Rich Russo - The King of Free Form Radio.

The live concert business is a mess, and we could spend hours pointing fingers and laying blame on everyone that contributes to it:

The promoters for overpaying with ridiculous guarantees years back that started this cycle

The government for allowing unrestricted resale of tickets with no cap on the multiple

The artists for their greed

The unions for making some buildings ridiculously expensive to play in

The consumer for supporting all or any of the above

But let’s concentrate right now on the presale and the shortly thereafter resale. Awhile back some artists did a cool thing, they offered advance tickets to their core fans. These were thank yous and if you were in that band’s fanclub, you got access. And that access was a great seat that would never see the public light. That access also came with a responsibility, you had to show up at the venue with your id and credit card and then enter the building. If you somehow were able to resell that ticket and were caught you would lose all future privileges. That model worked and still does; you never see the prime fan club seats for Pearl Jam or Dave Matthews on the open market, the risk of losing future access is not worth the risk.