As US Investigates Ticketmaster, Botched Sale of Taylor Swift Tickets Fuels Monopoly Criticisms (npr.org) 94
Ticketmaster provoked ire with a botched sale of tickets to Taylor Swift's first concert in five years. NPR reports:
On Thursday afternoon, the day before tickets were due to open to the general public, Ticketmaster announced that the sale had been cancelled altogether due to "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand." Taylor Swift broke her silence on Friday in statement on Instagram in which she said it is "excruciating for me to watch mistakes happen with no recourse." She said there are many reasons people had a hard time getting tickets, and she's trying to figure out how to improve the situation moving forward. "I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could," she wrote, without naming Ticketmaster.
America's Justice Department "has opened an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster," reports the New York Times. But the investigation "predates the botched sale" and "is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry." The new investigation is the latest scrutiny of Live Nation Entertainment, which is the product of a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster that the Justice Department approved in 2010. That created a giant in the live entertainment business that still has no equals in its reach or power.... The debacle involving Ms. Swift's concert tickets this week has exacerbated complaints in the music business and in Washington that Live Nation's power has constrained competition and harmed consumers.
Or, as NPR puts it, "The frenzy has brought renewed scrutiny to the giant Ticketmaster, which critics have long accused of abusing its market power at the expense of consumers." Would-be concertgoers have complained vocally about recent incidents with near-instant sellouts and skyrocketing prices, and artists like Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen have feuded with it over the decades. One common complaint is that there doesn't seem to be a clear alternative or competitor to Ticketmaster, especially after it merged with concert provider Live Nation in 2010 (a controversial move that required conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Justice).
Now Tennessee's attorney general, a Republican, is opening a consumer protection investigation into the incident. North Carolina's attorney general announced on Thursday that his office is investigating Ticketmaster for allegedly violating consumers' rights and antitrust laws. And multiple Democratic lawmakers are asking questions about the company's dominance â" not for the first time.... "Taylor Swift's tour sale is a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly," tweeted Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of several lawmakers who has long called for investigation and accountability into the company, especially after becoming a subsidiary of concert behemoth Live Nation.
The article also cites a Thursday statement from Ticketmaster: The company says that using Verified Fan invite codes has historically helped manage the volume of users visiting the website to buy tickets, though that wasn't the case on Tuesday. "The staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests â" 4x our previous peak," it said, adding that it slowed down some sales and pushed back others to stabilize its systems, resulting in longer wait times for some users.
It estimates that about 15% of interactions across the website experienced issues, which it said is "15% too many."
The Tuesday sale also broke Ticketmaster's record for most tickets sold for an artist in a single day," reports People, "selling two million tickets."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for submitting the story.
America's Justice Department "has opened an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster," reports the New York Times. But the investigation "predates the botched sale" and "is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry." The new investigation is the latest scrutiny of Live Nation Entertainment, which is the product of a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster that the Justice Department approved in 2010. That created a giant in the live entertainment business that still has no equals in its reach or power.... The debacle involving Ms. Swift's concert tickets this week has exacerbated complaints in the music business and in Washington that Live Nation's power has constrained competition and harmed consumers.
Or, as NPR puts it, "The frenzy has brought renewed scrutiny to the giant Ticketmaster, which critics have long accused of abusing its market power at the expense of consumers." Would-be concertgoers have complained vocally about recent incidents with near-instant sellouts and skyrocketing prices, and artists like Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen have feuded with it over the decades. One common complaint is that there doesn't seem to be a clear alternative or competitor to Ticketmaster, especially after it merged with concert provider Live Nation in 2010 (a controversial move that required conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Justice).
Now Tennessee's attorney general, a Republican, is opening a consumer protection investigation into the incident. North Carolina's attorney general announced on Thursday that his office is investigating Ticketmaster for allegedly violating consumers' rights and antitrust laws. And multiple Democratic lawmakers are asking questions about the company's dominance â" not for the first time.... "Taylor Swift's tour sale is a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly," tweeted Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of several lawmakers who has long called for investigation and accountability into the company, especially after becoming a subsidiary of concert behemoth Live Nation.
The article also cites a Thursday statement from Ticketmaster: The company says that using Verified Fan invite codes has historically helped manage the volume of users visiting the website to buy tickets, though that wasn't the case on Tuesday. "The staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests â" 4x our previous peak," it said, adding that it slowed down some sales and pushed back others to stabilize its systems, resulting in longer wait times for some users.
It estimates that about 15% of interactions across the website experienced issues, which it said is "15% too many."
The Tuesday sale also broke Ticketmaster's record for most tickets sold for an artist in a single day," reports People, "selling two million tickets."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for submitting the story.
Whatever (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny how when someone's grand-daughter can't get tickets to a concert there needs to be a federal investigation, but when there's no competition for an ISP, something you pay for each and every month, it's all crickets.
Yep (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny how when someone's grand-daughter can't get tickets to a concert there needs to be a federal investigation, but when there's no competition for an ISP, something you pay for each and every month, it's all crickets.
I was thinking the same thing, with different endpoints.
Funny how when someone's grand-daughter can't get tickets to a concert there needs to be a federal investigation, but when a fraudulent crypto exchange implodes harming a million customers, it's all crickets.
Re: Yep (Score:3)
Re: Yep (Score:1)
Ticketmaster is an absolute bullshit company. But they have entered into voluntary agreements with the venues.
Re: Yep (Score:1)
Re: Yep (Score:5, Insightful)
"Give us monopoly control of your ticketing or no remotely noteworthy act will ever go to you and no website will ever sell your tickets" is not voluntary.
Re: Yep (Score:5, Insightful)
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We all know politicians only care about issues that affect their pocketbook.
There, fixed that for you.
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We all know politicians only care about issues that affect them or their immediate family. Otherwise, it has to be something they can profit on with insider trading.
5 Insightful?
So every politician who voted to bring down the cost of insulin has an insulin dependent diabetic in their immediate family?
Every polititician who votes for LGBTQ or racial minority equal rights has an LGBTQ or racial minority in their immediate family?
No politician who votes for relief for 9/11 first responders or veterans doesn't have a vet/fireman/policeman in the family?
I think you're so jaded that you've lost sight of the fact that people can have empathy and care about others enough t
Re: Yep (Score:2)
Re: Yep (Score:1)
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Hey they wanted no government regulations right? So now they don't have them. Wait? You lost money and you got into crypto as a libertarian and want government interaction because you lost money and regulation? LMAO
You can't have it both ways. It is hypocrtical to hate government interaction when it doesn't impact you and expect others to cry and use their tax dollars to bail YOU out?
If you want something safe go FDIC and through typical investments.
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Funny how when someone's grand-daughter can't get tickets to a concert there needs to be a federal investigation, but when a fraudulent crypto exchange implodes harming a million customers, it's all crickets.
The obvious difference here is that Ticketmaster is supposed to be selling tickets and they utterly failed at that one job, while separating fools from their money is pretty much the raison d'etre for cryptocurrency.
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What crickets? The FTX thing happened less than two weeks ago, and all the public conversation is about "how many years in jail will SBF get?" It doesn't need a Congressional investigation, just prosecution.
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Well, the thing is Ticketmaster is governed by laws that regulate sale and trade of stuff - the Uniform Commercial Code.
Deregulated Finance stuff - being the "deregulated" part, means it falls under the government's radar. Everyone knew what they were going into with DeFi and if you got ripped off, well
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Indeed. Who gives a fuck? We've got people willing to pay through the nose for concert tickets and a scumbag company that's eager to facilitate that urge. You can't legislate a disparity between supply and demand in a free market economy. The pearl clutching while ignoring MUCH larger problems is amusing though.
Best,
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You can't legislate a disparity between supply and demand in a free market economy
You can if that supply and demand is being manipulated by a single entity. It's not a free market if a single entity is using it's large sum of cash to quash the ability for anyone else to enter the market and then because they are the sole provider, can artificially move supply into aftermarket via channels not open to the public, so those subsidiaries can pump the price upward.
None of that is free market.
Re: Whatever (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like this was more of the tipping point for an issue that's been brewing. Big public failures like this tend to raise awareness to issues, sort of like when a bridge collapses and we start looking at all the other bridges
That’s how it works (Score:2)
Suddenly a lot of people complain and the government does something (maybe).
Re: (Score:3)
but when there's no competition for an ISP, something you pay for each and every month, it's all crickets
Quite a many factors have created that and have set us back at least two decades before we regain a good whipping at ISPs to play fair. Biggest, is many Senators who literally are beholden to several of the largest ISPs. Another is a complete breakdown of local governments being able to not be completely corrupt. And finally the constant inability for our government to not fear actually breaking out antitrust litigation. That also sidesteps how the court system has slowly evolved to be completely on the
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Two angles to make for next election cycle (Score:2)
Why is it a monopoly? (Score:3)
Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry.
How is it that TicketMaster is the only game in town? The motive (a website unable to handle the load) is a bit lame but the investigation might be legit.
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Define "town".
Maybe in the US they are the biggest, and maybe in some other countries they are big, but I never heard of them in my corner of the world.
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There are actually two other ticketing companies that have a fairly large presence -- Brown Paper Tickets and Events.com.
Interestingly, after the slowdown for in-person events during the Covid-19 pandemic, Brown Paper Tickets is being acquired by Events.com. Several acquisitions have been announced recently by Events.com, and the company is seeking to acquire additional event management and event technology companies and assets. Perhaps its combined resources can offer an alternative to Ticket Master. ht [brownpapertickets.com]
Re:Why is it a monopoly? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry.
How is it that TicketMaster is the only game in town? The motive (a website unable to handle the load) is a bit lame but the investigation might be legit.
In many cases the venue determines who can sell tickets for events. TicketMaster happens to be the biggest company in this field after it purchased Live Nation a decade or so ago so almost all ticket sales go through them. I know the local amusement park in my area used to sell tickets for concerts and such, but at some point they switched to TicketMaster. From that point on the only way to see a concert is TicketMaster.
Also, in the process of selling tickets TicketMaster adds a ton of fees and other got
Re: (Score:2)
Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry.
How is it that TicketMaster is the only game in town? The motive (a website unable to handle the load) is a bit lame but the investigation might be legit.
In many cases the venue determines who can sell tickets for events. TicketMaster happens to be the biggest company in this field after it purchased Live Nation a decade or so ago so almost all ticket sales go through them. I know the local amusement park in my area used to sell tickets for concerts and such, but at some point they switched to TicketMaster. From that point on the only way to see a concert is TicketMaster.
Also, in the process of selling tickets TicketMaster adds a ton of fees and other gotchas which effectively double or triple the price of tickets.
Who is the driver of the exclusivity deals, the venues or TicketMaster?
If it's TicketMaster that does sound like anti-competitive behaviour.
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Who is the driver of the exclusivity deals, the venues or TicketMaster?
The venues. They don't want to deal with the hassle of selling tickets so they offload it to TicketMaster. Which just happens to be the largest ticket seller in the country by far.
If it's TicketMaster that does sound like anti-competitive behaviour.
In this case it is anti-competitive because there is no one left capable of handling these kinds of events (and apparently neither is TicketMaster). TicketMaster bought their only true compe
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Who is the driver of the exclusivity deals, the venues or TicketMaster?
The venues. They don't want to deal with the hassle of selling tickets so they offload it to TicketMaster. Which just happens to be the largest ticket seller in the country by far.
If it's TicketMaster that does sound like anti-competitive behaviour.
In this case it is anti-competitive because there is no one left capable of handling these kinds of events (and apparently neither is TicketMaster). TicketMaster bought their only true competitor, Live Nation, a decade ago. There are a few much smaller entities out there, but they're mainly local. TicketMaster effectively controls ticket sales for the entire country.
I call BS on that. All of us over 40 here on Slashdot know why Microsoft is the default standard of operating systems and how this happened? More than likely if you are Katy Perry and want to sell a concert TicketMaster drafted a non compete agreement where you couldn't sell tickets without anyone else. So if you're the amusement park (in the grandparents comment) then you can't get any artists to show as they are "Ticket Master Exclusive" artists.
Want to sell tickets to them? Then sign an agreement with Ti
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Also, in the process of selling tickets TicketMaster adds a ton of fees and other gotchas which effectively double or triple the price of tickets.
The funny thing is they got in legal hot water for doing this, got a slap on the wrist that amounted to paying off some lawyers and giving away free tickets to shows few people wanted to see, and still do it.
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Unless the ticketmaster website is a huge traffic drivers to lesser acts which won't just sell out on their own strength I can't see Ticketmaster taking that kind of profit margin, the venues would have to be complete morons. They almost certainly kick back most of it, depending on performance metrics.
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the venues would have to be complete morons
Ticketmaster owns most of the larger concert venues too.
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> Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry.
You need a venue to host these events. They can lock up physical venues since they have weight which acts as a barrier to entry. I believe Pearl Jam tried tacking on Ticket Master and basically got black listed from stadiums etc.
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> Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry.
You need a venue to host these events. They can lock up physical venues since they have weight which acts as a barrier to entry. I believe Pearl Jam tried tacking on Ticket Master and basically got black listed from stadiums etc.
But it's not clear to me why large venues work exclusively with TicketMaster.
It's not like you need a single vendor so you don't accidentally schedule two concerts at the same date.
I guess there's an advantage to being able to sell tickets directly from the venue's website, but that can be a link to a 3rd party site.
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My guess is TicketMaster has enough reach and resources to keep those venues full all the time and/or the venues are just as equally under their thumb.
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Because TicketMaster can sue them for a breach of contract. If you want to be a Ticket Master approved venue then you need to be their b***h and sign an agreement for approved Ticket Master approved artists who also had to sign such contracts.
Contracts are how ISPs and Microsoft started their monopolies and sadly they work.
The only powerful enough entry to challenge these would be the NFL or NBA since they have billions at their disposal. My guess is Ticket Master might cater but offer a portion of their re
Re:Why is it a monopoly? (Score:5, Informative)
Selling tickets seems like an industry that should have a pretty low bar for entry
Because you have to understand LiveNation Entertainment's structure, which TicketMaster is a branch of. LiveNation works with iHeartMedia, Inc. to ensure that advertisement channels are strictly held for only TicketMaster to use. There's a good chance that a majority of the billboards in your city are owned by a division of iHeartMedia, Inc., good chance that all your radio stations are owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., there's a good chance that LiveNation Entertainment has exclusive or semi-exclusive agreements with most of the venues that seat 100+. Local news outlets, local channels, and cable companies are either owned or have exclusive agreements with LiveNation Entertainment.
Pretty much there isn't a means for you to become a promoter that LiveNation Entertainment doesn't already have an agreement with to prevent you from becoming a promoter. And yes, being a promoter requires a lot more than just a website. There are agreements that have to be taken care of between the venue, the band, the label, insurance (for rain tickets), vendors, and so forth. A promoter does all of that. In fact, even say you started selling tickets to some 3rd party venue, the label for the band more than likely is under contract to not work with you.
The reason this isn't a monopoly? Because we have a gutless government that won't go after this and break it the fuck up.
Re:Why is it a monopoly? (Score:5, Informative)
-The Economist [economist.com] Nov 19th 2022
"Predates the botched satle" by how many decades? (Score:2)
"But the investigation "predates the botched sale" and "is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry."
I would assume the investigation began at least during the Clinton administration
Re: (Score:2)
-shrug-
Pearl Jam in 1994:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
You do not need Taylor Swift tickets (Score:4, Interesting)
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So you're saying that rather than the government doing its job consumers should just abandon the live music industry for a few years.
Great idea in theory! Pointless suggestion in reality
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Then nothing will change and we will remain reliant on the government to solve our problems which we could really solve on our own.
We get what we deserve.
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Then nothing will change and we will remain reliant on the government to solve our problems which we could really solve on our own.
We get what we deserve.
So it's like people complaining about Jeff Bezos and Amazon or Elon Musk, yet keep buying crap off Amazon and buying Teslas.
I keep saying to stop buying from both, but all I get are excuses, especially when it comes to Amazon.
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Then nothing will change and we will remain reliant on the government to solve our problems which we could really solve on our own.
One of the tasks of government is to put a check and balance on capitalism so you don't have companies abusing their position in the marketplace, because some problems do not realistically have free market solutions. Yes, technically someone with Elon Musk's or Jeff Bezos's level of wealth could get a wild hair up their butt and decided to compete with Ticketmaster. Best of luck convincing them to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
"We" are the government, you fucking legume.
Re: You do not need Taylor Swift tickets (Score:3)
I think this is not true. The people are not the government. The party system is a buffer that keeps the people out of office.
Policy is not determined by the people. It is determined by the parties. They devise it specifically to fracture and divide the electorate through propaganda and psychological manipulation.
The people vote for the party they want, the candidates follow the party demands, and they get money for election and re-election, if they toe the line.
The large donors write the legislation. T
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People on the internet like to pretend that a few individuals can make the choice to stop using facebook or amazon or ticketmaster and that'll make a difference, but that's not how boycotts work. There has to be a coordinated effort by a large number of people that are making their reasons known to the company and they have to be people that would have used the product in the first place
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So you're saying that rather than the government doing its job consumers should just abandon the live music industry for a few years.
Great idea in theory!
What theory? We actually did this during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ticketbastard had enough of a war chest stashed away that they weathered the storm. It's a tested fact that there's no amount of voting with your wallet which would kill this beast, it absolutely has to be regulated.
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" There is nothing stopping venues and artists from rolling their own competitor."
What part of that industry do you work in that qualifies your opinion?
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No, he's saying that you get what you ask for and the market sells toys for what that market will bear.
I remain unaffected by high ticket prices because I don't bother with such venues. Those who don't mind expensive tickets will pay for them and the seller benefits from this COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY transaction.
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Right so you admit your opinion is worthless in this case since you don't participate in this market.
Some people still enjoy watching shows and their favorite bands. Yes, they could just not do that, but the same can be said for all entertainment. Pretending there isn't a problem because people can just not consume a type of entertainment isn't a meaningful position and won't help fix any problems.
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Graphics Card scalping really isn't a thing anymore, now that crypto mining isn't profitable and the miners are dumping their old cards on eBay for less than half of their original MSRP. Unless you somehow scored a 4090 (which is brand new and somewhat rare), you aren't making a profit on it.
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4090s selling for $2500+ are going like hotcakes for European customers where thanks to monopolistic price setting agreements from the EU and Australia can only get them for $3000 due to exchange rate manipulation.
It is still a thing until it is fixed
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Until people learn to do without
Why would they? You are confused with a need and a want combined with a means of getting. People don't buy products or go to concerts in an altruistic fashion to stick it to bots and scalpers. They go to concerts because they want to and can afford the ticket. They upgrade GPUs because they want to and can afford the card.
Those who have a want but no means do the only thing they can: complain.
Don't pay more than it's worth, and if it's worth that much to you, then what are you complaining about?
Just because something is worth to someone for them to buy it doesn't preclude a right to complain about its cost or
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"Just because something is worth to someone for them to buy it doesn't preclude a right to complain about its cost or more importantly the method of obtaining said thing."
Nor does that preclude my amusement at their whinging. I enjoy seeing people who crave things get taken to the cleaners for their weakness for it is that choice to indulge weakness driving the high prices they complain about. They created their own problem by informed adult choices.
Who's gonna investigate all these dupes?! (Score:1)
As much as I enjoy seeing Ticketbastard raked over the coals twice in one week, this story is technically a dupe. [slashdot.org]
Re: Who's gonna investigate all these dupes?! (Score:2)
Ahh, this takes me back to the days in high school when I worked for Ticketmaster.
Our opening line when answering the phone was "Thank you for calling Ticketmaster where American Express is the preferred method of payment, how can we help you?"
Of course the more juvenile and discontent among us just had to modify it to "Thank you for calling Ticketbastard, where your mother is the preferred method of payment, how can we screw you?"
Even to the people who worked there, those service charges seemed like highwa
Pearl Jam (Score:4, Insightful)
This should have been looked at ages ago before they were effectively blacklisting Pearl Jam for speaking out...
The US knows well the dangers of market share consolidation and the anti-trust solutions. It's time for a revival. The artificial inflation the companies with majority market share have used to make up for lost covid revenue and forecasting should be a rallying cry for the whole world, not just the US.
Re: (Score:2)
We should remove the whole "corporations are legally people" and not allow a corporation to own another corporation. All this shit will go away.
I skip the concert (Score:5, Interesting)
I get why concerts may be cool. Heck, I would have liked to see Joe Cocker [youtube.com], and Till Lindemann's [youtube.com] pyromania is something else (at least he is certified in this).
Still: I buy the CD (yes, you read that correctly). Then I actually own the bloody thing rather than rent the music or shove money down undeserving Ticketmaster's throat. Besides, usually it sounds much better, too. I'd rather listen to a really good rendition 100 times than attend an often mediocre one once - for way too much money.
To each their own. I like live music in small venues (no more than, say, 100-200 people), but unless there is a cover charge, I can buy the tickets independently, or get them in person at the box office (they do exist, occasionally), I sadly just won't go anymore instead of supporting modern highway robbery.
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Then I actually own the bloody thing rather than rent the music ... snip ...
Besides, usually it sounds much better, too.
No one goes to concerts because they want to hear music, and I think it is very clear you don't understand this from your preference of small venues.
I'll give you a hint: Basically everyone going to a Taylor Swift concert already has her CDs, and in the case of the wifey limited edition signed vinyls in multiple colours as well. Everyone already owns the music. Renting has nothing to do with it.
Politically Connected (Score:2)
Odds are nothing will happen.
Way before the NFT boom, fluffypony announced was working on challenging Ticketmaster with a ticketing system based on Monero; effectively NFT's but ones with an actual use case. Anonymous and decentralized so venues or acts could keep their revenue.
When suddenly out of nowhere came some really dubious legal trouble from his distant past with claims that were blown so far out of proportion that it was an obvious economic hit job.
Re: (Score:2)
Blockchain technology brings nothing to the table. The entire reason Ticketmaster has a monopoly is due to anti-competitive dealings with the venues. Implementing a merchant front-end and ticket sales database is by itself a trivial task. Ticketmaster knows this, hence their dirty dealings to retain their position in the marketplace.
Wut? No Tickets? (Score:3)
Sounds like a stock offering, IPO. Brokers pre sell blocks of stock at negotiated prices.
Yet the post office fucks up far more than that (Score:2)
and no one does a goddamn thing about it.
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Taxpayers want effective government agencies without paying for them so nothing will be done about it. Use a private carrier instead.
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I do. However, a lot of the places I have to do business with don't. There's nothing like having to frantically call a doctor to get a temporary prescription because a required medication that was shown as shipped a month prior still hasn't shown up.
never tell the customer "NO" (Score:4, Informative)
There appears to be a pattern here within the service industry, of "never tell the customer NO", even when there's just no way you can deliver. I see this a lot where developers tell marketing something is impossible, and marketing still tells the client they can do it. (or we're going to try our hardest to make it happen")
Most of the time they're simply too afraid of losing a sale. But TICKETMASTER, when you practically OWN the market, who else are they going to take their business to? This was just inexcusable.
I'll acknowledge though that a big part of the blame is on the bastards running the bot nets trying to scoop up tickets to scalp. It seems like TicketMaster has mechanisms in place to preent the bots from getting as big of a chunk of the tickets as they usually do, but they just respond to this by throwing more bots at the web site. "If I can't make money, neither can you!" But then again I hate bot nets for a lot more than just this. They're a scourge on modern technology, and not enough time is being invested in taking them down. This isn't even some group with a warehouse full of computers, it's just someone living in their mom's basement, renting time on a malware botnet to run his ticket-vacuuming software. Pisses me off, but what do you do?
Agreed. (Score:2)
Maybe Elon Musk needs to step in (Score:3, Funny)
Riiiight (Score:2)
An actual valid application for blockchain? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: An actual valid application for blockchain? (Score:1)
I'd mod up if I had points today.
Blockchain could also be used to prevent scalping and counterfit tickets.
BIg government is going to fix Ticketmaster? (Score:2)
3.5 billion (Score:3, Interesting)
Meh (Score:2)
There's a reason that "monopolies" like this form ... because they are better, though yes, certainly not perfect, than having your Uncle Fester selling tickets out of the back of his van, and taking them at the door.
Nobody is stopping you from getting web hosting, installing WooCommerce, and selling whatever you want. But there's usually actually more to real world success than that, which is why big companies with economy of scale, history, experienced staff, connections, and so forth, end up consolidatin
They got slashdotted (Score:2)
Like in the olden times.
wher is class action lawsuit for platinum tickets? (Score:3)
Must buy tickets in person (Score:2)
Bots (Score:2)
Basically bots are DDOSing Ticketmaster, as the resell value (aka scalping) on these tickets are extremely, extremely high. I'm not sure what the solution is, besides some kind of lottery with valid credit card verification allowing only one potential purchase (up to 4 tickets or so) per credit card. I believe their current system is first-come first-serve, so it's easy gamed by very fast bots trying to get entry to the actual purchase process, at which point a human can step in and make the purchase.