
Live Nation Rules Music Ticketing, Some Say with Threats - wallflower
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/music/live-nation-ticketmaster.html
======
chiph
The record store I worked at in college (this was the 1989-ish timeframe) had
a TicketMaster machine. This was a CRT computer terminal, modem, leased-line,
and a custom ticket printer. The surcharge was $2 per ticket, and presumably
TicketMaster was making a profit on that, even after paying our cut.

These days, they have fees that can easily exceed $20 per ticket, and they
don't have any of that custom hardware or phone line overhead anymore (I think
they even charge you to print your own ticket) - how do they justify that
except via monopoly power?

~~~
likpok
Ticketmaster doesn't get 100% of the fee. One of the services that
Ticketmaster offers is to charge a large fee, which is then split between
everybody (i.e. the artist, the promoter, the venue). They act as the bad guy
so that the event can be more appropriately priced while providing the artist
with plausible deniability.

[http://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-
scr...](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-screwed/)

~~~
jumelles
Okay, so let's just slash prices in half and give all the money to the artists
;)

EDIT to add: I'm being glib, but only a little - I think the artists, compared
with venues and promoters, ought to hold much more power than they currently
do. Of course venues should get paid - but are fees the best way?

~~~
pstuart
Well, the venue has to pay its bills too.

~~~
jalk
Doesn't the venue also make a small fortune selling overpriced drinks/snacks?

~~~
tehwebguy
Depends on the target audience age and proclivity for buying concessions /
alcohol.

(Also, LiveNation owns the House of Blues locations and often takes a cut of
merchandise sales in their venues)

------
evo_9
Yeah it's a bitch. But if you see indie bands, which really need your support
more than anyone else, you can often buy a ticket at the door and completely
avoid all this bs.

Plus, if you really want to support the artist, buy a bunch of there merch at
the show - they make a lot off that stuff! I usually buy a couple copies of
there records even if I own them already and give them away to friends.
Sometimes smart bands have tour only singles (Stereolab did this a lot).

Sure you can't always avoid Ticketmaster, that's life. We all have that band
or show or sport-event, etc we must see (My Bloody Valentine, etc, for me).

Point being - don't forget you can always buy a ticket at the venue! They are
not the only game in town.

~~~
reustle
> Sure you can't always avoid Ticketmaster, that's life

But it doesn't have to be, that's the point of this discussion

------
protomyth
I just wish there was a truth in advertising law that said Ticketmaster and
other could only advertise the final price after fees and taxes. None of this
$40 tickets suddenly being $60 or $80 at checkout.

~~~
paulie_a
I think that should be required in all circumstances. Final price advertised
openly.

They obviously can calculate it at checkout, they can display it upfront.

------
logfromblammo
Yes, the whole industry is filled to the brim with pricks. But the issue I
have always had with Ticket Bastard isn't so much the _fees_ , since that is
just a matter of honesty in pricing, but in being able to buy tickets at all.

When I was younger, you dialed the phone number. If you wanted tickets to a
particular show, you had to know what time the tickets first went on sale.
Then you started calling in, madly hanging up and redialing the instant you
heard the busy signal. Fifteen minutes later, they told you the show was sold
out.

Now, you madly hit F5, and when the sale goes live, you try to choose seats
and buy tickets through the website. The site _always_ stalls out somewhere in
the process and boots you back to the main page, dumping all your session
details. By the time you finally get to the payment page, all the tickets have
gone to the bots.

Eventually, you learn to just not bother with stadium shows. Traveling to the
venue on the mere _possibility_ that one might be able to pay at the gate and
get in, rather than having a guaranteed seat ahead of time, is for young
people and fools. Big names simply don't play venues in my town, since none of
them are big enough for their giant tour with two or three opening acts and
enough traveling stage gear to ground a C-130. I'd be driving at least 90
minutes, and probably 2 hours or more. And that possibly means hotel rooms and
days off from work--the show is the centerpiece of a bona fide _trip_. If you
can't get tickets, what's the point? You might as well stay home, with your
nice, cushy chair and over-the-ear headphones.

Or you could support local bands and local venues, as they have much greater
need for your money. They don't have that studio polish on their sound, but
you can actually get in to hear them play.

------
ryen
Blog post regarding the matter from Jared Smith, President at Ticketmaster

[https://insider.ticketmaster.com/ticketing-vertical-
integrat...](https://insider.ticketmaster.com/ticketing-vertical-integration-
and-the-nyts-recent-article/)

------
Joe-Z
What some people pay to go to concerts is just insane to me. RHCP? Huge fan,
but €100+ for a concert? No way!

I‘ve been to a lot of concerts, but I think I never paid more than 50€ for a
show (and even that was an exception, think „Rancid is in Europe for the first
time in 10 years!“). I guess I‘m not the typical concert-goer, because even IF
RHCP (not hating or anything that‘s just the most recent example) offered
cheaper tickets, I‘d still be in a giant stadium, 100‘s of meters from the
stage. At that point, I might as well just watch the DVD.

EDIT: Forgot to get my point across: Concerts shouldn‘t be a big business,
it‘s supposed to be about a connection between an artist and her fans.

~~~
tehwebguy
Why should one of the biggest alt rock bands of all time charge less for
shows, so you can go? I can’t imagine anyone but Foo Fighters fit into the
same category and are more popular.

Literally millions of fans want to go to their shows, charging less would only
mean they sell out in seconds rather than minutes.

~~~
wolco
His comment is an example of market forces. At 100 dollars they priced him and
others out.

If millions will go see a show why hide the service charge/fee? Why not
auction all tickets?

------
creaghpatr
Not optimistic about the eventual outcome, but maybe an investigation will at
least spook them into preemptively lowering some of their astronomical service
charges.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
There's no way an investigation will spook them.

The real crime was already approved by Congress when they let Live Nation
merge with Ticket Master.

Now Ticket Master also owns all the the artists contracts that they are
booking in these venues. You can choose to leave Ticket Master, and you can
easily replace their ticketing services.

But if you leave, you lose access to all the artists who you would have liked
to have in your venue. So you can have a beautiful arena with a fair priced in
house ticketing system, but it means 'fuck-all' if you can't book Lady Gaga or
any of the other profitable acts to come play in your venue.

~~~
icebraining
Congress? Aren't those mergers approved or denied by the executive branch?

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
You are right. This was approved by the Justice Department, under the
Executive Branch. Thanks for pointing it out.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/26ticket.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/26ticket.html)

Obligatory..... "Thanks Obama"

------
mixmastamyk
One of my favorite quotes from back in the day:

"If Hitler owned Haliburton, it still wouldn't be as evil of a company as
Ticketmaster."

[https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c4704/fuck_you_ticket...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c4704/fuck_you_ticketmaster_that_is_all/c0q0rnu/)

