The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to break up Live Nation, which controls 80% of ticketing at major concert venues through Ticketmaster, alleging that it monopolizes the live events industry. What do you think?
“Hope they go after the guy that sold me bad weed at a Guster concert next.”
Rahul Avery, Rooftop Gardner
Taylor Swift Fans Explain How They Got Tickets To The Eras Tour
“But who will I pay my 60 dollars in service fees to?”
Shanae Bass, Livestock Groomer
“Kind of hypocritical coming from a group that has basically cornered the market on justice.”
The concert world was rocked on Thursday when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster. The suit accuses the multibillion-dollar entertainment company of illegally using its influence to squash competition and monopolize the live music industry, resulting in higher ticket prices and limited choices for concertgoers…
“Michigan concertgoers deserve the chance to experience the thrill of seeing their favorite artist live, in a venue close to home, without breaking the bank,” Nessel said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this dream is out of reach for many because of Live Nation’s illegal monopoly. A truly competitive marketplace is essential to providing consumers with choice. That’s why I, along with the Department of Justice and other states, are taking a stand against Live Nation’s practices that limit choice, hamper innovation, and unfairly inflate prices.”
The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses the live music conglomerate of engaging in unethical behavior like pressuring venues into engaging in restrictive long-term agreements and threatening to withhold access to Live Nation-controlled tours if they work with rival ticket companies.
These anticompetitive practices have “harmed fans through higher fees, lack of transparency, fewer consumer choices, and stifling innovation,” Nessel’s office said.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2009 and according to the D.O.J. control 60% of concert promotions at major venues around the U.S. and roughly 80% of primary ticketing at major concert venues.
Live Nation has denied the allegations and claims that breaking up the company would not result in lower ticket prices or fees, pointing out that artists are primarily responsible for pricing tickets and surcharges go to venues. The lawsuit, a company spokesman said in a statement, “ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from increasing production costs to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public’s willingness to pay far more than primary tickets cost.”
Nessel is joined by the Attorneys General of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. The Justice Department is accusing them of illegally monopolizing the live entertainment industry to the detriment of concertgoers and artists alike.
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The Justice Department is set to file an antitrust lawsuit against entertainment conglomerate Live Nation as early as Thursday, multiple sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
The federal government will be joined in its legal challenge by several state attorneys general. Prosecutors are expected to challenge the Ticketmaster parent company’s practices and could seek to force a change in how the company does business, the sources said. In many instances, when the Justice Department sues over antitrust issues, it seeks to get a judge to force divestments within a company or change how it operates.
The Justice Department declined to comment. Live Nation did not respond to a CBS News request for comment.
News of the antitrust action was first reported by the Washington Post.
The move comes after an investigation by the Justice Department’s antitrust division that spanned years. In 2022, CBS News confirmed the Justice Department had already been looking at the company and its Ticketmaster unit before the company’s disastrous mishandling of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
In November 2022, Ticketmaster’s site crashed during a pre-sale period for the Eras Tour, sparking outrage from fans who waited hours to get tickets, only to be disappointed.
The department’s probe focused on whether Live Nation was abusing its market dominance in the ticket industry.
The Justice Department’s antitrust division contacted music venues and participants in the ticket industry to learn more about Live Nation’s methods, focusing on whether the company has had a monopoly over the industry, according to The New York Times, which first reported the investigation.
At a Senate hearing in January 2023, artists testified about the hold Live Nation had over them. Clyde Lawrence, of the band Lawrence, testified that Live Nation’s power lies in the fact that it’s the promoter, the venue and the ticket company.
“Because Live Nation owns the venue, fronts the money for the show and sells the tickets, they have outsized power when negotiating with artists,” he told the panel, offering an example: For one show, Lawrence set ticket prices at $30. After Ticketmaster added a 40% fee, fans paid $42 per ticket. And after paying for facility costs, the band made $12 per ticket — about half of which went to cover the costs of touring.
“That leaves us with $6 for an eight-piece band — pretax — and we also have to pay our own health insurance,” Lawrence said.
Long before Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger with Live Nation, Pearl Jam leveled a similar complaint against Ticketmaster before Congress in 1994, claiming the ticketing company’s exclusive contract with most of the country’s premiere venues gave artists and fans little to no choice when buying and selling tickets.
Pearl Jam tried to tour in venues not controlled by Ticketmaster, but couldn’t make it work. The band also sued Ticketmaster, but ultimately lost its battle. A group of ticket buyers also unsuccessfully sued Ticketmaster in the 1990s, claiming the company had monopolized the ticket-selling business, The Associated Press noted.
Clare Hymes and Irina Ivanova contributed to this report.
Robert Legare is a CBS News multiplatform reporter and producer covering the Justice Department, federal courts and investigations. He was previously an associate producer for the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.”
No more surprises at checkout entertainment giants, Live Nation and Ticketmaster pledging to give us consumers the ability to see the full price of their tickets upfront. So you’ll know what you’re paying for before you get to the checkout page. This is an important start getting everyone at the table and getting their commitment to provide *** better market place for consumers which today is rigged against consumers is critical representatives for major companies including Live Nation Sea Geek, airbnb tick pick and others gathering at the White House Thursday. The announcement marking Biden’s latest effort to address economic issues that are top of mind for voters heading into the 2024 election. This is *** win for consumers in my view and proof that our crackdown on junk fees has real momentum. The entertainment industry has been under *** microscope in recent months. Following scenes like this, there are those who are in the business of grabbing up all the tickets at face value and sending them to *** secondary market where there’s multiple, multiple costs added. That’s what happened in the Taylor Swift situation while Thursday’s announcement may ease the shock factor at the end of your ticket purchase. Consumer advocates say the public won’t be protected until companies are faced with new laws. The problem is you can disclose everything, all the fees and all the costs and still take consumers to the cleaners. I’m Gloria Passino Reporting.
Report: Justice Department will sue Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation for antitrust violations
Updated: 10:10 AM EDT Apr 16, 2024
The Department of Justice is preparing to sue the country’s largest concert promoter and ticketing website Live Nation in the coming weeks for breaking America’s antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plans.The lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, will allege the ticketing company used its market-leading position to harm competition for live events, the Journal reported. But the paper wasn’t able to uncover specific details of the planned lawsuit.Shares of Live Nation dropped nearly 7% in premarket trading Tuesday. Live Nation and the Justice Department didn’t respond to request for comment about the Journal’s report.Ticketmaster drew the ire of U.S. government officials and fans after a system meltdown left millions of people unable to purchase tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour in 2022.U.S. lawmakers grilled Live Nation executives at a hearing in January 2023, which, in a rare event, brought together Democrats and Republicans over the company’s industry dominance that critics argue is harming rivals, musicians and fans.Swift fans later sued Live Nation for “unlawful conduct” in the pop star’s chaotic tour sale, with the plaintiffs claiming that the ticketing giant violated antitrust laws.Joe Berchtold, president and CFO of Live Nation, has previously defended the company’s practices, saying at the 2023 hearing that that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices, does not determine the number of tickets put up for sale and that “in most cases, venues set service and ticketing fees,” not Ticketmaster.He also rejected suggestions that its dominance has allowed for soaring fees, citing data from the market intelligence firm Pollstar showing that Live Nation controls about 200 out of approximately 4,000 venues in the United States, or about 5%.Rivals have previously spoken out, too: Jack Groetzinger, CEO of SeatGeek, alleged that many venue owners “fear losing Live Nation concerts if they don’t use Ticketmaster” and its services, and argued the company must be broken up.Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, now billing itself as the “largest live entertainment company in the world.”
The Department of Justice is preparing to sue the country’s largest concert promoter and ticketing website Live Nation in the coming weeks for breaking America’s antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plans.
The lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, will allege the ticketing company used its market-leading position to harm competition for live events, the Journal reported. But the paper wasn’t able to uncover specific details of the planned lawsuit.
Shares of Live Nation dropped nearly 7% in premarket trading Tuesday. Live Nation and the Justice Department didn’t respond to request for comment about the Journal’s report.
Ticketmaster drew the ire of U.S. government officials and fans after a system meltdown left millions of people unable to purchase tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour in 2022.
U.S. lawmakers grilled Live Nation executives at a hearing in January 2023, which, in a rare event, brought together Democrats and Republicans over the company’s industry dominance that critics argue is harming rivals, musicians and fans.
Swift fans later sued Live Nation for “unlawful conduct” in the pop star’s chaotic tour sale, with the plaintiffs claiming that the ticketing giant violated antitrust laws.
Joe Berchtold, president and CFO of Live Nation, has previously defended the company’s practices, saying at the 2023 hearing that that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices, does not determine the number of tickets put up for sale and that “in most cases, venues set service and ticketing fees,” not Ticketmaster.
He also rejected suggestions that its dominance has allowed for soaring fees, citing data from the market intelligence firm Pollstar showing that Live Nation controls about 200 out of approximately 4,000 venues in the United States, or about 5%.
Rivals have previously spoken out, too: Jack Groetzinger, CEO of SeatGeek, alleged that many venue owners “fear losing Live Nation concerts if they don’t use Ticketmaster” and its services, and argued the company must be broken up.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, now billing itself as the “largest live entertainment company in the world.”
U.S. lawmakers are giving fans a spark of hope they could buy event tickets at more affordable prices. Several senators told CBS News they would support federal legislation that limits the profit sellers can make on the ticket resale market. The idea stems from growing calls for a crackdown on resale practices, which derailed the 2022 Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket rollout.
People can make thousands of dollars in profit by selling tickets at inflated prices on the secondary market to consumers who missed out on the original sale. Prices are driven even higher by resellers who use automated software called bots to bulk-buy mass quantities of tickets at once.
Complaints about these systems came to a head during the November 2022 presale to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
The botched Eras Tour sale
Ticketmaster, the platform responsible for selling most of the Swift tour tickets, blamed the massive bot attack for crashing its website when the Eras Tour ticket presale launched on Nov. 15, 2022. The site received 3.5 billion requests that day, which caused the company to temporarily suspend sales and made it harder for fans to acquire face-value tickets.
Countless fans who had registered to receive presale codes struggled to buy tickets. Almost immediately, Swift tickets popped up on the secondary market, including on Ticketmaster’s own online resale platform. Some Taylor Swift fans paid as much as 70 times the original selling price for seats; many were unable to get tickets at all.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Eras Tour on Aug. 24, 2023.
Hector Vivas/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
At a Senate Judiciary hearing in January 2023, the president and chief financial officer of Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation Entertainment, Joe Berchtold, accepted responsibility for the botched sale but blamed high traffic and cyber-attacks for the failure.
Outlawed bots, little enforcement
The Better Online Ticket Sales Act, known as the BOTS Act, passed in 2016, made it illegal for ticket buyers to use bots to circumvent online ticket restrictions, or to sell tickets purchased using bots on the secondary market. It also gave the Federal Trade Commission authority to enforce the law. The FTC, however, has only used the BOTS Act to take law enforcement action once, against three New York ticket brokers, in January 2021. The agency said the defendants will pay $3.7 million in civil penalties.
While the FTC said it “remains committed to enforcing the BOTS Act,” the agency confirmed it has not announced any additional BOTS Act cases since.
FTC data obtained by CBS News shows the agency has received 105 complaints about BOTS Act violations since 2017; the majority were received last year.
“The FTC has let the bots run wild,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said in a 2022 op-ed. “Their inaction opens the door for scalpers to make secondary markets the only option for normal consumers.”
Lawmakers are now circulating about a half dozen pieces of new legislation that would strengthen the BOTS Act. Blackburn and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico are sponsoring the Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for (MAIN) Event Ticketing Act. Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are sponsoring the Fans First Act.
Taylor Swift fans sit down with Representative Bill Pascrell (D-New Jersey) about strengthening laws to protect consumers following the Eras Tour Ticketmaster debacle.
Ash-har Quraishi/CBS News
A cap on resale
To discourage the use of ticket bots and protect consumers from having to pay exorbitant prices for live events, lawmakers in the Australian states of New South Wales, West Australia and Victoria limited the profit incentive by passing laws that make it illegal to resell tickets for more than 10% above face value.
“[The laws] mean that scalpers and platforms that enable scalping can be held to account,” said a spokesperson for NSW Fair “[The laws] mean that scalpers and platforms that enable scalping can be held to account,” said a spokesperson for Fair Trading, the government agency that administers consumer protection laws in New South Wales.
Violators face a maximum fine of $110,000 for a corporation or $22,000 for an individual.
NSW Fair Trading said it conducted 14 investigations in 2023 following complaints from consumers about ticket reselling. Since the law was passed in 2018, the agency said it has issued more than $40,000in fines.
Klobuchar’s Fans First Act does not include a cap on ticket resale profits, but she told CBS News she’d consider new legislation that would include it.
“I’m very open to that idea,” Klobuchar said. “I just had to get what I could in an agreement right now, and that is just basic consumer rights.”
Lujan told CBS News he would support the cap, as well.
“I’m open to many of these ideas we’ve seen work in other parts of the world, he said.
CBS News asked Ticketmaster if the company would support federal legislation that would put a profit cap on ticket resale in the U.S.
“We operate in many countries that have similar laws, and we are all for universal industry solutions,” said Kaitlyn Henrich, spokesperson for Ticketmaster Corporate Affairs “If Congress could pass a law that, put that across the entire industry, we’d all be on a level playing field. Short of a universal law like that, we think the next best thing is letting artists decide the terms for their tour.”
“We think giving [artists] more control over how their tickets could be resold could help solve the overall problem,” Henrich said.
The Coalition for Ticket Fairness, which lobbies on behalf of ticket resellers, opposes new limits on ticket resales.
“While that sounds good in theory, the reality is resellers act as a check on the power of Ticketmaster and other primary sellers, by providing options,” said CTF Executive Director Dana McLean in an email. “When there are 20,000 seats and 300,000 people who want them, legislation can only do so much. The best policies encourage competition and transparent pricing.” (Full statement here)
Fans take action
Jennifer Kinder, a single mother and personal injury attorney from Dallas, Texas, represents more than 350 fellow Taylor Swift fans in separate lawsuits which accuse Ticketmaster and Live Nation of fraud, price-fixing and failing to protect fans from bots.
Kinder recently set up meetings between her clients and numerous congressional staff members and lawmakers, hoping to build momentum for the stalled proposed legislation.
“If we, arm in arm, can’t effectuate change, then who can?” Kinder asked. “Who’s left to do it if Swifties can’t?”
Lead plaintiff Julie Barfuss traveled to the Capitol from her home in Utah.
“I think we’d like to come back again and hopefully just keep advocating for these bills and for change as it goes forward,” said Barfuss. “That’s our next step on two fronts — obviously still the lawsuit, but we will also be back here in D.C.”
Kinder client Jennifer Wilkins of Oakland, California, said it’s not about getting a payout — it’s about changing a system she believes encourages ticket resales. Wilkins pointed out that’s partly because Ticketmaster operates its own platform on the secondary market, which is called “Ticketmaster Verified.”
“I feel like we got cheated,” said Wilkinson. “Ticketmaster can profit twice from these tickets. When bots or when people released tickets secondhand, Ticketmaster gets a fee — a portion of the sale price of the ticket, in addition to the fee that they collected the first time they sold the ticket. So, I’m thinking they don’t really have much incentive to change this system that they have.”
Behind the scenes with a former botter
Bots aren’t only used to buy event tickets.
“The idea is you’re looking for any product, whether it’s sneakers, whether it’s consoles — anything that can go up in price because so many people want it,” said Mitch Davies, a former “sneaker botter” from Australia.
Davies spent years programming bots to attack e-commerce sites to buy up mass numbers of limited-edition athletic shoes.
“We were taking thousands of these pairs at every release,” he said. “After that, we resold them. So, you’re basically buying these shoes for $100, $200 and selling them for five, six times the price.”
According to the online fraud protection firm DataDome, between 2015 and 2016, one botter was able to snatch up 30,000 tickets to the Broadway show “Hamilton” and more than a thousand tickets to a U2 concert. Each bot attack lasted less than 60 seconds. In another case, a malicious bot bought 520 Beyoncé concert tickets in just three minutes.
Davies said the Eras Tour attack presented what botters considered a perfect opportunity, where low supply met unprecedented demand.
“[When I heard what happened] I thought someone just made a lot of money,” Davies said. “Someone’s bot worked exactly how they wanted to.”
Ticketmaster responds
“We are dealing with bots in the billions every single day and it’s just exponential growth,” Ticketmaster’s Henrich said.
She said the company invests heavily to fight off bott attacks which are fueled, in part, by the low initial ticket prices set by artists.
“The reality is we work on behalf of venues, teams, artists,” she said. “They’re setting the terms of their ticket on sales. Artists could charge the tippy top price for their tickets tomorrow, and the resale scalper problem would disappear overnight.”
Henrich believes most artists don’t want to do that.
“They’re trying to foster a long career,” she said. “They want a broad fan base, and to do that, they want to keep their tickets as accessible as possible.”
CBS News emailed representatives of several artists including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Doja Cat and Pearl Jam to ask about the resale issue and got no response.
Most bot use is legal and can make life easier for companies and consumers. Chat bots, for example, help with customer service requests when a live agent isn’t available; other bots scan websites for copyright violations.
While former botter Mitch Davies didn’t break any laws when he used the automated software to buy up limited edition sneakers for resale, he said he’s now trying to be part of the solution. He helps companies fight bad bots as a data scientist with Bay Area cybersecurity startup Arkose Labs.
“Having all the knowledge that I have garnered over the years, we can create these different fingerprints or behavioral metrics,” said Davies. “Understanding how humans browse through a website, how they check out, it’s very distinct how a human does things on a computer.”
Along with Davies’ expertise, Arkose uses artificial intelligence and other tools to identify and neutralize automated bots that try to attack websites for clients including Microsoft, OpenAI, Roblox and Expedia.
“If we think it’s automated, we challenge it,” said Arkose Labs CEO and founder Kevin Gosschalk. “And that challenge is a way of forcing the bad actors to have to do an action of some kind.”
One tactic is to require website visitors to solve more complex CAPTCHA puzzles that require advanced reasoning to prove an action is being performed by a human and not a bot.
“Our strategy is to go after the ultimate goal of them making money,” Gosschalk said. “We want it to be more expensive than their profit margin. If we can do that, then they’re out of business.”
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Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment beat market estimates for third-quarter revenue, benefiting from high ticket prices and surging concert demand.
Shares of the company rose 3.5 per cent in extended trading.
Heavy demand for music concerts from popular figures like Taylor Swift and Beyonce has driven up the prices of tickets, benefiting concert promoters.
The announcement of long-awaited tours from musical artists like Bad Bunny and U2 shows signs of a healthy outlook for the company.
The company’s revenue rose 32 per cent to $8.15 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts’ estimates of $6.99 billion, according to LSEG data.
Total estimated events rose 7.6 per cent year-over-year to 12,090 while total estimated fans stood at 52.3 million compared with 37.1 million the previous quarter.
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Total estimated tickets sold were 155.4 million compared with 150.1 million in the previous quarter.
The concert boost: How top acts like Taylor Swift, Beyonce are driving economic growth
The company’s concert business, which consists of merchandise sales and the production of live music events, brought in revenue of $6.97 billion – making up the bulk of its overall revenue, followed by $832.6 million from ticketing.
Along with the surging demand, the company faces regulatory challenges.
Live Nation was reportedly subject to a probe by the U.S. Justice Department investigating whether the company uses anticompetitive agreements with venues and artists amid broader concerns of high fees and the company’s control of the concert ticket market.
The company reported a profit per share of $1.78 for the July to September period, compared with $1.39 per share a year ago.
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— Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
Contrary to popular belief, How Do You Live? (aka The Boy and the Heron) will no longer be Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film.
The Week In Games: High On Witchcraft
In a recent red carpet interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, Studio Ghibli vice president Junichi Nishioka told CBC reporter Eli Glasner that the iconic director has been coming into the office with new movie ideas following The Boy and the Heron’s international release. This news comes after years of Studio Ghibli never releasing a single trailer to promote Miyazaki’s final film, sharing only the title and a single poster in the run-up to release, and operating on the intriguing premise of it being Miyazaki’s final animated movie.
“Other people say that this might be [Miyazaki’s] last film, but he doesn’t feel that way at all,” Nishioka told the CBC. “He is currently working on ideas for a new film. He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he’s not going to announce his retirement at all. He’s continuing working just as he has always done.”
As longtime Ghibli watchers may recall, Miyazaki’s previous, supposed “final” films were 2013’s The Wind Rises and then 2018’s animated short film Boro the Caterpillar. Yet here we are today, tricked once more by this master of fake retirement.
According to Anime News Network, How Do You Live? is about a boy named Mahito Maki who, after the death of his mother in the firebombings of Tokyo during World War II, moves with his father to the countryside. Things take a dramatic turn for Mahito when his father remarries his mother’s pregnant sister. It’s here that Mahito meets a talking heron who promises him that he can see his mother again if he follows him into another mysterious world, one which critics are praising for its visual inventiveness and stunning animation.
If you’re still planning on going into Miyazaki’s latest “final film” without any knowledge of what the film looks like, I suggest you don’t click on the trailer below. I’m told it’s pretty sweet—like worth paying $300 to snag the final movie ticket on Ticketmaster kinda sweet.
GKIDS Films
Personally, I’m gonna opt to not watch the trailer because I wanna watch How Do You Live? with fresh eyes. If Japanese audiences could do it, why can’t we?
The opening of the movie “The Exorcist: Believer” has been moved a week earlier to avoid competition with Taylor Swift’s concert movie, the producer of the horror film, Jason Blum, confirmed Thursday on social media.
Blum posted the new release date of Oct. 6 on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the hashtag #TaylorWins. “The Exorcist: Believer” and Swift’s concert movie based on her smash “The Eras” tour were both first scheduled to be released on Oct. 13.
Fans had dubbed the pending double release “Exorswift” on social media, but the potential of “Swifties” overshadowing the demonic film —the sixth installment in “The Exorcist” franchise— proved too powerful.
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” smashed advanced sales records on the first day of presales for the concert movie with AMC –the movie chain distributing the film– reporting $26 million in sales on Friday.
The movie “shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue at AMC,” the company said in a statement. The previous record of $16.9 million was held by “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which Swift beat in just three hours, AMC said.
Shortly after Swift announced the movie, AMC said they bolstered their server capacity in preparation for skyrocketing demand for tickets. After the first day of presales, the chain announced all AMC theaters nationwide will show the film four times a day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to meet demand.
On Thursday, Swift tweeted, “The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon. Starting Oct 13th you’ll be able to experience the concert film in theaters in North America!”
After 10 months, Swift’s U.S. tour is finished, but so are most of the meaningful reforms consumer advocates and industry groups had hoped to pass this year. A proposal has so far failed to advance in the U.S. Senate. Legislation in Colorado was vetoed by the Democratic governor at the urging of some consumer groups.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Gillette Stadium on May 19, 2023 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Scott Eisen / TAS23 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
In California, home to iconic recording studios like Capitol Records and influential clubs like the Whiskey A Go Go and Hollywood Bowl, what started as a robust array of legislation has been watered down to a single bill banning hidden fees, something New York and Connecticut have done and most major industry players have already committed to do on their own.
“That’s it? That’s all that California, the leading state in the nation on so many consumer protection issues, that’s all we’re going to do?” said Robert Herrell, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. “That’s an embarrassment. It’s not enough.”
The slow progress over changing how tickets should be sold and resold highlights not just the strength of industry opposition, but the regulatory difficulties in a market upended by technology. Gone are the days of standing in line at a box office to find out what seats were available and how much they cost.
Today, nearly all tickets are sold online and downloaded to phones or other devices. Consumers often don’t know how much they will pay until just before they click the purchase button and fees and charges, which can sometimes be almost as much as the ticket price, are applied.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lumen Field on July 22, 2023 in Seattle, Wash.
Mat Hayward / TAS23 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Venues often don’t say how many seats are available for a specific event, according to consumer groups, but instead release tickets in batches, making consumers spend more out of the mistaken fear they’ll miss out.
Some bad actors use software to quickly bulk-buy tickets for resale at much higher prices. They will even sell tickets before they have them, a practice known as “speculative ticketing” that consumer groups say is dangerous and does not guarantee the ticket. Some go so far as to mimic venue websites so consumers believe they are buying tickets directly.
Sharp disagreements among venues, ticket sellers, consumer groups and artists have muddied what may seemingly straightforward consumer rights issues.
Artists and venues want to restrict how fans can resell tickets, an attempt to crack down on “the secondary market to sweep the inventory, inflate the price and price gouge our fans,” said Jordan Bromley, who sits on the board of the Music Artist Coalition, an advocacy group representing artists.
Consumer groups argue buyers can do what they want with their tickets, including upselling. That disagreement is partly why Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a bill earlier this year, despite the bill also containing consumer-friendly policies like banning hidden fees, price increases and speculative ticket sales.
In California, consumer groups have mostly focused their ire on Live Nation Entertainment, the company that owns Ticketmaster and controls the bulk of ticket sales and venues in the U.S. for touring music artists. But the debate is spreading to artists, major men’s professional sports teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco 49ers, and independent venues with capacity for 1,000 people or fewer, including more than 600 in California alone.
Most people are being vocal about “how this is an attempt to shoot at Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” said Julia Heath, president of the California chapter of the National Independent Venue Association. “What’s actually happening is they are aiming at them, but they are hitting everybody else, too.”
The biggest disagreement was over whether to allow teams, venues and artists to restrict how fans could resell tickets they purchased.
A bill to allow teams, venues and artists restrict how fans can resell tickets passed the Senate but failed to pass the Assembly this year after drawing concerns from consumer groups. State Sen. Anna Caballero, the bill’s author, promised to hold a hearing on the issue once the Legislature adjourns.
A bill by Assemblymember Laura Friedman would ban venues and artists from restricting resales. The measure also would have required venues to disclose how many tickets were available for an event to prevent “holdbacks.” Ultimately, the bill was changed to remove both of those provisions after attracting strong industry opposition.
“It’s been very difficult. It had a very strong and concerted effort from the very beginning lobby against this bill,” said Friedman, who added she was disappointed the bill was not stronger.
Industry groups also are disappointed. Heath, who represents independent venues, called it a “do-nothing bill.”
“A lot of the things we took issue with are gone, but we also see it as a missed opportunity,” she said. “There are issues in the ticketing world right now that need to be addressed.”
Not everyone is disappointed. Jenn Engstrom, state director for the California Public Interest Research Group, said while it would be great to solve all of those problems, banning hidden fees is still a win for consumers.
“I’m just all about incremental change,” she said. “This is a good first step.”
Between Ticketmaster crashing and people reselling their tickets for thousands of dollars, the mayhem that the Eras tour has caused so far is ridiculous.
Sales for her European leg have started. To avoid the chaos that ensued when the US tickets were released, there is no general sale for these tickets. Only those people who’ve registered for the pre-sale will get a code to buy tickets on their city’s selected date.
Some lucky fans have managed to secure tickets at cost price. If you’re wondering just how you can too, we scoured the internet to find the best tips and hacks.
Here’s every tip we found, according to Tiktok:
Have your payment information already logged into your Ticketmaster account to save time when checking out
Turn off all other devices using the wifi and sit near the router when buying tickets
If you received a code with multiple emails, try buying with different emails on different devices and go with whichever queue moves the fastest
Refresh the page when the countdown is over to be in the front when joining the queue (this one seems a little risky – but apparently, it works)
Don’t be picky, you want to be there, so take whatever tickets are left!
If you reach the ticket buying page and there are no tickets left, keep refreshing the page as more may potentially be added
If you didn’t get chosen for a code when registering, then you can try for resale tickets Luckily, you can only sell resale tickets at cost value in a lot of places in Europe – Unlike in the US where tickets were resold for thousands of dollars
Happy ticket hunting!
Disclaimer: these hacks have not been verified by Ticketmaster. They are based on advice from the TikTok below:
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Live Nation and Ticketmaster will soon offer consumers all-in pricing on their popular ticket platforms, the White House announced as it convenes a meeting on Thursday to highlight efforts crack down on so-called junk fees.
President Joe Biden President is hosting a meeting at the White House of private companies – including Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and Airbnb – who have committed to fully disclose fees to consumers upfront. It is part of Biden’s broader effort to crack down on junk fees imposed by ticket companies, banks, airlines and other industries.
Live Nation will commit to roll out an upfront all-in pricing in September showing just one total price for more than 30 million fans who attend shows at the more than 200 Live Nation-owned venues and festivals across the country, the White House said.
Ticketmaster will also add a feature to give consumers the option to receive all-in upfront pricing for all other tickets sold on the platform, White House said.
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Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 after a Department of Justice brokered settlement that officials said would encourage competition and send ticket prices down. Critics, including lawmakers, have said that has not been the result.
SeatGeek, a ticketing platform that serves both the primary and secondary market, will roll-out product features over the course of the summer to make it easier for its millions of customers to shop on the basis of all-in price, the White House said.
Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation that mandates up-front all-in pricing for all ticket sellers, bans surprise “resort fees,” eliminates early termination fees charged by cable, internet, and cellphone companies, and bans family seating fees on airlines.
“President Biden has been working to lower costs for hardworking families by bringing down inflation, capping insulin prices for seniors, and eliminating hidden junk fees. More companies are heeding the President’s call so that Americans know what they’re paying for up front and can save money as a result,” said National Economic Director Lael Brainard.
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(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Mary Milliken and Stephen Coates)
As the cost of tickets to see Beyoncé and Taylor Swift strut their stuff onstage soars to absurd heights, some Americans are dropping the coupon codes and picking up their passports.
So-called concert tourism, in which people venture abroad to attend live shows, was gaining traction among Americans even before the pandemic, ticket sales data show. But with prime tickets to popular shows hitting four digits, some music fans are heading overseas to catch their favorite acts.
Beyoncé superfan Shelby Messing said she saved at least $1,000 by heading to Spain to see Beyonce perform during her stop in Barcelona on her sold-out Renaissance world tour. She estimates laying out between $2,500 and $3,000 for her two-week trip. That includes the cost of a round-trip flight from Atlanta to Barcelona, accommodations, one $227 general admission concert ticket and a bonus excursion to Mallorca.
By comparison, on Ticketmaster a single VIP Renaissance World Tour ticket in the U.S. goes for at least $3,757 and as much as $5,007.
Messing saved hundreds of dollars on the concert due, in part, to the comparatively low ticket fees in Spain, where the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has previously cracked down on disproportionately high ticket fees for live music events. She paid a flat fee of roughly $27 for her ticket to Beyonce’s Barcelona show; in the U.S., ticket fees for the same show would have cost her nearly 50% of the ticket’s face value, she told CBS MoneyWatch.
“I’m not surprised more and more people are coming to shows in Europe instead and [are choosing to] stimulate an economy that doesn’t take advantage of people,” Messing said.
Data from the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly group, shows fees now add an average of 32% to ticket orders, up from an average of 27% in 2018, the New York Times reported.
“A no-brainer to travel”
While concert tickets are often cheaper overseas, the cost of flying to Europe, Asia or other regions around the world is surging this year.
That’s why Triada Cross, another Beyoncé fan, used credit-card points to fly from Dallas to Germany to catch a show. She paid a total of $2,850 to see the songstress perform twice, once in Hamburg and once in Frankfurt. Including the cost a flight, a five-night hotel stay and a train ride between the two cities, she estimates she paid $3,525 for her entire trip — still less than the cost of a single VIP ticket package to the same show in America.
“I used to live in Germany… so I already understood that Europe has better consumer protection laws than the U.S.,” Cross told CBS MoneyWatch. “For me, it was a no-brainer to travel to Europe to see Beyoncé, especially after seeing the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle play out.”
The Ticketmaster factor
Ticketmaster, the platform owned by entertainment company LiveNation, controls ticket sales for roughly three-quarters of major concert venues in the U.S., according to estimates cited by lawmakers at a January Senate hearing on the company’s practices.
Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” model adjusts ticket prices according to popular demand, said Ron Knox, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy organization focused on corporate power.
“Ticketmaster can use dynamic pricing to rack up profits and rip off fans…[providing] one of the worst ticket buying experiences imaginable,” Knox said. “For fans and artists alike, Ticketmaster is unavoidable, and the concert-going experience in the U.S. is far worse off because of it.”
Ticketmaster also tacks on high fees, further inflating costs for concertgoers in the U.S., critics of the platform say. And, because Ticketmaster has signed exclusive agreements with many of the country’s major concert venues, there’s often no way around those fees, said Krista Brown, a senior policy analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project.
“Exclusive contracts between venues and ticketing providers like Ticketmaster are the most significant factor in what drives up U.S. ticket prices compared to the European market,” Brown told CBS MoneyWatch. “In the U.S., those exclusive arrangements guarantee it will face no competition.”
Ticketmaster did not respond to a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch.
Lawsuits and legislation
Ticketmaster’s fee system has aroused the ire of fans and artists alike. In March, The Cure frontman Robert Smith took aim at the service, tweeting he was “sickened” by the company’s fees, which exceeded the face value of tickets to his band’s shows.
Last year, Taylor Swift fans who were unable to get seats to her Eras Tour shows sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation, alleging the companies committed fraud and violated antirust laws in selling tickets for the concerts.
In April, legislators introduced the “Junk Fees Prevention Act” to limit “mandatory fees that are excessive or deceptive.” But it will take more than that to make concerts more affordable stateside, Brown told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Current legislation is attempting to address some of these issues, but significant federal action is needed to address the broader market problems created by Live Nation [and] Ticketmaster’s monopoly power,” Brown said.
In late 2022, Taylor Swift broke the internet by announcing the Eras Tour, a nationwide jaunt that celebrates her nine-album career. “Swifties,” as Swift’s fans call themselves, were ecstatic — that is, until Ticketmaster, the sole platform selling tickets for the tour, was unable to keep up with massive demand and crashed, resulting in a federal investigation, a Swifties-backed lawsuit, and a huge scramble among fans to get their hands on tickets in any way possible.
Thousands of Swifties were unable to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster and, as a result, began looking to third-party vendors and ticket sellers on social media to snag a seat on the resale market.
A similar thing then happened with Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, with “utter chaos” unfolding on Ticketmaster and fans taking to every corner of the internet in a hunt for resale tickets.
The major issue? Buying concert tickets from people on Twitter and Instagram is incredibly risky. Those platforms don’t have the same type of built-in safety precautions as ticket-specific marketplaces like Stubhub and SeatGeek to ensure that tickets are legitimate and to protect fans from getting scammed.
With Twitter in particular becoming a hot spot for ticket resales and scams, Swifties have been spreading the word about how to buy legitimate tickets on non-ticketing platforms online. (Twitter does prohibit the promotion of unauthorized tickets, though there seems to be no consequence for doing it, or a way for scammed buyers to be made whole.)
While buying resale tickets on social media is a gamble, it can be cheaper than purchasing on secondary ticketing sites that charge fees. Multiple Twitter accounts have popped up with the aim of helping people find legitimate tickets. They and others have been sharing tips for how to make sure you’re purchasing real tickets on social media.
1. Make your purchase using PayPal Goods and Services.
If you find someone on social media who appears to be selling legitimate tickets, you should only send them money using PayPal’s Goods and Services feature. This ensures you are covered by PayPal’s Purchase Protection.
This payment method also keeps your financial information secure, monitors the transaction, and offers dispute resolution and fraud prevention. You’ll be eligible for a full refund if you don’t receive the tickets or if they’re illegitimate.
One popular Swifties-run Twitter account, @erastourresell, connects people selling Eras Tour tickets to fans who want to buy them. The three Swift fans behind the account also offer helpful advice about how to make sure the purchase is real.
“As soon as a scammer sees the words ‘paypal goods and services’ they run,” they tweeted.
2. Ask the seller to forward their original purchase confirmation.
If the person you’re talking to actually purchased a real ticket from Ticketmaster, they received a confirmation email. This email doesn’t include the actual tickets, but states the initial order information. According to Ticketmaster, this confirmation email “is sent to the email you supplied during your booking, up to 72 hours after purchasing your tickets.”
A confirmation email from Ticketmaster will look like this:
A real confirmation email from Ticketmaster.
Someone who legitimately purchased tickets on Ticketmaster or a valid third-party vendor site like SeatGeek or Stubhub will be able to forward you this email.
However, it’s also important to note that images can easily be doctored, so make sure they send the confirmation message over email. The original sender of the confirmation email should also be a real email address, like customer_support@email.ticketmaster.com or transactions@seatgeek.com. If the email address looks funky, you can Google it to see if anything related to the real website comes up. Otherwise, it may be fake.
3. Do some digging on their social media profile.
Should you end up chatting with someone selling a ticket on Twitter, you should snoop around their account. An actual Swiftie will probably have tweeted about the Eras Tour or Swift herself, for example. If they only recently started posting things about the artist you’re trying to see, it may be a scam, said one apparent veteran of the Twitter ticket wars.
one way that i found to quickly weed out scammers is when i’m going through their accounts they’ll spam like a bunch of tweets mentioning taylor and then you go down farther and they’ve spammed like a bunch of sza tweets or blackpink or whatever to make them seem
Additionally, some accounts have been accused of using profile photos that are pictures of random fans with Swift, suggesting they may be scammers posing as a real-life fan who needs to sell their tickets. A reverse image Google search can help make sure the person in the photo is the account holder, or you can look through other media they’ve posted to confirm.
It’s also important to make sure they haven’t recently changed their username. Some accounts will get caught trying to sell fake tickets and then change their handle so you can’t search them to see what other people are saying about their activities.
Other fishy things to look out for include substantial grammatical or spelling errors, inconsistencies in the tour dates or cities they’re offering, or pushy conversations. If they genuinely want to sell tickets to another fan, they’ll probably be more than happy to show any proof you request so you can feel comfortable.
4. Search the person’s account name on Twitter.
Along with digging through their social media history, you can also search their account name on Twitter to see if people are talking about or complaining about them. You can use the Twitter search feature and look up “@username + dm” or ”@username + tickets.” Other people may have posted screenshots of scammy DMs, or other fans may be warning others about buying from them.
As previously noted, it’s possible for someone to change their username after getting caught or being accused of selling fake tickets, so be cautious about this. Just because you don’t find any complaints doesn’t mean that they’re legitimate.
5. If they seek you out, they’re probably not legit.
If it seems too good to be true, then it most likely is. That means if someone randomly messages you asking if you want to buy tickets, it’s probably a scam.
A person selling legit tickets may post a tweet listing the date and concert venue. More likely, though, they may get in touch with a larger resale hub page, like this one for BTS, or this one for Harry Styles, or @ErasTourResell for Swift. Run almost exclusively by fans, these accounts will have information about buying and selling via their hubs, and their listing processes.
For example, this Twitter account for Styles’ Love on Tour directs sellers to provide a screenshot of their ticket with their username watermarked, proof of payment, a screen recording from Ticketmaster, and a message stating they’ll use PayPal Goods & Services. While this doesn’t 100% ensure the tickets are legitimate, it helps to have all of those factors checked off.
6. Ask for a screen recording, but continue to be cautious.
Asking for a screen recording of the seller’s Ticketmaster app is a good step toward ensuring the tickets are real. Once someone purchases a ticket through Ticketmaster, they’ll be able to access the record of that sale at any time on the app. The account has unique details exclusive to the buyer that they can share with you as a step in the verification process.
I would say become very observant of how your TM app works like pay attention to every small detail this will definitely help you spot out bad screen recordings. Note when a certain button becomes blurred, if something has to load first before showing up. Theres so much you can… https://t.co/ZpgckKJTRu
Screen recordings are also easy to manipulate, and @ErasTourResell pointed out it helps to be familiar with what a screen recording of the Ticketmaster app would look like and the signs footage has been faked. If the person sends you a video of their Ticketmaster app, make sure there aren’t any glitches throughout it. All of the information should be correct (like the concert date, seats, row, time, and venue) and the video should be completely smooth and clear, starting from the buyer’s home screen to the ticket.
7. Don’t send any money until you’ve verified that they’re real tickets.
It can be tempting to immediately jump on the opportunity to purchase tickets from someone you think is legitimate, but don’t let them push you into sending payment too soon. You should make sure that they’re 100% real prior to sending anything, even if they ask for some sort of down payment (a seller asking for a down payment is usually a sign of a scam, anyway).
Many fans selling real concert tickets online want them to go to another fan who is just as excited about the show. They almost certainly won’t demand that you send them half the money on Venmo first, and they won’t complain if you ask for various ways to prove the tickets are real. Listen to your gut instincts, be safe, and don’t be too eager about sending money before you verify as much as possible.
8. If you’re able, opt for a secondary ticketing site instead.
Third-party ticket vendors like SeatGeek and StubHub are generally safer options. StubHub, for instance, says that buyers and sellers can use the site with 100% confidence via their FanProtect Guarantee, which promises valid tickets or your money back.
SeatGeek offers a similar promise. Self-proclaimed as a “trusted consumer marketplace,” the service claims that all buyers will receive valid tickets in time for their concert date. If for any reason they don’t, SeatGeek has a Buyer Guarantee that works on a case-by-case basis and offers comparable or better tickets, a full refund or credit.
We are quickly approaching the summer, which means people are already filling their calendars with weekend trips and outdoor plans. Outdoor concert venues are re-opening for the season, and tickets are quickly selling out. Plus, the rolling lineup of music festivals keeps growing — my budget can barely keep up.
I’m always down for live music. I will go anywhere where there’s a live band, even if they’re just performing covers at a bar. Sometimes, my passion for live music leads to the greatest nights of my life — like my residency at Harry’s House at Madison Square Garden. Other times, it’s a cautionary tale — like my Coachella experience… enough said.
So you can imagine my unbridled excitement when my favorite artists embark on world tours in the summer. Needless to say, I’m ready, willing, and able to go broke.
I am always stuck in some Ticketmaster queue lamenting, every decision I’ve made up until that point. If I am allowed to buy tickets after sometimes an hour of waiting in that treacherous line, I’m almost obliged to buy one.
Maybe it’s the constant stream of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour content I’m getting on my social media. Or the looming Beyonce Renaissance tour that will soon compete with Taylor’s. Or all of this chatter about Morgan Wallen canceling his shows for vocal rest.
No matter what, I’m itching to hear some live music. If you can tell, I’m planning on attending as many concerts as humanly possible (wallet permitting). And if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking about the same.
It may be difficult to keep track of all of these tours happening at once — especially during the summer when you want to shut off your brain instead of planning anything. So, here is a list of which tours to look out for this summer. All you have to do is brave the Ticketmaster queue. Good luck to us all.
The Jonas Brothers – The Tour
The Jo-Bros are going on tour Eras- style…playing their new music from their new album, The Album, along with classics from each of their beloved past albums. Despite the fact that we have seen Kevin, Joe, and Nick grow up in front of our very eyes…we’re eager to be plunged back into our Disney Channel-era selves the moment Burnin’ Up comes on.
Blink-182 – 2023 Tour
Following their first on-stage reunion at 2023 Coachella, Blink-182 is coming back to a stage near you. Nothing feels better than bringing back that early 2000s angst with some vintage Blink, and they’ve proven they’re still the same rock band we know and love. Travis Barker is still playing the drums sans shirt — just this time, he’s married to Kourtney Kardashian. How time flies.
Ed Sheeran – Mathematics Tour
Fans went crazy when Ed Sheeran released Subtract, the final mathematics-themed album of his discography. With a brand new documentary, Sheeran is red hot coming into the 2023 summer.
Top that off with his Mathematics Tour, which has opening acts like the lovely Khalid, and viral videos of him jumping on top of cars to serenade surprised New Yorkers. He’s known for putting on one of the best concerts you can attend, and it’s worth the money every time.
Zac Brown Band – From The Fire Tour
So Morgan Wallen canceled a few shows and everyone’s wondering what to do now. One of the most classic, fun country concerts you can go to is ZBB. They’ve created hit after country hit, toured stadiums across the country, and are ready to go back at it.
Beyonce – Renaissance World Tour
If you could be so lucky to get tickets to the Renaissance Tour, then you need to go see one of the best in the business do her thing. She’s got powerhouse vocals and choreography, lights, and backup dancers — it’s an entire production. Seeing Queen Bey reminds you how live performances can completely change the way a song sounds to you.
Drake & 21 Savage – It’s All A Blur Tour
One of the hottest tickets in town this summer is Drake and 21 Savage’s tour. Tickets sold out in mere minutes to hear the duo perform their album, Her Loss. It’s guaranteed to be rap’s biggest concert of the year, with two of the biggest artists in their genre taking the stage together.
When was the last time you bought a concert ticket for $25?
Live Nation is making it possible to see several of your favourite artists for cheap this summer with their newly launched Concert Week. The promotion allows Canadian and American fans access to all-in tickets to more than 3,800 live shows across both countries, with ticket prices as low as $25.
Concert Week kicks off Wednesday, May 10, at 10 a.m. ET and lasts until May 16.
Get ready for Concert Week, May 10-16! $25 All-In Tickets to over 200 shows in Canada. It’s the perfect time to get tickets to see ALL your favourite artists and fill your year with live events. Head to https://t.co/8hCtvWw9kkpic.twitter.com/5BtN6mFqeK
So how does this work? There are at least 300 artists from a broad range of genres included in the promotion. Available concerts include chart-toppers like Maroon 5, Charlie Puth, Shania Twain and Janet Jackson, along with rap and R&B legends like Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, TLC and Shaggy. The bands Mötley Crüe, Disturbed and Fall Out Boy are also among the artists listed by Live Nation.
Users can filter through tickets based on artist name or the location of the concerts they’re looking to attend. A variety of seat types will be available for sale.
In Canada, those who bank with RBC were given early access to Live Nation Concert Week. On Tuesday at 10 a.m., RBC clients who applied for an access code were given exclusive entry to try and score discounted concert tickets.
(Depending on the province or state of residence, additional fees and taxes for tickets purchased during Live Nation Concert Week may vary.)
The tickets are certain to sell out quickly, as the average price of a concert ticket has nearly quadrupled over the past two decades. In the last year, outrage over concert ticket prices has grown even louder, as inflated resale markets and surge pricing have left some fans in the dust when it comes to seeing their favourite artists on tour.
In January, top executives from Ticketmaster and Live Nation appeared before the U.S. Senate to argue they do not hold a ticket sale monopoly. The federal questioning was spurred on by a fumbled Taylor Swift ticket presale that allegedly saw software bots illegally obtain tickets and snub thousands of eager fans.
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Ticketmaster CEO apologizes for Taylor Swift concert ticket debacle, blames bots and cyberattack
Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, reportedly resulting in control of more than 70 per cent of the primary ticketing and live event venues market.
A full list of artists included in Live Nation Concert Week can be viewed on the Live Nation website.
Ticketmaster has made a royal mess of issuing tickets to King Charles’ coronation concert at Windsor Castle, angry fans are saying on social media.
The ticketing platform was charged with handling applications to attend the BBC event linked to the U.K.’s first coronation in 70 years. The concert will take place on May 7, the day after King Charles III’s official coronation, and will feature performances from Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and other stars.
Twenty-thousand tickets, released in pairs, were made available to the official coronation event by public ballot, according to the Royal Family’s website.
Applications were due February 28, and tickets were allocated “based on the geographical spread of the U.K. population, and not on a first-come first-served basis,” according to the Royal Family. In other words, it didn’t matter when you applied for tickets, as long as you did so before the deadline.
But fans vying for entry to the post-coronation celebration say Ticketmaster sent them misleading instructions. Many say they received emails suggesting they had won tickets to the event, only for the tickets to be unavailable when fans tried to claim them online.
A Wallingford, England, resident called Ticketmaster “disgraceful” in a tweet after the company emailed her April 25 to say she had been “successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets” to the once-in-a-lifetime event.
Disgraceful from @Ticketmaster – receive an email saying I’ve won 2 tickets to the Coronation Concert in the ballot and then when you click to claim them they’re all gone. Total shambles of a system. Beyond disappointed @TicketmasterCSpic.twitter.com/jxorfiV0TY
“Disgraceful from @Ticketmaster — receive an email saying I’ve won 2 tickets to the Coronation Concert in the ballot and then when you click to claim them they’re all gone. Total shambles of a system. Beyond disappointed,” she wrote on the social media platform.
The email from Ticketmaster indicates she was one of a “randomly selected group of ballot winners” offered tickets in a “supplementary round.” The tickets were made available to her on a “first come first served basis,” read the email, which encouraged her to act quickly to secure her spots.
Apparently, she didn’t act fast enough, and won’t be attending the concert after all. She bashed Ticketmaster online for writing “congratulations” and ultimately leaving her empty-handed.
“‘Congratulations’ and ‘ballot’ don’t marry with a first come first served system, especially as the main Ts and Cs specified it wouldn’t be like that,” she added on Twitter.
Another user called out Ticketmaster for failing to adhere to its own stated terms and conditions. She, too, was under the impression that tickets would not be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
“What a poor experience and incredibly misleading!” she said on Twitter Thursday.
Ticketmaster defended its ticketing process. The company said there were two lottery rounds and that unclaimed tickets from the drawings were recently released under different terms and conditions. Previously, applicants had three weeks to claim their tickets. This time they were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Everyone who was successful in the two main ballot rounds for the Coronation Concert was offered a guaranteed pair of tickets, provided they claimed them within three weeks,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch. “On Tuesday, any unclaimed tickets were released on a first-come, first-served basis to those who had previously applied to the ballot (and were unsuccessful). These inevitably went very quickly.”
Swifties complained that they weren’t able to secure tickets, while resellers hawked them for tens of thousands of dollars, forcing diehard fans to spend a fortune in order to see the artist perform. The snafu prompted investigations into the entertainment company over its alleged monopoly on the market.
On Wednesday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation called the “Unlock Ticketing Markets Act” to create more competition in the live event ticketing market.
“Right now, one company is leveraging its power to lock venues into exclusive contracts that last up to 10 years, ensuring there is no room for potential competitors to get their foot in the door,” Klobuchar said in a statement Wednesday. “Without competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences. The Unlock Ticketing Markets Act would help consumers, artists and independent venue operators alike by making sure primary ticketing companies face pressure to innovate and improve.”
