U.S. senators held a hearing in Washington on Tuesday to question Ticketmaster executives to determine whether the company’s dominance of the events industry led to the ticket sales fiasco for the forthcoming Taylor Swift tour.
Updated yesterday at 11:10pm.
The Eras Tour fiasco
To understand the origins of this saga, you have to go back to last November: after the release of her tenth album “Midnights”, Taylor Swift announced her return to the stage with her Eras tour. Ticket sales are scheduled for November 18th, with advance sales on November 15th. A dramatic turn of events on November 17: Ticketmaster announces the cancellation of official sales to the general public, justified by “an insufficient stock of remaining tickets”. Angry fans are complaining that they can’t get their hands on tickets after endless hours of waiting, bugs and crashes, as Ticketmaster says it’s been stormed by a record number of more than 3.5 million people registering on the platform and would have registered robot attacks. The pop star joins the chorus of critics – without naming Ticketmaster. Political reactions were not long in coming either, with several US prosecutors even announcing that they were investigating the company for “alleged fraudulent or unfair trading practices”. US Senator Amy Klobuchar then wrote an open letter to Ticketmaster President and CEO Michael Rapino, asking him to answer questions about the company’s business practices.
An expected audience
Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Live Nation (Ticketmaster’s parent company), acknowledged on Tuesday that the company could have done better. He even went so far as to apologize to Taylor Swift and her fans during the hearing that’s expected since late 2022. Despite everything, he wanted to remind that it is not Ticketmaster that decides the price of the tickets or the number of seats available for a concert, let alone the service fees set by the venues. He also recalled shared responsibility for “bot attacks” that significantly slowed down the platform’s activities in selling tickets for the Eras tour. According to him, the events industry would like elected officials to pay more attention to the issue of ticket resale in order to discourage fraudulent practices, such as the resale of tickets that have not yet been officially put up for sale.
The scandal too many
PHOTO EDUARDO MUNOZ, Portal ARCHIVE
Singer Taylor Swift
By early December, Ticketmaster (and Live Nation) were already facing more than two dozen lawsuits over pre-sale and cancellation of mainstream ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Hurt fans believe Ticketmaster opened presale to “certified” fans, knowing there would not be enough seats to meet demand and also allowing them to resell Taylor Swift’s tour tickets during presale at fares above the original price allowed. La Presse even found a ticket to a Swift show in Texas on resale for $38,000 after official sales were cancelled.
However, the allegations against Ticketmaster do not come from last fall. Excessive prices for concerts have drawn a lot of ink, especially on resale tickets, but also on regular sale seats. For example, tickets for the band Blink-182’s tour have sold for more than $1,000 on regular sale and up to $13,000 on resale. Ticket prices for Bruce Springsteen concerts, some of which ran into thousands of dollars, also caused an uproar in early 2022. Ticketmaster has been operating its own resale system since 2018 and anyone can offer tickets purchased on its platform – in complete anonymity. Questioned by La Presse last year, the company had pledged to invest millions of dollars in technology to combat “bots” that allow tickets to be bought in very large numbers.
A monopoly?
“Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn’t even need to press, make threats. People just adapt,” criticized Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday. “That’s exactly the definition of a monopoly,” she said. In 2010, Ticketmaster merged with American events giant Live Nation, which also owns a large number of concert halls. Live Nation President Joe Berchtold told the Senate Tuesday that Ticketmaster has lost, not gained, market share since its merger. About 70% of tickets for concerts held at major venues in the United States are now sold through Ticketmaster. With more than 500 million tickets sold worldwide every year – in more than 30 countries – it is the largest company in the industry.
With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse