Why the fuck is Ticketmaster allowed to be this awful?
The answer is capitalism, I know.
But it wasn't always like this. Why the hell are they allowed to absolutely monopolize all shows and venues? How are there not laws on this?
Is stopping going to any shows the only way to fix this? If so, that wont happen. People are gonna go see their favorite bands (and ticketmonster knows it)
I wish this one was as easy as getting rid of all my streaming services - but they really fucked us over for live shows.
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If Pearl Jam couldn’t fix it in the 90s and Taylor swift couldn’t fix it in the 2020s that tells you just how much money is behind them.
It's not something a single artist can fix. You'd need some kind of mass movement of artists organizing and auctioning their labor as a collective unit, rather than a bunch of freelancers and independent labels competing with one another for space in an increasingly monpolized marketplace.
Big artists are contractually getting a cut of those crazy high resell prices and fees.
Every big artist could do verified fan presales like the second round of Eras tour shows, but the reality is that popular artists would be leaving money on the table.
To be fair, only the richest artists can self produce a US nation wide tour. It’s often not up to the artists themselves.
Unless their managers are exceptionally savvy, they're not. They get a base rate on ticket sold. Then the broker can operate as seller and re-seller of the allotment of tickets. So Ticketmaster sells tickets to Ticketmaster, guaranteeing Beyonce a sold-out performance. And then Ticketmaster resells the tickets at auction rates to the general public.
Swift had the leverage to cut exceptional deals by promising to expand the size and scope of her performances in exchange for a better rate of return. That's because her audience is large enough and the venues are small enough that there's functionally no upper limit on ticket sales beyond her ability to do sequential performances.
For very obvious reasons, most artists don't get this kind of treatment.
It isn't a matter of artist wealth so much as the point of market saturation. If you roll into a town with 50,000 fans and the biggest venue only seats 500 people, you can keep throwing sold-out shows, week after week. This is effectively how successful baseball (up to 162 games/year) and basketball (82 games/year) franchises operate.
But if you can't guarantee a sold-out crowd, you're effectively paying the venue for the privilege of performing. As more small venues shut down and bigger venues consolidate, artists find fewer places to profitably perform their craft. Its been a rule in the industry for a while that you make money on tour by selling merch (t-shirts, albums, signed drum sticks, whatever) rather than tickets. Ticketmaster complicates this math by effectively promising to buy out the venue (by selling tickets to itself) at a markdown, then auctioning off the tickets at a markup. That shrinks the audience, which shrinks the pool of people buying the merch.
Its a vicious cycle that's been collapsing the live music industry for over a decade.
And even then, they'd be super limited on where they can play. Any major venues that uses ticketmaster also signs an exclusivity agreement to do so (I guess maybe that might possibly go away depending on how a trial goes in March, but don't hold your breath), so good luck holding a big show when no arena is going to risk their contract for a single show.
If only there was a branch of the government dedicated to ensuring the free market stays competitive and free of trusts...
Regulatory capture is a motherfucker
Lots of governments don’t actually care.
I wonder if the EU will ever do anything, but I doubt it.
I know. I was sure the EU would stop the DuPont-Pioneer/Dow merger, or the Bayer/Monsanto merger, but alas, these two companies now control seed production for over 60% of the world.
And the grateful dead, selling tickets via mail order from their own office to the end.
Jerry said he hated that income decided who could or couldn't come hear music.
Can't have a freak show without the freaks.
T Swizzle is, funny enough, a big chunk of why things have escalated so much. Like her or hate her, she puts on a motha fugging SHOW with incredibly high production values and comparatively limited dates. That drastically increases the baseline price and makes the scalping market start selling their coke filled labubus to get even more seats.
Which, in turn, makes her contemporaries feel the need to put on a comparable show even though they are nowhere near talented or popular enough to make it work. Otherwise you start having very real discussions about why Famous Astronaut Katie Perry is nowhere near as expensive as the Swizzle Stick.
And ticketmaster mostly is just there to help facilitate that scalping and to add obnoxious (and expensive) infrastructure to prevent every single ticket from being sold to the scalpers who stand in line when the booth opens (80s and 90s kids will remember that).
You can very much see this in the pro wrestling space. In a venue that (company full of racist sex traffickers) WWE is a regular at? Basically everyone but AEW is priced out of even having a show and AEW suffers from needing to not be a laughing stock next to WWE on the ticket prices which results in overpriced tickets and blacked out sections of the arena during panning shots. A venue that WWE doesn't go to very often? You have a lot more genuine indie shows and you can get ringside tickets to an AEW event for under 200 bucks.
And ticketmaster fucking sucks but mostly they are just there to be vultures on whatever demand is already there. They can't really do much if you have regularly priced tickets going to "actual fans".
If Taylor Swift tickets start at $200, and then get scalped up to $2000, then that's just the scarcity market. The problem really is that someone can and will pay that much for a ticket.
We were warned in the 90's.
Ticket Ghost of Ticket Future: "Don't buy from Ticketmaster"
Me, in the Present: "Okay, but I still want to go to the concert"
Ticket Ghost: "You're going to feel weird in ten years, when you find out what Kanye gets up to. But you do meet someone at the event to hook up with, have an on-again off-again relationship for three years, the sex is amazing but you're on totally different career tracks. You end up seeing other people, and now you live in the same neighborhood and your kids are friends. Which is nice but also a bit weird at parties."
Me: "Wow. That's... a lot to take in."
Ticket Ghost: "Sorry, bro. I tried to warn you two weeks ago not to take those edibles because they'd give you psychic premonitions, but you hadn't taken the edibles yet so you couldn't listen..."
Me: vomiting sounds as I clutch the toilet
So do the partners know about y'alls past boinking?
Vedder said do better.
"Can't find a better man."
There are currently lawsuits against them, but it takes time. This is from NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson's newsletter earlier this year:
"The People vs. Ticketmaster/Live Nation
I’m forcing myself to only pick one case to go into detail about - but it’s a great one.
Let’s say you want to make a bunch of money by supplying live entertainment, primarily the music industry.
Well, the three big pieces in that business are:
The venue
The right to promote the event
The right to sell the tickets
Now imagine you control each of those. You own venues, and you promote the events, and you sell the tickets.
Congratulations - you’re a monopoly.
You’ve achieved vertical integration within your business, which means the sum of those parts has unlocked the ability to gouge customers with the confidence that they won’t be able to find a competitor to offer them a better deal. And using your monopoly to further entrench your power to charge customers higher prices is against the law.
This is exactly what I, along with a bipartisan group of AGs, allege that Ticketmaster/Live Nation has done.
They've turned concert ticket fees into something fans call the “Ticketmaster Tax.” These are the “convenience fees,” “processing fees,” and “handling fees” that add up quickly, inflating ticket prices by huge margins.
Why can they get away with it? Because they've locked venues into exclusive contracts, squeezing out any chance of competition.
But it gets worse. If venues try to resist and explore other options, Live Nation retaliates by threatening to strip venues of popular acts. The internal emails from Live Nation executives detailed in our lawsuit are explicit and awful.
Which means, if you’re an independent venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster, good luck booking artists. Ticketmaster controls ticket sales and Live Nation controls promotion, so artists who are promoted by Live Nation typically won't be allowed to perform at venues that refuse to use Ticketmaster for ticketing.
This is textbook unlawful monopoly behavior. Consumers are paying higher prices and artists and venues are suffering from reduced competition and income.
The good news is that Live Nation just tried - but failed - to get our lawsuit dismissed. That’s a big step toward accountability, including our ultimate request that Live Nation be required to divest Ticketmaster, which it acquired in 2011 and which became the linchpin for much of their monopolistic behavior."
oh wow what a well written excerpt.
He is the most levelheaded, respectful, and transparent politician I've ever seen. I've been following him for years because he will explain what he's working on in a way that doesn't insult your intelligence nor play into the drama of politics. During his time in the US House of Representatives, his newsletters would sometimes explain the theatrics of government shutdowns and orchestrated outrage from other members. Even then, he didn't name anyone specifically or sling mud. I've encouraged people from all kinds of political perspectives to follow his newsletters. He's a great example of how a representative should be, and I genuinely believe that's just part of his personal ethos.
And congratulations, the current US administration now considers you a terrorist. Complaining about being abused and exploited is anti-capitalist.
Why? As with most awful things in America, the answer is Ronald Reagan.
The same problem exists world wide.
Because of Ronald Reagan obviously.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
yikes. you can chill mate.
This perspective is what a reasonable person arrives to after learning why things have not meaningfully improved in their lifetime.
uh, hard disagree with the "reasonable". the small echo chamber isn't the whole world.
I'm talking about observable reality...
If a reasonable person figures out that no peaceful avenue for change has been left, they will accept that we have to do something else.
It has nothing to do with Lemmy
echo chambers exist outside the internet
Nothing will meaningfully improve, until the rich fear for their lives!
ok. you go that way, ill go home!
Greet your boss in the shoe inlay factory for me.
oh no i dont work, im on social assistance.
Educate yourself about how we managed to get your ass on social assistance first. Hint: it was very peacefully, extremely peacefully, and also read about sarcasm
actually it was peacefully here in my country because we don't have 2nd amendment rights
My condolances then.
oh none needed, im glad i dont work anymore
Nope, they’re spot on.
A LOT of people need to feel unsafe leaving their homes.
jesus, this is sad to see. hope you get help mate.
You’re part of the problem.
Only one thing ever stopped Nazis.
good thing they arent in power anymore
Oh okay, you’re playing the clueless MAGA game. Cute. My four year old does something similar now and then, but more convincingly.
Thanks for reminding me that we have to deal with you people up here too.
I'm not MAGA lol
yeah they are lol do you live under a rock? the world is ran by pedophiles and racists
didn't know my prime minister is a pedo or racist.
How does that boot taste down there?
down where? i live on the surface of the earth, not sure if you mean theres a city underground or somthing. also i don't like to taste boots, too earthy, more of a food person.
Something happened in the last 20 years where billionaires were able to buy the government and monopolies are now no longer illegal or controlled.
I have a rare one, i've NEVER purchased a ticket through ticketmaster, so i'm glad they never got my money. Too much free/cheap live music local to me anyway.
Citizens United
I'm pretty sure Reagan's administration decided to just stop enforcing anti monopoly stuff
Ticketmaster is a perfect example of how much politicians are full of shit, all of them.
You know those Congressional Dog & Pony Shows, where they drag out the CEOs of some industry, holler at them all day, and then go back to their office and do absolutely nothing about what they just hollered about?
They did that with Ticketmaster in 1994, again in 2009, and again in 2023. Every 15 years or so, they get outraged in public, and do nothing. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Ticketmaster making enormous campaign contributions to everyone in office.
just like TAX return filing systems, h&r block and INTUIT are pratically a duopoly.
This is what happens when the shareholders screw the working class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g1u0ascpLY
Perfect.
I really hate how much of a deal they make out of congressional hearings like it isn't the lamest form of PR where nothing happens.
If it was a serious issue they cared about, senators wouldn't be walking in for their 15 minute turn and then just immediately leave after they're done reading off of their script.
They never show a wide shot because the chamber is empty.
Hot seat my ass, I wouldn't be surprised if it came built in with a back massager to compensate whoever has to sit for several hours for the whole show.
Basically, through mergers and acquisitions they're dominating the venue market. It used to be that there were many actors, but now everything is everything under the Ticketmaster umbrella.
It's convenient for artists, as they only have one point if contact needed per location in terms of booking, ticket sales, merch, and everything else around the concert/event.
It's convenient for venues, as Ticketmaster brings in business. However, it's a double edged sword: Do something Ticketmaster doesn't approve of, such as use a competitor, and you're not getting the big headliners.
It's awful for the rest of us, as we then have to deal with a monopoly pushing up the prices.
I am cautiously optimistic about the long term outlook, though: The Ticketmaster hate is widespread to the point where some artists refuse to work with them, as they feel their fans are getting robbed with the band getting the blame. And they are the ones with the leverage to turn things around - artists with integrity will put their fans first, and that is what will hopefully bring long term change for the better.
So basically, they're the mob.
Uh Ticketmaster owns most of the venues. I guess that is convenient for then too.
Also scalping their own tickets is convenient as well
Got to smaller shows at local clubs
This is the way. I've seen so many great bands at clubs before they blew up. Why spend hundreds of dollars to see a show produced for mass consumption at a stadium when you can drop $20 and see a hungry up-and-comer pour out their heart and soul to a hundred people. It's a way better experience.
You must live in very artistically rich city ! Im glad for you. Sadly around here its washed up metal (with lots of fake backing tracks) and rapping to a backing track, mixed in with bad country covers.
Yeah, San Diego, but I've lived in other cities with decent music scenes as well. Most major cities I've lived in have had a decent music scene.
Ah, thats 7 times bigger than my city haha. No wonder you have great opportunities!
Also bands that aren’t so famous any more are great to catch at smaller venues.
Oh i do. But the music around here mostly sucks, and the sound guys are lazy and terrible. Im one of the best sound guys here that actually tries, and I hardly ever do it as a side gig (way too many projects). I actually just studied sound (and the blade) and know how it works, unlike many (small time) sound guys today. And before you ask, I dont do it for a job because I already have a very good job. I have thought about offering classes on the subject locally.
People want to see pro bands with an actual good audio setup and talent. Sadly, youre not getting that at a local level unless you live in a metropolis or somewhere where the local water creates amazing talent from nothing.
Unregulated capitalism. Specifically, unenforced monopoly laws, which the U.S. has been terrible at.
I don’t see how tyranny is to blame. The problem is that Ticket Master has been allowed to create a monopoly on ticket sales and is selling to retailers even though it itself is a retailer, which is an anti-consumer practice. A tyrannical government isn’t the problem here; it’s simply a company getting away with shit current laws clearly forbid. Hence, capitalistic actions being unrestrained by effective, government-enforced laws. That’s capitalism allowed to run rampant, which is a very common problem in American society. The problem isn’t capitalism per se, but capitalism unrestrained by existing laws that are designed to keep it in check.
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/#systemic-problems
I simply won't go. I won't stream their live shows either, because charging for that is also very lame.
There is still plenty of live music to be had, by decent performers at a local scale. Although even then, lots of small venues use AXS to sell tickets which is the second largest global ticket company so it is not much better.
It is harder and harder to find $10 at the door in cash, but they are out there.
It's a symbiotic relationship. Ticketmaster takes the heat for adding cost, the venues get some kickback and don't have to have an expense on their books. Everyone is complicit.
Small venues maybe, but Ticketmaster owns all the larger ones.
Oh sure, that, too. That was their phase two, buying up venues.
Very true. Too bad there's no other way.
Especially for kids who really like any older music, those bands will not be around long (many bands on the sick new world fest for an example are 35+ years old). So yeah I guess whole generations just have to miss out on that music they love.
Deregulation and regulatory capture
They are extremely litigious. I work in software security and they are notorious for basically having an ocean of lawyers.
they sound like 3 insulin companies that had a stranglehold on the types of insulin for type 1 diabetics. they were aggressively pursuing any attempt to make thier own version until recently, they backed off.
There are laws and they’re probably in violation of them, but if you expect Trump’s DOJ to go after monopolies, you’ll die waiting.
Was my dream to catch Rush on this tour. 1000 cad per ticket. I can go to a European metal festival for the same price and see 120 bands.
Blame the artists too. Neil young capped tickets this year's tour at 120 with no ability to resell.
This. They're the ones that set ticket prices, and they get the majority of the revenue from ticket sales. Ticketmaster/LN has even said themselves that they don't make most of their money on tickets, the artists do, but they want to take the blame away from the artist to keep making sales.
Not that Ticketmaster isn't an issue. Vendor lock-in especially for independently owned venues has been a problem for a long time.
🎶 The answer is always capitalism 🎵
Because politicians stopped working for us since a long time ago
I’m also pissed at the venues and artists deciding to use Ticketmaster.
Republicans
Because people keep paying them.
Right here.
Talk is cheap. And people are stupid.
Stop going to events with Ticketmaster.
Capita… gosh darn it
Why is so shitty? Why is so shitty? Why is so shitty? Because we fucking suck balls at any type of informed decision-making and it's fucking snowballed to this current shit show.
Because people keep buying the tickets even though they aren't a necessity. This should be an easy boycott.
Ticketmonster has just always been outrageous. I was a teenager in the 80s and it was ridiculous back then too. The prices were lower but the percentages were just as ridiculous, I think. For example, my first concert was Men At Work in 1983. The tickets were $12.50 but my final price at Ticketmonster, which used to be a physical business inside Sears, was over $16, which is around a 30% markup!!
I SOOO want to see Rush's tour next summer. Not seeing them for past tours is something I really regret.
Signed up for the pre-sale, signed on the day of AND... FUCK THAT.
I'm not spending the equivalent of my mortgage just to get decent seats. So I fired up the R40 tour video and cranked it up. I'll just be happy with that.
Lack or regulation in their industry. Regulation, while it can be burdensome in some cases, prevents bullshit like this from existing. Republicans want less regulation so businesses are allowed to generally be as horrible as they want and have pushed everything towards less regulation and more monopolistic control, knowing that while some people will boycott individually, mass boycott is unlikely without a massively bad immediate fuck up (target just did this). Boil the masses slowly and they won't notice in time to do anything about it. Kinda like US politics over the last few decades leading to the fuckery we endure now even outside of shit businesses.
Capitalism inevitably regressed to end stage.
The wheels are in motion, but they are slow, indeed. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-monopolizing-markets-across-live-concert
That was Biden’s DOJ. Americans voted to keep monopolies and raise prices last year.
Because people keep giving them money
They haven't actually got a full monopoly. You can give axs money. You can in some cases go to the box office ahead of time like it's 1980.
If you want to see taytay, you are indeed going to pay ticketmaster, but the only way to defeat them is by not giving them money.
Is this what it's like to grow up on tiktok? Nobody has any ambition. It's all just bootstrapping and personal responsibility.
I have no idea what this means. Like I understand the individual words but when you put them together it's just noise.
I'm saying that people like boycotts more than they like actually doing anything. I think it's a power fantasy, personally.
That said, I don't expect anything to happen in the next 10 or 15 years given who's currently in charge, so may as well.
I still don't get what you're actually proposing, though. Companies run on money. If enough people are willing to say "no, I don't want to see that show enough" then there is the possibility of change.
If you're saying in an ideal world the government would do some antitrust...sure, as you said I'll check back in in a decade and see how that's going. For now I just don't give them my money.
Okay, I'm trying not to be needlessly irate because I'm not yelling at you so much as I am lamenting the current state of political advocacy.
My problem is that you are confused. If we have enough people to do this:
Then we have enough people to enact regulations. These aren't different strategies, it's the same strategy. You need coordinated public willpower either way. You need something tangible to actually direct the currents of the ocean.
People, today, broadly, don't seem to believe that they can wield the government to their advantage at all. They don't even see it as an option. They don't have any ambition.
I'm not saying that you should spend money on a morally bankrupt company. I am saying that this won't accomplish anything. It isn't a solution. Certainly not if you don't believe the regulations option is even possible.
I still have hope, you know. But, it's dependent on people remembering the union, bar-brawl fistfights their grandpa used to get into.
Well 40% of my country thinks a pedophile nepo baby failed businessman should be in charge and the majority of states are trying to kill the concept of democracy and the majority of my congress is in favor of further dismantling the government and my supreme court thinks the pedo is a god-emperor who can shoot someone in the face and have no negative consequences and the majority of the state apparatus is working to violate the constitution on a daily basis.
So...no, I don't think we do have enough people in my country who want to fix this.
Your username says petrol so maybe you do, but that's not the case in my country.
I live in the US. This American apathy and resentment of political power, this vaguely libertarian vote-with-your-wallet thing, is specifically what I'm criticizing. It's a kind of political advocacy that abstains from the reigns of power. It's also, like, a step above changing their profile picture.
I'm aware that everything is broken. But, it was less broken in the past. It'll be more broken in the future. I look around, though, and I see so little interest in reclaiming the power we've lost. Nobody wants to hold the reigns. Zohran does. He's trying something.
I worry that a lot of Americans, if not most of them, desperately want politics to go back to being something they don't have to think about; which isn't good—that's not a good thing. You don't win a game of chess by skipping your turn every time it comes up.
For the same reason as every other service...
MONEY
This isn't a problem that's unique to "capitalism". It's a monopoly problem. Even in other economy types this problem would exist. For example, with communism almost everything would be a monopoly.
A free market is supposed to provide us multiple options to take our business, but we need regulation to keep capitalism in check.
We do have laws against monopolies, and there is already a case against Live Nation/Ticketmaster:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Live_Nation_Entertainment
The way to really fix this is through our legal system and representatives. We need to pressure our representatives to pass better laws to prevent this from happening again as well as electing officials who actual care about issues like this.
I'm boycotting Ticketmaster. I'm just not going to go to shows that force me to use them, even if they're my favourite bands. I will buy my music on Bandcamp Fridays to support the bands instead.
TBH it's difficult to use even if you wanted to, sometimes their site won't even load unless I allow third party cookies, location data, mic and camera access, download their app, and stick their special dongle up my ass.
But the purchasers of tickets aren't the people who pick the ticketing service. If we want tickets to be available from other services we need to actually get shows organized that sell tickets through them, not just not pay Ticketmaster.
What bands do you know? Do they want to come to your town?
I'm not sure what other ticket services we have. I would absolutely look at what shows those services offer if I know what services to look through.
Ticketweb is also owned by Ticketmaster.
The best way I see it is to buy directly from venues if its available by looking at their websites -- and to consider buying tickets in-person if they allow it.
Ticketmaster owns a lot of venues
If enough people stop using Ticketmaster then it will become the profitable option for bands and venues to not deal with Ticketmaster even at risk of not being allowed to by Ticketmaster.
That seems much easier to pull off while also building a replacement infrastructure for ticketing and performances. The hypothetical more profitable option of not dealing with Ticketmaster needs to be manually built out: firms and practices don't just manifest themselves as spontaneous crystallization of pure potential profitability.
Ticketmaster will not allow a replacement structure. Better to just boycott it and have venues sell tickets like Theatres do.
Imagine if two thirds of movies could only be seen at AMC theatres for years after release?
How do they propose to prevent it? They can't stop me from starting a band, they can't stop you from having me play at your house. Exclusivity agreements don't work on the fundamentally disagreeable.
It's already implemented: venues and bands that work with ticketmaster sign contracts of exclusivity. Any venue that doesn't work only with ticketmaster can't work with ticketmaster at all, which is not good for business when Ticketmaster is the de facto monopoly.
You can make a band and you can own a venue and you can choose not to use Ticketmaster, and you should I absolutely support that, but if you want to create an online ticket sales empire you would first have to prove you're more capable of driving sales than Ticketmaster.
That's why we need to show up with a bunch of Ticketmaster boycotters. Every successful social movement needs a carrot and a stick.
I would normally advise you to stick to the small stage stuff. Unfortunately anymore you have to go through a ticket service to see most of those shows. Fucking "convenience fees"
If there's no other way to gain admittance then just stop going until they change it. Capitalists won't change a thing until you affect their bottom line. I know, you have to give up entertainment and supporting broke ass artists, but it is what it is.
Pay cash at local ticket offices. That’s all we can really do.
That's not how you use anymore. Anymore is a substitute for "no longer".
Thanks
No it isnt. Its because dumb cunts keep on giving them money. Dont blame FOMO on capitalism. Every single one of us has the 100% choice of not going, and not paying those stupid prices.
On the legal side of things, the DOJ has on going investigations into Live nation-Ticketmaster threatening venues is they use AXS or SeatGeek. Nothing has been done about, not even fines. Live nation-Ticketmaster also lobbys congress and others, and spends A LOT to make sure that its always sunny for them.
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-monopolizing-markets-across-live-concert
Because anti-capitalists are afraid to throw a punch.
How Ticketmaster Ruined the Music Industry
We won't boycott them.
All it would take is a good boycott.
Yeah I stopped going to shows a long time ago because of this
because people are happy to pay them money
I'm never happy to pay those fucks, they're just a legal Mafia who controls all the major venues that the bands I want to see play at.
I got to local shows every so often, but I don't really have a local scene like I did before I moved, so I just don't go to concerts much anymore.
That's the answer.
People keep paying so they keep charging. It's shitty how they operate - they're playing consumers like a fiddle.
I've gone to plenty of local events where ticketing is handled (gasp!) by the venue itself using their own systems! Crazy, right? (I'm sure the ticketing system is leased by them, but it's still not Ticket Master).
I refuse to go to any even where ticket master is involved. Oh well, guess I'm gonna miss that.
Were you buying Rush tickets? lol
It's literally just a matter of
1: Being informed about how shitty they are.
2: Actually being willing to do something about it.
3: Having the self control to follow through.
Direct your ire towards people unwilling to do any part of 1-3.
I guess a better question is why do people keep giving them money so they can keep being this way?
Exactly.
Suckers keep giving them money.
I can answer that.....for money.
It wasn't always like this?
I just want my money back that I spent on a show that's been "delayed" for a year and a half.
ticketmaster is mostly for music that sucks
Ticketmaster now has exclusive control over most venues for any type of event, not just music.
protips: don't goto any events and as the guy with the orange said, SAVE YOUR MONEY!
That's right. Capitalism only works on paper, real capitalism has never been tried.
But this is capitalism, have you never played Monopoly?
Watch I'm sure he'll play the card of every conservative, "this is crony capitalism, real capitalism wouldn't do this."
It's an open market. People will pay what people will pay. Ticketmaster knows this and plays on this to optimise their revenue. I'm not sure you can do anything apart from explicitly cap ticket prices. At which point venues and more importantly artists will kick off and refuse to play.
Do you think Beyonce is going to be happy with her tickets selling for $50 capped? I don't think so. Children gotta eat!
It's a captured market. People will pay what they have no choice in paying because regulators have abdicated their responsibilities. This system wasn't built to last. It won't.
Break up live nation using tried and true antimonopolist legislation. Better yet make a publicly owned alternative.
😅. Sorry what I meant was that if you don't want to pay then you don't have to. Nobody is forcing you to go see Taylor Swift.... are they? And Ticketmaster know that if you don't pay someone else will.
What type of market is that? I'm not an economist.
Monopoly.
It's not just Taylor Swift concerts, it's virtually all concerts, and literally all concerts at the medium-large venue size.
A monopoly of a non-essential product/service is still a monopoly, and bad for consumers.
A monopoly is the opposite of an open market
No, a monopoly is the inevitably of an open market.
Someone should make a children’s board game to prove this point.
The thing with that particular board game, is that all players start out equal. It is only luck that gives you a leg up, then some skill. Reality is very similar, as being born rich is lucky and out of your control. The only difference is that in reality, you can have no skill with enough money, and still come out on top.
No it isn't.
Libertarians who don't understand monopsony are a dime a dozen.
Beyonce will just as happily take 50% of a $50 ticket as 5% of a $500 ticket. But she draws big crowds, which means the venues she can play are limited to the giant (municipally subsidized) stadiums. These stadium owners have conditional arrangements with Ticketmaster as a vendor for a whole host of business and political reasons. So Beyonce can't perform in Houston at a location that seats over 10,000 without negotiating through Ticketmaster.
Since so many of these stadiums are publicly subsidized, one might argue that the public has an interest in regulating (or, if we want to go balls-to-the-wall socialist, owning and operating) the locations. At that point, the state or federal government might even have an interest in building and operating an exchange for booking venues and buying/selling tickets. And all of this could be done at-cost, which might allow the public to enjoy the benefits of entertainment venues without paying an enormous rent to private landlords.
But why kill the golden goose? The only people who really benefit from such a system are the worthless fucking proles, who don't really matter and who can all get fucked. Social power brokers benefit immensely from the wealth these choke points in the entertainment economy create and from the exclusive access to popular artists that this leverage provides.
Fucking what?
thats is opposite of a open market, in an open market you have more than 1 "ticket" company competing for prices. in this case, sometimes its also a oligopoly(which is multiple companies have share the same market) and they often collude with each other determine pricing of any items. monopoly is the sole market of an service which they can determine pricing in anyway they choose.
an example of oligopoly is insulin types. only 3 companies controlled the different variations of insulin and agreed upon each other to price it however they wanted, since they had no competition.
what you also said paying what the price is, its called a walled garden of services/items.