Live & Touring

A Ticket Reseller Reacts To The Live Nation Tickemaster Merger

Livestublogo
OP-ED:
This potential merger will take an industry that thrives on taking advantage of consumers and make it even more attainable for unconscionable practices to become the norm.

Tickets
Ticketmaster and Live Nation thrive in the shadows
and are forced to find creative ways to keep a wide group of stakeholders happy and fed. Questionable service fees used to do the job, but with the potential ability of directing significant ticket inventory (which this merger will allow them to exclusively control) into a secondary exchange. you have some powerful groups salivating at the thought of keeping these revenues in their pocket: This is the dirty little secret of the deal and is a substantive issue that regulators and fans should be aware of.

If this deal goes through, there is nothing to stop this new company from shifting inventory into the secondary market before fans ever get a chance to buy their ticket. Just ask The Boss (Bruce Springsteen) about the impact it will have on real fans.

Consumers need an independent, transparent platform to allow them to buy or sell tickets. These 25-20% in additional fees are ridiculous. The days where shady backroom deals are the norm in the entertainment business must end; consumers must be the # 1 priority. This potential merger could bring dark days for consumers. Music fans deserve better.

Michael Hershfield
Co-Founder and CEO of LiveStub


Tell us what you think of the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger and vote in our poll.

More: Live Nation & Ticketmaster Near Merger and An Angry Springsteen Opposes Merger

Share on:

5 Comments

  1. very interesting position – i had not thought about this part of the deal
    this is very scary for music fans

  2. This is my major concern. Monopoly is never a good thing ad the merging of these two will lead to a major disadvantage for other companies and fans. There is no reason for the merge except more profit for them. Sucks.

  3. Same thing happened when Phish, one of the largest grossing bands in recent history (in terms of tickets sold), announced that they were reuniting. Of course, Hampton, the first run of shows, were highly sought after.
    Everyone I’ve spoken with had the same experience – got in within seconds of the Ticketmaster on-sale, only to see it sold out. Understandable, except that TM’s secondary outlet was already full of available tickets, some selling at north of $800. How is it that “resellers” were able to obtain and post their available tickets within seconds of them going on sale, even from a logistical perspective?

  4. Ticket prices already have migrated slowly through the roof during the last 5 years – at least through my roof.
    All I can say is I’m not buying.
    So if these companies pull off this stunt, it’s not just the consumers’ wallets that would suffer, but the bands as well, because heavier ticket prices lead to a smaller number of fans.
    And in the long run, consumers will notice they’ve gotten a bad deal by paying the “reseller’s” rate and stay away completely.
    It’s called milking a market until the market is gone.
    It’s like chopping down rainforests.

  5. This doesn’t affect me because the prices are already too high, and most touring bands are lame or simple has beens. So I stay at home and play video games, drink cheep beer, and download MP3s. How’s that for your business model biatches.

Comments are closed.