This is how you know deregulation doesn't work.
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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.
Not just them, everyone doing it.
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%.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
"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
That's just the beginning. Other artists have tried to avoid livenation venues but when the artist finds a venue, livenation just goes and buys said venue. That shit right there should have been taken to court.
Funny how these legal actions against companies like this only happen under democratic presidents.
I bet they probably also wonder why suddenly attendance has dropped off, too.
Pearl Jam tried this in the 90’s and got ran over. There would have to be people in congress that cared enough.
Not to mention they own a secondary ticket market and makes a lot of money off scalping being a thing.
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.
I was watching this happen day of for a show in Montreal just recently. There were few seats available for weeks leading up to the show with resale tickets around 200 to 300 CAD a piece, then day of big chunks of non resale seats came available for a fraction of that.
Artificial scarcity. Total and complete scam.
I hope they get absolutely destroyed by legal fees and go bankrupt.
"They didn't" -Arrested Development Voiceover
Ticketmaster/Live Nation is one of the most blatant monopolies in all of history. They should be torn to shreds.
Most people don't even know how many music venues the monopoly has acquired over the past 20 years
It's be easier to count the ones they haven't gotten, on one hand.
I'm shocked it's been allowed. They have been a monopoly for decades.
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.
I sure hope it's all of the above combined times a zillion.
I don't feel comfortable with their prices.
I don't feel comfortable with their monopolistic and anti-competitive practices either.
See what happens when you don't jail cunts that ignore congressional subpoenas?!?
When your kids say "don't look in my pockets!" they definitely have something there you need to see.
When your dog pushes back on you trying to pry open their mouth, you know where the missing family cockatoo is.
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 🤦♂️
"Oh, really? Well, we don't feel comfortable continuing your license to practice business in the United States!"
“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 because they're the fucking scalpers.
Too fucking bad, I don't feel comfortable with you existing.
These goddamn capitalists pigs are out of control
we need to harvest already, theyre shitting and squealing everywhere.
I don't "feel comfortable" paying extortion prices, either.
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!!!
"Why don't you feel comfortable about sharing?"
"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."
"Durnit!"
If this doesn't end with Ticketmaster getting broken up it will be an egregious miscarriage of justice.
Go. Fuck. Yourselves.
With a 10 inch dildo.
I hope their fucking shareholders do time.
Add another 8 inches worth of services fees in there too.
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.
Thankfully, subpoenas don’t care about how comfortable you are.
Oh no, they're uncomfortable?
All the more reason for them to comply, really
Why aren’t you comfortable sharing information with congress?
Nice! Let’s do insurance next!
Well that only took forty years. They’ve been doing this since the 80s.
$30? That'll be $180, please. -TicketMaster