New York Times article on BJ tickets

Bon Jovi, Ticketmaster Bundle Digital Album, Tickets

By REUTERS
Published: June 10, 2007
Filed at 5:34 p.m. ET

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - In what's being billed as a first, Bon Jovi is bundling a digital iTunes copy of the band's upcoming album, "Lost Highway," with advance tickets for October concerts in Newark, New Jersey.

The stand, which begins October 25 and may be expanded beyond the initial five shows, will open the new Prudential Center in Newark.

The online presale program will be available exclusively to American Express cardholders beginning June 12 through June 14, and to the general public from June 15 through June 22. Tickets without the digital album download will then be available for purchase by the general public beginning June 23.

Fans who purchase the Lost Highway Ticket Package will receive a code from Ticketmaster that enables them to download "Lost Highway" from iTunes beginning on its June 19 release. The ticket/album package will be priced at $9.99 higher -- the price of the album on iTunes -- than those later sold outside the package. Album sales in the bundle will count toward SoundScan and the album's Billboard chart position.

For those fans who have already pre-ordered "Lost Highway" from BonJovi.com or iTunes, Bon Jovi and Ticketmaster have arranged for iTunes to provide a passcode that will enable them to purchase a single presale ticket for $9.99 less without adding the digital album.

The program is similar in concept to previous Ticketmaster initiatives with acts like Bob Dylan, Maroon 5 and Daddy Yankee. The difference is that the other programs offered albums and tickets in two separate sales via two separate sites.

The Bon Jovi deal is the first "all-in" presale that bundles together a ticket and a digital album as a single transaction sold via Ticketmaster.com. In this way, the promotion is more a digital version of Prince's 2005 Musicology tour, which included with the ticket price a physical version of his new album, to be picked up at the venue.

The $375 million, 18,000-capacity Prudential Center will be managed by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and booked by its live entertainment division, AEG Live.

Reuters/Billboard

simply a way for Jovi to get there album sales pushed! extremly good marketing on there part!

most people who buy a ticket may not buy the new album, there only interested in the "old stuff" but put a new album for free in front of them and you double your record sales! if they do the same thing for the greatest hits album, it wont take long untill its 200 million albums sold

It's not just the fact that they offer the new album as an 'all-in' package but that if you buy that package, you can purchase your gig tickets earlier than anyone.

I think it stinks - you wanna see Jovi live but don't like their new stuff but in order to ensure you get a ticket at all, you're FORCED to buy the new album! The tricks that bands/promoters pull these days in order to earn a few $million more than the $200 000 000 they're gonna earn in album sales anyway, just makes you sick.

What will they think of next?....

I think it is OK. If you won´t buy album, why would you take someone tickets who will buy album, and maybe won´t be able to see them because of someone who doesn´t care about them and doesn´t respect them.
Very good Bon Jovi, keep doing it all over the world.

Quite simply because new material makes up 5 or so songs from a 20-25 song setlist. Given how much Bon Jovi have changed musically over last decade, it is ignorant to assume that everybody who was a fan up until These Days would still be a fan after Lost Highway BUT most of a standard Bon Jovi set is composed of songs from pre-TD.

It forces some fans into buying an album, that they don't necessarily want, just to ensure they get to see the band play their older (better) material live. IMO, album sales and live tours are two separate entities that can mutually benefit each other. However, one should have no 'forced' bearing on the other - where is consumer choice in all of this?

It can actually be perceived as quite a cowardly decision. They remove some of the 'risk' associated with new album sales by adopting the "all-in" pre-sale packages. Not that album sales would have suffered anyway but it is by far the 'safest' way to do it for the band/record company etc.

or why not just beat up some poor kid at the venue and steal tickets?

this sucks big time. ticket prices go up and they manage to fake record sales as well. businesswise, it is a smart move, but also shows that bj-camp has no respect for fans at all. only thing they're in it for is cash.

what next, hmmm. maybe they'll insert curtain in the middle of the venue, and charge more if people want to see them and not just hear them :-S

"super-hyper-gold tickets for sale now! ensure that you actually can see the band performing live. and it's only 300$/eye!"