FOR THE TURNSTILES: Neil Young Plans to End Platinum Tickets ... On Future Tours
“My management and agent have always tried to cover my back on the road, getting me the best deals they could.They have tried to protect me and the fans from scalpers who buy the best tickets and resell them at huge increases for their own profits..Ticketmaster’s high priced Platinum tickets were introduced to the areas where scalpers were buying the most tickets for resale. The money went to me. That did not feel right. Very soon, Platinum tickets will no longer be available for my shows.I have decided to let the people work this out.Buy aggressively when the tickets come out or tickets will cost a lot more in a secondary market.”

HarryO, Volume Drinkers: Brand New Guy, Paul D.
Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY - 12/15/2008
Labels: #SwiftedAgainBreakupTicketMasterLiveNationMonopoly, concert, neil young, tickets
11 Comments:
OK, not trying to be too cynical here... but ...
Good on Neil for pursuing fairness over profits. While him saying that the extra $$$'s "did not feel right" demnonstrates integrity, at same time offloads blame onto management and agents.
C'mon Neil. Recall the mantra ... full accountability, disclosure and transparency.
See, like we've been saying for like decades now, when we allude to the Big Shift is happening ... truth and reconcilation is coming. Denying the inevitable doesn't make it go away.
The Big Shift may be in full swing in the US. Huge numbers of people are protesting Trump’s Fascism. It’s a wake up call. Get out in the streets and protest. Americans protesting? That IS a big shift!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
Hmmm, the Platinum tickets at the upcoming Hyde Park concert are for a separate area by the stage and are not ones that are attractive to scalpers. What annoyed me though is that the Platinum pricing was 'tiered' so that Amex card holders got the best price. As with the Glastonbury fiasco (will he? won't he?), Neil is too prone to doing stuff without due diligence and then rowing it back. Very frustrating!
PS Thanks Thrasher for that photo of me from 2008 – that tour was a blast!
@Alan - thanks for being here.
Re: The Big Shift. again this isn't a political thing. A Left/Right thing. We realize that this has been confusing for many over the years. Hopefully after the TW re-launch, we can come back to posts such as The Big Shift and re-clairfy our intents.
Our sources put the The Big Shift at about 12 or 13% of population. Once it hits about 15%, a tipping point will be achieved.
@brandnewguy - wow! too long. that was like 20 years ago. What a night @ MSG w/ Neil & Crew.
And here we are ... still coughing up the buck$s?!
We're planning on Dublin. Will The Volume Drinkers be there as well??
@thrasher – not Dublin, alas, but London, Brussels and... Shoreline in September! See you there??
I follow lots of international news sources and do not see large scale protests in the USA just now. BBC says your president in fact has incredible approval ratings. I am also not sure how a government aggressively reducing itself in size can be fascist.
@ David Rart : You don’t see yet but we all will. Trump is angling to sieze the Social Security money which belongs to tax paying citizens. You don’t think Trump looks Fascist? How about deporting a citizen for free speech? Please explain how that is normal and somehow NOT Fascist.
@ Thrasher : I don’t see the Big Shift as being inherently political, but the effects of it could be very political. We shall see. I look forward to reading more about it. I look forward to any positive news these days!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
@ David Rart : You don’t see yet but we all will. Trump is angling to sieze the Social Security money which belongs to tax paying citizens. You don’t think Trump looks Fascist? How about deporting a citizen for free speech? Please explain how that is normal and somehow NOT Fascist.
@ Thrasher : I don’t see the Big Shift as being inherently political, but the effects of it could be very political. We shall see. I look forward to reading more about it. I look forward to any positive news these days!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
"Buy aggressively"....."I've decided to let the people work this out".....I'm sorry but this is a total cop out on Neil's part. Firstly, what exactly does buying aggressively entail? Buying lots of tickets? Being first in the queue? Some people are at work when tickets go on sale and can only try to buy later in the day, and some people only want a ticket or two, and can only afford that. As for letting the people work this out, that seriously pisses me off. We're the paying public, we're the people who put Neil where he is and keep him there and it is not for us to sort this out. It is up to the artist, his management, ticket sellers, promoters, venues etc etc to sort this out, you know, the people who are supposed to be the experienced professionals within the industry. It's Neil's hippie dream, nothing more, and we're supposed to carry on coughing up the bucks.........
More cryptic Big Shift talk with no transparency about what is meant or accountability ("our sources"?). This, sadly, is where you lose me @Thrasher.
Neil Young, Musician, poet, entertainer (?). One can always get off the ride. Many of us are worried about the ride ending before we are darn good and ready.
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