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Is There An LCD Soundsystem Ticket Conspiracy?

12:22 p.m. · February 16, 2011 · by Andrew Winistorfer

One of the beauties/worst things about the Internet is that literally everything can become a conspiracy. Lady Gaga is in an Illuminati? Of course. Obama is actually from Kenya? Why not? So with that in mind, we bring you this: A report from the Lefsetz Letter that posits that LCD Soundsystem's recent Madison Square Garden kerfuffle might have been manufactured, all along, to sell a shitload of tickets to those Terminal 5 shows that got announced after the Madison Square Garden thing became ridiculous. After Lefsetz wrote a thing on his blog about how the Madison Sqaure Garden thing wasn't entirely Ticketmaster's fault, a reader chimed in the below analysis that seems sort of reasoned and maybe even feasible?

I read your comments on the LCD fiasco. All the fans think there is a conspiracy. There might be but NOT where you think it is coming from. Try this order of events and follow the logic.


1) Take a band that wants to retire and go out with a bang.


2) The band has a good following, but, with the exception of festivals has never played for an audience of over 4,000.


3) You hire your promoter (The Bowery Presents) to book the #1 venue in NY (MSG) with a capacity of about 19,500 (including rear stage).


4) You have an old fashioned wait on line really early / overnight and get tickets at the Bowerys venue and make your fans wait out in 15 degree weather.


5) You sell tickets to serve less that ? of the people on line that line, leaving fans unhappy, creating buzz and tweets and blogs. 


6) At the same time, you have an online presale and sell about 4K of the tickets in the venue. You know it’s your last show and you know it will sell out. 


7) You post on social media a la Sally Field You like me, you really really like me, and how humbled you are by all this you never realized how much the fans love you


8) You then have a Public sale for your tickets.


9) Remember, the PROMOTER controls the tickets and says what gets sold and how. So you sell no tickets on the public sale (except the Amex seats. Those were sold and HAD to be sold via contractual obligation with Amex)


10) You watch the prices skyrocket on StubHub as your fans that YOU let get shut out now have to buy at higher prices on the secondary market.


11) You put out angry tweets about how evil the scalpers are for buying all your tickets. You blame everyone’s favorite scapegoat for the problems YOU created and you unite your fans against a common enemy. At the same time, you now have a buzz about you that you are more popular than you really are. There is nothing like people not having something that makes them want it more.


12) You then, while cursing your common enemy, announce that you are putting 4 shows on sale. And these are scalper-proof by making everyone pickup the night of the show. BUT you need to keep your word that the 4/2 show is the last show so you need to book shows backwards.


13) You need a venue? No problem. One of the venues your promoter books Just by 100% coincidence just happens to have those nights just before. 


14) All the fans that got shut out (and those that had no idea what an LCD was besides a Liquid Crystal Diode) but now know about it from all the free press from all the demand you created. You even complain about some tickets offered for sale at $35,000 on stubhub. Anyone with a credit card and an internet connection can post on StubHub. Why not put them up yourself and garner more free press by complaining about it?


Here we are now. Here is where we go next:


15) See 13 above. Those 4 shows will sell out because of that loving fan base you created will buy and you will add more backwards. Your promoter will get you the dates. The by 100% coincidence just happen to have that venue open for you. You continue to add shows. There are 12 days in a row that Terminal 5 is dark. They can (and probably will) add them all. Lets also realize that Terminal5 is the Marquee venue of the promoter Bowery Presents, so THESE shows will turn profit, while MSGis all about PR & break even at best.


16) But what about all those seats you have on hold? You either release the remaining seats into TicketMaster over the next month and a half or sell them on StubHub yourself.


17) As supply enters the market place in the secondary market, the market price goes down to where it probably should be. The lead singer said don’t overpay for your ticket, he isn’t worth it? He’s actually right.

I guess the anger you'll have over the whole story is dependent on if you bought expensive Madison Square Garden tickets, and if you could actually go to the shows in NY. I can't, so I don't care much. I guess I find it hard to tell Murphy he can't make a bunch of money on his way out of the door. Dude has deserved more sales for quite a while, and it's taking this for him to get his due. Can't bring myself to be mad at that. [DS]