I'm seeing MADONNA tonight at the HOWARD GILMAN OPERA HOUSE in Brooklyn and she isn't going to play my all-time favorite pop song but I don't care because she's more invested in her current thing, which I wish more touring pop and rock elders were, and her current thing, MADAME X, is a rewarding, challenging album loaded with hidden pleasures that I'm still discovering, and I'm totally fine with a misstep here and there along the way to encountering the simmering Latin pop of her MALUMA duet "MEDELLÍN," the old-school Madge bliss of "CRAZY" or the ambitious mess of her gun-control operetta "GOD CONTROL," among many other pleasures. But that's not why I'm writing this. I bought my tickets four months ago the new old-fashioned way, through TICKETMASTER's VERIFIED FAN platform. The way it worked for Madonna was you filled out a form with your credit card info, which day(s) you wanted to go and how much you were willing to pay, and if everything went right, a few weeks later they automatically ran the credit card and gave you the best (presumably) available seats in that price range. They cost a pretty penny, but she's playing theaters not stadiums and she, like everybody else, is trying to beat the scalpers, so, yeah, go for it. I'd rather give my money to Madonna than a bot on STUBHUB. (Actually, a whole 'nother pricing rant could go right here, but that's for another day, or find me on TWITTER.) So anyway, four months pass. It's this week. There are still scattered tickets available for all 17 Brooklyn shows, which is a little weird on one hand, but also not weird because in the currently vogue dynamic pricing model, which is exactly why I'm writing this, ticket prices are allowed to fluctuate like they do on airlines, and the expectation is that shows will take longer to sell out but the prices will be more efficient, matching what actual people are prepared to actually pay in real time, and hopefully netting a little more dough for the artist and her team. Or a lot more dough. It's sort of like a secondary ticket market operated by the primary sellers. So I check out my show online and I see there are better seats available, several rows in front of me, for significantly less money than I paid four months ago. Which means I wasn't in fact rewarded for my early Verified Fan purchase with the best available seats. I was penalized for being a Verified Fan. Unverified slackers made out better. Airlines and scalpers can work this way because neither of them will ever care about me, and neither are required to pretend they do. Artists on the other hand—there's a relationship here. There's connection and loyalty. There's supposed to be trust. You know what would be nice? I have no interest in a refund. I paid what I was willing to pay and I got the tickets I was willing to buy and my seats are going to be great. But if Ticketmaster and Madonna know who I am and have verified me, whatever that means, and if they know there are better seats available two days before the show at the same price or lower, why not automatically upgrade me (and others like me) to those seats and sell the slackers my old seats? Or ask me if I want to trade up? Or anything to make me feel I'm getting the same value from them that they're getting from me? Madonna herself, she's going to give me that value tonight with a show I'm really looking forward to, I'm not worried about that part. But the rest of her team, I could use a sign. And a reason to buy my tickets early and efficiently next time, which I'm currently unclear on why I should. I still love you, Madge... P.S. Madonna's no-cell-phone policy at her concerts isn't just for fans. No press photography either... The reason a lot of mainstream country radio stations are openly biased against female artists is they see their core demographic as women who don't want to hear female voices. If that's not maddening enough, JOE COSCARELLI of the NEW YORK TIMES reports that New York's only major contemporary rock station, ALT 92.3, "can often go long stretches without playing songs by women" because its core demographic is—wait for it—men. Women, can't program with them, can't program without them. That head-exploding issue aside, Coscarelli's piece is a good read on the current state and sound of alternative rock radio. For starters, the station uses the adjective "alternative" to describe its format but doesn't use the noun "rock," or any noun at all... California's controversial gig-economy bill has been signed into law. The music industry, which couldn't agree with itself on language to protect itself from unintended consequences, is now bracing for them... "I see the hate and I see a lotta love / Why they be so mad at you, MA? [Shrugs]": YOUNG MA freestyling for FUNK FLEX... TAYLOR SWIFT really, really, really doesn't like SCOOTER BRAUN or SCOTT BORCHETTA. In case you or they weren't aware. KANYE WEST, too. The ROLLING STONE interview by my friend BRIAN HIATT... RIP TONY MILLS and CHUCK DAUPHIN.