Musicians Telling the Truth About Ticketmaster
The truth about Ticketmaster is somewhat complicated, but these musicians have let fans in on exactly how the concert ticket giant does business.
Pearl Jam famously testified to Congress in 1994 about Ticketmaster, warning government representatives that Ticketmaster was becoming a monopoly. “It is well known in our industry that some portion of the service charges Ticketmaster collects on its sale of tickets is distributed back to the promoters and the venues,” Stone Gossard said. “It is this incestuous relationship and the lack of any national competition for Ticketmaster that has created the situation we are dealing with today. The service fee, which in concept should be nothing more than a handling charge for purchasing tickets, has thus become a source of additional revenue, not only for Ticketmaster, but for the promoters and the venues.”
However, it’s also the artist who, in part, determines the price of their concert tickets. Kid Rock took on the issue of astronomical ticket prices himself by offering fans a flat $20 ticket and $4 beer at shows. How did Kid Rock manage this? He says he did it by working with Live Nation (Ticketmaster’s parent company) and taking a pay cut on his end of concert ticket revenue. Kid Rock also called out artists who scoop up their own tickets and sell them for a premium on the second-hand market — something that also makes Ticketmaster a heap of cash.
The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins also discussed the Ticketmaster x Taylor Swift controversy that lit up the Internet this month. He also discussed how most artists make peanuts on their concert ticket sales compared to pop giants like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles.
Watch these artists and more talk about Ticketmaster in the Loud List below.