Buying concert tickets used to be easy…you show a show you wanted to see, went down to the box office, plunked down some cash and in exchange were given a couple of stiff pieces of paper with some words on them…

When it came time for the show, you presented those pieces of paper to a person at the door who torn them in half—and you went inside to enjoy the gig…

It really was that simple—in theory, anyway…it wasn’t, but we’ll get to that…

As time went on, buying concert tickets got more complicated…through the mail…credit cards…bar codes…

Then the local ticket sellers vanished, replaced by a big mega-corporation…physical box offices started disappearing…the internet came along with online sales…scalpers…the secondary market…bots…and all the while, concerts and touring became big, big, big business…

These days, buying concert tickets is really confusing…you still exchange money for admission to gigs, but the experience has very little in common with the so-called good old days…

Stay with me…i’m going to give you the honest truth about concert tickets…

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