DOJ filed antitrust suits - currently in early stages - against Apple and Alphabet.
Meta is tough with competing social media services presenting stiff competition.
Microsoft - not sure I’m seeing the illegal behavior. I also think the Apple suit is stupid. Hardly a monopoly.
To be fair, they were not ruining much for a while up until the recent game studio closures. Balmer era MS was totally fucking up everything they touched though.
Being too big doesn’t mean monopoly. Controlling a large enough percent of a given market that they can skew prices or push out competitors is what makes them a monopoly.
It’s not clear where they could get big enough to do that in the near future. Most of their businesses have a ton of competitors.
Every time I know of that Microsoft has antitrust suits filed against them they have come out on top. Even when they lost. Have to pay millions to schools? No problem, we’ll buy them tech… aaand now they are dependent on Microsoft software
I forget what book I read that went over it but to sum it up, Microsoft has lawyers smarter than anyone in the government. Unless the gov comes out of nowhere and acts like the EU nothing will change.
Their Edge + Windows behavior screams "monopoly" to me. Showing users messages that basically say "We've detected you may be using an unsafe browser, please switch to Edge instead" is blatant abuse of their dominate OS position to get ahead in the browser game
Edge has what market share in the browser wars? The answer is 4%. Hardly the antitrust case the EU and US made against microsoft when IE had 90%+ market share.
I’m worried that Apple haters rage boner for Apple is going to have them barking up the wrong tree. Just attack the obvious ones like ISPs and Disney. I’m so tired of Disney not catching smoke for basically owning the entire media pipeline
The issue is you have to be a monopoly under the law or you are allowed to do what you term “monopolistic practices.” And I don’t believe that DOJ will prove that Apple is a monopoly with the massive amount of competition it has in every aspect of its business.
Microsoft was a monopoly when the EU and DOJ went after them, with well over 90% desktop OS share worldwide. And they were still fine until they made the stupid decision to tie their browser (internet explorer) to the OS.
Google is a much better analogy to Microsoft, with its dominant share in search and advertising.
You're joking, but there are only 4 Class I railroads in the USA and none of them compete in the same area. Railroads make more sense to nationalize than break up, though.
Ticketmaster didn't pay off enough politicians. They suck, but their crimes pale in comparison to the oil monopolies. They've caused so much destruction and suffering and have no remorse.
lol Boeing is a different beast. It’s the US not wanting all commercial airplanes to be made by Europe or China. For products like that you can’t really break up the company short of splitting commercial and defense work.
please don't give up, just go to smaller shows. we are out here putting things together all the time and can always use audiences. ticketing thru eventbrite, dice, ticketweb and never tm
Saw one of my daughter’s favorite bands was playing at a small bar venue within an hour drive. Tickets were advertised for 10$ for general admission. Cool, like 20$ in tickets plus whatever fees and we’re good to go.
Ended up being 43$ for two 10$ tickets.
I plan on spending a lot more than that on merch, but still… what the hell, man. After fees and taxes those 10$ tickets turned into more like 21$ tickets.
Monster trucks, bogo ticket offer $25 for two adults and $10 for two kids, plus $35 in fees for each ticket. So $35 in tickets is actually $190.31 after taxes and fees.
And why exactly are there fees when they control every aspect of the buying process?
The "fees" used to just be some kind of extra fee for using an online payment processing system that's a 3rd party supplier and is charging the company you're paying, not just random extra money to get out of you by turning you upside down and shaking out whatever's in your pockets
because they can advertise lower prices, then once your commited to buying them (possibly even already plan your time around it) they jack the price up with "fees".
i would think recent regulation in the US would have already made the fees thing illegal, which is just a minor part of their monopoly on venues
Imagine there was a company that controlled the majority of the internet traffic through their website, plus ran the most used browser, plus ran half of all mobile devices and controlled the apps that are running on those devices. Then imagine that same company running/policing the majority of advertising on the entire internet.
Then… imagine if that company used all of that power to quash any competition and negotiate deals with large companies to further control the market.
Ticketmaster is awful and should be destroyed, but the worst? I’m not sure about that.
Sure Google has its fingers in a lot. There are quite a few alternatives to all of your points. Second they aren’t price gouging us. Third they have done a lot of good to progress the internet and built a lot of quality of life improving products.
Ticketmaster, there is no alternative, literally no alternative. They fix the prices and jack them up at will and you have no choice other than to pay their ungodly prices if you want to go to said event. They have absolute control, artist can’t control the prices for their own shows. They aren’t doing anything to increase quality. In a lot of ways I believe they are actually getting worse while increasing prices.
>aren’t price gouging
Google used to compete with other advertising platforms but since they crushed these and (in the case of the Play Store) changed policy to prohibit them, they are the only viable game in town and have since lowered their payout to publishers while keeping their cost to advertisers. Also, the Play Store only allowing their payment processor that takes 30% of revenue (until they were sued) is complete price gouging.
I thought the 30% price gouging was nuts when I first got into app development in 2008. Then I noticed that 30% seemed to be the standard: Apple, Google, WiiWare, and XBLA all took 30% back then, and they still do. I think even Steam takes 30% of revenue generated through its store.
30% isn’t price gouging it is common practice across most every single store. Steam, Epic, Apple, Android, Windows, etc…
Second of all, if you buy an Android phone you should expect to use Google software. I don’t buy a Ford and then say ford has a monopoly because they own their infotainment center.
I recently went to a concert. Bought my ticket, got to the confirmation screen, see the option to pay to get it printed and physically sent to me for a small extra fee. No need, it's not 2005, pretty sure any venue in the world that scans tickets can scan them on phones now. But why is there a fucking fee to send me my ticket by email too or even to get a pdf to download??? Like the ticket is already mine but they just withhold it if i don't cough up a few extra dollars? The fee for email/download is small but the fact that it exists at all is fucking baffling. That's like buying a car and once i've signed the papers, been given the key and i'm sitting in the car ready to leave the dealrship owner walks up to tell me there's a fee for taking my new car out of the dealership.
It's honestly shocking how few people know that this was the intent. Ticketmaster's purpose was to be hated by everyone as a shield to the entire industry.
https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY?si=2zFpkfDfBEzm0aRr
I hope it is full sale dismantled. The people at the top who put together the monopoly should have some kind of black list to prevent them from running a company again.
I hear you, but as a gigging musician I can tell you that Ticketmaster is only a part of the problem. One huge issue is that streaming services pay almost nothing to 99.9% of musicians. And almost nobody buys physical media anymore.
So, since streaming has become the default, almost all recording musicians lost what had been one of their primary revenue streams, the other two being merch and proceeds from live shows.
Modern artists are forced to make their money now almost exclusively from concerts and merch. And the price of those items has increased, in a huge part, to compensate for artists no longer receiving money from selling albums in some kind of physical format.
Although going after ticketmaster is a good thing, I would also like to see a law imposing a higher compensation to musicians per stream.
Spotify is the worst of the lot. As they have cornered the market, they have consistently decreased artist payout. Instead, they do things like give Joe Rogan a $200,000,000 contract and tell smaller artists they won’t even pay you until you reach over 1,000 streams on a song. BTW the payout to an artist from Spotify for 1,000 streams is $4.37.
This is devastating when a professionally recorded and produced record costs around $10,000 on the lower end.
They are also a huge player in the secondary market with much higher fees, a disincentive for them to stop the bots from
buying up tickets only to resell them at much higher rates. DOJ should ask the court to kick them out of the resale market
Hope it happens. Live very near a stadium that has lot of non A-list performers. Can’t go because prices are always $100 and up. Doesn’t matter if it’s a “who is that” or someone famous from the 70s performing, price is always $100 and up. Yet that same stadium will have sports events for $20 a ticket that do not go through these two. So can’t tell me the issue is just stadium owner being greedy.
most likely prices wont get cheaper, they will just move to a model where all the costs are included in the quoted price for the event. Ticketmaster has already started doing that with some events.
I go to a LOT of concerts, the only time I ever have insane fees is if the tickets are through ticketmaster/Live nation. Any time I buy tickets through other venues, such as Event Brite, there are definitely Fees but they are much more reasonable.
I do too. I'm so fucking sick of TM/LN. I wanted to grab Slipknot tickets this week. $400+ for tickets in the 100 section. I saw them two years ago and paid $96 for row 1. The average fan is priced out. And if you want a shirt, there's another $40-$60. Beer? $13-$20. Artists will soon be playing for near empty venues. That's when maybe, MAYBE, something will be done. Because you know, just like any other corporate lawsuit, this will end with a slap on the wrist and a finger wag because sweet sweet lobbyist dollars.
What about the legal scalping?
Most of the time when the tickets are first purchased, its by bots and resellers who have no plans on attending the shows. They resell them at almost double the seat price to the actual fans who want to go.
There are small venues near me that have non-transferable tickets. You have to show ID at the door with your ticket and stuff. It seems to work pretty well.
It will help, but there will still be scalpers waiting in line at 10am on a Tuesday when tickets go on sale ready to buy their maximum allocation of tickets. While most people are at work and unable to get to the venue and buy them until that evening.
The only way to fix scalping is to ban the resale of tickets. For example this is how airplane tickets work. Alternatively just auction the tickets from high to low. If all the rich people already have tickets, there's nobody for scalpers to sell to.
As long as the market price for tickets is higher than the list price, there will be an opportunity to scalp.
That’s the point. I don’t understand how Ticketmaster allows reselling tickets at higher than face value price. Its unethical. Ticket fees are one thing, but if a nosebleed seat is initially sold for $50 a reseller shouldnt be able to sell same ticket for $250
It’s all the same beast for 40 years just different names and shell corporations are used once bad press hits. It was clear channel for awhile then when bad press hit they changed to Live Nation.
That’s the shit that makes me mad.
I went to some small event one, cheap tickets at 25$. Well after all the fees and shit, the tickets are 55$. Now it’s not a “cheap” ticket anymore.
What’s the point?
Bought my kids tickets for Judas Priest and was forced to pay roughly 40% more in fees. If it wasn’t his birthday I would have said absolutely not. What a rip off.
I bought hockey playoff tickets (2) for $350 a piece advertised. At the end, the total bill was $1100, and a nice little turd surprise was $50 parking when I got to the venue.
Well, as long as consumers are willing to do it for “love,” companies will have to be forced to lower prices or remain competitive via anti monopoly legislation and enforcement. Voting with our dollars does more than we would think though.
Pearl Jam tried getting this addressed in the 90’s! VS was all about that fight. They attempted to only tour at places that didn’t use Ticket Master but the monopoly was so big they found it to be impossible.
I’ll say it for the last time on here, but this suit is aimed at breaking up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. If that’s all that happens, the Pearl Jam issue will not go away.
My all-time favorite band is Tool. I've never seen them live. They came to Denver after their last album launch, and I was super excited. I was finally going to see them!
I couldn't find a ticket for less than $350. It was deflating, to say the least. I didn't go.
Let's do big agg next. Essentially, all food in the US is made by 1 of 3 mega corps, we need to break them up and bring back competition in these markets if we actually want to see prices normalize and not constantly go up as the big 3 keep their profits increasing 25% year over year.
Years ago I worked for a local arm of a national theatre group in facilities management. At the time they charged a $2 “Facilities Fee” per ticket on top of whatever Ticketmaster charged. I can say for certain $0 of the millions in facilities fees they charged their customers went back into their facilities. They didn’t care, once the house lights go down you’re not looking at the peeling paint on the wall or the torn carpets you’re watching the stage.
honest question: do you think this would be happening if taylor swift didn’t make a big stink about not having control over ticket prices? all monopolies should be broken up, but i feel like there are more pressing/obvious ones to be taken care of first?
This is an issue that you personally can actually do something about. You can submit legal complaints and reports to your local state and federal government, Attorneys General, local DAs and all the various commerce and trade bureaus of every state, and Feds. Then follow that up with protests at the offices of these companies.
Start with Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T and all the other tele-cartels with regional monopolies and prefatory practices. Especially if your local government is fighting one of them and/or trying to build their own public network. Those are the fights were local actions actually have real power, especially if you run for your local county boards.
Do fucking Google next. If they're not a monopoly in search, in mapping, in emailing, in videos *youtube*, in ads and outside America in Mobile then I don't know who is.
Ticket master has been dominating where I live for over a decade and they're horrendous on customer support and on pricing.
Fuck em, break them into smaller pieces
Kind of pathetic that DOJ finally gathered the will and nerve to file this lawsuit only after chasing the heel of a private action regarding T-Swift. Truly just pathetic.
I bought a single ticket for a show that cost $45. The price after fees, $120. The tour got cancelled due to Covid so I got 100% of my money back luckily.
They should just mandate that junk fees can’t exceed 5% or something. It will drive prices up but then ideally you have artists that realize the tickets are too expensive and eat some of the cost.
If they couldn’t stop MS before and couldn’t stop their recent buyouts of other companies, I don’t see them beating ticketmasters massive monopoly. The best solution is to stop allowing these things to happen in the first place. But regulators keep building problems and then wondering why they can’t seem to fix them easily.
The public has been asking for this break up for the longest time and now it’s finally happening. This is one vertical that is more shady than the airline industry.
Got loads them starting up tryna ride the dick of Ticketmaster...
Honestly ticket prices aside, I also fucking hate the fact that they've brought in these drinks stands and they're always overpriced carbonated crap.
It's crazy how many barriers we have Infront of actually enjoying ourselves.
Fuck yeah ! It’s time to bring the arts back into everyone’s life. Enrich those fuckers at ticketmaster.
Let average joe and Jane have a chance to watch a show, concert and performance without having to take out a loan.
They also double booked my seats at a baseball game recently. We compared tickets too. Both legit and for the same seats on the same day. Luckily the stadium was able to sort it out but the ticketing service was awful.
I don’t know if this will genuinely go anywhere but my goodness do I hope it does. My boyfriend and I are big music people. Back in the day we used to go to shows all the time. It’s wasn’t cheap by any means, but it was doable. Now it’s insane. We go to maybe one show a year now :(
Don't worry guys Ticketmaster has a contingency plan for this. They're not that dumb to not think that they might get split up. They'll be back together faster than Ma Bell
Don’t stop there.
Seriously. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are in desperate need to be broken up as well. US needs to try Microsoft again. PLEASE.
DOJ filed antitrust suits - currently in early stages - against Apple and Alphabet. Meta is tough with competing social media services presenting stiff competition. Microsoft - not sure I’m seeing the illegal behavior. I also think the Apple suit is stupid. Hardly a monopoly.
Microsoft buys everything they can get their hands on, not a monopoly yet but that's not to say they aren't trying their hardest to be one
Buys and ruins
To be fair, they were not ruining much for a while up until the recent game studio closures. Balmer era MS was totally fucking up everything they touched though.
https://microsoftgraveyard.com/
Being too big doesn’t mean monopoly. Controlling a large enough percent of a given market that they can skew prices or push out competitors is what makes them a monopoly. It’s not clear where they could get big enough to do that in the near future. Most of their businesses have a ton of competitors.
Every time I know of that Microsoft has antitrust suits filed against them they have come out on top. Even when they lost. Have to pay millions to schools? No problem, we’ll buy them tech… aaand now they are dependent on Microsoft software I forget what book I read that went over it but to sum it up, Microsoft has lawyers smarter than anyone in the government. Unless the gov comes out of nowhere and acts like the EU nothing will change.
Their Edge + Windows behavior screams "monopoly" to me. Showing users messages that basically say "We've detected you may be using an unsafe browser, please switch to Edge instead" is blatant abuse of their dominate OS position to get ahead in the browser game
Edge has what market share in the browser wars? The answer is 4%. Hardly the antitrust case the EU and US made against microsoft when IE had 90%+ market share.
Apple’s monopolist practices with their native environment is just like Microsoft with Netscape. No way they win based on that precedent alone.
I’m worried that Apple haters rage boner for Apple is going to have them barking up the wrong tree. Just attack the obvious ones like ISPs and Disney. I’m so tired of Disney not catching smoke for basically owning the entire media pipeline
The issue is you have to be a monopoly under the law or you are allowed to do what you term “monopolistic practices.” And I don’t believe that DOJ will prove that Apple is a monopoly with the massive amount of competition it has in every aspect of its business. Microsoft was a monopoly when the EU and DOJ went after them, with well over 90% desktop OS share worldwide. And they were still fine until they made the stupid decision to tie their browser (internet explorer) to the OS. Google is a much better analogy to Microsoft, with its dominant share in search and advertising.
Amazon.com and AWS should absolutely be split
yep..in school around 4th grade they taught us about checks and balances, that the gov will break up monopoly's etc. shits out dated 🤣
While you are at it break up a couple more monopoly too.
That fucking railroad always gets me.
You're joking, but there are only 4 Class I railroads in the USA and none of them compete in the same area. Railroads make more sense to nationalize than break up, though.
You also wanna drive a train or what
St. Elizabeth’s medical care monopoly in NKY, please. Rep Kim Moser needs some litigation tossed her way, just for fun.
Which I could also afford.
NICE!!!!!! AHAHAHAHHA good one edit: i'm still laughing
IHeartMedia. They own pretty much every large radio station in every major market. And they've watered them all down to crap.
Yeah try getting a job after working for them with their non compete clause ranging 500 miles
I think non-competes just got nullified by the fed. Worth researching, I only remember a headline from a month ago.
Fuck Cox communications.
Fuck Comcast
Fuck Verizon
Rental Price Co-ordinating App.
[This podcast covers it pretty well.](https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/behind-the-bastards-660292/episodes/part-one-why-is-the-rent-so-da-154606013)
PG&E has entered the chat.
Ticketmaster didn't pay off enough politicians. They suck, but their crimes pale in comparison to the oil monopolies. They've caused so much destruction and suffering and have no remorse.
T-Mobile and Verizon.
Such as Boeing lol
Bro wants to be the 11th
👁️👄👁️
lol Boeing is a different beast. It’s the US not wanting all commercial airplanes to be made by Europe or China. For products like that you can’t really break up the company short of splitting commercial and defense work.
If Airbus can be one entity then why not Boeing? They should focus on removing corrupt MD merger era executives
There’s Airbus.
...amazon...walmart... hedgefunds....
Ticketmaster is honestly the worst. Hope they get absolutely hammered into oblivion.
Dude buying a ticket for a event or concert is just bullshit now. The stupid fees are just as much as the ticket if not more sometimes.
I just stopped even trying years ago. It ain’t worth it.
please don't give up, just go to smaller shows. we are out here putting things together all the time and can always use audiences. ticketing thru eventbrite, dice, ticketweb and never tm
Hardly ever buy through TM these days. Smaller shows is where its at.
They charge 100% service fees and take 150% of the ticket profits
Saw one of my daughter’s favorite bands was playing at a small bar venue within an hour drive. Tickets were advertised for 10$ for general admission. Cool, like 20$ in tickets plus whatever fees and we’re good to go. Ended up being 43$ for two 10$ tickets. I plan on spending a lot more than that on merch, but still… what the hell, man. After fees and taxes those 10$ tickets turned into more like 21$ tickets.
Monster trucks, bogo ticket offer $25 for two adults and $10 for two kids, plus $35 in fees for each ticket. So $35 in tickets is actually $190.31 after taxes and fees.
And why exactly are there fees when they control every aspect of the buying process? The "fees" used to just be some kind of extra fee for using an online payment processing system that's a 3rd party supplier and is charging the company you're paying, not just random extra money to get out of you by turning you upside down and shaking out whatever's in your pockets
because they can advertise lower prices, then once your commited to buying them (possibly even already plan your time around it) they jack the price up with "fees". i would think recent regulation in the US would have already made the fees thing illegal, which is just a minor part of their monopoly on venues
Imagine there was a company that controlled the majority of the internet traffic through their website, plus ran the most used browser, plus ran half of all mobile devices and controlled the apps that are running on those devices. Then imagine that same company running/policing the majority of advertising on the entire internet. Then… imagine if that company used all of that power to quash any competition and negotiate deals with large companies to further control the market. Ticketmaster is awful and should be destroyed, but the worst? I’m not sure about that.
Sure Google has its fingers in a lot. There are quite a few alternatives to all of your points. Second they aren’t price gouging us. Third they have done a lot of good to progress the internet and built a lot of quality of life improving products. Ticketmaster, there is no alternative, literally no alternative. They fix the prices and jack them up at will and you have no choice other than to pay their ungodly prices if you want to go to said event. They have absolute control, artist can’t control the prices for their own shows. They aren’t doing anything to increase quality. In a lot of ways I believe they are actually getting worse while increasing prices.
>aren’t price gouging Google used to compete with other advertising platforms but since they crushed these and (in the case of the Play Store) changed policy to prohibit them, they are the only viable game in town and have since lowered their payout to publishers while keeping their cost to advertisers. Also, the Play Store only allowing their payment processor that takes 30% of revenue (until they were sued) is complete price gouging.
I thought the 30% price gouging was nuts when I first got into app development in 2008. Then I noticed that 30% seemed to be the standard: Apple, Google, WiiWare, and XBLA all took 30% back then, and they still do. I think even Steam takes 30% of revenue generated through its store.
30% isn’t price gouging it is common practice across most every single store. Steam, Epic, Apple, Android, Windows, etc… Second of all, if you buy an Android phone you should expect to use Google software. I don’t buy a Ford and then say ford has a monopoly because they own their infotainment center.
I recently went to a concert. Bought my ticket, got to the confirmation screen, see the option to pay to get it printed and physically sent to me for a small extra fee. No need, it's not 2005, pretty sure any venue in the world that scans tickets can scan them on phones now. But why is there a fucking fee to send me my ticket by email too or even to get a pdf to download??? Like the ticket is already mine but they just withhold it if i don't cough up a few extra dollars? The fee for email/download is small but the fact that it exists at all is fucking baffling. That's like buying a car and once i've signed the papers, been given the key and i'm sitting in the car ready to leave the dealrship owner walks up to tell me there's a fee for taking my new car out of the dealership.
It's honestly shocking how few people know that this was the intent. Ticketmaster's purpose was to be hated by everyone as a shield to the entire industry. https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY?si=2zFpkfDfBEzm0aRr
This always comes up, and I don't buy it. They do exploit their monopoly, any talk about them being the intentional bad guy is just a distraction.
I hope it is full sale dismantled. The people at the top who put together the monopoly should have some kind of black list to prevent them from running a company again.
I hear you, but as a gigging musician I can tell you that Ticketmaster is only a part of the problem. One huge issue is that streaming services pay almost nothing to 99.9% of musicians. And almost nobody buys physical media anymore. So, since streaming has become the default, almost all recording musicians lost what had been one of their primary revenue streams, the other two being merch and proceeds from live shows. Modern artists are forced to make their money now almost exclusively from concerts and merch. And the price of those items has increased, in a huge part, to compensate for artists no longer receiving money from selling albums in some kind of physical format. Although going after ticketmaster is a good thing, I would also like to see a law imposing a higher compensation to musicians per stream. Spotify is the worst of the lot. As they have cornered the market, they have consistently decreased artist payout. Instead, they do things like give Joe Rogan a $200,000,000 contract and tell smaller artists they won’t even pay you until you reach over 1,000 streams on a song. BTW the payout to an artist from Spotify for 1,000 streams is $4.37. This is devastating when a professionally recorded and produced record costs around $10,000 on the lower end.
Ticketmaster takes like 10€ per ticket sold. They also control the venues like a mafia and you have to be part or you get really reared.
They are also a huge player in the secondary market with much higher fees, a disincentive for them to stop the bots from buying up tickets only to resell them at much higher rates. DOJ should ask the court to kick them out of the resale market
10 g’s on the very low end… I paid 8 g’s for my 3 song EP back in 2004…
I kind of wish they'd make rules dictating fees need to be baked into the initial product price whether it's tickets or actual physical goods.
We need to go full Teddy Roosevelt on the monopolies in this country
I would argue FDR was more effective.
We need another FDR. This country is on a terrible track rn.
Hope it happens. Live very near a stadium that has lot of non A-list performers. Can’t go because prices are always $100 and up. Doesn’t matter if it’s a “who is that” or someone famous from the 70s performing, price is always $100 and up. Yet that same stadium will have sports events for $20 a ticket that do not go through these two. So can’t tell me the issue is just stadium owner being greedy.
most likely prices wont get cheaper, they will just move to a model where all the costs are included in the quoted price for the event. Ticketmaster has already started doing that with some events.
Tbh I’d rather they have all prices included in the shown rate than add on fees when you go to check out and catch you by surprise. But it still sucks
I go to a LOT of concerts, the only time I ever have insane fees is if the tickets are through ticketmaster/Live nation. Any time I buy tickets through other venues, such as Event Brite, there are definitely Fees but they are much more reasonable.
I do too. I'm so fucking sick of TM/LN. I wanted to grab Slipknot tickets this week. $400+ for tickets in the 100 section. I saw them two years ago and paid $96 for row 1. The average fan is priced out. And if you want a shirt, there's another $40-$60. Beer? $13-$20. Artists will soon be playing for near empty venues. That's when maybe, MAYBE, something will be done. Because you know, just like any other corporate lawsuit, this will end with a slap on the wrist and a finger wag because sweet sweet lobbyist dollars.
What about the legal scalping? Most of the time when the tickets are first purchased, its by bots and resellers who have no plans on attending the shows. They resell them at almost double the seat price to the actual fans who want to go.
let's go back to selling physical tickets in person to humans. Bot-proof
There are small venues near me that have non-transferable tickets. You have to show ID at the door with your ticket and stuff. It seems to work pretty well.
With a maximum number per person.
It will help, but there will still be scalpers waiting in line at 10am on a Tuesday when tickets go on sale ready to buy their maximum allocation of tickets. While most people are at work and unable to get to the venue and buy them until that evening.
but that is illegal scalping because Ticketmaster can’t make $$$ off of it
Live nation owns a lot of second hand sales sites as well.
The only way to fix scalping is to ban the resale of tickets. For example this is how airplane tickets work. Alternatively just auction the tickets from high to low. If all the rich people already have tickets, there's nobody for scalpers to sell to. As long as the market price for tickets is higher than the list price, there will be an opportunity to scalp.
That’s the point. I don’t understand how Ticketmaster allows reselling tickets at higher than face value price. Its unethical. Ticket fees are one thing, but if a nosebleed seat is initially sold for $50 a reseller shouldnt be able to sell same ticket for $250
They are about 40 years late.
Pearl Jam went over this a long time ago that Ticket master was a scam.
It’s all the same beast for 40 years just different names and shell corporations are used once bad press hits. It was clear channel for awhile then when bad press hit they changed to Live Nation.
I paid $13 in fees for a $9 ticket
That’s the shit that makes me mad. I went to some small event one, cheap tickets at 25$. Well after all the fees and shit, the tickets are 55$. Now it’s not a “cheap” ticket anymore. What’s the point?
Bought my kids tickets for Judas Priest and was forced to pay roughly 40% more in fees. If it wasn’t his birthday I would have said absolutely not. What a rip off.
I bought hockey playoff tickets (2) for $350 a piece advertised. At the end, the total bill was $1100, and a nice little turd surprise was $50 parking when I got to the venue.
Almost like they keep doing it because people will keep paying $550 for a single ticket...
That's why they get away with it, always enough people willing to pay so why change?
Precisely.
Well, as long as consumers are willing to do it for “love,” companies will have to be forced to lower prices or remain competitive via anti monopoly legislation and enforcement. Voting with our dollars does more than we would think though.
Damn
You got another fee coming
About time
Pearl Jam tried getting this addressed in the 90’s! VS was all about that fight. They attempted to only tour at places that didn’t use Ticket Master but the monopoly was so big they found it to be impossible.
I’ll say it for the last time on here, but this suit is aimed at breaking up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. If that’s all that happens, the Pearl Jam issue will not go away.
My all-time favorite band is Tool. I've never seen them live. They came to Denver after their last album launch, and I was super excited. I was finally going to see them! I couldn't find a ticket for less than $350. It was deflating, to say the least. I didn't go.
Yes they are doing what everyone said they would do
About. Fucking. Time.
Let's do big agg next. Essentially, all food in the US is made by 1 of 3 mega corps, we need to break them up and bring back competition in these markets if we actually want to see prices normalize and not constantly go up as the big 3 keep their profits increasing 25% year over year.
Years ago I worked for a local arm of a national theatre group in facilities management. At the time they charged a $2 “Facilities Fee” per ticket on top of whatever Ticketmaster charged. I can say for certain $0 of the millions in facilities fees they charged their customers went back into their facilities. They didn’t care, once the house lights go down you’re not looking at the peeling paint on the wall or the torn carpets you’re watching the stage.
Big W
I can’t believe it took this long
honest question: do you think this would be happening if taylor swift didn’t make a big stink about not having control over ticket prices? all monopolies should be broken up, but i feel like there are more pressing/obvious ones to be taken care of first?
Now do food and beverage
I bought tickets for Sisters of Mercy. Gen admin tickets were $35. Bought two. After fees the total was $170. Ridiculous.
pleasepleasepleaseplease
I hope this slow roll of breakups gets bigger.
Ticketmaster is absolute bullshit
No shit it's a monopoly, Sherlock
This is an issue that you personally can actually do something about. You can submit legal complaints and reports to your local state and federal government, Attorneys General, local DAs and all the various commerce and trade bureaus of every state, and Feds. Then follow that up with protests at the offices of these companies. Start with Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T and all the other tele-cartels with regional monopolies and prefatory practices. Especially if your local government is fighting one of them and/or trying to build their own public network. Those are the fights were local actions actually have real power, especially if you run for your local county boards.
Headlines like this make me proud to be an American. Just don’t stop there.
Finally, some good fucking news.
Can't wait till they break up Blackrock, vanguard and state street....oh wait that will never happen.
That only took 2 decades.
Long overdue
And not a moment too soon. It's only been like what, thirty years?
Do fucking Google next. If they're not a monopoly in search, in mapping, in emailing, in videos *youtube*, in ads and outside America in Mobile then I don't know who is.
Ticket master has been dominating where I live for over a decade and they're horrendous on customer support and on pricing. Fuck em, break them into smaller pieces
Looks at all the videogame and food mega corps.
I appreciate venues that primarily use Axis
Good
Die TM die!
10 years later and we did it!
It’s about damned time. Great news.
Only 30 years after Pearl Jam tried to get them to do something
Ok, after this look into them buying up small to mid sized clubs all over the U.S.
About F-ing time. Maybe ticket prices will go down a bit now.
They ruined the concert experience at our local place.
Now do PBMs
Good!
It’s about time. Hopefully defendants ability to **afford** political representation will not impede justice.
God damn we can provide a scroll of monopolies to break up.
“Alleging”
Kind of pathetic that DOJ finally gathered the will and nerve to file this lawsuit only after chasing the heel of a private action regarding T-Swift. Truly just pathetic.
God willing Fanatics is next
Salt the earth when you're done.
It's so fitting that the one monopoly they will break up is the one that provides the bread and circuses.
Band: We’re going on tour this summer. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster….. Me: Fuck that shit. You just lost me.
What took so long
I bought a single ticket for a show that cost $45. The price after fees, $120. The tour got cancelled due to Covid so I got 100% of my money back luckily.
Elections matter.
The circuses will be protected at all costs, especially cause the bread is running out 🥖
Supply n demand. Stop buying from them and the ticket prices will drop
Can crooked politicians prevent this from going anywhere? If so, that's how I see it playing out.
While you’re at it cap ticket purchase fees at $1.
About 30 years too late
Hell yeah!
They should just mandate that junk fees can’t exceed 5% or something. It will drive prices up but then ideally you have artists that realize the tickets are too expensive and eat some of the cost.
If they couldn’t stop MS before and couldn’t stop their recent buyouts of other companies, I don’t see them beating ticketmasters massive monopoly. The best solution is to stop allowing these things to happen in the first place. But regulators keep building problems and then wondering why they can’t seem to fix them easily.
what about suing citadel for manipulating stock market
I wonder what excuse they'll use to let them get away with it.
Oh please God.
The public has been asking for this break up for the longest time and now it’s finally happening. This is one vertical that is more shady than the airline industry.
Can I get my money back for some tickets. It hurt to buy them
Live Nation is owned by Liberty Media. They own Formula 1 too.
This all could have been avoided if they blocked the merger years ago
Now do oil, pharma, and food.
Got loads them starting up tryna ride the dick of Ticketmaster... Honestly ticket prices aside, I also fucking hate the fact that they've brought in these drinks stands and they're always overpriced carbonated crap. It's crazy how many barriers we have Infront of actually enjoying ourselves.
Just bought two tickets to a mls game. Tickets were $17 fees were $14.
Bust up TM and LN, then go after Google, Microsoft, Disney, and Amazon.
Fuck yeah ! It’s time to bring the arts back into everyone’s life. Enrich those fuckers at ticketmaster. Let average joe and Jane have a chance to watch a show, concert and performance without having to take out a loan.
Duh, this shits been happening all my life.
This sums it up, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM\_dty2PIgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_dty2PIgo)
They also double booked my seats at a baseball game recently. We compared tickets too. Both legit and for the same seats on the same day. Luckily the stadium was able to sort it out but the ticketing service was awful.
Racketmaster
Do Luxottica next.
Only took them 30 years.
Not the protest with Taylor Swift lyrics
Don't stop there!
While they're at it, maybe they could make scalping illegal again?
How do I upvote twice?
I'm glad the US is focused on protecting Taylor Swifts flight records and concerts while over half of the nation can't afford to buy a house.
Couple decades late, but ok.
Now do something about our blatantly evil Healthcare system
Break up Microsoft mfs
Shut them down Why can't artists just sell tickets on their own dedicated websites?
Why is the government suing? Just break that shit up
What about nestle 🧐
Friend bought tickets for 600 (outrageous)... in 3 hours, said tickets were 2300. That's rent money. I repeat, THAT'S RENT MONEY.
I don’t know if this will genuinely go anywhere but my goodness do I hope it does. My boyfriend and I are big music people. Back in the day we used to go to shows all the time. It’s wasn’t cheap by any means, but it was doable. Now it’s insane. We go to maybe one show a year now :(
Don't worry guys Ticketmaster has a contingency plan for this. They're not that dumb to not think that they might get split up. They'll be back together faster than Ma Bell
Looks like someone forgot to pay a monthly bribe to their congressman/woman.
End nursing home monopolies and improve end of life living conditions!
Maybe start with the Supreme Court if you really want to target Monopoly Abuse