Feds subpoena Ticketmaster over egregious concert ticket prices — A spokesperson for Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said the firm doesn't “feel comfortable” sharing information with Congress
A spokesperson for Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said the firm doesn't “feel comfortable” sharing information with Congress.
Feds subpoena Ticketmaster over egregious concert ticket prices — A spokesperson for Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said the firm doesn't “feel comfortable” sharing information with Congress::A spokesperson for Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said the firm doesn't “feel comfortable” sharing information with Congress.
I don't feel comfortable with them essentially operating a monopoly that both consumers and artists detest. I don't feel comfortable with paying exorbitant meaningless fees if I ever want to experience a live event. It's never mattered what I'm comfortable with, I've always gotten fucked. I don't care how uncomfortable they are, I hope they get absolutely destroyed by legal fees and go bankrupt.
We used to be able to get tickets to concerts at a small venue here by going into one of the music shops. No stupid fees, just whatever the ticket price was.
The venue stopped selling through these stores semi recently, moved to an online service, and now there's no less than 30% fees, sometimes as high as 40%.
"the venue" is most likely owned my LiveNation, which also owns Ticketmaster. That's why they CAN have those insanely inflated prices, because they control everything. Like someone mentioned, Pearl Jam tried going off the beaten track and find venues NOT owned by LiveNation , which proved to be .. hard
Pretty sure they've gotten in trouble reserving seats for scalpers. They called them "premium buyers" or something because they bought an insane amount of tickets, more than any person could reasonably use.
TM still takes their cut when an original is bought. But then they take another when it's resold on their platform again. They make more money the more times a ticket gets resold.
For sure, this shit has been bothering me for years. For as long as I can remember, Ticketmaster has been the only way of getting tickets to big events near me. And I presume it's the same for everyone else too.
How have they got away for so long without any competition?
Is it the kind of discomfort one feels when they need to use a bathroom but there is only one for a 10,000 person event? Or the kind of discomfort one feels when it's a record heat wave but a bottle of water is $20 and despite advertising free water stations, there are none? Oh or maybe the discomfort in paying mystery fees that equal the price of the ticket?
Or maybe the kind of discomfort that only an illegitimate business model about to be exposed would evoke?
Sounds more like the discomfort of buying a ticket to a show for someone they think won't be popular when they go on sale for $20 then having your tickets cancelled the week before the show when they blow up on YouTube and the show sells out in hours for over $200/ticket.
Hahahaha yesterday during the pie preparations my daughter and I passed each other as I was heading back to the kitchen and she said, apropos of nothing, "I didn't just steal any whipped cream, shut up!"
LOL I didn't know they'd been looting the whipped cream before that point but bless their hearts it was cute
In the early 2000s Ticketmaster began to really take off. The fees and extras really started to bother me. So I stopped going to any events that used them. Other than a few state/county fair events I haven't been to a concert since 2001. Because of Ticketmaster. I have no regrets either.
Release the dogs on them. Live Nation has done nothing but rip off concert goers and harm small bands with their ridiculous fees and contractual venue restrictions, and this is without even touching on the horrible ticket scalping issues that they refuse to do anything about.
If I'm also recalling correctly, if a venue is signed up to Ticketmaster they cannot independently host events - everything has to be done through Ticketmaster 🤦♂️
If I'm also recalling correctly, if a venue is signed up to Ticketmaster they cannot independently host events - everything has to be done through Ticketmaster 🤦♂️
I may be wrong here, but I think this is an optional sign on, but they get something out of agreeing to it.
“After facing criticism from both fans and politicians for its failed handling of Taylor Swift ticket sales, Live Nation Entertainment announced a "Fair Ticketing Act" proposal in February that would try to combat bots and ticket scalpers in the resale market. Nothing yet appears to have come from this proposal.”
No shit. What incentive do they actually have to make changes when the current system makes them more money?
That's what I was thinking. The oil and gas industry and the auto industry has a lot more pull and clout than LN/TM and they were both dragged in front of Congress. Do you think they were "comfortable" with their interrogations by unfriendly congressmen? Fuck no. Did they go without too much whining, as far as I remember.
"Before I tell you, you have to promise not to indict me."
"..."
"Promise?"
"... okay. We promise not to indict you."
"Okay, the thing is, I may have conspired with competitors to corner the market on ticket sales and bought up 85% of performance venues to lock in performers into using me to distribute tickets. Thus giving me near total control of the market."
"Yeah, that's a monopoly. We're breaking you up."
"YOU PROMISED NOT TO!"
"No, we promised not to indict you. Commerce doesn't need an indictment to pull your articles of corporation."
Who cares if you feel comfortable? Did you ask me if people are comfortable paying high prices for tickets? You took all this money, and you keep doing it! You are a thief, my dude; you make people pay more than what they are supposed to pay.
People are stupid too, instead of stop buying tickets, and report ticketmaster and live nation, they are keeping buying tickets! bravoooooo!!!
A local, small time hockey team has middle-arena ticket for $13. The price almost doubles because they use tm. $10 in cOnVeNiEnCe fees and processing and the "privilege" of using their shitty app.
if congress wanted your testimony do you think that your comfort would be a factor in what they do and how they do it? The law is different for the very rich. It's aspirational rather than authoritative. "We would really like to comply, but I just don't think it's gonna work out."
To be fair, I don't feel comfortable sharing information with anyone, let alone fucking congress. So I can kinda see their point.
On the other hand, I also don't feel comfortable with the spokesperson not getting raped with a rake. What now, spokesperson? How shall we solve this little dilemma?
They have plenty of reasons, this is just a clear cut example to point to and say "see? This right here is going on everywhere, and that's why things suck. This shit right here - this is the problem"
It's got attention and hardly anyone is defending Ticketmaster... They're pretty universally hated, even my conservative family members who reflexively jump up to defend businesses complain about them
I hope people will start looking at Amazon, Google, Facebook, grocery store suppliers, and everywhere else, and see the same patterns of companies racing each other to make worse products at higher prices
Here in Germany there are some venues that sell their tickets through dice.fm which seems not to charge extreme fees. Is this something that’s also available where you folks are?
Live nation owns all the event locations, so not really. It’s really ridiculous. Back in the early 2000s or late 90’s you could get tickets for good bands at around $15-30. All day festivals would be around $20 and 3 day events were something like $100.