If it means change, I'll take it!

For the last 30 years, monopolies could only be broken up if the corporation bought other companies "without the intention of of forming a “monopoly.”

With the intention of forming a monopoly?

I had to pay sales tax to purchase two tickets from a Ticketmaster subsidiary in a state where we have no sales tax. I even went through the hassle of contacting them and they just blew me off with "it's to cover state and local taxes" which are nonexistant in reality.

Meanwhile the cost of delivering tickets has never been lower.

I hope you made sure to tip them at least 20% for the convenience 🙃

Back in the day, you would camp out or arrive early....stand in line...wait for the record store to open to buy tickets.

All tickets were same price No Internet meant 1st person in line had a real chance to get front row seats Tickets were 30.00 maybe....I paid 40 to see van Halen with Alice in Chains open.

Nowadays, seats are priced at a premium Venues add an upcharge for seats on top of Ticketmaster Fees are almost as much as a ticket Front row doesn't go to fans that camp out, they are sold at a huge markup. No more paper tickets means ticketmaster gets to double dip on fees for a resale...if they even allow resale of your ticket.

Fuck ticketmaster

Swifties vs BTS fans, no one wins.

Lol exactly, hence the monopoly accusations. We're on to you Ticketmaster/LiveNation!

I do remember this episode. They go into it a bit at the 5 minute mark, but didn't get into many specifics.

It looks like Hollywood accounting to me still. If we look at the statements from Ticketmaster's site for answers, we get:

Who sets the ticket price? Artists, promoters, sports leagues, or teams decide how they want to sell their tickets on Ticketmaster. That includes setting the face value prices, determining how many tickets to sell, and when to put them on sale.

How much money does Ticketmaster make from a ticket? Ticketmaster doesn’t keep anything from the face value cost of a ticket. We take a portion of the fees added to the ticket. As a ticketing vendor selected by the venue, Ticketmaster’s portion covers the costs of the technology, people, and resources needed to provide a safe and secure ticket-buying experience. It also covers the equipment and support we provide venues with, helping them to manage their box office and seamlessly get everyone into the venue on event day.

What are service fees? Service fees are an essential cost of putting on a show. The venue sets the service fee rate card and keeps most of the service fees, sharing a portion with Ticketmaster, sports teams, leagues, promoters, and other parties who have a hand in making live events happen.

Can you tell me how many tickets have been sold for an event? For all inquiries on pricing and sales you must reach out to the event organizer directly.

And if we look at LiveNation:

As the world’s largest live entertainment company, Live Nation is the one-stop solution for all your event needs. From corporate events to private live concerts, to social gatherings, our event specialists provide seamless execution, including event planning, experiential marketing, state-of-the-art equipment, live entertainment and more.

And also:

With over 150 venues across North America, we offer unique event spaces, state-of-the-art production and branding capabilities, as well as an experienced staff ready to exceed your guests' expectations.

So while plenty of money is leaving Ticketmaster, a very large chunk of that is likely going right back into several of their other pockets.

The LWT piece also goes into how only a minority of tickets actually go to sale to the public, leaving the rest up for resale, which they also have the potential to get a slice of as well, and they have seemingly done nothing to combat resllers or bots.

So LiveNation I can understand having slimmer margins since they seem to be providing actual services and have overhead on their physical ownings and staff, but Ticketmaster itself still seems to mainly by an app and marketing department.

They could do more shows at smaller venues in more towns. I dunno, I'm just mad and so tired of this shit.