By Brooklyn Fears
She places her sweaty palms against the keyboard as her heart races. She has her presale code copied from her verified fan email, ready to paste for when she unlocks access to the tickets. The queue says there are 10 people in front of her before the page refreshes itself in a flash, bringing the young fan to the sale. She notices that the tickets for general admission are sold out, except for a pair of $600 resale tickets. She thinks to herself that she and her college roommate could never afford a $1,200 night out, not to mention the $50 parking and a $50 tour sweatshirt that she has been saving for. She scours, skipping the $400 platinum ticket, which was a mediocre seat at best. Finally, she reaches the nosebleeds and frowns at the $120 face-value ticket. She reluctantly selects two tickets before a message pops up saying, “Sorry, another fan beat you to these tickets.” Frantically she tries to snag two nearby seats before another error message, “Sorry, we could not process your request.” After another two minutes of searching, every last ticket slipped out of her hands. She tearfully calls up her roommate to explain to her that they had to miss their show due to lack of availability and extreme prices.
Presale, scalpers, verified fan and platinum tickets, bots, fees, inflation, and the dreaded politics of seizing concert tickets. What are all of these obstacles and why do these implications exist? The increasing commodification and hindrances of live music have damaged fans' pockets, or have excluded them completely. Four experts have shared with me their first-hand experiences in the live entertainment and ticketing industry. For the sake of their careers and anonymity, these four sources remain anonymous. Together, these professionals broke down and deciphered why exactly obtaining concert tickets has become a luxury, or to some, an Olympic sport.
The tale of presale began long ago with seemingly good and reasonable intentions. In short, presale is a reward for hardcore fans, allowing them early access before the public. Over the years, ticket brokers such as Ticketmaster have expanded to include several presales by partnering with Spotify and credit card companies such as American Express to increase eyeballs and engagement.
A source who has spent 20 years in live entertainment and is now the president of their own entertainment and live events company, shared why sponsored agreements exist, via email interview. They explained that presales act as a marketing tactic. Spotify, for example, has nearly 300 million users, and a Spotify-sponsored presale is a great outlet to help spread the message that an artist is going on tour.
However, presales also serve an important role for labels, agents, and promoters. Another source, whose experience is in venue public relations, explained the crux of the phenomena in an email. They explained that presales act as a predictor of a show’s turnout. If there is a higher demand, some cities can possibly upgrade to larger venues or add additional dates. If in the case that presale does poorly, a city may be skipped on a following tour.
Presale is just one of the loops that fans have to wiggle their way through to their favorite artist. The president of the incognito live event company walked us through the concept of a platinum ticket, first introduced via Ticketmaster.
“Platinum tickets originally were a way to try and capture some of the money being lost to the secondary ticket market. This has mostly been replaced with dynamic pricing. Similar to airlines, prices fluctuate based on demand. They may do this for some price levels or for the entire venue. It will vary from show to show.”
Ticketmaster is aware that wealthy fans will pay $400 for an average seat for an act. Ticketmaster explicitly states on their website that the upgraded ticket is nothing more than a massive price tag, meaning no added merchandise, no exclusive access to an elegant lounge, or even a premium, private bar, as noted on their website.
This graphic depicts the stark difference between tickets sold and Ticketmaster’s revenue from the tickets sold. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue has festered.
Credit: The Hustle
Purchasing expensive tickets, also means paying even loftier fees. So, why do fees exist? What is their purpose? Via email, the head of operations at a Southern California venue shared their opinion.
“The real issue began literally decades ago with many questionable practices with pricings, splits, rebates, and the like. Obviously, the music industry is a multi-tentacled beast. So many different parties benefit from the "fees" charged to the consumer, especially when it comes to the larger arena concerts- ie Forum, Honda Center, etc.”
A 2009 graphic by the WSJ explaining the impact of Ticketmaster’s and Live Nation’s merging and their effects on the live entertainment industry.
Credit: The Wall Street Journal
The many parties that benefit from fees are the musicians, venues, managers, labels, agents, promoters, crew, and more. Splits are the monetary deals that are made between a venue and artists before their show, as a way to divide the profits made from the concert. This can encompass merchandise, food and drink, and tickets.
The recent inflation due to COVID-19 and the revenue lost due to the lack of live music has left a gaping hole in many pockets of musicians, labels, venue executives, and employees. Additionally, the cost of touring has skyrocketed tenfold.
This sentiment, however, has completely abandoned low-income fans. What are they to do about increasing prices? The president of the anonymous live event company has a slight antithetical take and runs to the defense of the artist.
“It does seem like concerts have become a luxury. But like an iPhone, expensive but one you have a hard time living without. I feel for the fans that are priced out of shows but at the same time, artists have underpriced their tickets for so long that this $4 billion dollar industry, the secondary market, sprouted up off the backs of the artists’ and promoters' hard work. Why should the artist make less money by supplying cheap tickets which are only going to be resold for a profit in a lot of instances?” they questioned in an email.
Photos depicting the outrageous resale prices along with subsequently gigantic fees.
Credit: The Hustle
A third-party broker such as StubHub or SeatGeek may seem tempting. The final source, a promoter at a music agency explained that these companies as well as scalpers are almost impossible to stop. Instead of combating these secondary markets, artists have decided to simply benefit from the increased prices.
Speaking of scalpers, the music agent briefly described via email, the purpose of the secondhand market.
“The idea of creating a market based upon scarcity has been around as long as there has been currency. There are many things in our society that are multiple-tier, from dinner reservations to plane tickets. People will pay more money at times because the motivation for purchasing an item or attending an event is greater than their financial motivation.”
Scalpers increase ticket prices and fees, which escalates sales for artists, ticket brokers, and of course, stuffs the reseller’s pockets. Scalpers also include bots, with a slight twist.
According to Imperva, ticket bots are similar to scalpers in that they attempt to obtain tickets to turn around and sell them for profit. However, bots are advanced software, hardwired to purchase tickets in bulk. Luckily, there are blocking providers to prevent bots from scraping an event. Unfortunately, big ticket brokers such as Ticketmaster, conveniently forget to implement these pivotal measures, according to Imperva.com. The venue publicist accuses brokers and the FTC of taking a backseat.
“What they can do is break up the conglomerates that own and run the majority of venues and the ticketing and the reselling of all those tickets. There is no real appetite to do that because big money equals big political donors. Right now everyone is talking about it, but it's been a problem for years, exacerbated by good tech that makes it so easy.”
In an attempt to mitigate scalpers and bots, Ticketmaster has introduced the verified fan presale, which many fans are skeptical of. The venue publicist believes the whole thing is a gimmick.
“To me, it is a charade. The artists can't outright sell their own tickets for $500 or $1000...they would look like total assholes, so they blame the ticket companies and resellers. Meanwhile, bots still buy all the tickets and the artists get to say ‘we sold out the entire tour in 4 minutes!’ Artificial demand drives more demand. Everyone wants what they think they can't have.”
In 2018, CBC News took two journalists to Las Vegas to uncover Ticketmaster’s Secrete Scalper Convention. Journalist Dave Seglins went undercover to expose Ticketmaster’s close relationship with scalpers. Ticketmaster was adamant that media publications were not allowed to report. The conference featured a dozen speakers and many booths were established to showcase the best of what scalping software has to offer.
A lot of the discourse surrounding ticking implications has largely been related to the 2010 merging of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Fans and industry professionals have called upon their disbandment with no luck. Recently, the Biden administration has stated that the federal government wishes to propose legislation to limit the corporate giant’s power. However, stubborn politicians, lobbyists, and the passion for a free market leave these professionals feeling hopeless.
Ticketing brokers such as TicketWeb and AXS do not receive the same backlash. Yes, the companies have fees, and AXS is no stranger to scalpers, but neither broker has received the same scrutiny as Ticketmaster.
The music agent calls to action a Ticketmaster and Live Nation boycott, while the venue publicist urges the dissolution of the Live Nation and Ticketmaster powerhouses altogether. In a perfect world, the venue PR representative advises capping investor dividends, increasing stock buybacks, promoting strictly face value pricing, and a block on massive mergers such as these.
A graphic depicting Live Nation reaping more benefits from the 2010 merger than Ticketmaster.
Credit: The Nation
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, and current professor at UC Berkeley, believes that the Sherman Antitrust Act shall be revived in order to stop the monopolization of America.
According to Justice.gov, the act “outlaws all contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that unreasonably restrain interstate and foreign trade. This includes agreements among competitors to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers, which are punishable as criminal felonies.” This act criminalizes the monopoly of interstate commerce.
A Senate Judiciary Committee held on January 24th, 2023, discussed the discourse surrounding what went wrong with Taylor Swift’s ticket launch for her 2023 stadium tour. The outrage was bipartisan as both democrats and republicans met Live Nation’s president Jon Berchtold with disdain, referring to the company and its practices as a “Monopoly.” Berchtold blamed the bot attacks on the poor consumer experience, reported the New York Times.
Live Nation’s and Ticketmaster’s marriage was brought together under a consent decree that was officiated by The Justice Department. The same department that renewed their decree in 2020, to be up again, in 2025, and who is now investigating the company’s practices.
The venue publicists wrote via email, their aspirations of a Ticketmaster dismantle, and a surge in independent promoters and venues taking their power back.
“Hopefully organizations like NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) can push back and keep small venues independent of the pressures to give in to forced use of Ticketmaster or becoming Live Nation-exclusive venues. It would be great if collectively consumers said enough is enough, but as long as they buy the tickets at whatever is asked, this isn't going away. “
Sources:
Antitrust Laws and You. (2015, June 25). Justice.gov. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you-0#:~:text=the%20Consumer%20guide.-,The%20Sherman%20Antitrust%20Act,are%.20punishable%20as%20criminal%20felonies.
Clementson, L. Houlihan, R. Seglins, D. (2018, September 19). 'A public relations nightmare': Ticketmaster recruits pros for secret scalper program. CBC.CA. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-resellers-las-vegas-1.4828535
Reich, R. [@RBReich]. (2022, November 21). Let the latest Ticketmaster fiasco serve as a crucial reminder: We must revive antitrust law and stop the monopolization of [Tweet]. Twitter.com. https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1594772149516079104
Sisario, Ben. (2022, January 23). Ticketmaster Hearing Takeaways: After Taylor Swift Debacle, Some Senators Call Live Nation a ‘Monopoly’. Nytimes.com. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/24/arts/ticketmaster-taylor-swift
Ticket Scalping Bots. (n.d.). Imperva.com. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.imperva.com/learn/application-security/ticket-scalping-bots/#:~:text=Scalpers%20are%20bad%20actors%20who,to%20purchase%20tickets%20in%20bulk.
What are platinum tickets? (n.d.) Ticketmaster.nl. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.ticketmaster.nl/feature/platinumtickets/?language=en-us
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