The answer is capitalism, I know.
But it wasn’t always like this. Why the hell are they allowed to absolutely monopolize all shows and venues? How are there not laws on this?
Is stopping going to any shows the only way to fix this? If so, that wont happen. People are gonna go see their favorite bands (and ticketmonster knows it)
I wish this one was as easy as getting rid of all my streaming services - but they really fucked us over for live shows.
There are currently lawsuits against them, but it takes time. This is from NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s newsletter earlier this year:
"The People vs. Ticketmaster/Live Nation
I’m forcing myself to only pick one case to go into detail about - but it’s a great one.
Let’s say you want to make a bunch of money by supplying live entertainment, primarily the music industry.
Well, the three big pieces in that business are:
The venue
The right to promote the event
The right to sell the tickets
Now imagine you control each of those. You own venues, and you promote the events, and you sell the tickets.
Congratulations - you’re a monopoly.
You’ve achieved vertical integration within your business, which means the sum of those parts has unlocked the ability to gouge customers with the confidence that they won’t be able to find a competitor to offer them a better deal. And using your monopoly to further entrench your power to charge customers higher prices is against the law.
This is exactly what I, along with a bipartisan group of AGs, allege that Ticketmaster/Live Nation has done.
They’ve turned concert ticket fees into something fans call the “Ticketmaster Tax.” These are the “convenience fees,” “processing fees,” and “handling fees” that add up quickly, inflating ticket prices by huge margins.
Why can they get away with it? Because they’ve locked venues into exclusive contracts, squeezing out any chance of competition.
But it gets worse. If venues try to resist and explore other options, Live Nation retaliates by threatening to strip venues of popular acts. The internal emails from Live Nation executives detailed in our lawsuit are explicit and awful.
Which means, if you’re an independent venue that doesn’t use Ticketmaster, good luck booking artists. Ticketmaster controls ticket sales and Live Nation controls promotion, so artists who are promoted by Live Nation typically won’t be allowed to perform at venues that refuse to use Ticketmaster for ticketing.
This is textbook unlawful monopoly behavior. Consumers are paying higher prices and artists and venues are suffering from reduced competition and income.
The good news is that Live Nation just tried - but failed - to get our lawsuit dismissed. That’s a big step toward accountability, including our ultimate request that Live Nation be required to divest Ticketmaster, which it acquired in 2011 and which became the linchpin for much of their monopolistic behavior."