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Originally Posted by Mike Caffrey  Who cares how many people bought it.
What really matters is how many people filled out the forms with the * honestly.
If it's the same percentage as paid, that means they have 2/3 of their fans mobile numbers and the zip codes to go with it!
When you get a text message from Thom Yorke about the date of their next gig in your area, then you'll see the real genious in what they've done. That ticket price is not going to be pay whatever you want. acutally never mind, it could be as long as there's the same Ticketmaster handling fee in it.
Ticketmaster makes huge money on the $5 fee. Radiohead will get that now. If they just charge a handling fee and let people set the prices, they'll be making Ticketmaster $. If they charge full price for a direct sale, it will be seriously hughe money.
If they charge they actual average price that a fan pays for a ticket, they'll have to open their own bank. For ever fany who pays face value, there's on who paid $500 to a scalper. The average price is prebably closer to $200/ticket. Selling direct via text/mobile phone cuts out the scalpers.
I can believe that this wouldn't have been part of the plan.
One day you'll get a text message say Radiohead is playing next month. Reply to this text with the number of tickets you'ld like to buy. Enter 2222 to have them charged to you phone or enter you credit card number to have it charged to your card.
Hell, they could even add extra dates in cities that sell out the day the sales are announced.
Once they set up an account, you could buy your merch via text at the show.
Plus, they know which show you were at, so they'll be able to sell you a CD or DVD of the show. Maybe they'll start carrying video cameras to hand out like the Beastie Boys did. Or more likely some electronics comany will pay them to do that and foot the bill for the video editing. Then there's a decen chance you'll see yourself in the DVD of the Radiohead show you were at. They'll charge you double for that.
Would would that type of fan identity information be worth to buy from radiohead's point of view? $1million? $2 million?
How much did their album cost to produce, $250k? $500k? $900k? It's cheaper to make them album and trade it for the identity info of the fans and make the big huge money in round two.
How much do you think they can charge Coldplay for access to their fan base? How many ticketmaster fees can they get selling tickets on behalf of Coldplay?
They didn't need to send an email confrimation so that you could get a link, that's how they verify that the email address is valid, so they at least got that from everyone. The mobile number is the real question. My phone goes in my pocket, right next to my wallet - the ideal place for any business to have access to... |
Your argument might be valid only if you consider that radiohead is after maximising profit at any costs which I kind of doubt...Not everybody is as greedy as you think. (I know a difficult concept to grasp, even more so on your side of the Atlantic)
The Coldplay joke is funny though.