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Inside: Ticketmaster jacks us for billions so it can pocket millions; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/03/aoi-aoi-oh/

#Pluralistic

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A Depression-era Chicago street-scene, featuring a long line of frustrated people standing in front of a series of store-fronts. The image has been altered. It has been colorized. A Live Nation sign has been matted in on one of the storefronts. In the foreground, a disembodied pair of hands perform the shell-game reveal, and beneath the shell is a Ticketmaster ticket.
#Pluralistic
Cory Doctorow

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–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
the class action suit should be the biggest in history - quite apart from the higher ticket prices caused by the Tickmaster/LiveNation monopoly - they've directly skimmed of 20, 30, even 40% "convenience" and "service" fees from almost every concert ticket I've bought in the last 10 years. That's probably at least $1000 just for me, one person. In the US I'm sure the total has to be tens of billions if not hundreds.

Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.

gz
 
gz  
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@enmodo
I stopped going to concerts run by that system many years ago. I just don't care enough about the acts to subject myself to the abuse, I'd rather go to local venues and see less corporatized music.
@–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
cognitively accessible math
@godzero @enmodo I love my town for that. We've got Rose Bowl Tavern that was bought by one of the bands *right before COVID hit.* They figured out contact-free and you could get beer and toilet paper.... and now they have a big tent and outdoor concerts *every day* weather permitting (took folks changing a law when another venue I'll never patronize again called them in for not clearing the parking lot from the tents *every night.*)
@–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 @gz
ferricoxide
Wife and I go to probably 30-50 shows a year and, yeah, the fees definitely add up. But the fun thing is the number of venues Ticketmaster are buying up through their many sub-companies. Even if ticket prices remain the same, bar tabs have tripled and, because they're now doing things like partnering with Ghost Energy Drinks, your choice of mixers has gone to hell
–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
Oh geez, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah I simply didn't bother with $15 beers. Or more for "premium". And they'll only sell you 20 oz or more so you have to get up and pee and miss some of the show, or chug the rest as you leave.

We need more bands to just say no. But now streaming has gutted their non live revenues they are often forced to go to only the venues that can do massive big profit making concerts which suck for most of the audience.
@pluralistic
@Cory Doctorow
ferricoxide
After our weekly hangout place got bought by a Ticketmaster owned company, two call cocktails went from $16 in 2021 to $44, now. And, wife can't get vodka with Red Bull there, any more. It sucks, because I really like the staff there, but can't tip as much – on a percentage basis – because it's now way too expensive to do so.
merlin / alex glow
Forty? Four? HUMAN? Dollars?!!!
ferricoxide
In fairness, that includes DC's 10% tax (which it included when the two drinks totaled $16).

But, yeah, two, single-shot "cocktails" with mid-tier vodka come in at a $44 pre-tip total.
–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
That's almost Vegas prices where $25 a cocktail (before tax and tip) in an on-strip casino is common. A 12oz domestic beer is around $10 or $15 for a decent beer. So I don't really drink much in those locations.

@pluralistic @alexglow
@Cory Doctorow @merlin / alex glow
Tom
@enmodo @ferricoxide I wonder if we're due another flowering of regional musical styles as ticketmaster has made nationwide touring untenable for most acts. I know lots of local bands here rarely perform outside the mountain west.
Alternately, could ticketmaster have killed touring for popular music as bedroom musicians can make a better living entirely online?
Disturbing that one company can have that much cultural impact
@–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 @ferricoxide
–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
@stealthisbook @ferricoxide maybe although if their music is online somewhere then music suggestions most sites have are probably going to lead people there eventually unless it is something truly unique and dissimilar to your usual preferences and no other person with similar tastes to you also likes it.

But yeah, their impact on music is disturbing - they can literally make or break a band in the way that previously only labels could.
@ferricoxide @Tom
Tom
@enmodo @ferricoxide imagine one of my local bluegrass bands. I bought a CD at the merch table after the show, and they're traveling by van up to Fort Collins planning a day in town. There's at least one notable funk band in Fort Collins who all mostly work at the record store off Mulberry, or else at Al's Hotdogs. Could they talk and maybe collaborate? Probably. Would it have happened online? Probably not, unless somebody was searching for collaborators with social media posts
@–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 @ferricoxide
–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
you know selfish me says I'd ultimately much rather see a band at a small local venue vs. a giant Ticketnasty venue with a billion other fans. There's a UK band White Lies I discovered by accident and managed to see twice in small local venues in California with just a few hundred people in the audience. They were awesome concerts.

Maybe there are alternative ways for small bands to monetize their music?
ferricoxide
The venue we most-frequently go to has a listed-capacity (one of those firemarshall plaques) of 440 people. Most of the shows we go to tend to be Wednesday or Thursday shows. Most of those typically about half-fill the place. That venue is Ticketmaster-owned, now. Whether they'd have bought it were it not part of a package-deal (it was previously owned by the same group that owned a 3500-person, DJ Top 100 venue that consistently ranks in the top 10 to top 5) I couldn't tell you. But it's definitely an example that "small venue" isn't the automatically the same as "not Ticketmaster-owned".
Tom
@enmodo @ferricoxide I'd say yeah, there is. Imagine if there was no ticketmaster weighing down the market. Big acts could play stadiums and theaters profitably instead of doing 'secret shows' in between show dates. Smaller bands could trace venues across the nation that paid enough to at least make the next destination if not profit altogether. I could walk to see a band that I heard on the radio (or heard about on a podcast) and pay a minimal cover plus a couple drinks
@–modo ⚛️ 🧬 🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 @ferricoxide
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