The Ticketmaster Monopoly
By: Kai Murphy
If you’ve ever tried to buy tickets from Ticketmaster, you’ve probably run into issues with the app. The California-based ticketing company has been the bane of concertgoers for decades, often being accused of ticket gouging, unnecessary fees, and other illegal activities that have ruined the reputation of their brand.
As of March 31, Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, are being sued by a Montreal law firm over artificially inflated prices and anti-competitive allegations. The U.S. Senate Judicial Committee is also looking at splitting the company up after the Taylor Swift “Era's” Tour fiasco in which tickets were being sold for thousands of dollars. 70% of all tickets for major concert venues are sold through Ticketmaster (Toronto News) and the constant backlash they receive has not stopped them from manipulating the market against consumers. First of all, their merger with Live Nation in 2010 has allowed them to monopolize the ticket sales industry, as the company made itself a promoter, venue operator, and ticketer to set prices.
With Live Nation representing over 500 artists and over 200 venues (The New Republic) they can collude to raise prices to unreasonable rates. And for artists trying to tour in the United States, there aren’t many ways to get around the company. Meanwhile fans, who hold deep connections to the artists they listen to, are forced to pay unreasonable amounts to see their idols. We as the public must attack the ethics of financially exploiting every-day concertgoers. Those who have the money will always pay what they have to, but the less fortunate may never get the chance to experience seeing their favorite songs live.
Furthermore, Ticketmaster was caught by Toronto Sun investigative journalists in 2018 for paying scalpers to buy large amounts of tickets and reselling them on another Ticketmaster affiliate,TradeDesk. A Rolling Stone article about the situation claims that the company was “... supplying scalpers with bot software.” This allows them to drive up prices and make more money off fees which the artist doesn’t even see. The blatant abuse of everyday ticket-purchasers must come to an end.
Unfortunately, artists will continue to go to venues that Live Nation and Ticketmaster support, so how do we go about not supporting this monopoly? The best solution to this is to either buy tickets through the artist website or to buy from other second-hand ticketing sites like Seat Geek. Artist tickets often will also save you money as well because there are less fees and the prices are usually non-fluctuating. These are a few great ways to support your favorite artist if giving more money to multi-millionaires is your thing. Another course of action is reaching out to your local politicians and urging them to break up this monopoly and put the enjoyment of music back into the hands of the public – where it ultimately belongs.