Comment by Ocha
2 years ago
Just vote with your pocket and don’t buy tickets from them. I do that - yes I don’t get to go to major concerts but there are still so much more that is not on ticket master. I found a lot of new entertainment and was happy to pay $4 fee instead of whatever TM charges nowadays.
They have an effective monopoly.
On large venues for big name artists.
Granted, I live in NYC, which probably has one of the most vibrant local music scenes in the country. But it's not like nowhere else has local bands that play at small venues.
It feels like a lot of the people that complain about ticketmaster's monopoly have never branched out from Billboard chart artists.
It's weird?
Even the most 'hole in the wall' places around here have deals with LN/TM, short of a bar-band or niche-local joint.
One of the more 'fun' ways that LN/TM did shenanigans at the past I observed: Metal shows at smaller places in the Detroit area like Harpo's (famous place but known for the sketch area) or Token Lounge (literally a bar with a dance floor and stage, pretty fun tho) you'd have one of the local small/startup bands selling tickets, often -below- cost at the box office.
Why? If they sold enough tickets, they got to play as an opener. Yes some scammers would try to fake this, but I never saw anyone actually get 'taken'. And yes I'd buy them if I didn't already have them to help the locals out.
That said, the concerts at those smaller venues, despite being TM/LN, were in the 20-30 dollar range after fees. Not 'top billboard' type stuff per se but Children of Bodom, Lacuna Coil, and other 'popular but niche' bands in the 2005-2007 timeframe.
There are a lot of musicians that aren't on the charts that play in Ticketmaster-controlled venues.
Not just on tickets, but on venues, catering, security, logistics. It's pretty bad.
... for a completely optional form of entertainment.
At the very least you have the choice not to go to any concerts until there are better options. You can also make that clear to your favorite bands.
lol, people and bands have been complaining about it for 30 years and it’s only gotten worse. Yes, you could skip concerts for the rest of your life, I suppose, to make a point. But it’s not going to fix anything.
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The extra fees are shared with venues and bands. Keeps them on TM's side.
That's the secret.
If nobody used them, they would go away.
That's not really possible, because they contractually require venues and performing artists to only perform at their venues
This kind of gross exclusionary contract should be illegal (it's kinda the same BS that Google does with Android OEMs - contractually force them to [1]), but for some reason antitrust avoided acting on the matter (including allowing acquisitions in the space) for quite some time
[1] > Predicating the availability of any of Google’s apps, including the Google Play Store, on OEMs not taking advantage of the open source nature of Android on devices that will not include Google apps seems much more problematic than Google insisting its apps be distributed in a bundle. The latter is Google’s prerogative; the former is dictating OEM actions just because Google can. https://stratechery.com/2018/the-european-commission-versus-...
Our options shouldn’t be see no concerts from successful musicians or pay monopoly pricing. This is something government should solve.
Expecting the US government to properly handle monopolies and anti-trust issues is a fool's errand. It's like saying the US government should solve the issue of gun proliferation in the US: it's simply not going to, in our lifetimes.
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You're right, of course, those shouldn't be our options. But that's just how it is. If you aren't willing to stop playing, the game will never end.
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That might have been true in decades past.
They now, having merged with LiveNation, have effective ownership of all major and semi-major venues around the country. They also aren't just doing concerts, they're doing sporting events and other live entertainment as well.
They aren't going anywhere. They are just too big, and too ingrained.
While this is literally true, solutions in the form of "if everyone would just X" are not solutions at all.
That's why they've done so much to force performers to use them.
See Tickets seems to be on the rise recently, which I've been glad for
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I did that for several years. I don't really consider it voting though because nobody is counting the votes -- they still sell out of tickets with higher profits each year.