As I am sure most of the world is aware of the monopoly that Ticketmaster have regarding events, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to defeat them little by little or otherwise.
I have seen many campaigns, including one from before live nation was formed, in an attempt to prevent it. The juggernaut that it is, easily bats away any attempt to take it on, they are not even afraid of the US government trying to break up the monopoly.
They have been caught many times globally breaking and bending laws, and have a very unethical form of practice. Ticket prices just keep going up along with nonsense charges.
Would love to see ideas to help defeat them.
This is tough as they do seem to run this town, I don’t like arena or stadium shows but even The Ritz and Jannus Live use that platform. A few shows are AXS sometimes but they are just as expensive.
Go to small shows that take money at the door. Our community radio station has concerts sometimes, and there are always shows at bars.
Stop giving them money?
Seriously. Selling tickets doesn’t have to be a million-dollar affair.
Odds are the venues that you’re going to suck and exist to take advantage of people’s low standards and excess wealth.
Fly to shows in Europe instead. Prices have never been lower for the flights and concert tickets are much, much cheaper over there. You might just break even after it all but at least you got to go to Europe instead of enriching ticketmaster
Go to the small venues, support local bands, get a cool tshirt 👍
I second this.
I see great local shows regularly and I haven’t paid for tickets past a donation bucket at the door in years.
Sadly, the only real way to fight them is to stop going to concerts.
No, there’s a second way. We all know what it is.
Please enlighten me.
Nice try FBI. You won’t get me that easily.
And make these dumb fucking celebrities understand that they are just as big a problem by going to these people.
Pearl Jam tried at what was pretty much the peak of their career and it didn’t go well for them. Ticketmaster holds an illegal monopoly and should be forced to allow other players to sell tickets to the venues that they have in a stranglehold.
Did they really try?
Seems like a popular group such as pearl jam could get away with selling tickets without this company.
Yes, they really did try. And because pretty much all large venues are Ticketmaster-only, they cancelled a tour in 1994.
pretty much all
What about the ones that weren’t ticketmaster-only?
I find it hard to believe they couldn’t find a place to have their shows. Maybe in a major city, but if they were willing to go outside of one then there’s no way ticketmaster is going to have control over everything.
It could’ve been good business for the towns they played in and ticketmaster would be left out to dry.
I guess that’s asking too much of them, though. Even though it’s really not.
I’m going to have to say nay on their attempt. They could have and should have tried harder.
That’s what they tried. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalogy_Tour#History
Pearl Jam promoted Vitalogy with tours in Asia, Oceania, and the United States in 1995. […] The band continued its boycott against Ticketmaster during its tour of the United States, refusing to play in Ticketmaster’s venue areas, but was surprised that virtually no other bands joined it in refusing to play at Ticketmaster venues. The band chose to use alternate ticketing companies for the shows.
The tour of the United States faced various troubles. Bassist Jeff Ament said that the band and its crew had to “[build] shows from the ground up, a venue everywhere we went.” […]
About cancelling the dates, Vedder said, “I think we all agreed that it had gotten insane, that it was no longer about the music.” Ament later said, “We were so hardheaded about the 1995 tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career.”
So… what was the problem? How did it get “insane”?
Is it because nobody else “big” joined them? Is it because, and hear me out, they decide it was no longer worth the money?
Seems like artists would have some way of setting up shows outside of Ticketmaster’s control.
Not in any way that would be meaningful for bands that tour internationally and play for tens of thousands. Pretty much all large venues have exclusive contracts with Ticketmaster.
Smaller bands, sure.
It’s not really up to the celebrities, I’m afraid. The venues themselves have exclusivity deals with LiveNation, and pretty much every venue that’s at least of medium size has this deal. I guess you could say “then don’t perform at those venues” but imagine Metallica performing in a 100-person venue… that’s kind of unfair to all the people that want to see them
Go back to the traditional way of renting them for a party at your place?
Not to mention the musicians often don’t have control over their tour schedules.
You don’t get that they can choose who what and where to go. They could make a shitty no name stadium a good one. There are no excuses for rich privileged children. Which unfortunately is most of them.
I completely agree with you.
The whole atmosphere surrounding live shows is toxic as fuck. There are literally millions of useful idiots eager to get ripped off so they can fit in with each other.
It’s a force that logic can’t fight back against. We live in a world of morons, and seeing them get taken advantage of in this way is something we should just get used to.
I’m not holding my breath expecting things to change. My generation certainly wasn’t the one to fix these problems.
The shitty no name stadium probably also has an exclusive contract with LiveNation. Or else it just doesn’t host live performances in general, in which case it simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to host a huge band.
in which case it simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to host a huge band.
What infrastructure? Amps? That’s a non-issue.
Business and personel infrastructure.
It is not that simple. The DOJ filed a lawsuit against Ticketbastard last year over their monopolistic practises although the suit will probably be dropped if they pucker up and kiss the oily rectum of the insane clown pressie.
I’m hesitant to blame the celebrities on this one. Putting on a concert is a business proposition not just for the venue and ticketing (dis)service, but also for the performers. As with any business venture, the goal is to profit. Larger acts often have large set pieces to create and massive amounts of equipment to transport, not to mention all the labor that goes into setting up at each venue. Can’t make the economics of that work if you don’t have enough seats to sell, and Ticketmaster/LiveNation owns the lion’s share of those large venues.
You cant be serious? Are you going to defend the people who kept TicketMaster in power? Without their concerts they wouldn’t be a business? Todays the day we should learn about choice and free will. Because theyre freely choosing ticketmaster. E-concerts would be cheaper more worthwhile and guess who never gets a dollar?
Lol. Who tf is gonna pay for an e-concert? You know you can just listen to the band on spotify, right? The point of going to a concert is:
- Posting that you went to a concert on social media, apparently.
- Dancing in the pit while the music rattles your bones.
- Spending time with your friends who like the band, and meeting other people who like the band and making friends.
None of these things are possible when you are watching someone play on a screen at home.
What is a “concert”?
Is this something I’m too introverted to understand?
Boycott venues that use their service, it’s really the only option. Admittedly it’s getting more difficult everyday, even my local hole in the wall recently signed on with ticketmaster for their shows.
Save your money. Stay home and pirate the music.
But then they won’t have something to talk about to make them seem interesting!
Okay, then find small local bands and pirate their shit instead.
It’s tough since you’re basically stuck with having to use whatever the promoter / venue is using for ticketing. I do hate it when shows are using Ticketmaster / TicketWeb, like why is that even necessary when other options exist?
In the NYC area I’ve seen shows use other ticketing systems like Dice, See Tickets, Eventbrite, KYD, etc. so other stuff does exist beyond the Ticketmaster monopoly. Personally I think Dice might be the best one, it’s nice to have the ability to let the venue resell your ticket via waitlist if you can’t go to the show for some reason - I think it only works for sold out events but still seems useful. Or the reverse, you can put yourself on a waitlist for a sold out show and maybe score a ticket if someone else decides they can’t go.
Ticketmaster basically locks venues into contracts where they are only allowed to host ticketmaster bands. And ticketmaster signs contracts with bands where they can only use ticketmaster to sell their tickets. So since they have exclusive contracts with all the biggest bands and venues, no one can defect without basically making themselves irrelevant.
Not sure if that applies to smaller venues, or Ticketmaster’s other brands (TicketWeb). There are shows at a small venue I go to that are usually sold with Dice tickets, yet there is this one promoter whose own shows at the venue are always sold on TicketWeb. These are all small indie type shows, small venue… my hunch is that the promoter is just too lazy to switch to anything else.
