Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, says Congress should be asking whether the consent decree was the right move. It is worth noting that many venues are owned by or have exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster, and this points to a broader lack of transparency around what exactly is going on behind the scenes. A group of Swift fans later filed a lawsuit accusing Ticketmasters parent company of anticompetitive conduct. As the hearing begins to wrap up, Taylor Swift has yet to make any public comments about it. But she said that the larger questions of the day whether Live Nation-Ticketmaster is a monopoly, and if so what action should be taken about it were best handled by the Justice Department. When you are a giant corporation with as tight a grip on an industry as Live Nation Entertainment, you can kind of do and not do whatever you want. Live Nation operates under an agreement called a consent decree, which was required by the Justice Department to approve the companies merger, and in 2020, the department extended it by five years. Because people just fall in line.. Live Nations president and chief financial officer, Joe Berchtold, blamed an onslaught of bot attacks for forcing the company to pause sales of the Swift tickets in November, and suggested that such issues were best handled by Congress through legislation. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. How the hell am I supposed to access my ticket?! Talking to Clyde Lawrence, the musician, Cornyn said, For your band to make 6 bucks out of a $42 ticket price doesnt strike me as artist-first.. A new class-action lawsuit seeking to represent any Ticketmaster customers who purchased tickets since last July claims . Once you choose your desired event, select the "Summer's Live 4 Pack" ticket type and it'll instantly add a four-pack of tickets to your cart. The American Prospect has an excellent rundown of Ticketmasters complicated 40-year history here. But the trouble that Ticketmaster had last year selling tickets to Taylor Swift fans seems to have united lawmakers from both parties, who used Tuesdays hearing to criticize the botched sale and to ask tough questions about whether Live Nations merger with Ticketmaster had hurt consumers. Live Nation's ticket-refund site with details about events canceled or postponed due to the coronarvirus pandemic, announced last Friday, is now live. I was able to grab tickets to see Haim, but it took multiple refreshes. Tickets will NOT be emailed or . Continue browsing to accept the use of all cookies. The thing with a company being so big and having so much power is that it doesnt have to try very hard to be good. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. So if you want to get around using Ticketmaster, youre in a pickle, whether youre an artist, a venue, or just a person trying to see a show. newsletter. Live Nation came under fire in November following issues with its ticket sales for Taylor Swift's upcoming tour, with prospective concert goers faced with high prices and service failures that ultimately led to the cancellation of the public sale. Photo: Jun Sato/TAS18/Getty Images. The Justice Department is also reportedly conducting an antitrust investigation into Live Nation. What you get when you chat with us. The first witness this morning is Joe Berchtold, the president and chief financial officer of Live Nation Entertainment. Here are four takeaways from the hearing, which was called after Ticketmaster had problems in November selling tickets to Taylor Swifts coming tour, leaving millions of frustrated fans unable to buy tickets. I recently went to buy tickets for a monster truck show in New Jersey (dont worry about it) and was surprised to see the price of the two $20 tickets I was looking at had nearly doubled when I got to checkout, due to service fees, facility charges, and order processing fees. Recurrent problems with Ticketmasters sale of Eras tickets doesnt just highlight Swifts wild popularityit reveals flaws in the dominant ticket outlets business. It finally errored out. Everything from their service fees to their mobile tickets are bullshit. Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism? All vertical mergers are sold on the basis of these benefits to consumers, which, by the way, rarely ever pan out.. Visit your venue's official site for specific questions such as parking lot locations, hours, drop-off areas or to find their contact information. Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to Fortunes request for more details about the issue with the third-party provider. In June, the American Economic Liberties Project released a report detailing the extent of the stranglehold Live Nation Entertainment has on the live events industry. She also said, I believe in capitalism, and noted the importance of healthy competition in the market. Midnights, the album Swift released in October, enjoyed the biggest debut week of any album in seven years. In a statement introducing their legislation, Blumenthal echoed the senator from Minnesota. Daily Hive is a Canadian-born online news source, established in 2008, that creates compelling, hyperlocal content. Join your favorite artist's fan club. Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift tour fiasco last week renewed calls to investigate the 12-year-old merger that joined the world's largest live event promoter . In prepared testimony for the January Senate hearing, Live Nation Entertainment president and CFO Joe Berchtold said that in most cases venues set service and ticketing fees. This isnt the first time Ticketmaster has fumbled selling Swifts tickets. Closely watching the Ticketmaster hearing today: Swifties. SeatGeek replaced Ticketmaster at Barclays Center in Brooklyn last year, but the arena switched back to Ticketmaster this month, only one year into SeatGeeks contract. According to Ms. Klobuchar, many venues have spoken to lawmakers about Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and reported that even if they are not out there threatening them, theyre afraid to go to someone else because then they are not going to get the acts they want., This is all the definition of monopoly, she said, because if Live Nation is so powerful that it doesnt even need to exert pressure. Witt believes the ticketing market is ripe for disruption but is held back by Ticketmasters dominance. In the filing, the Justice. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Availability and pricing are subject to change. May I suggest respectfully that Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, Im the problem, its me., Blumenthal says, Unwinding the merger ought to be on the table., Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, underscored the bipartisanship on this issue and the apparent bipartisan anger at Live Nation by mock congratulating Berchtold: You have brought together Republicans and Democrats in an absolutely unified cause.. You leverage market power in one market to get market power in another, he said. We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Parking passes are offered during the ticket purchase process when available. At the same time, given the amount of money they pull in and the commitments they make to artists and the fact that theyre paying their CEOs millions of dollars, they do not invest enough to maintain the platform at an adequate level.. In November 2022, when Ticketmaster had to cancel a public sale, it told the New York Times that it had received 3.5 billion system requests in one day. Ends Thu, Jul 13 @ 10:00 pm CDT. . Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who called the hearing, said in a summation near the end that some of the problems in ticketing, including how bots can be counteracted, and whether there should be limits on the reselling of tickets, could be dealt with through legislation. At a Bad Bunny concert in Mexico City on Dec. 9, many patrons tickets, purchased directly from Ticketmaster, were rejected as fakes by malfunctioning scanning machines. You ought to be able to get some good advice and figure this out., Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pushed back against Live Nations self-description as being artist first in its business. When Vox inquired about the fee issue via email, Ticketmaster said venues select a ticketer and help set fees and generally keep the majority of those fees and didnt provide further detail beyond Berchtolds testimony. Im having the time of my life right now, watching this courtroom stream, said Erin Knox, a 21-year-old fan from New York State who, like many others, tweeted live reactions to the proceedings. "She was shocked to see that the extra fees tacked on at the end amounted to original price of the tickets in the first place," Wilk told Insider. Twice a month, Emily Stewarts column exposes the ways were all being squeezed under capitalism. Live Nation's $25 concert sale is on now, and people are struggling to grab tickets to see their favourite artists. debating whether to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. Berchtold, I want to congratulate and thank you for an absolutely stunning achievement: You have brought together Republicans and Democrats in an absolutely unified cause, he said. Sign up here. Ticketmaster controls more than 70 percent of the ticketing and live events market. Live Nation told the Times it didnt run afoul of any regulatory guidelines with the Barclays Center. The Times will provide live video at nytimes.com, accompanied by analysis from reporters, when the hearing, headed by Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, starts at 10 a.m. A musician who is testifying has written that Live Nations control of the live music ecosystem is staggering., Live Nation says a bot attack led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret.. All Rights Reserved. It also wouldnt guarantee an end to any funny business between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. A California legislator is trying to strike back at Live Nation Entertainment's grip on the live events space. The Eras Tour, Swifts first worldwide tour in five years, has set records for Ticketmaster traffic en route to becoming a bona fide cultural phenomenon. If you missed the opportunity to purchase parking or haven't received your parking pass, contact Fan Support. Check the venue website leading up to your event for the latest protocols. The hard thing is that theres not a lot most people can do about it. Get the inside scoop on todays biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley delivered daily. You cant blame bots for what happened to Taylor Swift. Musicians, dont trust Live Nation with your livelihood, Clyde Lawrence, of the band Lawrence, wrote in an opinion essay for The New York Times last month. In November, she called the debacle around ticket sales for her Eras tour excruciating, but didnt name Live Nation directly. The Live Nation-Ticketmaster tie-up that took place in 2010 is what is called a vertical merger, meaning a combination of companies operating at different levels of production. When they are debating whether to confirm a Supreme Court nominee, for instance, they tend not to be very collegial. Artists find themselves in a similar predicament. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, accused the company of being a monopoly that harms consumers. If you're using a mobile, you may want to try using Wi-Fi rather than 3G/4G, just in case you lose signal. A frustrating ticket-buying experience by the niece of California state Sen. Scott Wilk has led to the introduction of a new bill rushing through the California legislature. Under the merger, Ticketmaster became a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment. In the immediate aftermath, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation explained that while 1.5 million people had signed up as legit customers, over 14 million hit the site when tickets went on sale . Jerry Mickelson, chief executive officer of Jam Productions, responded to Mr. Berchtolds assertion. TheStreet: The main argument I've . Part of the problem is that Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment, occupies most of the ticket selling market, so fans have little other choice but to suffer its millions-long queues and Sisyphean loading screens. This is the definition of a monopoly, she says. We hear people say that the ticketing markets are lesscompetitivetoday than they were at the time of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, Mr. Berchtold said. There are fewer than a dozen protesters gathered in front of the Capitol, just down the street from the hearing, waving homemade signs against Ticketmaster and shouting, Break it up! Among them are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Ticketmaster. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, called the sale a debacle., Mr. The show I want is listed on the concert week page but no $25 tickets showing up?? Im not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.. He says he hopes the committee can help make a better experience for the consumer., Durbin says that Live Nation and Ticketmasters consent decree the regulatory agreement that allowed those companies to merge in 2010 does not appear to have been effective.. Why is it, she asked, that you have not developed an algorithm to sort out what is a bot and what is a consumer?. A breakup wouldnt fix everything. Blue October Tickets Nov 09, 2023 Anaheim, CA | Live Nation. I think the server is just overloaded right now. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. The bill was introduced several months after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Klobuchar singled out Live Nation Entertainment for its practices, which she described as monopolistic. Thats simply not true. He pointed to SeatGeek, Eventbrite and other players in the field, as well as to a robust resale market. Nobody I talked to for this story thought Ticketmaster faced meaningful competition in the primary ticketing market, and many expressed concerns about just how much (very lucrative) ground Ticketmaster was gaining in the secondary market, too. 5 days 7 hours 43 mins 36 secs. An antitrust expert who testified. "Using its promotion business as a loss leader in turn helps maintain Ticketmaster's dominance, because venue operators must take into account the very real possibility that Live Nation Entertainment will not route tours through their venues if they do not select Ticketmaster as their primary ticketing service provider," the lawsuit reads. - Virtual assistant to guide you and a Fan Support rep to help, if needed. That same day, Live Nation Entertainment announced a new "transparent" pricing system where instead of introducing a host of fees at the end of the transaction, it said it would introduce them at the beginning. Senator Amy Klobuchar accuses Live Nation of being a monopoly that harms consumers. Fans have been tweeting at Live Nation, complaining about site crashes and errors. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret, he said. Live Nation-Ticketmaster has only acquired more market power in all of these market segments, has become more powerful, has absolutely engaged in conduct theyre not supposed to engage in that was prohibited by the consent order, and nothing is being done about it, Moss said. Its a lesson no one can learn from. "Monopolies and anticompetitive behavior hurt consumers, venues, and artists alike, and as the DOJ weighs what enforcement steps it can take,Congress must also act to implement reforms," Klobuchar said to Insider. Mishandled sales for Taylor Swifts tour enraged her fans, and attracted the attention of lawmakers. Daily Hive has reached out to Live Nation for comment. And lastly, in the judicial branch, the New York Times reported in November 2022 that the Department of Justice opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment. Her sign modified a lyric from Swifts song All Too Well to reference the ticket debacle: We remember your incompetence all too well.. Some of the people denied entry to the show had saved large portions of their salaries to buy tickets in a country where the median monthly income is much lower than in the United States. Lets talk vertical mergers, corporate consolidation, and Taylor Swift. That's just not what the problem was there. But our competitor, Live Nation, makes money from selling tickets to our concerts.. Jack Groetzinger, the chief executive of SeatGeek, a smaller but aggressive competitor to Ticketmaster, called for the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster to be undone. Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of concert and ticketing giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster, has been attracting more heat from politicians in recent weeks. Greg Maffei, the chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, apologized for the problems in an interview on CNBC in November and said that the issues were caused in part by Ms. Swifts huge popularity. were rejected as fakes by malfunctioning scanning machines. Nobody likes Ticketmaster, said Gary Witt, executive director of the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee, but the company is fully willing to take on that dislike at the same time to be able to control and make that money.. Buggy ticket sales and market dominance arent the only things Ticketmaster gives fans to complain about. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who has been a longtime critic of Live Nation, directly accused the company in her opening statement of being a monopoly that harms consumers. When you're ready to check out, the price for the four-pack will be automatically listed as $80. Terms & Conditions. Trying to get a refund from them is impossible. . File a Complaint. First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. This is unbelievable, she says, pointing to other industries that she says handle bots better. Ticketmasters stronghold over the ticketing industry long predates the Live Nation merger, and it would still have a lot of control in the primary and, increasingly, the secondary market. The Ticketmaster page states you can buy max eight tickets, and I only had three in my cart. While Ticketmaster had an estimated 80 percent of major concert venues at the time of its 2010 merger with Live Nation, the company has lost market share since then, Mr. Berchtold said. And so were stuck in a constant loop of Ticketmaster horror stories that, again, have nothing to do with Taylor Swift, and we cant escape. When you play a show at a venue that Live Nation either owns or is an exclusive promoter of, then the artist has no choice but to use Ticketmaster as the exclusive ticketing platform for the show, said Clyde Lawrence, singer-songwriter of the band Lawrence, who has been outspoken about Live Nations control in the entertainment industry and testified in the Senates Ticketmaster hearing.
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