January 31, 2012

The Drama. The Criticism. Insomniac’s Founder Pasquale Rotella Gets An Ear Full

Insomniac’s founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella encounters drama on a daily basis. Man oh man, I feel for him. Yesterday, January 30, I could’ve sworn the world was going to end—at least for some people. What happened? Flavorus tickets had to shut down access to purchasing tickets for Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland on March 17 at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino. It seems people set their alarms to buy tickets with credit and debit cards in tow. Everything was going copasetic until Flavorus was overwhelmed with a high demand of orders that overloaded their systems to the point orders were taking hours to complete. According to Flavorus in a statement “many Beyond Wonderland tickets were successfully sold today, but some customers who wanted tickets didn’t get a chance to order.” Now that’s understandable and reasonable on Flavorus part but there were a handful of customers frustrated and pissed they couldn’t purchase their tickets for $50 yesterday. Wait it gets better.

Shortly after, I read through Rotella’s Twitter page and ended up getting more than I bargained for. Various customers believe that Insomniac is charging too much for tickets. Here’s the breakdown, yesterday the first batch of tickets were selling for $50, second batch $65 and third batch $85 (which I believe isn’t too much). However, frequent Insomniac customers beg to differ.

The reason I believe it isn’t expensive? Insomniac host events that are incredibly amazing with outstanding producers and artists. And really, where else can you see talent like Alesso, Kaskade, Steve Angello, Nervo, ATB, Dash Berlin, Sub Focus, in one night for a maximum of $85? Hold on, I’ll wait. Seriously. I don’t want to seem insensitive here but an Insomniac event is worth the green paper in your pocket. Rotella literally invests his time, money and efforts to create impeccable experiences for others.

Granted, current times aren’t economically magical but the prices aren’t extreme either. It’s a business, supply and demand. Insomniac has a limited amount of tickets. If the demand is high, supply is limited—the price will heighten. When the demand is low, with limited supply, the prices will lower. It’s that simple. Honestly, if you can’t afford to purchase a $50, $65, or a $85 ticket then you shouldn’t go. Yes—it’s a total bummer but Insomniac will host another event that you’ll want to go too, just as eager as before. Seriously people need to end the complaints about it, it’s never that serious.

A new batch of tickets will go on sale tomorrow at noon PST via Flavorus. Cheers!

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Tags: EDM Culture, EDM Industry, Headlines, House Music, Insomniac Events, Pasquale Rotella

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http://twitter.com/JGlattly James Glattly

“If the demand is high, supply is limited—the price will heighten. When the demand is low, with limited supply, the prices will lower. It’s that simple.” A lesson in economics.
Wsalvioni

We are not pissed at the price. We were pissed that insomniac told us they would go up 5$ not 15$. please do more research before Blatantly posting an article. We were mad that Insomniac straight up lied to us about the price
- InsomniacFan
  
  Insomniac did not lie! $50 & $55 allotments sold out. Do your research: http://insomniac.com/newsDetails.php?news=181
  - Paabs
    
    haha so you are so gullible that because they say they sold out in seconds LITERALLY (which is impossible, not even coachella or edc sellout that fast, nor U2 ) you actually believe it ? The system crashed within a minute ! and all of the sudden from $50 to $65 ? People were pissed of the ACT and not keeping your word more than the price. so RESEARCH THAT
    - Asdf
      
      what you dont realize, is EDC’s capacity is 2x the capacity of BW… At least.
      
      EDC’s first tier of tickets, by the way, sold out in like an hour. And those tickets were $200 a pop, hurting the pocket way more than a mere $50.
      
      Maybe you should do your research.
    - Asdfasdf
      
      what you dont realize, is EDC’s capacity is 2x the capacity of BW… At least.
      EDC’s first tier of tickets, by the way, sold out in like an hour. And those tickets were $200 a pop, hurting the pocket way more than a mere $50.
      
      Maybe you should do your research.
  - m0ve for me
    
    Omg you don’t get it either…don’t you understand that it doesnt make sense for the $50 and $55 to STILL sell out even when flavorus supposedly had to “stop selling tickets”? They are totally playing price games here. It was extremely upsetting to have set aside time before I had to leave for work to buy a ticket and not be able to after repeated attempts when I’m trying to go to ASOT 550. and here you have scalpers who were BLATANTLY stating on the beyond fb page that they bought multiple just to sell. EDC, Coachella NEVER have “high demand” make their websites crash…why this time? Pasquale drafted up a new announcement that 10,000 more $55 would go on sale and that is the LEAST they can do…
    
    http://insomniac.com/newsDetails.php?news=181
    
    He also tweeted that the “same software for EDC tix will be used for Beyond” today. I’m poised and ready to buy my ticket and I don’t know what is stopping the same thing from happening Monday happening today so we’ll see…
- tranceislife
  
  if you cant afford it dont go. simple as that.
- Ravenjwright
  
  I did do my research. Do you follow Pasquale on Twitter? Originally since the $50 tickets sold out on the 31st, the second tier were going to be sold at $65 but due to the complaints and system failure on Flavours part, Insomniac decided to release 10,000 tickets at the price of $55. This annoucnment posted shortly after my article was posted up and I didn’t get a chance to update it. Yes- I do research my facts but things do change. Once the $55 tickets sale out, tickets will go up to $65 like the previous plan.
  
  Insomniac didn’t lie to you. Pasquale wanted to please his customers, if Insomniac were really in it for the money then they couldn’t ignored everyone and charged you all $65 today. In addition, quite a few comments were being made that two to four years ago you could see the same artist listed above for a cheaper price. Yeah- that’s true but just like I stated above this is a business. Kaskade, Steve Angello, Dash Berlin are well-known artist now, household names, and now charge these events major bills for their apperances now. Back then it was a different ball game.
noneya

Some people must be under the impression that DJ’s play for free. Yeah, Pasquale is for sure going to make money but well deserved money for having to put a production like this together. About the prices, just because some weren’t able to get the $55 tickets doesn’t mean others didn’t or that the price point didn’t exist. You have to be pretty self-centered to think that. The worst part was all the insults being thrown around. Racial epithets? Really? It’s pretty sad.
tex

People are mad cause the whole situation seems very shady. If you would have done your research instead on just blindly kissing Insomniacs ass you would see this. You can’t tell your customers one thing and then do another and expect people not to complain.
- stev0949
  
  ASOT550 is going to be there, so obviously theres going to be a much larger demand for tickets than normal. It’s not that crazy
Alex_silva951

Im not pissed about the price I would pay 100 and not care so worth it, I’m pissed that they don’t make a ticket limit so ppl go out and buy the first batch of tickets from 5-10 tickets each to resale them at a rediculous price when it gets sold out… Wish they had some sort of cap limit system !
Dominic Cooper

Was this article written by his publicist? “The reason I believe it isn’t expensive? Insomniac host events that are incredibly amazing” what a joke…the only decent coverage Insomniac has received has been by the LA Weekly everything else is written by fanboys.
- Pault
  
  LA Weekly has been criticizing raves for years. have u not read Dennis Romero’s columns? He basically is suggesting raves are killing children and he used to be a raver. He is bitter that he’s out of touch. And so r u.
Christian

I wasn’t angry at all about the price… I was super frustrated by flavorus. Not only couldn’t I get tickets online ., but when I called an automated system would bring ,me through this whole charade only to cut me off… Why can’t tickets be sold at the three different prices simultaneously on three different links. Those of us who can afford the higher price tickets would not jam the link of those who can o0nly afford the lower price… Thus comple4tely relieving the congestion on one link… Just frustrated is all…. Great value
irritated

people are pissed because insomniac said that the allotment ran out but groovetickets said that they were forced to shut down sales and said nothing about selling out…shady much? Plus they did say it would go up $5 and not $15. i know $15 isnt much money either but keep in mind that people still have EDC tickets to keep paying for so every dollar counts.
http://twitter.com/Jay_R0 Jordan Hicks

its just dumb how i have to pay so much for edc right off the bat. when it use to be 100 to start then go up. but now its like 300 an it goes up from there. how am i suppose to get tickets or save up for them when they go up so fast
- Apulido2
  
  Edc is 3 days now u dumbass n the ticket was 215 if you bought the first batch
- InsomniacPLUR
  
  It’s because EDC is getting more popular therefor they have to account for everything, including security, and all that. Trust me I am not happy about the prices either, but it is a chance of a lifetime.
- m0ve for me
  
  RIGHT? remember the good old days when EDC was in LA and tix went on sale in May and started at 35 bucks a day -__- the scene is so blown up now its inevitable. oh well…gonna be trying again to buy my ticket today regardless because I’m not missing ASOT 550 and armin for the world!!! trance is my shit :D
  - InsomniacPLUR
    
    It’s no longer in LA because too many kids were dying from overdosing, hence why they moved EDC to Vegas. EDC is a multi-million dollar production and They have to hire security, bartenders, and all that. It’s really not that bad when you look at it from a bigger perspective.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ARMXQK72KFUHTK3KDI6KJHDQAY Carl
  
  “now I have to pay”… please. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.
Brandon12_10

wow make us seem like the bad guys, how are they going to raise the price in one day!!! that’s not cool yes insomniac events are awesome but a ton of people go to them so no matter what they are still making profit
- InsomniacPLUR
  
  There is something in this world called supply and demand. Tickets sold out. Therefor another allotment is being sent out. No one lied to you. The event Insomniac puts on cost probably well into the millions, so asking for $50, $65, or even $85 just to have a chance of a lifetime. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
  - Asdf
    
    you are a DB (and the author of this article). you are clearly not getting the point when pasquale rotella said that tickets will go up in increments of FIVE dollars every time allotment sells out. it’s the principle not the price difference that has pissed everyone off.
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Kai808714

if your like me, youll go for the music regardless of price. this show is easily worth $100 and if you cant afford it or are going to be incredibly ignorant and insult someone about it, go cry to your mom.
wahoooooooooaoooooo

the reason so many people are pissed is because 2 years ago we could get artist like all those stated above, for a wayyyyyyyy cheaper price. all these new fucking fan boys that jumped on the edm bandwagon just last year have no problem paying 55 or 65 for tickets because they dont care how much they pay as long as they have a safe place to take drugs and act like douchebags. all these new fans are the cancer of the rave scene.
- Ravenjwright
  
  I completely agree and understand your viewpoint but at the same time, two years ago electornic music wasn’t at the expanding stage its at today. This genre is growing year by year, same with events. The venues continue to grow with it. I know that tickets were alot cheaper years ago but it’s a business too. Insomniac is aware that people will pay the price to attend an event but the money you spend isn’t wasted though.
- Kendallhas
  
  Yeah and DJs should play for free too just for the PLUR of it.
Disanorcracer

This author is a dick!!
anti-monopoly

“And really, where else can you see talent like Alesso, Kaskade, Steve Angello, Nervo, ATB, Dash Berlin, Sub Focus, in one night for a maximum of $85? ”You may not know much about this industry then There would be a few companies who would be able to host these artist for less then $85But your pals at Insomniac wont even allow anyone but them to book these artist in Southern California. I dont know if you understand the monopoly that is involved here. Insomniac has hands IN flavourus and in AM Only…how does that make sense…they have a share in the ticket company and have forced retail stores to use their computer system now and not the hard copy tickets like before forcing everyone to pay flavorus directly and less money for the retail outlets…alot of these artist also arent allowed to play for anyone but Insomniac in LA…so shit people are left with no other choice but to go to an Insomniac event to see these artist. I could go on and on but I am probably speaking to deaf ears as this article was probably initiated by his PR team. You can fool the sheep but you cant fool the industry people who live this.
123socalifresh

INSOMNIAC HATEZ POOR PEOPLE !!!
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ARMXQK72KFUHTK3KDI6KJHDQAY Carl
  
  I wish it were more expensive. It’s so annoying dealing with disgusting meth heads harassing the girls at every single insomniac show. You know the type. Skinhead. Steel toed boots. Crawling on the floor groping girls.
  
  They should double the price and keep out the fucking riffraff.
Tonie189

im not upset about the price increase ether i was upset at the fact that the flavor website crashed while i was in the process of checking out my tickets. according to the flavor website the tickets and ticket prices are not guaranteed until the checkout process had begun. (which was what i was doing). the http://fla.vor.us/groovetickets website completely froze and my 10 minutes expired then the tickets were “released” back into the pool, which i completely call bogus. i tried calling flavor but like i expected they said there was nothing they could do about what had happened. the ticket pricing is not on them, its on the company who is hosting the event. total BS in my eyes
Hungryglaskai

I know this is gonna be somewhat irrelevant, but I think that the whole raving scene has gone way too mainstream, and everyone just wants to be a part of it, because their friends are doing it. I’ve been raving since 2008, and I have seen a substantial amount of change in the scene since then. prices, community, drugs, everything has changed. I hate the fact that I have to pay double the money to go to an event I can really relate to, just because some youngsters want to go too, not because they want to, but because that’s what everyone’s doing, and they’re just following the crowd.
Bradbass3

Why is he holding an owl? Illuminati much?
Izzymizzle

Straight up the first beyond wonderland people bought here tickets a week b4 the event and it was still 75$ prices started at 40 and went up 5$
now they’re starting at 50 and going up by 10-15 wtf?!
Lets take a look back at insomniac 5 years ago and lets look at them now. If you’re an old raver u know that tickets have steadily and drasticly increased over the years. I swear this article is the stupidest thing i’ve ever read. I bet Raven Wright’s never even been to a rave. GTFO
- Ravenjwright
  
  Actually I’ve been going to raves for years now. I’ve been to plenty of Insomniac events too. And your point is my dear?
Raudm13

i was just pissed over the fact that Insomiac still tries selling tickets on a website that cannot handle the mass processing!,,because the site got overloaded, it made it unfair,,then the limit is 10 tickets when all the scalpers were on it buying 10 tickets at once,,,,,its a reasonably way to be pissed right????!!
Captain Save A Hoe

What kind of journalism is this? Completely biased.
Ravenjwright

Clearly, I need to futhur explain. When this article posted, Insomniac updated the website telling customers tickets would be $55 not $65 shortly after. So I didn’t update the article, apologies. Next, I’m not kissing Insomniac’s ass granted the fact the wording does sound PR like, apologies but admit it, people have the greatest time at Insomniac events which is why people continue to go despite the price.
- InsomniacPLUR
  
  I agree. If you don’t have the money, don’t go. Simple. I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but Insomniacs events are multi-million dollar productions. I mean where else can you see all these incredible artists at once? Just calm down people damn.
bloop

im sorry, but ohmyGOD you are an idiot. and obviously, someone who doesnt attend massives regularly. if you would get off pasquales nuts for a second, youd see that he is insanely greedy, there is no reason for an event like beyond, one of the smaller insomniac massives, to be $85. and about the batches, pasquale said batches would increase $5 when allotments run out, $55 to $65 to $85 is not following that statement. and about the flavorus site crashing: of COURSE were going to be mad, he should have known better and prepared for such traffic, i mean, with ASOT, Hospitality, and Dead Meat tours all scheduled to be at BW, people are going to want their tickets asap. if youre going to write about this event, try to do so after youve heard both sides, and when you decide not to be so ignorant
- Ravenjwright
  
  Oh vey!
bloop

LOOOOOOOOOOOL deleting my comment? really mature
http://www.facebook.com/activepaul99 Paul Jesse Gama

You forgot to mention ASOT 550! ARMIN ONLY!
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Trancefan4life30

Rather then complain about ticket prices why not complain about lack or security and service? Insomniac knew it was going to rain for week why not spend some money to create covers so people who wait in line don’t get soaked ? Security? What’ the hell is that? EDC 2010 security was horrible but Beyond Wonderland at NOS center was even worse. People would fall on the ground from overdose and there was no security or emergency response for aid. Kids would jump over tot he VIP side fall on their face and there was no security to put a stop to it. Insomniac = fraud. They don’t give a crap about you all they want is that dollar in their pocket. As of yesterday I’m done going to any event Insomniac ever hosts.