still gone weird on us at times) – otherwise I can promise the system will crash.  We Duranies are good that way!

One other commentary I have is on the whole “Will Call” situation.  Apparently for the US shows there was a 2 ticket per cart maximum, which makes buying tickets even tougher.  Yet Artist Arena allows a 4 ticket per show maximum.  (still a pain, but reasonable)  On top of that, in order to curb scalping, several venues were “will call” pick up only.  Above all else, this irritates me.  I buy tickets to all kinds of different bands – Bon Jovi, INXS, Paul McCartney, Def Leppard, Poison….many others.  The only case where I have run into not getting my tickets delivered to me electronically or dealing with a two ticket limit has been Duran Duran.  I have to wait for them to be mailed a week before the event, or I have to pick them up at will call.  I think it’s ridiculous.  Are Duran Duran tickets really that much more likely to be scalped than any of the others???  Really??   I just feel that at this point, buying tickets to see this band shouldn’t require jumping through this many hoops.  I can’t be the only one feeling that way.

-R