After a high-profile antitrust lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it has tentatively settled with Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.
After merging in 2010, the combined Live Nation and Ticketmaster control the majority of ticket sales and venue bookings in the U.S., leaving talent little choice but to work with these companies. Customers have been fed up for years with dynamic pricing issues that can drive up ticket costs by thousands of dollars (often without consulting the artists), as well as the process of buying tickets — the sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour were so widely aggravating that they triggered government scrutiny.
According to the AP, the settlement would have Live Nation pay a fine of up to $280 million and divest at least 13 venues to give competitors more opportunity. But several states’ Attorneys General involved in the lawsuit are not appeased by the settlement.
Customers can choose to not attend the concerts of those artists, but they won’t do that because they’re actually ok with paying the exorbitant prices. They demonstrate their approval of these prices to these artists AND to ticketmaster/livenation by continuing to pay these prices. Ultimately, the power to affect change lies with the customer and their wallet.
You should avoid using generalizations so much. Not everyone is willing to pay the prices. Some people do avoid buying tickets from them, I know they aren’t my first choice.
This “us vs them” mentality is not healthy for anyone.