ABC/Randy HolmesAn associate of Metallica helped broker a deal with Live Nation to sell tickets to the metal legends’ 2017 North American stadium tour directly on ticket resale sites, Billboard reports.
The publication has obtained an 11-minute phone call between Live Nation president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux, an independent event promoter named Vaughn Millette, and Tony DiCioccio, who’s described by Metallica’s publicist as the band’s “ticketing consultant.”
During the conversation, the trio proposes a plan to set aside 88,000 tickets to be sold on secondary market sites such as StubHub instead of offering them first for face value through primary sellers.
In a statement to Billboard, Live Nation admits that this practice did take place, and that “about a dozen artists” requested it between 2016 and 2017. The ticketing company adds that it “does not distribute tickets on any platform without an artist’s explicit approval.”
The idea to sell Metallica tickets directly on the resale market apparently came about after more than 10,000 tickets from secondary sources were sold for the band’s 2016 concert in Minneapolis “without [the band’s] participation.”
A statement from Live Nation says, “After seeing the volume of secondary transactions for that show and the benefit being captured by brokers, the independent consultant [DiCioccio] worked with Live Nation on a unique distribution strategy that used the secondary market as a sales distribution channel for select high-end tickets.”
A rep for Metallica tells Billboard that the Metallica members were not aware of DiCioccio’s deal with Live Nation at the time.
The plan actually ended up losing money, as some of the resale tickets ended up being sold for under face value.
Sources tell Billboard that Live Nation facilitated another, “more successful” initiative to sell Metallica tickets directly on resale sites in 2018.
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