Matt Connarton Unleashed 9-7-24 hour 1

0:00 Speaker 1: Disneys Cafe is the place to put us. Smile on your face. Judy and the crew will take care of you, bring your appetite and treat your taste. Buzzfry Disney's Cafe is always a winning choice. Breakfast, lunch or supper. Dizzne's Cafe at eight sixty Elm Street in downtown Manchester. Dine in, takeout or make a reservation. Call six oh three, six oh six two five three two, Eat, drink and be happy Dizzne's Cafe.

0:31 Speaker 2: You are listening to WMNHLP ninety five point three FM, broadcasting from the top of one thousand Elm Streets. Our studios are located at one nineteen Canal Street and licensed to Manchester Public Television Service in Manchester, New Hampshire.

0:49 Speaker 3: Contact us by email at wm NH nine five three at gmail dot com, or through our website at wmnhradio dot org.

1:01 Speaker 4: It's nine o'clock.

1:27 Speaker 5: I am the one who does it all. Take the grand and don't take the ball dull men from you.

1:38 Speaker 5: I'm right all day, most of the night. Listen to me. I'm always right out.

1:44 Speaker 6: Take your fans from you.

1:49 Speaker 5: It woo is showing CEO you think like a fan. The whole crazy.

1:56 Speaker 4: Smoke smells like sid.

1:58 Speaker 5: He just thinks that all lia miss selfish self ups or selfish, self centered, selfish self ups or selfish sound center.

2:15 Speaker 5: You know, so, I don't can want to think of me. I'm the best that you will see. I don't need any funding giving credit, no way, I see everything anyways. Everyone knows they're not cocky.

2:47 Speaker 6: You show what shows little netfuck go godmt.

2:51 Speaker 5: I'm no radio crazy smoke crying again, he does things that all liar miss selfish self fox or self ash self censor, selfish self fox or self ast self censors. Well, I can't rap about me.

3:18 Speaker 4: Don't give a crap what you say.

3:21 Speaker 5: Put me to sleep with me or show stop feed me or cry.

4:01 Speaker 6: Selfish selfo sort, selfish self center, selfish self absort, selfish self senator, selfish, selfabsor selfish self senator, selfish south bosor selfish self centator.

5:08 Speaker 1: I guess that's it.

5:10 Speaker 4: I'm just scared of being on my.

5:15 Speaker 1: I can't rest acts that sound when you present you're sleeping but you're stocking.

5:21 Speaker 4: Someone tell me the truth is really I ord know if I'm playing second best?

5:30 Speaker 7: Is it best day? If I go home.

5:32 Speaker 8: Why he can't he be seen if you don't.

5:35 Speaker 7: Even care the head I'm so stuck and I don't way, there's no one the baby.

5:41 Speaker 8: I'm just too trying to let you know.

5:44 Speaker 7: I want to give you my time, gonna drive you home, and you need to say now days I Cass, I think they maybe in these days, I'm the best days.

5:57 Speaker 8: I don't have in my.

6:02 Speaker 9: Wive.

6:03 Speaker 4: These days are the best days I don't have.

6:08 Speaker 7: Give me a reason why I feel so light tonight

6:15 Speaker 7: cause it scares me, this thing that I might have read him for nothing at all.

6:23 Speaker 4: God, it dust on.

6:25 Speaker 8: My shoes, just to prove I can be the man who's in your parents I don't need.

6:31 Speaker 7: And I clean my moly dreaming up your lips.

6:35 Speaker 8: You know your sins for sadness.

6:38 Speaker 7: Is a kurd by being in physical Pleaaby, I'm just too trying to let you know. I want to give you a.

6:45 Speaker 8: Lot of mine, So I'm going to drive you home. I need to say it now because I can't. I have the baby.

6:55 Speaker 4: These days of the best days, I will only really.

6:58 Speaker 8: Scared of me.

7:02 Speaker 7: Maybe I can be just a little hair strong. I've never had a look best gave me Peason, but these as the best days. Haven't have that maybe understood it's hard to let you know. I'm want to give you on to bite.

7:57 Speaker 8: I'm going to drive you.

7:59 Speaker 7: I'm you want to say it now because I can't a thing the Baby Days on the Firsday's Albill be scant bear. Maybe I can be just a little ashto I've never let that's bb a reason to be in the days and it says I'm the Firsday's album.

8:25 Speaker 8: Maybe I'm too excited.

8:29 Speaker 4: When it can't be one, But So'm gonna time you.

8:34 Speaker 8: I need to see it now because I can'st not bigthing mad maybe, but thy days on the Thursdays I will not be scant. Maybe I can be just a little ash I've never had a pass reason the mate any day.

8:57 Speaker 4: S the Beasty's album by Honest to.

9:01 Speaker 8: Tell me that no what A can do a right?

9:08 Speaker 8: You want to see nose?

9:10 Speaker 7: I can't go big? Maybe best days out having the.

9:22 Speaker 8: Baby just stuck.

9:28 Speaker 5: Reasonlieve you're listening to w U M.

9:35 Speaker 10: N H ninety.

9:41 Speaker 6: Command God, don't get subprime Leader Maxwell coming.

10:19 Speaker 4: Good morning, everybody, welcome, here we go. It is that time again. Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM here in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire, on Canal Street. Welcome everybody. Today is Saturday, September seven, twenty twenty four. I am flying solo this morning. Jenny is at home resting up, but she'll be back next week. And I'll speaking of next week, well we'll come back to that. But something pretty cool involving Jenny happening next Saturdayay, so we'll mention that in a moment, very very proud of her.

10:56 Speaker 4: It involves her artwork. Spoiler alert. We might have mentioned it last last week, but it's it's it's official. I dropped off the painting. Well, I'm giving all these hints, I might as well say it. So one week from today, Jenny's art will be showing at the Mosaic Art Collective. It's already there. I dropped the painting off on Thursday, and it's actually a personal favorite of mine. But that will be Let's see, I've got the event pulled up here. Let's we'll go ahead and talk about this and then I'll tell you what we have lined up for a two days show.

11:30 Speaker 4: Where did it go? Where did it go?

11:35 Speaker 4: I had it pulled up and I think I accidentally closed that tab. That figures well, anyway, we'll we'll come back to it. But this, let's see, it's from four to eight pm on Saturday, September fourteenth at the Mosaic Art Collective. It's actually in the Daily Mirror building right on Hanover Street. Very easy to find, and it's funny. There's a a couple of things happening there. Uh next week, because the other thing that's going on Friday the thirteenth is John Poussett Dart is going to be playing live at the Rex Theater and that relates to today's show because he is going to be calling in at ten am to open the second hour of this week's Matt Connorton Unleashed to talk about that.

12:18 Speaker 4: So we have John Bossett Dart coming on in the second hour, and then in the third hour we have Terry Almquist who will be with us live in studio from Wellness Hot Yoga, And I'm very excited to have her on the show because I've only known her for a short time, but she's got an amazing backstory, just such a fascinating person. To speak with, so she'll be on with us too. But yeah, so we've got plenty to do, plenty to do. Like I said, I am flying solo today, so I'll go ahea and give out the studio line if anyone does want to join.

12:47 Speaker 4: We've got some interesting things to discuss in the first hour. But the studio line is opened six oh three two five six seven. Six oh three two five six seven. Of course you can also you can always interact into Opine in the Facebook live chat or or anywhere you know. If you go to Matt connorton dot com slash live, it gives you all kinds of options for how you can interact with the program while we are live, or even when we're not live if you just want to reach out in contact us. But the studio line is open six three two five six seven.

13:16 Speaker 4: Especially by the way, if you have any questions for John Poussett Dart, who is going to be joining us at the top of the hour at ten am. I've always it's funny, so I kind of went down the rabbit hole last night with his music as I was preparing for today's show, because I've never been I'd never really listened to much of him. I'd always been aware of him. I remember back this goes back quite a ways, but when I was working at Strawberries, for those of you who remember Strawberries, the music store, I was.

13:48 Speaker 4: I started, uh, well, for a long time, I bounced around, but I worked at the location in Well, the first store that I ever actually managed for the company Wasn't Conquered New Hampshire on Laet and wrote, And I remember we always had Possett Dart Band CDs and stock and people would come in and buy them. But I'd never actually, you know, because he kind of this is where this area, you know, sort of the Boston area. I mean, this is Manchester, but obviously we're you know, we're only forty five minutes north.

14:21 Speaker 4: You know, this is kind of where he first became famous. So so he's touring around and he'll be here, Like I said, he's got a bunch of tour dates, but he will be here on Friday the thirteenth, So he's going to join us to talk about that. But I kind of was exploring his music, and you know, a couple of the songs from Posset Dart Band, you know, from I don't know, early seventies, like seventy three, seventy four around there. I was like, oh, yeah, I've heard this song. I definitely know this song.

14:52 Speaker 4: But he also I was playing some of his recent because he continues to as a solo artist, he continues to create music, and some of his recent stuff is just so interesting. We'll talk about it when he calls. I don't know how much time he has to spend with us, but I have some questions for him. But it might be a little bit of a curve because I'm sure that when he does radio interviews, people want to talk to him about Poose at Dart Band, where he started, and you know, of course we'll do that and we'll talk about the show coming up, but you know, because obviously the purpose is to promote that.

15:26 Speaker 4: But I have some questions for him too about his more recent material that I find quite fascinating. He's he's got a great voice and hell of a guitar player, my goodness. So anyway, so that'll be coming up at ten am. And like I said, third hour, we have Terry Almquist. For the first hour. We have some music news, music industry news to discuss. You know, I love this stuff. I'm a music industry nerd, and I do some things in the industry, and I have for a long time. But we were talking last week. I think it was last week.

15:59 Speaker 4: Was it last week or the week before? I have to be honest with you, It all blurts together, but no, I think it was last week. We were talking about Oasis and this debacle. We have an update on this well, and it relates to another issue happening in the music industry.

16:15 Speaker 11: But so.

16:21 Speaker 4: Oasis tickets went on sale. It's the first time they're touring in fifteen years. The Gallagher brothers loll. I'm sorry, not loll Noel and Liam. I do that once in a while. I create amalgams of words. I combined Noel and Liam into loll. I'll just call them loll. So Lowell actually managed to stop arguing enough to say, let's go make some money. That's how the uh, that's how people who are cynical about it are talking about it.

16:50 Speaker 11: Right.

16:50 Speaker 4: Oh, this is just a money grab Oasis is. They're coming for our cash. They just want to make some money. Now, that's not how I think about it necessarily. I mean again, I do understand that that's very often a purpose of doing this, But but I also am a fan of Oasis. Although it's funny so back in the day, back in the nineties when Wonderwall was on the radio every five minutes, I actually really liked it that Wonderwall. I thought was such a great song, and I still think it's a great song. But if I hear it now, I'm like, eh, I'm over it.

17:26 Speaker 4: I was over it a long time ago. Acquiesce is my favorite Oasis song, which was actually a B side. But anyway, I'm I think it's cool. I mean, I'm not gonna go spend gobs of money. I don't know if they've even put any US tour dates on sale. I know they've got a bunch of UK dates, but you know, I'm not gonna go see them because I don't want to pay all that money and it's going to be expensive. It already is expensive because tickets went on sale in the UK, and that's what set off this whole controversy around the ticket sales themselves.

18:01 Speaker 4: But anyway, so Oasis, no matter how you feel about them, love them, hate them, They're kind of polarizing. I've always been a fan, but I also understand and again as someone who's done things in the industry. I have kind of a you know, I can look at it both as a fan and as a business. I can see it from both perspectives. So yeah, maybe it is a money grab. I don't, you know, but it's a business. You got to make money, right, you got to make a living. You know, these guys probably spend a lot. They just seem well, at least Liam does.

18:39 Speaker 4: Probably spend a lot. Noel always struck me as the more down to earth of the two, but I'm sure Liam has quite the lifestyle anyway. But put all that aside, regardless of how you feel about it. So we were talking on the show last week about tickets went on sale and the websites were crashing. I say websites plural because obviously, you know Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation. They put the tickets on sale, nobody could get them because the site kept crashing, but also the secondary sites were crashing, and then Oasis's management put out a statement saying, actually, don't even buy these tickets on secondary sites because those will be canceled.

19:20 Speaker 4: Those are not authorized. And we got into this a little bit last week Jenny and I talking about how you know, you've got what a big tour like this goes on sale, so you've got Ticketmaster, which sells the tickets. But very often what happens is for I think a lot of people are probably pretty savvy to this already. But the reason that something can go on sale and then it sells out like immediately, I'm sure people probably assume, well, that's because of the Internet. You know, that didn't happen pre Internet.

19:58 Speaker 4: For those of us who are enough to remember, you know, when you would have to actually go and stand in line somewhere to buy tickets. But you know, things would sell out quickly, which is why if it was a big tour that you really wanted to see, you'd have to go and stand in line, you know, like Jenny has told stories about, you know her, I think her and her mom standing in line for Prince tickets and like camping out overnight or something, or being there for hours when Prince was touring. But then so the Internet comes along, for lack of a better way of putting it, and everything's available online, so things sell out instantly.

20:35 Speaker 4: And yes, because in theory, you know, thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of people can go and try to buy these tickets immediately once they go online in the digital age, so to speak. But there's another element to that. Very often these tickets are bought up by scalpers. And I don't mean when I say scalper, I don't mean the guy standing out in front of the venue trying to sell you a ticket to a sold out show because the show has sold out, but this random guy has tickets that he's willing to sell you at a premium cash only.

21:15 Speaker 4: I mean scalpers, these services, these ticketing sites that buy in bulk these tickets and then resell them at a profit. That goes on all the time. There are those who have tried to push back on it, trying to find ways to prevent that from happening, but it still goes on. And then, of course you've also got the other element of Ticketmaster itself. Some people think that, for example, the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger never should have been approved by the government. That gets into a whole other thing.

21:56 Speaker 4: So, you know, a lot of people are dissatisfied with Ticketmaster itself as any remember back in the day again this was yeah, this must have been in the nineties or early two thousands when Pearl Jam was kind of the first to say, hey, we don't even want to deal with Ticketmaster anymore. We don't like the way they do business, we don't like the way the fans are kind of getting the shaft. And so they started working with smaller you know, in various markets around the country. They started working with these smaller market ticketing agencies, which didn't really work out that great, and in the end pearl Jam had to give in, had to capitulate and go back to working with Ticketmaster.

22:31 Speaker 4: It's just the reality of it. So you've got all of that, and then you've got this new element. And this we did not talk about last week, but again it is part of this whole story with Oasis and these tickets is the dynamic pricing. Now, for those of you who don't know, you may have heard the term, some of you will know, some of you will not know what this is. But dynamic pricing is this concept where, well, you know, basic free market economics, right, supply and demand. When supplies low, demand is high, things cost more money.

23:15 Speaker 4: Well, this concept has been applied to tickets and Ticketmaster uses it. Where Okay, so if demand is high for a show and supply is low, only so many tickets available, those tickets will automatically increase in price. There's even been who was it. There was a fast food restaurant chain that tried to do this, and I want to say it was Wendy's. They either tried it in some of their locations or they were testing it in maybe one location and they were thinking about rolling it out nationally or something.

23:52 Speaker 4: I don't remember all the details, but they tried to do some sort of dynamic pricing concept where at busy time of day the food would cost more, but I think they probably pulled the plug on that pretty quickly. I think it was Wendy's who tried to do this. But anyway, so this has been done with Ticketmaster, and that factors into the Oasis debacle, as it were, because now Ticketmaster is being investigated about the dynamic pricing. Now, if you're a ticket buyer, you may not like this very much. You might long for the days when tickets would go on sale and you know what the price is and you just go and you buy the tickets at the price that you're expecting them to be because that's what they're announced at, and that that is over, you know.

24:44 Speaker 4: I mean, if you're buying tickets to a smaller sh like, for example, if you're buying tickets to go see John Posse at Dart at the Rex Theater on Friday night. I don't think those prices are going to change, right, you know. But but when your ticketmaster and you can afford all this technology to control the prices and everything, you know, you can do whatever you want. I mean Ticketmaster, it is truly a monopoly. They can do whatever they want. But that doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want without some consequences.

25:12 Speaker 4: So let's look at this again, the newest wrinkle in the What did I say? I'm calling them loll Loll Gallagher. I should if you're just joining us, I should clarify it's an amalgam of Nol and Liam because apparently I have difficulty say nol and Liam, so it's easier to just say loll. They are almost indistinguishable in terms of I mean, they don't look exactly alike, but if you listen to an interview with them. You know what's funny about Oasis back in the nineties when they first got big, that first album definitely maybe really blew up.

25:48 Speaker 4: I remember seeing interviews with them on MTV, and MTV would actually they would actually subtitle the interviews. Obviously the Gallaghers were speaking English in the interviews, but their accents were such that you almost couldn't understand them, so emptview would actually subtitle the interviews. It was funny. And I don't know if they were doing it to be funny or kind of doing it to be funny, but it was funny. They can be difficult to understand. By the way, Noel Gallagher is very funny too.

26:19 Speaker 4: He's got it. I don't think Liam's particularly funny, but Noel has a very dry sense of humor that I like anyway. Okay, so here's the newest wrinkle, and this is from Music Businessworldwide dot Com. UK competition regulator launches investigation into Ticketmaster over Oasis ticket sale. So now the government's involved, says here. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority CMA has launched an investigation in the Live Nation owned ticketing giant Ticketmaster. The reason for the investigation last Saturday is on sale for Oasis' twenty twenty five UK Actually, what was the date on this article?

27:05 Speaker 4: September fifth, Okay, so it is referring to last Saturday. So it's referring to the on sale that happened one week ago for Oasis' twenty twenty five UK and Ireland Stadium tour, including quote how so called dynamic pricing may have been used unquote, the CMA said in a statement on September five. The Competition watchdog says the plans to scrutinize quote excuse me, whether the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster may have reached consumer protection law unquote, because again, like I was saying, not everyone thinks that the dynamic pricing is right or ethical.

27:50 Speaker 4: And I'm not saying that I have a problem with it. I'm just saying, you know, well, apparently it's people in government who are saying, we're not sure that this is the correct way to be treating consumers. I'm not making a judgment about it. I'm agnostic on that part of it. But I think it's interesting that. You know, what I do think will be really interesting is does this stick around the dynamic pricing concept in terms of tickets. It's already lasted longer than I thought. This has been going on a few years now, when it started.

28:25 Speaker 4: I remember thinking this isn't going to last. There is going to be so much backlash to this. People are not going to like it. People are used to tickets go on sale, They go on sale for a particular price. If a show isn't selling, rarely will you even see the price go down, right, You rarely see that. You very rarely see discounted tickets. In fact, you're Look, if you're a promoter and you've got a big show in an arena, say right, and tickets aren't moving, you'll give away tickets before you'll lower the prices.

29:02 Speaker 4: That's true if you've got if you've got a show in a ten thousand seat arena. Again, this is if you're the promoter putting on the show, not the band's management has no say in this, or certainly not the record label, nobody, or even the venue. You're the promoter and you're deciding. You're making decisions based on how these tickets are moving. If it's soft, meaning you're not selling enough tickets, you're not selling as many as you thought you were, what you'll do is very often is they call it papering the room, which means because what you don't want at the end of the day is a half empty arena.

29:43 Speaker 4: So if you're in a ten thousand seat venue and you're only on track to sell five thousand tickets, you don't want that. It just doesn't look good right to have a ten thousand seed arena that's only half full. So if you were thinking you're gonna sell eight thousand, right, so you'd be at eighty percent capacity. Sorry, if I'm getting two into the weeds, but I know a lot of people in the industry listen to the show. So if you're only at you think you're gonna be at eighty percent capacity, you're gonna sell eight thousand out of ten thousand seats, and but it's looking like you're only gonna hit five thousand.

30:24 Speaker 4: You don't want a half empty arena, So you will give away tickets to that show. It happens all the time. You'll be contacting every radio station you can find that you think might be interested in doing a ticket giveaway. You'll be giving them out to businesses and saying here, give these to your employees, or do some kind of contest, do whatever you want with them. Just make sure people from your company show up at the show. You'll do anything that you can to get more people in the door. And at that point, it's all about the optics of it.

30:58 Speaker 4: It's all about what it looks like. Because you don't want to put on a show in a ten thousand seed arena that's literally half full and then have that, you know, have people hear about it, have people seeing on social media tickets of a half empty arena, just all of that. You want it to look like everything that you do is successful. So you're going to paper again it's called paper in the room. You're going to try to get as many people in there as you can, and if that means because you have nothing to lose, right, if you're not going to sell those tickets, you might as well give them away because the show's gonna happen no matter what, and you're gonna have to pay everybody, no matter what.

31:39 Speaker 4: If you're the promoter, you've got financial obligations tied up in this. You might take a loss on that show, but you might as well get as money as many people in the door as you can, so at least it looks good. So the point being, what you'll rarely see, I can't say never, but what you'll see is a promoter say, Okay, these tickets they're not moving at sixty dollars, so I think we're going to drop the price to fifty or to forty and see if we can sell some more. You just don't see that they'd rather paper the room than lower the price on the tickets.

32:19 Speaker 4: Reason being, if you lower the price on the tickets, again, not using Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing, I'm just saying, if you decide, as the promoter, you're going to lower the price, now you're you're risking well, first of all, you're risking alienating the people who already bought the tickets at the higher price. So you don't want them going on social media saying hey I got ripped off. But although that's probably not that likely. But what you also don't want to happen is what if you lower the price but it doesn't it doesn't juice the sales.

32:54 Speaker 4: Now you're taking an even bigger loss. You could lower the price, but it doesn't increase your sales. The same number of people who were probably going to buy tickets end up buying the tickets anyway regardless. Right, So they would have bought the tickets anyway if they were still ten dollars more, twenty dollars more. So you lower the price, you still only sell five thousand tickets. You're you've still got a half empty room, and you've actually made less money. So it's not worth the risk. So the best thing to do, at least in my experience and from what I've seen, is in that situation, you leave the ticket price as it is and you just hope that you know, you get a lot of walk up right, you know, people coming showing up on the day of and and yeah, you try to paper the room, you try to give out some tickets too, but this dynamic pricing has changed everything.

33:50 Speaker 4: So

33:53 Speaker 4: again getting back to this article, over ten million fans from one hundred and fifty eight countries are confirmed to have qu up on Saturday, August thirty one to buy tickets to the tour. Yeah so it was yeah, so, like I said, it was last last weekend that the tickets went on sale. Two Additionally, additional Wembley Stadium shows have been added due to quote unprecedented demand during the sale, which Oasis said in a press release Saturday, Quote saw all ticket platforms struggling to cope, resulting in immense frustration and disappointment for fans who missed out after queuing for many hours.

34:31 Speaker 4: Unquote. By the way, the same thing happened in the United States, if you remember with Taylor Swift, same thing. You know, people were frustrated, they were trying to get I remember seeing people on social media just you know, in tears over it. They were so desperately trying to get Taylor Swift tickets and couldn't because you know, you wait, you log onto the website, you're in the queue, You're waiting and waiting and waiting, and then eventually something happens. You know, maybe the site crashes, or you know, there's something something goes wrong, maybe your computer suddenly wants to update, it shuts itself down and restarts or whatever it is, right, you know, after you've already invested hours of your time and then now you're you're at the back of the line, or now you log back in and the shows sold out.

35:19 Speaker 4: So you know, so this this is not in and of itself unprecedented, but to put the extent of that demand into context. Wembley, where Oasis are now set to play seven of the tour's nineteen dates, as a capacity of ninety thousand, which means that the band would need to perform one hundred and eleven dates at the stadium to meet the demand for next year's tour. The following Wednesday and the same press release announcing the two additional Wembley shows, Oasis publicly distanced themselves from the decisions that led to the use of Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing tools during the sale.

36:06 Speaker 4: Yeah, so a lot of this went on. Where now Oasis, the Gallagher brothers, Lowell I'm calling them. I've melded them together into one person, Lowell Gallagher. It's just easier economy of language, my friends. So now fans are pointing at them and going, you guys are bad, you guys are greedy. All this In reality, it really doesn't have much to do with them, but they're going to take the blame. Of course, they're the public faces of this. I have a hunch that they probably don't care that much because you know, they they're extremely rich and famous, and you know is you know, it probably doesn't affect that much.

37:00 Speaker 4: I don't think a mean comment from a fan is going to hurt the Gallagher brothers. But but that is, you know, they're they're the face of it. So it's they're going to take the brunt of the anger and ire from people, It says here. Informed sources speaking to MBW, which is Music Business Worldwide, this is a great website. This week estimated that ten to fifteen percent of the one point four million tickets sold over the weekend were quote dynamically priced on ticket Master, meaning the price automatically adjusts based on supply and demand.

37:34 Speaker 4: The price for these tickets more than doubled from a face value of around one hundred and fifty pounds I assume that's pounds to an in demand price tag of around three hundred and fifty five, causing fan outcry on social media platforms and much discussion in other media outlets, including MBW on Tuesday, and again, that takes us back to what I was saying before about how long will this last? People don't like the dynamic pricing, they end up feeling taken advantage of, and they end up feeling ripped off.

38:14 Speaker 4: As a free market economist, I'm not an economist. I'm sorry as but as but as a I don't know why I said economist, but you know, as someone who believes in free markets, let me put it that way. I you know, I'm not I'm not really taking a position one way or the other. It's it's supply and demand. It's being applied here. It's almost like an auction in a sense, right, But buying these tickets, I'm not. I'm not taking a position. I'm gonna remain agnostic on it, at least for now. But I'm telling you this could be the nail in the coffin of this particular strategy, because people are you know, the last thing you want is your consumers or your fans to feel that they've been victimized.

39:03 Speaker 4: You know, I saw one comment somebody directed at the Gallaghers saying, you know, I wouldn't have thought. I wouldn't have thought you would be so greedy. You know, your fan base is, you know, kind of working class people, and here you are being so greedy. And again it's but it's not it's not them. I'm not saying they're not greedy. Maybe they are. I don't know. Again, you know, you get when you get to that level. I mean, there's been plenty of research and studies done on this. When you get to a certain level of fame and money, there is a certain almost as sociopathy that sets in, right,

39:43 Speaker 4: So you know, I'm not saying they're not terrible people. They may be, they may not be. I don't know. I'm a fan of their music, but if I actually met them, I might be horrified. They say, don't meet your heroes. I don't know. But it's ultimately not their fault. But but if there's enough outcry over this, over this whole dynamic pricing thing, this might be the beginning of the end of it. So the band's press release said, quote, it needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness at dynamic pricing was going to be used.

40:30 Speaker 4: Unquote. Is that satisfactory? Probably from a pr standpoint, Probably not. No one's going to believe that. No one who's no one who's angry about this is going to read that statement and say, oh, okay, it's really got nothing to do with them. I mean, it's true in a sense, right, but there's a there's a big hole in this though too. Let me read part of this again. It is it needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management. One little problem with that.

41:08 Speaker 4: So promoters are people you're in business with, right, the promoter is the one. Well, the promoter first of all, takes all the risk. Again, I have experience in this, so I know how this feels. Not on this level obviously, but you know the promoters putting on the shows and handling all of that, so you are somewhat at a promoter's mercy. The problem is the sentence says that they leave this to their promoters and management, and management is a problem to me because that's there's a cop out there.

41:45 Speaker 4: Oh that's our management. Well, here's the thing is, management works for the band. The band doesn't work for management. It's not how you know, It's not like in the corporate world. You know, when if you have a manager, you work for your manager, right, they're your boss, you know. In the music industry it's the other way around in that If if you are an artist and you have a manager, the manager is someone you hire. They work for you. You hire them to run your business, the business of your music.

42:16 Speaker 4: So for the band to say, well, that's not up to us, we leave that to our management. Well that the management works for you, dude. You know, you can't really pass the buck. You know, they're your employee in a sense, not literally an employee. They you know, they've got contracts and everything. But you know what I'm saying, you know, So to say it's one thing to say, I you know, you can kind of let it fly a little bit and say, well, it's it's not our fault, it's it's you know, we leave that to the promoters.

42:45 Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's what the promoter does, right, that's their function. But to say and management, well, that's your management is they're your management. You You can fire your management if you want to. You can tell your management don't do it this way. It's upsetting our fans. You can tell your management to handle it differently. Okay, So there's more to the statement quote. While prior meetings between promoters, ticket Master, and the band's management resulted in a positive ticket sales strategy which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down, as well as reduced touting, the I don't know touting is that maybe that's a term for that almost sounds like a might be another term for scalping.

43:38 Speaker 4: In the United States, we call it scalping. Maybe there they call it touting. I don't know, sorry, I just I don't know what that word means in that, but I assume from the context it might be another term for scalping. The execution of the plan failed to meet expectations. All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand, this became impossible.

43:59 Speaker 5: To a.

44:03 Speaker 4: M I feel like there's a contradiction here. Did anyone else hear a contradiction? Yeah, there's a there's a pretty latent contradiction self contradiction in this statement that to me seems glaringly obvious. So let's back up a little bit. So the statement opens with it needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was to be used. So the band had no idea according to that paragraph or that opening statement, that opening sentence, that of the statement, that dynamic pricing was to be used.

44:55 Speaker 4: But then they say, oh, okay, I'm sorry, No, I was wrong. I was wrong. I retract, There is no There is no contradiction. I thought there was a contradiction because it sounded like they're saying that Oasis had no idea, the band had no idea. And then I see this sentence while while prior meetings between promoter, Sigmaster and the band's management resulted in a positive ticket strategy, you know that everyone thought would be fair, and I thought I took that as everyone was involved in that decision.

45:29 Speaker 4: But no, that's not correct. The band the band is not mentioned in that part, so there is no contradiction. I was wrong about that. I apologize, Okay, all right, well, so taking that into account, it's probably the best possible statement that you know that it's the best damage control they could do. Let me put it that way. It's not going to satisfy people, but it's uh damage control is about just doing the best you can with a rough situation. The CMA said today that and again that's the part of the government that does consumer protection in the UK that it is at the initial stage of its investigation.

46:16 Speaker 4: It will now engage with Ticketmaster and gather evidence from various other sources, which quote may include the band's management and event organizers unquote SJM, Live Nation, MCD and DF Concerts are promoting the Oasis tour. Ticketmaster was one of the three sites used, along with Gigs and Tours and See Tickets. The CMA is stressed in its statement on Thursday that quote, it should not be assumed that Ticketmaster has broken consumer protection law unquote No, I mean and from look, I'm not a legal expert of any kind, and there may be an element to this that I'm missing, but I don't see any anything that makes me say, oh, it sounds like, look, we can talk about this whole dynamic pricing strategy is being kind of dirty business.

47:04 Speaker 4: Right again, I'm going to remain agnostic on it for now, but that doesn't mean it's and that anything's illegal about it yet. Right, there's nothing illegal about it that I can see. The Competition Regulator added that it will quote also consider whether it is appropriate to investigate the conduct of anyone else in relation to the matter unquote. Dynamic ticket pricing sees prices surge in real time as demand rises, similar to airline tickets or Uber. Live Nation has previously argued that the program addresses the issue of scalpers buying up tickets at face value and then selling them at a higher price point.

47:50 Speaker 4: Wait, they have I got to click this link they have. That's their argument that it reduces scalping. That's why they do it. Uh. I just clicked and I just looked another article that might explain it. But well, we might come back to this later if we have time.

48:16 Speaker 5: Uh.

48:17 Speaker 4: I don't see how that would be the case. But I'm open to the argument, but I don't see how how would that How would that prevent scalping? What am I missing? Maybe I'm missing something again. I'm trying to be fair, all right.

48:33 Speaker 11: Uh.

48:34 Speaker 4: The CMA said on Thursday, they quote this is not the first time that the use of dynamic pricing has raised concerns among fans of live sporting events and music events unquote. According to the CMA, while the practice is quote not automatically unlawful, it may breach consumer protection or competition law in certain circumstances unquote. Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said, quote, it's important that fans are treated fair early when they buy tickets, which is why we've launched this investigation.

49:04 Speaker 4: It's clear that many people felt they had a bad experience and we're surprised by the price of their tickets at checkout. We want to hear from fans who went through the process and may have encountered issues, so that we can investigate whether existing consumer protection law has been breached by the way. That's something there's more to the statement, but that's something we can all relate to. Right, you go to buy tickets and again, I you know this doesn't I don't think this really happens with smaller ticketing agencies or smaller tours.

49:33 Speaker 4: But you go to buy tickets from Live Nation and you go to check out, and the ticket price is suddenly much higher, not not necessarily because of dynamic pricing, but all these all these fees and taxes and everything, and you thought you were going to spend one hundred dollars on a ticket, and all of a sudden it's you get to check out and it's one hundred and fifty and you're like, where did this other? I mean no, I'm not even exaggerating, right, it'll be that much more. It's it's wild and and there's like all these fees and you know there's a yeah, there's just any any fee you can.

50:08 Speaker 4: You can imagine. I don't remember too. It's been a while since I've even bought tickets from Ticketmaster. I don't know. I don't remember if it even itemizes it for you, doesn't Maybe if somebody's in the chat room, I should take a breath and say hello to everybody in the chat room. But does it even itemize it for you? Or does it just say taxes and fees and it's this huge additional number that you weren't expecting, or you were expecting if you buy tickets from Ticketmaster regularly. But Alex Whitey is in the chat room, one of our friends from the UK, oh says touting is a term used for people selling tickets on for higher prices.

50:51 Speaker 4: Okay, Oh. Miriam Banish also joins us in the Facebook lat chat. Yeah, thank you for that, Alex.

50:57 Speaker 2: Uh.

50:58 Speaker 4: We don't use that term in the Uh. We don't use touting. We have a call. It's see who we have here? Hi, welcome to Matt Conderson. At least who's this?

51:15 Speaker 5: Hey?

51:15 Speaker 12: It's true?

51:16 Speaker 4: Hey, Charles Richardson, how are you?

51:19 Speaker 12: I've been better, but hanging in there.

51:22 Speaker 4: What's what's going on? I should by the way, Charles I should just tell you upfront, we only have a few minutes because we have a guest calling in at ten am. But what's on your life?

51:33 Speaker 12: I want to try and make it quick. Number one take a master Live Nation. All these other they're all scam artists.

51:40 Speaker 5: Uh.

51:40 Speaker 12: And the fact that they're going with this this pricing technique is really embarrassing. Listen, if I buy a seat in section one O one in the first ten rows, it should be one price, the next ten rows of another price. They should not be any alternative pricing. But they're scam artists because you got this ticket charge fee, you got this fee that feet the damn fees costs more than the damn tickets sometimes, so I think it's all just a really big joke.

52:08 Speaker 4: If you wore well it is it is true. I mean you get to the uh, you get to the end of the process and and the the price is it just all of a sudden, it's yeah. Sometimes the fees they are almost as much or perhaps even more uh than than the ticket itself. It's wild, it is.

52:28 Speaker 5: It is.

52:28 Speaker 12: It's embarrassing to buy tickets nowadays because everything's done online and they're just reaping the benefits the fact that they do alternate pricing for scalpers. Are you kidding me? Please? That's such a lame excuse. That's almost like the glub didn't fit your honor.

52:44 Speaker 4: Come out of here, all right, bye, Charles, good here for you, my friend. Take care all right. That was Charles Richardson, of course, uh from the Charles Richardson Show, although I think he's taking a little bit of a break from that right now. But good here from Charles. Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna go I relate to his frustration, certainly, I think most of us probably do. I'm not going to go so far as to say that it's a scam, because you know, to use that word, I would say a scam would be in my mind, if you go to buy the tickets and you after you've checked out, you end up with a charge on your credit card or your debit or whatever that's higher than what you thought it was going to be.

53:27 Speaker 4: You do know what the final price is before you click that to pay that and make that purchase. But it is true, so I would not I would not technically call it a scam. I would I would disagree with Charles on that, although I'm certainly sympathetic with the broader point that he was making. And again, and I think a lot of us can relate to that frustration, and it is interesting, like you you really and this absolutely I don't think anyone can argue with It is definitely designed the unless it's changed.

54:01 Speaker 4: Again, I haven't bought tickets from Ticketmaster in quite a while, so unless the process has changed, it is designed so that you don't see that final number until the very end. So you're going through the entire process and picking your seats and everything. You're going through that entire process unless you have bought tickets recently.

54:24 Speaker 12: Right.

54:25 Speaker 4: If it's if you go to a lot of shows, none of this will surprise you. But if you don't go to a lot of shows, you're going through that entire process with one price in your mind. And then you get to that final screen and that's where it shows you all these fees and you're like, oh, this ticket just doubled in price. Let's see. Isaac Banks is also in the chat room. Alex Whiteley says people had to sign into their Ticketmaster wait to be accepted into a ballot, which took out for some. Then some were told that they were going to have to pay upwards of four hundred pounds per ticket.

55:10 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean again,

55:14 Speaker 4: I don't know that I would call it a scam per se, but it certainly is. I think we can all understand why from a just from a consumer standpoint, you might have a pretty bad taste in your mouth after going through that. Right, All right, here's what we gotta do, because we are approaching the top of the hour. We're gonna take a quick break and show some love to our amazing sponsors here at WM and H as we like to do.

55:44 Speaker 7: And then.

55:46 Speaker 4: Oh you know what, Oh there it is. Then we have John Poussett Dart calling in. He's got a big show coming up at the at the Rex Theater on Friday, so he's gonna be joining us. So we've got plenty more to come if you are listening live on Saturday morning. So don't go anywhere.

56:08 Speaker 10: In times of crisis. You need a law firm that stands by your side. With over forty years of experience, Craigan Getsulis is dedicated to fighting for your rights. As former state prosecutors, our attorneys have the knowledge and trial experience to provide an aggressive defense against any charge from DUIs to homicides. If you've been injured, our compassionate team will assess your case and fight for the compensation you deserve. Serving all of New Hampshire. Craigan Getzulis is here when you need us most.

56:36 Speaker 10: Visit Craigatzulis dot com or call six oh three five five five one two three four for a free consultation. Craigan getsulus, your advocates, your allies.

56:46 Speaker 9: Bring your kitchen to life with Queen City Cabinetry, located at eighty seven Elm Street in the historic Sunbeam Law in Manchester, Open Monday through Friday.

56:57 Speaker 13: Eight nine am to five thirty pm.

57:00 Speaker 9: Ten am to two pm.

57:02 Speaker 13: They can be reached at six oh three two two two to zero zero seven or on the web at Queen Citycabinatree NH dot com. Come see the possibilities Queen City Cabinet Tree, another crown sponsor of w.

57:18 Speaker 1: MNH, Disney's Cafe is the place to put a smile on your face. Judy and the crew will take care of you, bring your appetite and treat your taste buds. Ruy Disneys Cafe is always a winning choice breakfast, lunch or supper Dine's Cafe at eight sixty Elm Street in downtown Manchester. Dine in, take out or make a reservation call six oh three, six oh six two five three two, Eat, drink and be happy Dizzney's Cafe.

57:48 Speaker 11: When it comes to keeping WMNH on the air and your own personal or business computer needs, trust Roland Computers, located on Elm Street in Manchester. Groland handles computer repair, virus remove and custom built systems. Are you looking for budget friendly options? Check out our selection of fully inspected used computers. We offer tailored on site solutions no unnecessary expenses here. Visit Groland dot com or call Grolling Computers at six zero three six four five zero one zero one. Your Tech, your Way Trust groll In Computers seven times out of ten we listened to our music at night.

58:34 Speaker 1: That's the title book business program Late Night to Light with DJ Bidas right here on WMNH Manchester.

58:42 Speaker 4: Do you want to know?

58:43 Speaker 1: Because Saturdays and Sunday nights midnight to four am.

58:49 Speaker 4: This hour on WMNH is sponsored by CGI Business Solutions, located at five Dartmouth Drive in Auburn. They serve all your business needs, including employee benefits. Planning, corporate design and business administration, investments and wealth management, and customized business insurance solutions.

59:09 Speaker 2: Their phone number is eight sixty six eight four one forty six hundred, or on the web at CGI business Solutions dot com