Are we on the cusp of a new way of getting concert tickets into the hands of actual fans at a fair price? Or just a new way of ensuring their disappointment, and this time making them work for it? As BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN fans were getting their "You've Been Selected" or "You're on Standby" emails from TICKETMASTER for today's onsale for his BROADWAY run (I got the latter), the TAYLOR SWIFT TIX debate continued among economists and their optimal pricing models on one hand, and music fans and their optimal desires on the other. BLOOMBERG's SCOTT DUKE KOMINERS likened Swift's controversial twist on ticketing queues—you can potentially advance your place in her queue by buying CDs and merch—to an auction. That's a good thing he said, citing this study. But unlike in a standard auction, in this one you have to spend your money before you find out if you win the prize. "Not good," Kominers dryly noted, but still "a worthy experiment in pricing." The TORONTO STAR's BEN RAYNER noted the same flaw and suggested Swift and Ticketmaster are preying on her biggest fans, getting them to open their wallets with no promise of anything in return. Are we hurting fans in our effort to hurt scalpers? Are the fans collateral damage? Is that an acceptable short-run tradeoff for a long-run victory? Is there victory to be had at all in a world where scalpers somehow seem to always be a step ahead? MusicSET: "Can Concert Ticketing Be Fixed?"... A related question: While the Swift initiative is upfront in telling fans they can move up in her queue by posting about her on social media, Springsteen's "Verified Fan" program is using a vaguely defined algorithm, in advance of the onsale, to determine if you're more likely to use or resell the ticket. In either case, it feels like you're being stalked by the ticket merchant. Or at least by the merchant's bots. Are they the same bots that a year ago were grabbing the tickets you desperately wanted and re-selling them for $850, which is now Springsteen's top face value? Have the bots switched sides? Do you trust them more this time around?... Few band have done more to keep tickets cheap and accessible than FUGAZI. There is now, of course, an opera based on Fugazi stage banter... COLDPLAY performs a HOUSTON tribute song, vows never to play it again... LIL B offers free guest verses to Houston artists... Houston native BEYONCÉ pledges her philanthropy... THEON CROSS blowing fierce quarter notes on his tuba for, what, 15 straight minutes?, Monday night at NUBLU in NEW YORK was life-affirming. This is how LONDON is Re:freshing jazz... RIP MELISSA BELL.