I have been left speechless not just once but numerous times the last few days. I had expected big crowd and chaos but it seemed there was anarchy @ HMV Sommerset on Friday. Not for the first time, as I looked at the updates on the computer, did I say to myself…I am so, so glad I was not there because this ajuma would never have survived.
There have been lots of complaints about Proof Label and HMV. Some were probably valid but some were not.
Setting the date of the concert, the ticket prices, the duration of the concert… all these are a little beyond the control of the organizer, Proof Label. The date has to accommodate the artistes who have been invited and I’m sure they invited more than 6 bands. It is a matter of who can make it and is interested enough to come. The duration of the concert, the number of songs the artistes perform, is likely to be determined by the artistes’ agency, which is linked to how much they are being paid. Which comes to the next question- the ticket prices. If you can do some calculations- SNSD alone has 9 members, not including the managers and staff. All 9 members and their managers will be taking either business class or first class on the plane. Business class ticket costs a couple of thousands. Add to that, the accommodation (which will likely be a suite or two in a top class hotel), the food, the security.
SNSD (9 members), Big Bang (5 members), SHInee (5 members), Infinite (7 members), FT Island (5 members), D-NA (5 members)
You can roughly do the estimation how much it would cost and as the organizer is in it to make money…
However, the decision to sell the ticket alone at HMV Sommerset does leave me puzzled. No doubt, whichever way the ticket is sold would have resulted in chaos anyway…even if the tickets were sold via Sistic. It is very likely that Sistic’s server would have crashed like it did for CN Blue’s showcase at Gatecrash. However, it would have been a little more controllable than having a few thousand fans on the street at the same time.
And once you have an uncontrollable situation like Friday’s, then Proof Label and HMV would have had no choice but to react and strive to put it under control by changing the rules constantly. Whether it was handled well on the ground when they made the changes, I can’t comment as I wasn’t there.
So where is the current situation now?
Well, the following infor is from HMV’s FB:
CAT 1 Standing Pit : SOLD OUT
CAT 1 Seated: 67 left
CAT 2 Seated: 990 left
Sale for tickets 5 September (Sunday) as follow:
Q number 1501 to 2000 – 10 AM to 1 PM
Q number 2001 to 2500 – 1 PM to 3 PM
I wonder how early the fans will be there today. Hmm….
The saddest part of all is the amount of black market transactions and offers being done blatantly on Proof Label and HMV’s FB. This includes auctioning off tickets, selling tickets at almost twice the price and even selling queue numbers! As much as I do find all these behaviour totally wrong and unbecoming, it is unfortunately a case of, if there are willing desperate buyers, then there will be willing sellers. So those of you who are posting openly about being willing to pay more for the tickets, do consider twice as it would only encourage them even more. But I know for some fans, the desire to see their favourite band perform once in a life time would make them more than willing to fork out that extra cash.
Anyway, the details for Cat 3 and Cat 4 tickets will be out tomorrow. Let’s hope there will be a little more order to it.
I’m just wondering, would this create a similar World Cup scenario in the K Pop world in Singapore in the future? Fifa wanted to charge an arm and a leg because SingTel paid an obnoxious amount to wrestle EPL from Starhub. Will future acts like SMTown concert (if they should come) also cost K Pop lovers a toe and a finger just because they see the demand and the fans ability to pay? Already, our concert ticket prices here are more expensive than say, Thailand or Malaysia.
Sigh…
Going to log off now. For those who are buying the tickets later today, good luck.
In the meantime, here’s the latest MV from a very talented singer- Eru
White Tears is gaining popularity on the charts now and is in Eru’s latest album, Got to Be. The mv stars Nana of After School. The mv is not very orginal (she gets knocked down). It is per Korean style BUT I do like the song. To watch on youtube, click here
To be honest, nobody really care about the price and dates (except for those XMMs who can't afford. If cannot afford, JUST WAIT TILL YOU CAN AFFORD OKAY XMMS! Don't complain! 6 popular bands and you want cheap tickets, are you kidding me???).
But yeah like you said, everyone is more angry about how the tickets are being sold. If their concern is safety, I don't get why they didn't choose Sistic then. When we asked them, we were told something about marketing…
Tch~ Whatever Prooflabel and HMV…..
what i heard was some fans felt play out by the organizer. the organizer or hmv has mentioned that they will not allow overnight queuing and tickets will be sold on the actual day they have indicated. Those who listened and didn't queue up the day before were shocked when they were told that there are no more tickets left and was told to leave. then they asked around and was shocked that queue number(should be) was given to those queue overnight. and it seems that each one of them could buy 10tickets? isn't it a bit too much? that's how some of them are trying to sell it at a higher price for their 'hard work of queuing overnight'…
now i'm so happy that i had decided not to attend before this ticket sales…
Prooflabel – sorry to say that.. they are just talking nonsense.. when CNBlue tickets was on sales and gatecrash really kena 'crashed', they said that gatecrash assured them that their server will be able to take hundreds of booking.. and that it's not because gatecrash is offering lower booking fees,etc… haha.. who would believe their words now? safety?? yes, they should be aware of the k-pop craze in singapore now and they are still not taking into consideration of all these? yes, by creating all these chaos,etc…their company name will be splashed on the newspapers/medias…everyone will know about them… that's how disgusting this industry is.. good or bad news, as long as your name is mentioned, it's publicity for them..
proof label and hmv are definitely not doing a good job to allow such things going on in their fb. they could have deleted all these away and have a staff monitor it.
it all boils down to money. sistic charges a high commission, i can see proof label will lose a lot of money. now the question whether this concert will happen is another story. insider news has it that the fees are very expensive and the organizer may have a problem paying them. a quick calculation would reveal that the fees may be higher than the ticket sales. so let's see who gets the last laugh. i am not surprised if this is cancelled and the artistes changed.
I am just going to get 2 cat 4 tickets on Monday, since I have a lunch appt there. if sold out or too long a queue, then just too bad, I will give it a miss then. And I wont be buying from the black market, that is for sure. I understand if it is a small scale showcase, where Admin fees charges will be too much for the organiser to use sistic or gatecrush, but a over 5000 concert tickets event to be selling just at HMV at one location, is total madness. I have no problem getting my tickets for the CN blue showcase and happy using gatecrush services.
instead of commenting about the situation,
i want to comment on how you feel about the situation and what it will or may also, bring to other potential events that other companies are/going to plan.
i certainly agree with you very much! really. well said about what you felt on the situation.
but, i guess, it is really very hard to control the "k-wave" and even harder to control the k-fans in the end after all.
no matter how well-organize the event may be.
proof label surely has no experience in handling this. too greedy!!! next one to screw up is possibly run into the sun for suju's. they too have no experience in kpop events.
you took the words out of my mouth. agreed with you regarding everything.
honestly, there is no perfect way to handle the management of ticket sales. Prooflabel chose to sell the tickets via HMV due to the Gatecrash's server crash previously. Fans complaint that they should get SISTIC to do it, but c'mon SISTIC's server will still crash if thousands of fans access it at once. 2ndly, fans blamed Prooflabel and HMV for changing the intital queue timing. But honestly, i find that this is mainly fans' fault. it's just because fans decide to queue overnight and created such chaos hence both need to do something abt it. they can't possibly just let 2~4 thousands fans wait inside or outside 313. i heard that some young fans went to queue overnight without informing their parents and their parents called HMV nonstop to look for their kids. There's no way that fans will listen to the official and there's no way that organiser can outsmart fans to come out with a plan that can satisfy both sides (though i think instead of releasing official news of the ticket sales etc. a few days beforehand , they might as well just release the news on the day itself. it will definitely reduce much chaos of overnight queuing etc., though there will still be complaints)
i have been a k-fan for more than 7 years, a part of me secretly hope that k-pop groups just gradually stop coming to sg so frequently. i would rather go overseas for concerts. i love those days when i went overseas for dongbang concerts, at least for my exp, the fans are helpful and really share the share amnt of love for db. nowadays, those fans are like going for all kpop events just because they are from korea. fans selling ridiculously high prices tickets to other fans (i can't tolerate this). All these crasy acts spoilt the fun of going to their events. My friend and I often laughed at how the other fans behave or write online when it comes to kpop idols coming SG.
As much as i'm glad that korean stars are recognising SG as their promotion market, but no thank you, since i will not be going for anymore kpop events in SG. Good luck for all the rest. I would very much prefer to sit at home, and watch their videos or purchase their concert tickets online and fly over to other countries for their concerts which are WAY MORE FUN. -end of rant
you have to think of others who are not as rich as you and can't afford to fly overseas.
Some fans was obedient and didn't go down on fri night to queue and in the end didn't get anything at all.
in the first place, the organizer should not even sell in this way. It's better that the sistic system crashed than having human crash!!!!! and buying online, it's your luck in whether you can get the seats(if you are not buying the standing tickets) you want..
sistic has handled Jay Chou 3days concert sales before and could handle the traffic flow, so we don't understand why they can't just use Sistics..
Prooflabel definitely has not learn their lessons from chblue event.. especially now that there are so many groups coming…
and who can they blame for the black market? prooflabel, you are the culprit in creating all these… you could set a limit of 2tickets for the most expensive ones for CNBlue, how could you allow each person to buy 10 tickets for the kpop night???!!!! you just want to sell your tickets ASAP that you didn't consider the genuine fans that wanted to go..
Wow! There's a lively discussion on about this and after the splash on the New Paper today, I think it iwll definitely be the talk of the town.
fidott- For a moment, I was scratching my head on what XMMs stands for and then a light bulb came on. *Ding!*- xiao mei mei. Haha!
Yes, most of them who complained would be the young ones, who can't afford the tickets, esp after probably attending at least one K Pop concert a month for the last few months.
I really don't know why sistic wasn't chosen either. One of these days, when the dust has settled, I'll ask the management out of curiousity.
L- like I said in my post, both HMV and Proof Label have been forced to change the terms in view of the current situation at that time. You can't have a few thousand fans loitering around for the whole night, and that's what many of the fans were doing. The police would have asked the organiser to sort things out.
BUT, this would have been avoided if the tickets were sold online- whether with Gatecrash or Sistic.
As for the 10 tix allowed. I agree it should have been less. But perhaps from the mgt's point of view, it would have meant less people queuing if the fans grouped together to buy the tickets- esp the fan clubs.
Personally, I think 4-6 should be the max but that's just my opinion. But no matter, the black market would still exist, just as it did for all the popular concerts and showcases.
anonymous 1-
I think all the mgt are busy trying to sort out Cat 3 & 4 ticket sales. No time to delete. But, like I said, it's a case of willing buyers and willing sellers.
anonymous 2
Sistic do costs more but I'm not sure if that's really the main reason for not using them. They could have set the ticket prices higher to cover the cost. The most expensive ticket to Rain's concert in SG back then was at $800, followed by $500. There were ready buyers.
And if the concert does get cancelled, nobody will be laughing. Everyone will loose….
Hi marydewitt
I agree. If I were you, that's what I would do too.
It's just total madness to squeeze with all the young kids.
Unfortunately, the sale for Cat 3/4 have been postphoned. I guess they are trying to work out a better way to sell the tix and I hope for the rest of fans' sake, they do.
Nat
Amy organiser bringing ina resonably well known and popular can expect total mayhem when they sell the tickets.
There will be dissatisfaction and chaos coz you can't please everyone. It's a matter of minimising them.
And it's hard to control the fans because the majority of them are young teenagers. Well, I guess the kiasu Singaporean syndrome doesn't help either.
More drama to unfold in the next few days?
anonymous 3
From what I know, Proof Label is an experienced event organiser but not in big scale mass market events like a K Pop concert of this epic sacle.
As for Running into the Sun, it's early says yet. They may do an ok job even though I am a little surprise at their venture into the K Pop scene. However, Lee Min Ho's fan meet, Samsung's Celebrations @ Marian was produced by them but they didn't handle any ticket sales. So hopefully, they learn from this incident and manage the the ticket sales well.
anonymous 4
There's definitely no perfect way to handle the sales and as I've said, at the end of the day, it's minimising the chaos that would result. So in view of this, I would think selling the tix via sistic would be much better than selling the tix at one location.
And you are right, it's very difficult to control fans . I've been in many similar situations and they are not even young teenagers. ^^ But I guess, where would the stars be without all these fervant supporters.
If one could go Korea for the concerts, it would be fantastic but like L said, not everyone can afford the expenses. Besides, there is different sort of excitment when they perform in your own country.
I fear the K Pop wave will continue for awhile. Sometimes, I wish they would space out the visits too coz I can't keep up with the postings. : )
Oops…don't kill me fans.
i rather Prooflabel doing it online at a more reliable booking system like sistic. I dont thing server crash can be avoided due to unexpected peak but there are workarounds on the server such as controlling the number of online access on the booking page to handle these peaks. Server crash is better than having double booking errors like
the CNblue prob, overcrowding problem or black market issues.
I didnt expect the number of turnouts Friday night to be that many. I was surfing web reading information and i hear lots of XMM n XDD complaining of too short notice no $.. need to find PT job to buy this tic yet…!!
I can't believe how youngsters these days are so rich and can easier afford tics of $200+.
On attending overseas concert, even if i wish to attend and can afford to, i would have problem linking up korean fans who can do the concert booking for me as some of us do not have that wide circles of connection. hmmm.. i'm still hoping to attend Shin HyeSung's solo someday..
yes i bought my tixs after they announce opening up to the non-tag ppl (seats view wasn't that great as they are the remains). I rather get it at the original rate and not let those ~!@ earn that extra$. Its ridiculous at the price they are quoting for reselling the ticket.
Mmm, I managed to get my 2 cat 4 tickets hooray, but within just that few mins, I cant even get 2 tickets seated together. but it is fine!!! I am glad that they had decided to use Sistic. otherwise, I will give it a miss…
Hi Rainy
Glad you managed to get your tix even though the seats may not be the best. Yeah, I also think it's better to let a ticketing company handke such a big event like this. ^^
Hi Mary
It seems alot of friends are ebing seperated. I read so many postings on Proof Label's FB asking to swop seats. Not sure how come cannot get 2 seats together at the same time…But at least you got your tickets. ^^
I have not been a fan of Kpop for 7 years nor do i have enough cash to fly overseas all the time to catch my favourite group.
I hope to remind all older fans that you all have once been XMMs too? You might be older and hold some kind of authority,but please rmb that you all were once young kids.
Obviously,i do not like the young fans today who are into EVERY kpop group(just because kpop is in)/ who are super kiasu and lose their dignity and integrity/those with no respect.
Yes,sometimes i wish that kpop groups will STOP coming.
Hi anonymous- personally, I do think that the young ones nowadays are alot more aggressive…or perhaps it's a sign that I'm getting old. ^^
I'm definitely hopinh less K Pop band comes…or least space them out. I'm having difficulty keep up.
Again…probably because of my age. ^^
Hope you enjoyed the concert.
The one and only reason why kpop are still HOt is because they rarely come to Singapore. Since it is very expensive to fly overseas to see them, Of course, I prefer them to come to Singapore.
The Chaos, it is all about how well the organiser is.
Now that this has happened, I am sure, no organiser will sell the ticket this way.
Also note that not all kpop fan are crazy about any kpop group that comes to our shore.
So they should continue to come until the waves weaken..
For those XMMs & XDDs, they now understand the value of money, hopefully it will motivate them to study harder and get a good job, that they will be able to afford to attend such an event in the near future.
Hi marydewitt
Errr.. the XMM & XDD will probably just ask their parents for the money lah. ^^
I don't mind the artistes coming, I just wish they would space it out. Take this month for instance- Kim Hyun Joong, Mnet Ultimate (5 groups) and Song Jong Ki!
Also, many of these groups come like 3 times within a year.
Of course, it's not their fault. If someone wants to pay for their appearance, why not? But sometimes it can be too much of a good thing.
Next year doesn't seemed to be letting up either as far as I know….. so save those bonuses.
Hi Tiffany,
Although December is busy for those reporters working in the entertainment section since they need to do lots of write up, but for me, I only have one event to attend out of the 3.
I'll be heading to IMM on 3rd December.
Hope to see you there!
Cheers