- Does it really matter who's selling you a ticket? You're still gonna be paying too much to see Pearl Jam
Concert-promotion monolith Live Nation announced yesterday a new batch of shows it’s promoting at the Q Arena this spring, including Pearl Jam and Maxwell. Tickets, the press releases said, will be available via LiveNation.com.
If you follow this kind of thing, the Live Nation link was a surprise: The Q announced in July that, effective October 1, tickets for all shows would be available exclusively via its proprietary Veritix system, which sells through theqarena.com. And that’s still the deal.
Though LiveNation.com has information about the shows, if you make enough clicks to buy tix, you’ll eventually arrive at the Q’s website. Live Nation also has the same arrangement when it presents shows at PlayhouseSquare Center: The promoter’s website ultimately redirects to venue’s site.
Director of Events Hallie Yavitch says that LiveNation uses its website as a central location for all the shows it promotes, regardless of venue. “We’ve promoting our website to make it easy for the consumer,” she says. “We say, ‘Go to our website, and we’ll take you where you need to go.”
Live Nation, she says, doesn’t collect a cut of sales redirected through its site. It has to make due with a percentage of $149 Maxwell tickets and $69 Pearl Jam seats. —D.X. Ferris
