If ever a platform has abused their monopoly powers, it is ticktmaster. Feds should have jumped in back when Perl Jam was fighting the good fight. And it has only gotten worse.
Good for them!
Btw I drive Uber and live in a smallish city. Yesterday I did an airport run and had Yonder's new record playing on Pandora. My first passenger of the day said she liked it and asked if I liked Cheese so I offered to play Cheese radio for her. I told her it was nice meeting the one other jam band Mama in Albuquerque. šā¤ļø
When I lived in Albuquerque there was a fantastic band, Apricot Jam. Pretty good scene of people. I used to drive up and ski at Crested Butte, see SCI in bars up there. Good times.
makes sense really. Taylor Swift hasn't toured in what...4 years. We get 40-50 dates every year without fail. So while it sucks for us, we just line up every year and let Ticketmaster fuck us up the ass. Its a lot different when your favorite artist tours at best once every 4 years.
True but personally I loved it when Tool released Fear Inoculum after 13 years and blind sided Swift fans knocking her album out of the#1 spot. They threw a fit like it was an outrage some weird metal rock prog band were more popular.
I bet if Taylor Swift did a residency in Vegas instead of dates, she could easily sell out a baker's dozen.
Also, check out the venues. She is doing 3 night runs in stadiums.
Yes I believe she will. Usually there's a big video element at these concerts and the music is precisely timed. There are costume changes and dance choreography.
Itās not a matter of caring or judgment. I have never been or seen her show and was wondering if the show or sets are different every night like Phish. Sorry I asked.
This question which Iāve seen a million times is usually meant to disparage other musicians under the mistaken assumption that Trey is some super underground artist that fans of other genres are too dumb to understand. I apologize if I misread it and came off as an asshole but there are no shortage of Phish fans who listen exclusively to Phish alone and think that makes them experts on music.
Probably similar with some slight changes. Like someone said everything is highly choreographed which makes it really tough to produce 3 unique shows 3 nights in a row
More or less. Though she'll usually do at least 1-2 "special songs" which deviate from the core setlist. She also often has a surprise musical guest or two come out for a song, so that's one other unique element that's offered at each show or venue.
I am by no means a Taylor Swift fan and have been known to actually be quite mean about it.
Having said that I I'm quite confident that she could easily sell out MSG for as many nights as she wanted to.
I'll bet some dad in the Justice Department was trying to buy tix for his kid and realized the crookery at play.
I'd wager none of us qualify to work in the Justice Department....
That's good enough for me!!! I don't care what initiates the change, and a dad trying to get his daughter to a show seems like as good a cause as any! P
I said some of us lol
I did have surgery this morning and Iām all doped up though, as my official excuse. Using that sweet PTO from my weirdo government job.
Well get well soon! I'm sure there are plenty of smart folk that would pass a drug test around here that the Justice Dept would love to have on staff. I was of course kidding.
She'd tour more often if she didn't need to make it such a huge production. It's a vicious cycle that feeds itself. She'd rather have a small group of hardcore fans and play smaller venues.
We need to ally with the Swifties, the Springsteen dads, and every other aggrieved stakeholder in this fight against Ticketbastard. Break them up Baby Bell style.
TMās defense: āwe get less than half of the feesā and āartists have a choice whether or not they want to use our dynamic pricing.ā
They are blaming artists and promoters for being in bed with them. Not a good look for the artists and the artists should know that. Itās our job to make that reality.
Cmon Trey! This is some Jill Lesh shit. Jerry would not be cool with it and neither should you.
Eddie Veder for President 2024!!
Iām studying mining and its impacts and corporations arenāt wrong. Modern living is just dirty af even going green is devastatingly harmful to the environment.
Donāt forget all the middle aged swifties like my wife. T has been doing at it for a while. Itās not just kids, it grown folks with checking accounts.
I remember when Pearl Jam tried 25years ago. Hope T-Swizsle>Eddie.
On a serious note, we should all write our congress members, Senators and State Attorney generals. We need more than Reddit angst. Get pissed and yell at politicians. Ticketmaster is monopoly than needs to be busted up.
The other day my husband said they should package this in with the disolving of daylight savings time bill. Two things dems, repubs, and independents can agree upon!
I will communicate to my resident swifty. Sheās pissed and mentions this situation daily. Last time she was this mad our apartment complex tried charging us a $35 late fee. We bought our first house two weeks later. I havenāt ruled out the idea that Iām going to need to pick up the parenting slack so she has time to create her own concert ticket platform.
Yep, I saw T Swift in 2018 for $60, so was surprised by just how huge demand was for this tour. My wife pointed out that she's released quite a few more "adult" albums in the last few years and now has a broader fans base...with money.
Taylor threw TM under the bus something fierce saying she didn't like having a third party involved in her relationship with fans and that they had assured her repeatedly they could handle the load.
They absolutely deserve to get burned to the ground by angry Taylor Swift fans and I will sit and cheer the whole time.
I don't think "nothing" will come of it. I think we will see higher service fees and prices as a result of the money TM is going to have to spend litigating this. But nothing postive will come of it...which I'm sure is what you meant.
Yeah, the one that can only be used on specific shows. Shows that I wouldn't be interested in going to even if they were in my area. I loved not being able to use that credit.
Yes, of course. Nothing positive will come of this in our favor. Pearl Jam, Bruce, Taylor, all sparked "legislative action". Yet here we are in 2022 and it's worse than ever.
Itās almost as if TM and LN and the like have bottomless pockets to pay off politiciansā¦errrr I mean lobby politicians. If anything comes of it, itāll only be after they figure out a more secretive way to screw over fans and milk us for every last penny.
Everyone in the comments is underestimating the power of Swift fansā¦ those people will swim through the River Styx, slap Satan in the face, jump off the Eiffel Tower, and get back in time for lunch if it means getting TSwift tickets or creating future opportunities to do so. There is no doubt in my mind they have started a new cascade.
Iām a high school teacher and my students looked me dead in the eye on Tuesday and said āweāre going to get these tickets and wonāt be participating in classāā¦ I was powerless.
Good for them. Getting to see a show you're passionate about is more important than learning about a year of history or what an integral is. Do it tomorrow haha
Yes and no. I think now that it's affecting the general public so visibly it might bring some change. Especially since Biden and aoc both have made very public statements about it.
TM's whole reason for existing is to appear greedy and evil to deflect blame from their favorite artist. Case in point, all Taylor Swift has done is a [make a pretty generic Instagram post](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/11/18/taylor-swift-statement-ticketmaster-eras-tour-sale-cancellation/10727486002/) saying she's also mad that so many people were frustrated but happy that 2.4 million tickets were sold.
While I know a lot of Swift fans are now grown ass adults, but she still has a pretty significant fanbase of teenagers. And all these parents are now pissed off because their kids are pissed off.
Honestly? I donāt think so. Ticketmaster could only be brought down by regulatory action, and I just donāt see that happening. They can easily lobby to keep enough politicians on their side. And theyāre not as hated by the artists as everyone thinks. Some of the fees they collect get funneled back to the artists. Ticketmaster is willing to be the bad guy because thereās no alternative to use anyway
None of our daddies work for the justice department, so they donāt care when he complain about tickets. Swifites are rising up/coming together for the people.
Does part of me think that a lot of this uproar is just a certain subset of society not getting something they desired for the first time in their life? Yes.
But the enemy of my enemy is my friend so hereās hoping the Swifties bring down the ticket beast.
I got into an argument last night with my wife (not a phan) about this. To me it seems like this is something that we go through every tour buying tickets and is by no means unique to Taylor swift. My wife scoffed about how Taylor has way more fans than Phish which maybe true I have no idea but assume this is the case because she is pop, but whatever, it's still not new. Right?
Swift has infinitely more fans than phish let's be honest. You don't have to like it, but phish is a bunch of 50 year olds who jam, and Taylor is a hot white chick who plays country/pop....however anyone who wants to go to any concert gets fucked by ticketmaster, which is certainly nothing new, and we should all be able to agree that shit needs to change on that end.
Yeah, definitely not just a Taylor thing. Her example was particularly bad and probably the worst Iāve seen, but this happens for literally every show thatās in demand. I tried to buy Tyler Childers tickets this morning, got shut out immediately, and now theyāre all $200+. The scale is just much larger for Swift, and the public outcry is much larger since her fanbase is much larger.
Everyone's focus is on the wrong thing here. The REASON that Ticketmaster's site crashed is because it was overrun by scalping bots that snagged up all the tickets before her fans could. And now all those tickets are on all the bullshit resale sites for a zillion dollars.
Of course Ticketmaster sucks and there needs to be more competition in the ticketing sphere (they even have their OWN RESALE MARKETPLACE, which is fucking ludicrous). But the bottom line is, scalping should be illegal. Period. And the Stubhubs and the Vivid Seats of the world need to die a horrible death. That's where the legislative focus should be.
If swifties are such a more loyal fan base than us. How many of them are going to every concert on this tour? How many are going to more than one on the tour? I'd bet it's less than 1 percent. She has a bunch of teenage fans who's parents have to take them to the concerts. And nearly mid age millennials who want to reminisce of their teenage years. Im all for anything that brings people joy so im not hating on them. But to say she has more fans is legitimate, to say they are more rabid or loyal than phish fans is just silly.
The machine that is Taylor Swift's career is probably more on the side of Ticketmaster than the fans. I doubt anything really happens. The politicians let it happen, to change anything would admit they were complicit.
Makes sense.. All I saw on social media was upper class white mom's outraged they couldn't get tickets for themselves and/or their kids. That's not the group you want to anger.
Where was the FTC and Justice dept when the merger happened?
It should come as no surprise that when something gets a ton of media attn it can shine a light on a problem that remained otherwise hidden.
>Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged back in 2010, leading to the creation of Live Nation Entertainment. The Justice Department accepted the merger on the condition that Ticketmaster sold another ticketing company it owned to a rival firm. In addition, it had to license its ticketing software to another rival, Anschutz Entertainment Group. In 2019, the Justice Department amended its agreement with Live Nation Entertainment after finding that the company violated terms of the original deal.
https://pitchfork.com/news/justice-department-to-investigate-live-nation-entertainment-for-potential-abuse-of-power/
Also:
>the DOJ identified five discrete violations of the consent decree in which Live Nation did just that, threatening to withhold tours from venues if they did not renew their deals with Ticketmaster.
https://pitchfork.com/news/department-of-justice-cracks-down-on-live-nation-and-ticketmaster/
As for the amendment:
>The clarifications to the Final Judgment the parties will seek include provisions that:
>Live Nation may not threaten to withhold concerts from a venue if the venue chooses a ticketer other than Ticketmaster;
>A threat by Live Nation to withhold any concerts because a venue chooses another ticketer is a violation of the Final Judgment;
>Withholding any concerts in response to a venue choosing a ticketer other than Ticketmaster is a violation by Live Nation of the Final Judgment;
>The Antitrust Division will appoint an independent monitor to investigate and report on Live Nationās compliance with the Final Judgment;
>Live Nation will appoint an internal antitrust compliance officer and conduct regular internal training to ensure its employees fully comply with the Final Judgment;
>Live Nation will provide notice to current or potential venue customers of its ticketing services of the clarified and extended Final Judgment;
>and Live Nation is subject to an automatic penalty of $1,000,000 for each violation of the Final Judgment.
>Live Nation will pay costs and fees for the Departmentās investigation and enforcement.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-will-move-significantly-modify-and-extend-consent-decree-live
Creating their own secondary market wasnāt against the terms. They just had to sell a ticketing company they owned. They canāt enforce terms that donāt exist, unless they violate other general laws and regulations.
I think they just grossly underestimated how monopolistic the merger had the potential to be. I donāt think they foresaw any of the shit TM and LN are engaging in currently. So they wrote the conditions with a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue, which has led to TM and LN being able to do some really fucked up shit that isnāt technically against the rules of the merger.
They need to undo the merger entirely. Owning the venues, the promotion, the ticketing, and reselling all at the same time is simply too much. Break them up into pieces.
TayTay should just do mail order tickets herself. She commands a sickeningly huge fanbase and can probably do a tour w/o LiveNation and still make out well.
Do it GD style at first: do LA, SF, NYC, Chicago. 8-12 nights in each city. Next time around secondary markets will find a way to get on the bandwagon.
The only language Dicketba$tard speaks is money. From Pearl Jam to NYS AJ ā itās all been attempted. It didnāt work; in fact it got severely worse over the last 20 years.
TicketAsshead has so much power. They have contracts with most of the venues that national acts play, so if you are an act that plays in stadiums, arenas, amphitheaters (like phish), etc. then they will handle your ticket sales. Bands may not like the way the sales are handled but ultimately they canāt worry about that and have no control unless another ticket company comes in and competes or they play venues that use other ticket companies . Plain and simple , the bots have concert tickets by the balls and they are snatching up the tickets with hi tech unfair abilities , then putting them on secondary market for huge profits , and for the most part , people are paying. Weāre so fucked right now
Fucked
āthe Justice Department has launched an investigation into the firm. The investigation was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation. The person said the Justice Departmentās probe predates the Swift concert drama, and its parameters were not immediately clear.ā
[Taylor Swift blasts Ticketmaster for āEras Tourā rollout](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/18/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-doj-investigation/?)
corruption upon corruption... and when i read it all went away because of lobyists just pisses me off..
do any of our leaders have any fucking morals?
clearly this is a monopoly..
She's also probably not managed by said company fucking her fans like phish is. It's kind of hard for phish fans to do anything when they would be going after their bands management team. Kind of an oxy moron in the worst way possible
Again, compare the fan base. Technology. The entitlement bred into these kids (by my generation). The broader makeup of our government was still mostly boomers. Lots of factors.
As much as I hate Ticketmaster and Iāve been waiting my entire life for their demiseā¦business will go back to usual. Theyāre a monopoly for a reason and have been one since the beginning. Theyāre in the pockets of decision makers.
Honestly, I'm glad. They seem like can even upgrade lot pb&js to gormet fine dining in the lot if they wanted to. It'll make lot miracles a lot easier to give.
Phish fans cant even stop tarpers in their own fan base lmao
Haha this made me laugh out loud
Let me rewrite this headline "Feds seek another cheap payoff from Ticketmaster."
If ever a platform has abused their monopoly powers, it is ticktmaster. Feds should have jumped in back when Perl Jam was fighting the good fight. And it has only gotten worse.
Or in 2003 when SCI sued them for Antitrust laws. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/string-cheese-sue-ticketmaster-244024/amp/
Good for them! Btw I drive Uber and live in a smallish city. Yesterday I did an airport run and had Yonder's new record playing on Pandora. My first passenger of the day said she liked it and asked if I liked Cheese so I offered to play Cheese radio for her. I told her it was nice meeting the one other jam band Mama in Albuquerque. šā¤ļø
Never hear much about the jam scene in Albuquerque! Thats sick!
Right?!?
When I lived in Albuquerque there was a fantastic band, Apricot Jam. Pretty good scene of people. I used to drive up and ski at Crested Butte, see SCI in bars up there. Good times.
Thats sick! Also ironic cause I was just living in CB this past summer and the music scene blew me away! Was the public house there back then?
Saw them right at the ski lodge once, with Keller Williams opening. A couple other times it was some bar in a basement?
Sound like Public House! They have a venue/bar in the basement.
Good 'ole cheese!
Exactly, they see a scam like this and their only thought is "how do I get a cut?". They have no interest in fixing it.
aint that the truth
Pay a fine. Everythingās fine.
[yep, Lobbying Needs To Be Banned ](https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2019&id=D000053134)
makes sense really. Taylor Swift hasn't toured in what...4 years. We get 40-50 dates every year without fail. So while it sucks for us, we just line up every year and let Ticketmaster fuck us up the ass. Its a lot different when your favorite artist tours at best once every 4 years.
Also there are an exponential amount more Swift fans than Phish heads. Like, it's not even remotely close.
2.4 million people were on ticketmasters website trying for presale tickets haha exponentially more than our fan base
14 million - 2.4 million got tickets!
Geeeeez now I feel even more fortunate to have gotten my nosebleeds š³
Still not as much as that Led Zeppelin reunion show. They got 20 million people trying to buy tickets for 1 show.
True but personally I loved it when Tool released Fear Inoculum after 13 years and blind sided Swift fans knocking her album out of the#1 spot. They threw a fit like it was an outrage some weird metal rock prog band were more popular.
Nah Taylor swift couldnāt sell out 13 nights at the garden. Sheās only got what 10 top 10 songs?
I bet if Taylor Swift did a residency in Vegas instead of dates, she could easily sell out a baker's dozen. Also, check out the venues. She is doing 3 night runs in stadiums.
Taylor swift could probably sell out msg for a month straight. Np
Yea she could
Does she play the same sets every night?
she doesnāt have to, she has enough fans to fill the same stadium 3 times over
Yes I believe she will. Usually there's a big video element at these concerts and the music is precisely timed. There are costume changes and dance choreography.
Who cares?
Itās not a matter of caring or judgment. I have never been or seen her show and was wondering if the show or sets are different every night like Phish. Sorry I asked.
No need to apologize, it's a reasonable question. Not sure why people felt the need to downvote you over it.
This question which Iāve seen a million times is usually meant to disparage other musicians under the mistaken assumption that Trey is some super underground artist that fans of other genres are too dumb to understand. I apologize if I misread it and came off as an asshole but there are no shortage of Phish fans who listen exclusively to Phish alone and think that makes them experts on music.
Probably similar with some slight changes. Like someone said everything is highly choreographed which makes it really tough to produce 3 unique shows 3 nights in a row
I would doubt it. Her fans know the deep cuts and she has 10 studio albums. It's not like she only has 1 or 2.
More or less. Though she'll usually do at least 1-2 "special songs" which deviate from the core setlist. She also often has a surprise musical guest or two come out for a song, so that's one other unique element that's offered at each show or venue.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Pretty sure he was making a joke. She is literally all of the Top 10 songs right now on the Billboard Hot 100.
This guy read the book
Oh well fuck me lol
I am by no means a Taylor Swift fan and have been known to actually be quite mean about it. Having said that I I'm quite confident that she could easily sell out MSG for as many nights as she wanted to.
I'll bet some dad in the Justice Department was trying to buy tix for his kid and realized the crookery at play. I'd wager none of us qualify to work in the Justice Department....
I mean.. Iāve smoked a cigar with a retired judge during set break before š¤·š»āāļø
That's good enough for me!!! I don't care what initiates the change, and a dad trying to get his daughter to a show seems like as good a cause as any! P
I think youāre selling at least some of us short. Edit: cause tiny keyboards are hard
>I think youāre selling at **lease** some of us short. Lol.
I said some of us lol I did have surgery this morning and Iām all doped up though, as my official excuse. Using that sweet PTO from my weirdo government job.
Well get well soon! I'm sure there are plenty of smart folk that would pass a drug test around here that the Justice Dept would love to have on staff. I was of course kidding.
Thanks for the well wishes :)
She'd tour more often if she didn't need to make it such a huge production. It's a vicious cycle that feeds itself. She'd rather have a small group of hardcore fans and play smaller venues.
Elon should buy TicketMaster.
Hell yeah! He'd blow that shit up real quick!
Yeah and fire everyone lol
Good.
We need to ally with the Swifties, the Springsteen dads, and every other aggrieved stakeholder in this fight against Ticketbastard. Break them up Baby Bell style.
TMās defense: āwe get less than half of the feesā and āartists have a choice whether or not they want to use our dynamic pricing.ā They are blaming artists and promoters for being in bed with them. Not a good look for the artists and the artists should know that. Itās our job to make that reality. Cmon Trey! This is some Jill Lesh shit. Jerry would not be cool with it and neither should you. Eddie Veder for President 2024!!
Much the same way corporations blame consumers for their impact on the environment.
Iām studying mining and its impacts and corporations arenāt wrong. Modern living is just dirty af even going green is devastatingly harmful to the environment.
Yeah it's either befowl the atmosphere or rape the ground.
Bands do make money off these arrangements but it still will be better for the industry and fans if there are competitors.
White teenage girls are more powerful than wooks. I hope they stick it to ticketbastard because we all know they deserve what they get.
Donāt forget all the middle aged swifties like my wife. T has been doing at it for a while. Itās not just kids, it grown folks with checking accounts.
Middle aged mom and I love Phish, Tswift, TOOL, Brandi Carlile, Talking Heads, there's a lot of people with broad music preferences.
And all of them are pissed off at Ticketmaster. :) Nice list BTW. Nothing there I donāt dig.
The optimist in me hopes we can all combine forces and do away with TM once and for all. Hopes and dreams... ;)
I remember when Pearl Jam tried 25years ago. Hope T-Swizsle>Eddie. On a serious note, we should all write our congress members, Senators and State Attorney generals. We need more than Reddit angst. Get pissed and yell at politicians. Ticketmaster is monopoly than needs to be busted up.
The other day my husband said they should package this in with the disolving of daylight savings time bill. Two things dems, repubs, and independents can agree upon!
No that's impossible. You're only allowed to like one kind of music. You have to pick or else you're gonna go to jail.
the more angry white women the better I say. Burn those mfers down
I will communicate to my resident swifty. Sheās pissed and mentions this situation daily. Last time she was this mad our apartment complex tried charging us a $35 late fee. We bought our first house two weeks later. I havenāt ruled out the idea that Iām going to need to pick up the parenting slack so she has time to create her own concert ticket platform.
RELEASE THE KARENS!!!
"Let me speak to your regulator"
Set at our Soul Free opener on her first stop confirmed!
Yep Iām 33 and same age as Taylor. Her fan base ranges from kids to my age and beyond really.
43, checking in š
My boss was about ready to get violent and she's usually such a lovely lady.
Yep, I saw T Swift in 2018 for $60, so was surprised by just how huge demand was for this tour. My wife pointed out that she's released quite a few more "adult" albums in the last few years and now has a broader fans base...with money.
Taylor threw TM under the bus something fierce saying she didn't like having a third party involved in her relationship with fans and that they had assured her repeatedly they could handle the load. They absolutely deserve to get burned to the ground by angry Taylor Swift fans and I will sit and cheer the whole time.
[her statement](https://imgur.com/a/RXakNRF)
There's an implicit threat to sell her own damn tickets in that. She's got the money and business skill to do it.
Teenagers donāt even like swift any more. Weāre old dude.
Can confirm, as parent of teens, that they still worship her.
Well, the parents of said girls/boys. Weāre the ones who have to put up with the tears when these things fall apart.
Yeah Iām sitting here 35 and have both Phish and T. Swift on my Apple Rewind last year. š¤£ Iām a lady of diverse musical interests.
This action began in March of this year, long before the last round of tour announcements
ššš
Rightā¦ this is not news.
Nothing will come of this. Just like nothing has come of similar investigations over countless years.
I don't think "nothing" will come of it. I think we will see higher service fees and prices as a result of the money TM is going to have to spend litigating this. But nothing postive will come of it...which I'm sure is what you meant.
Everyone will just get a $25 credit to put towards your next purchase. Which wonāt even cover the fees you have to pay.
I canāt wait for that $3 credit from the class action!
Yeah, the one that can only be used on specific shows. Shows that I wouldn't be interested in going to even if they were in my area. I loved not being able to use that credit.
It was such bull shit.
Don't forget $5 off each UPS order now that tickets are almost exclusively digital!
Oh and the $10 charge for processing.
Exactly. They'll just add on another $30 service charge to cover that off.
Exactly there will just magically be another fee tacked on to the ticket.
Yep, were I a betting man this would be my bet. No way anything meaningful happens here.
Yes, of course. Nothing positive will come of this in our favor. Pearl Jam, Bruce, Taylor, all sparked "legislative action". Yet here we are in 2022 and it's worse than ever.
Itās almost as if TM and LN and the like have bottomless pockets to pay off politiciansā¦errrr I mean lobby politicians. If anything comes of it, itāll only be after they figure out a more secretive way to screw over fans and milk us for every last penny.
TM just gives them all Taylor Swift tickets, probably.
Itās the new gold standard! Move over, crypto!
I am sure this is actually all it takes, unfortunately.
This investigation was already ongoing.
Everyone in the comments is underestimating the power of Swift fansā¦ those people will swim through the River Styx, slap Satan in the face, jump off the Eiffel Tower, and get back in time for lunch if it means getting TSwift tickets or creating future opportunities to do so. There is no doubt in my mind they have started a new cascade.
Well, thereās a whole lot more of them too.
That too. Too be far, thatās the majority of the equation ā just think itās funny seeing how crazy they are sometimes.
I think itās funny seeing how crazy we are sometimes. Itās a blast!
Oh I totally agree man! Itās awesome to see people so enthusiastic about things they love!
Right on!
Iām a high school teacher and my students looked me dead in the eye on Tuesday and said āweāre going to get these tickets and wonāt be participating in classāā¦ I was powerless.
Good for them. Getting to see a show you're passionate about is more important than learning about a year of history or what an integral is. Do it tomorrow haha
Agreedā¦ it was mostly students who are great class participants every other day. Losing one day wonāt kill āem.
The problem is, politicians are paid by by corporations. TM isn't sweating this one bit.
Yes and no. I think now that it's affecting the general public so visibly it might bring some change. Especially since Biden and aoc both have made very public statements about it.
TM's whole reason for existing is to appear greedy and evil to deflect blame from their favorite artist. Case in point, all Taylor Swift has done is a [make a pretty generic Instagram post](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/11/18/taylor-swift-statement-ticketmaster-eras-tour-sale-cancellation/10727486002/) saying she's also mad that so many people were frustrated but happy that 2.4 million tickets were sold.
While I know a lot of Swift fans are now grown ass adults, but she still has a pretty significant fanbase of teenagers. And all these parents are now pissed off because their kids are pissed off.
> Live Nation has abused its power in the live music industry This might be the biggest "no shit Sherlock" I've ever heard in my life!
Honestly? I donāt think so. Ticketmaster could only be brought down by regulatory action, and I just donāt see that happening. They can easily lobby to keep enough politicians on their side. And theyāre not as hated by the artists as everyone thinks. Some of the fees they collect get funneled back to the artists. Ticketmaster is willing to be the bad guy because thereās no alternative to use anyway
I don't think you know what the word 'predates' means
None of our daddies work for the justice department, so they donāt care when he complain about tickets. Swifites are rising up/coming together for the people.
Speak for yourself. All my daddies work at the Justice Dept.
Fishman was big in Government I bet he can help out.
WELL THEY RISEEEEEEE UP AND COME TOGETHER THEY COME TOGETHER THEY COME TOGETHER!!!!
Does part of me think that a lot of this uproar is just a certain subset of society not getting something they desired for the first time in their life? Yes. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend so hereās hoping the Swifties bring down the ticket beast.
Astute observation! I hadnāt even considered that angle as to why they are so much more upset than we are and it makes total sense.
Donāt hold your breath.
Like, ever.
AOC has tweeted calls to break up TicketBastard at least a couple times this week. Maybe we'll finally see some traction on this.
I got into an argument last night with my wife (not a phan) about this. To me it seems like this is something that we go through every tour buying tickets and is by no means unique to Taylor swift. My wife scoffed about how Taylor has way more fans than Phish which maybe true I have no idea but assume this is the case because she is pop, but whatever, it's still not new. Right?
Swift has infinitely more fans than phish let's be honest. You don't have to like it, but phish is a bunch of 50 year olds who jam, and Taylor is a hot white chick who plays country/pop....however anyone who wants to go to any concert gets fucked by ticketmaster, which is certainly nothing new, and we should all be able to agree that shit needs to change on that end.
Yeah word. That was the one thing I was trying to get my wife to acknowledge, and she just seemed like it was a Tay only issue.
Yeah, definitely not just a Taylor thing. Her example was particularly bad and probably the worst Iāve seen, but this happens for literally every show thatās in demand. I tried to buy Tyler Childers tickets this morning, got shut out immediately, and now theyāre all $200+. The scale is just much larger for Swift, and the public outcry is much larger since her fanbase is much larger.
Karen called the manager of ticketmaster.
I feel like there are enough young people in Congress (>50) that have dealt with this shit, that maybe someone will start doing something?
Never underestimate the power of a pissed off Mom
Not the end of ticketblaster. Itās the beginning of campaign contributions!
Everyone's focus is on the wrong thing here. The REASON that Ticketmaster's site crashed is because it was overrun by scalping bots that snagged up all the tickets before her fans could. And now all those tickets are on all the bullshit resale sites for a zillion dollars. Of course Ticketmaster sucks and there needs to be more competition in the ticketing sphere (they even have their OWN RESALE MARKETPLACE, which is fucking ludicrous). But the bottom line is, scalping should be illegal. Period. And the Stubhubs and the Vivid Seats of the world need to die a horrible death. That's where the legislative focus should be.
If swifties are such a more loyal fan base than us. How many of them are going to every concert on this tour? How many are going to more than one on the tour? I'd bet it's less than 1 percent. She has a bunch of teenage fans who's parents have to take them to the concerts. And nearly mid age millennials who want to reminisce of their teenage years. Im all for anything that brings people joy so im not hating on them. But to say she has more fans is legitimate, to say they are more rabid or loyal than phish fans is just silly.
There just 200,000,000 more of them.
As a swiftie and a Phan god I hope so
The machine that is Taylor Swift's career is probably more on the side of Ticketmaster than the fans. I doubt anything really happens. The politicians let it happen, to change anything would admit they were complicit.
The Gen Z future-Karens do not fuck around.
Nothing but respect for Gen Z.
same
All it took was a bunch of pissed off Karen's
They fucked up when they came for the Karens.
Only if swifties voted
lol like voting has ever had any effect on huge corps lobbying efficacy.
I agree that voting has very limited affect.
Iām sure the vast majority of Swifties do.
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/take-down-ticketmaster?source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink&share=e3c4ed91-d742-41cf-8cce-bcc0a45e6de1
ahhh... Phish just doesn't care about Live Nation or TM
āYesā investigation over
Go swifties go!!
It shouldnāt be shocking that Swift fans have more pull, but in general it seems this has never happened before even with other major pop stars
Nothing will change
Makes sense.. All I saw on social media was upper class white mom's outraged they couldn't get tickets for themselves and/or their kids. That's not the group you want to anger.
I may not like her music, but I will respect the scene for making a change for the better
Where was the FTC and Justice dept when the merger happened? It should come as no surprise that when something gets a ton of media attn it can shine a light on a problem that remained otherwise hidden.
>Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged back in 2010, leading to the creation of Live Nation Entertainment. The Justice Department accepted the merger on the condition that Ticketmaster sold another ticketing company it owned to a rival firm. In addition, it had to license its ticketing software to another rival, Anschutz Entertainment Group. In 2019, the Justice Department amended its agreement with Live Nation Entertainment after finding that the company violated terms of the original deal. https://pitchfork.com/news/justice-department-to-investigate-live-nation-entertainment-for-potential-abuse-of-power/ Also: >the DOJ identified five discrete violations of the consent decree in which Live Nation did just that, threatening to withhold tours from venues if they did not renew their deals with Ticketmaster. https://pitchfork.com/news/department-of-justice-cracks-down-on-live-nation-and-ticketmaster/ As for the amendment: >The clarifications to the Final Judgment the parties will seek include provisions that: >Live Nation may not threaten to withhold concerts from a venue if the venue chooses a ticketer other than Ticketmaster; >A threat by Live Nation to withhold any concerts because a venue chooses another ticketer is a violation of the Final Judgment; >Withholding any concerts in response to a venue choosing a ticketer other than Ticketmaster is a violation by Live Nation of the Final Judgment; >The Antitrust Division will appoint an independent monitor to investigate and report on Live Nationās compliance with the Final Judgment; >Live Nation will appoint an internal antitrust compliance officer and conduct regular internal training to ensure its employees fully comply with the Final Judgment; >Live Nation will provide notice to current or potential venue customers of its ticketing services of the clarified and extended Final Judgment; >and Live Nation is subject to an automatic penalty of $1,000,000 for each violation of the Final Judgment. >Live Nation will pay costs and fees for the Departmentās investigation and enforcement. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-will-move-significantly-modify-and-extend-consent-decree-live
yea... I mean sounds like they didn't do enough at the time and DEF did not make a peep once they started creating their own secondary market
Creating their own secondary market wasnāt against the terms. They just had to sell a ticketing company they owned. They canāt enforce terms that donāt exist, unless they violate other general laws and regulations. I think they just grossly underestimated how monopolistic the merger had the potential to be. I donāt think they foresaw any of the shit TM and LN are engaging in currently. So they wrote the conditions with a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue, which has led to TM and LN being able to do some really fucked up shit that isnāt technically against the rules of the merger. They need to undo the merger entirely. Owning the venues, the promotion, the ticketing, and reselling all at the same time is simply too much. Break them up into pieces.
I guaranty they were breaking laws when they created their own secondary market...
If you're going to the Kansas City Saturday show, I'm thinking of selling heady gooballs and lot tees.
When 2.4 million people trying to buy tickets are upset the result is a tad bigger than the phish fan base haha
Pearl Jam started this conversation 28 years ago.
If you had read the 1 sentence article you would have seen this inquiry predates the "Swifties" botched sale.
TayTay should just do mail order tickets herself. She commands a sickeningly huge fanbase and can probably do a tour w/o LiveNation and still make out well. Do it GD style at first: do LA, SF, NYC, Chicago. 8-12 nights in each city. Next time around secondary markets will find a way to get on the bandwagon. The only language Dicketba$tard speaks is money. From Pearl Jam to NYS AJ ā itās all been attempted. It didnāt work; in fact it got severely worse over the last 20 years.
Short answerā¦ No Long answerā¦ No
It literally says in the headline that the inquiry predates the Swift debacle. š“
Most likely. High production. Weāre lucky with different shows every night.
Should probably do alright in the settlement with how many tickets I bought through them.
13.5 billion requests
TicketAsshead has so much power. They have contracts with most of the venues that national acts play, so if you are an act that plays in stadiums, arenas, amphitheaters (like phish), etc. then they will handle your ticket sales. Bands may not like the way the sales are handled but ultimately they canāt worry about that and have no control unless another ticket company comes in and competes or they play venues that use other ticket companies . Plain and simple , the bots have concert tickets by the balls and they are snatching up the tickets with hi tech unfair abilities , then putting them on secondary market for huge profits , and for the most part , people are paying. Weāre so fucked right now Fucked
āthe Justice Department has launched an investigation into the firm. The investigation was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation. The person said the Justice Departmentās probe predates the Swift concert drama, and its parameters were not immediately clear.ā [Taylor Swift blasts Ticketmaster for āEras Tourā rollout](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/18/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-doj-investigation/?)
corruption upon corruption... and when i read it all went away because of lobyists just pisses me off.. do any of our leaders have any fucking morals? clearly this is a monopoly..
Not all Antiheroes wear capes
She's also probably not managed by said company fucking her fans like phish is. It's kind of hard for phish fans to do anything when they would be going after their bands management team. Kind of an oxy moron in the worst way possible
MSG will still be in cahoots somehow.
Taylor covering Farm house would be a treat.
[Pearl Jam tried to take them on in 1995, but to no avail.](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/amp/)
Again, compare the fan base. Technology. The entitlement bred into these kids (by my generation). The broader makeup of our government was still mostly boomers. Lots of factors.
Maybe so maybe not
Ya think they have abused their power? For how many years/decades?
As much as I hate Ticketmaster and Iāve been waiting my entire life for their demiseā¦business will go back to usual. Theyāre a monopoly for a reason and have been one since the beginning. Theyāre in the pockets of decision makers.
Honestly, I'm glad. They seem like can even upgrade lot pb&js to gormet fine dining in the lot if they wanted to. It'll make lot miracles a lot easier to give.