Get the latest industry CONCERT TICKET NEWS from some of the leading Ticket News outlets and see what the Ticket Industry is saying about latest Tours, Bands and Artists, Music Events, Music, Promoters and Ticket Corporations - Ticket News from around the world.
TOPICAL TICKET
INDUSTRY
NEWS
16 Apr 24 - The widely discussed, anticipated antitrust lawsuit targeting Live Nation Entertainment by the Department of Justice (DOJ), is coming as soon as next month, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal published late Monday. The antitrust challenge, if successful, could dramatically reshape the live event and ticketing landscape, which has been dominated by Live Nation/Ticketmaster since the two companies merged in 2010. As per WSJ: " The agency is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against the Ticketmaster parent in the coming weeks that would allege the nation’s biggest concert promoter has leveraged its dominance in a way that undermined competition for ticketing live events, according to people familiar with the matter "
C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
06 Apr 24 - California Bill Seeks to Crack Down on Ticketmaster Dominance - Proposed legislation from California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks seeks to end exclusive control by Ticketmaster over the sale and resale of concert tickets for events in the state. It proposes to do so by ending primary ticket exclusivity, allowing event tickets to be sold through multiple marketplaces to spur competition. C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
05 Apr 24 - Sen. Warren, Advocates Fume Over Ticketmaster Rebate “Scheme” Last week’s “explosive” exposure of documents from a 2019 expert study Live Nation and Ticketmaster fought to keep out of the public eye continues to bring significant negative attention for the entertainment giant, with consumer advocates and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) slamming the “monopoly” tactics on display.
C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
27 Mar 24 - Pascrell Shares “Explosive” Ticketmaster Report Alleging Abuses - Longtime Ticketmaster/Live Nation critic Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) has shared an “explosive” previously suppressed study of the entertainment giant’s business practices, originally filed as part of a lawsuit against Live Nation in 2019. The report, Pascrell says, details “rampant corrupt and abusive practices by the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly.”
C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
22 Mar 24 - Concert Ticket Pricing Surge Fueled by Artists, Promoters ? -The concert industry saw record-shattering profits in 2023, drawing billions on the back of high profile tours from big-name artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce. However, these ground-breaking numbers came with ever higher ticket prices — a fact that has been an increasingly questionable logic for many concertgoers across the world. While Ticketmaster, its promotional giant parent Live Nation Entertainment and significant other world-wide concert promoters like AEG, Oak View Group, or the umbrella indie lobbying coalition NIVA are quick to point the blame for inflated ticket prices solely on the existence of an independent ticket resale industry, (Ticket Resellers!) the truth is far less cut and dried than they’d like consumers to believe.
C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
07 Mar 24 - Live Nation Antitrust Czar Deflects Blame for Surging Ticket Prices (Dynamic Pricing - Platinum Tickets) - Live Nation antitrust czar Dan Wall hit back against widespread assumptions that his company, which has unprecedented global control of the live entertainment business and is facing active allegations that it operates as a monopoly and an open Department of Justice investigation, has anything to do with the surging ticket prices
(Dynamic Pricing - Platinum Tickets)
being experienced by anyone who has bought a ticket to an event in the past decade. C/O Ticket News - Read Full Article
27 Feb 24 - Live Nation Loses Bid to Dismiss Antitrust Class Action - The Ticketing and entertainment giant Live Nation is facing a class action over alleged anti-competitive conduct and while the company filed to dismiss the case, a judge declined. U.S. District Judge Kenly Kato issued the ruling on Monday and found that Live Nation may have violated securities laws, noting the suit contains “cogent and compelling” allegations regarding the company’s choice “not to disclose the full picture” of its success or antitrust concerns. This is the latest breaking news in the saga against Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster following “The Great War” presale debacle for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the pair’s 2010 merger and it was reported that federal prosecutors could sue the company for an antitrust suit by the end of 2023 -
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
23 Feb 24 - Live Nation Entertainment saw its revenue rocket 36% to reach $22.7bn (£18bn/€21bn) in 2023, with attendance up by 20% as more than 145 million fans attended over 50,000 events worldwide. “The live music industry reached new heights in 2023, and demand for live music continues to build. Our digital world empowers artists to develop global followings, while inspiring fans to crave in-person experiences more than ever,” said Michael Rapino, president and chief executive, Live Nation Entertainment.
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
20 Feb 24 - ADELE Munich residency Ticket Hikes! and fans angst with Dyanamic Ticket Pricing .... When demand is high lanuch Ticket Prices can be increased to amximise on profits - something beginning to bre part of the norm for high-proilie artists! across all genres, fans of acts from Olivia Rodrigo and Bad Bunny to blink-182 and Sleep Token are feeling the hurt of platinum and dynamic pricing on Ticketmaster. Over the past year, fans have been complaining of expensive prices more than ever before. It’s the same story: they’re lured in with the promise of a presale code or waitlist only to be met with hours-long queues and exorbitant prices. Most notably, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale caused complete chaos in the industry, even sparking an investigation into Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger by the Department of Justice. However, while lawsuits have been filed and legislators try to take aim at the company’s monopoly over the ticketing industry, no action has been taken against the entertainment giant. Nonetheless, fans have begun to speak-out now more than ever. As a part of Fan Fair Coalition’s “The Monopoly” campaign, live eventgoers have sent more than 72,000 letters to congress, calling for the merger to be broken-up.
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
01Feb24
Live Nation Lobbying Doubled to $2.4M in 2023 LN reports “It’s no secret we’ve stepped up our advocacy efforts this past year,” Live Nation’s antitrust czar Dan Wall told The Hill. “More than ever, Congress is focused on ticketing policies, and there is an unprecedented amount of lobbying going on by ticket resellers and competitors attempting to use legislation to protect ticket scalping and deceptive sales practices to advance their own competitive interests.” Commenators claim:- “Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn’t even need to exert pressure, it doesn’t need to threaten, everyone just falls in line”, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar during an event discussing the potential for the company to be broken up run by the American Economic Liberties Project earlier this week. Klobuchar is co-sponsor of multiple bills attempting to bring new regulations to ticketing, as well as an outspoken proponent of the need for the Department of Justice to take action against the giant.
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
17 Jan 24 - The American Antitrust Institute’s acting president Kathleen Bradish has joined a panel to discuss Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s percieved dominant power accross the world of Concert Promotion and Ticket Selling later this month. The expert panel, dubbed “The Case for Breaking Up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,” is set to take place on January 23, hosted by the American Economic Liberties Project. Appointed members will address fair competition in the live events industry and look back at the 2010 merger of the two companies — solidifying their combined power as a concert promoter, venue operator, artist manager, and ticketing service in one. Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
12 Jan 24 - A new members-only ticketing marketplace (The Seat Club) has been launched in the US to help consumers avoid hidden fees and markups when purchasing entry to live events - Seat Club was launched this week by industry member and entrepreneur, Cole Rubin. Read Full Article C/O The Ticketing Business
10 Jan 24 - FanFair Alliance Files Complaint Against Viagogo for ‘Misleading’ NME Ads - An investigation by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld a complaint from FanFair Alliance that the secondary ticketing site Viagogo breached advertising rules with “misleading” ads on the NME website last summer! Read Full Article C/O Ticket News NB: Viagogo is a Secondary Ticketing Website
04 Jan 24 - Live Nation and Ticketmaster - Concert Fans Send Over 72,000 Letters to Congress Supporting Live Nation-Ticketmaster Break Up
The ticket-buying process has caused frustration among fans more than ever over the past year as Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation control the industry with “platinum” and “dynamic pricing,” anti-competitive practices and stressful presale queues and waitlists. Now, fans are speaking out; as a part of Fan Fairness Coalition’s “The Monopoly” campaign, live eventgoers have sent out more than 72,000 letters to Congress, calling for the merger to be broken-up.
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
14 Nov 23 - Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s merger in 2010 has caused ongoing concern and even uproar in recent years, with industry executives, concert attendees and even politicians alleging that the entertainment giant and ticketing company have become a monopoly in the world of ticketing. A new survey has found that a majority of Americans want the two companies to be broken-up. Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
21 JULY 23 - Live Nation Gets Fresh Scrutiny at Vertical Merger Senate Hearing
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
19 MAY23 - Massachusetts lawmakers have introduced a so-called “Taylor Swift bill” in an attempt to protect ticket buyers from surprise fees following the Ticketmaster fiasco last fall which saw ticket prices for Swift’s 2023 Eras tour rise over $22,000 on resale sites.
Read Full Article C/O The Guardian
12 MAY23 - The UK Government has rejected the Competition and Market Authority (CMA)’s recommendations on secondary ticketing, some 19 months after they were made, saying that it “does not currently intend to introduce further regulation in this area”. The Government added that it would instead focus on “its consumer protection measures in the recently introduced Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill”. Back in 2021, the UK’s CMA originally called for a number of changes to be made including a ban on platforms allowing resellers to sell more tickets than they can legally buy from the primary market; ensuring platforms are fully responsible for incorrect information about tickets that are listed for sale on their websites and a new system of licensing for platforms that sell secondary tickets that would enable an authority to act quickly and issue sanctions such as taking down websites, withdrawing a business’s right to operate in the sector and the opposition of substantial fines. FanFair Alliance, a UK-based campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, contacted TheTicketingBusiness, and revealed that its research had shown that speculative ticketing was still “rife”
05 MAY23 - Live Nation CEO Says Ticketmaster Should Charge “A Bit More” Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
28APR23 - Federal Legislation Seeks to End Ticketmaster Exclusive Deals -
Read Full Article C/O Ticket News
31 MAR23 - Canada’s Government is to follow US politicians by clamping down on so-called “junk fees” that push up the price of concert tickets and other consumer purchases. In the Budget 2023, the Federal Government said it is taking action to crack down on what are considered “unexpected, hidden, and additional” fees. It said it wants to “ensure businesses are transparent with prices, and to make life more affordable for Canadians”. Read Full Article C/O The Ticketing Business
17Mar23 - Ticketmaster has offered a partial refund to fans who bought tickets to see The Cure's upcoming US tour.The company came under fire earlier this week, when it emerged that, in some cases, the fees added up to more than the face value of the ticket. The Cure's frontman Robert Smith said he was "sickened" by the "debacle" and promised fans answers. On Thursday night, he said Ticketmaster agreed the fees had been "unduly high" and would return some of the money. The band are due to embark on their Shows of a Lost World North American tour in May, with the 30-date trek kicking off in New Orleans.
One customer who bought four $20 (£16.54) tickets ended up paying $172,10 (£142), after service fees, a facility charge and an order processing fee were added. Another, who wanted to see the band in Phoenix, Arizona, paid $72.25 (£59.75) for a ticket with the face value of $20 (£16.54). The fees varied by venue - one fan reported a $16.75 (£13.87) service fee in Massachusetts, while another fan reported $15 (£12.42) in Toronto - and they didn't always exceed the base ticket price. Some of the more expensive seats cost $90 (£74.50) each, for example. Read Full Article C/O BBC
10Mar23 - UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that his Government will do “everything it can” to combat ticketing touting, after MP Kevin Brennan highlighted Eurovision Tickets being listed on Viagogo for thousands of pounds. Speaking on Twitter after the session, MP Sharon Hodgson said: “Great to see my colleague raise the important issue of ticket abuse today at PMQs. It was interesting to hear the PM say he has put in place measures to combat ticketing touting… I’d be delighted to learn more about these measures but I’m not sure they exist. As Chair of the APPG [All-Party Parliamentary Group] on Ticket Abuse I have long campaigned for the rights of ordinary fans to be able to access events without having to face a minefield of fraudsters and crooks. We need legislation to help the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] stamp out bad actors and to make the secondary marketplace safe.” Read full article Ticketing Business
09Mar23 - Ticketmaster’s Post-Swift Strategy: Take On Ticket Fees - Although a cyberattack undermined a pre-sale for the superstar's The Eras Tour, the Live Nation-owned company is focusing on eliminating its "drip pricing" model. Despite breaking two company records with the Nov. 15 The Eras Tour presale — the most tickets ever sold in a single day (2.4 million) and, according to the company, keeping 95% of those tickets off secondary sites like StubHub and SeatGeek — Ticketmaster found itself cast as the villain and Live Nation as a monopoly after a cyberattack disrupted over 100,000 transactions.
It is claimed that Ticketmaster’s main source of revenue comes from the fees it charges to process ticket transactions. A ticket’s face value goes to the artist, while the ticketing giant shares the fees it collects with the venues that contract for its services.
Ticketmaster supposedly keeps $2 to $5 per ticket for processing costs and a small portion of the fees it collects to recoup any loans, advances or bonuses it may have paid the venue to win its ticketing contract. Contracts for large venues can be worth millions of dollars. The balance of the fees collected goes to the venue, which uses the money to cover the cost of the show. Read full article C/O Billboard
24 Feb 2023 - Live Nation also announced its support for a FAIR Ticketing Act, which stands for ‘Fans & Artists Insisting on Reforms in Ticketing’. It calls for artists to be able to decide resale rules, to keep pricing low for attendees and prevent scalpers from exploiting fans. It also calls for it to be illegal to sell speculative tickets, which sees scalpers use deceptive tactics to trick fans into spending more or buying tickets that the seller does not have. See full article C/O Ticket Business
Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) issued a blistering response to Live Nation’s evasion of key questions posed during last month’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in a letter published Thursday, asking the Department of Justice to continue its ongoing investigation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s alleged anticompetitive conduct. The senators organized the bipartisan hearing held in January, which featured numerous witnesses outlining extensive allegations of monopolistic behavior by Live Nation Entertainment and its ticketing subsidiary, while executive Joe Berchtold attempted to deflect all blame for consumer issues in the space to ticket resale operators. See full article C/O Ticket News
23 Feb 2023 - AEG Europe, owner of The O2, has called on the UK Government to permanently block the proposed MSG Sphere in London after Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove indicated that he is preparing to call in the planning decision. In AEG’s latest attempt at preventing the construction of the MSG Entertainment venue in the UK’s capital city, the group acted after Gove last week asked local officials “not to grant permission on the applications without specific authorisation” by issuing a holding direction to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). Gove’s intervention comes after the LLDC last month signed off the MSG Sphere’s external advertising. Read More Courtesy of ticketing Business News
02 Feb 2023 - Joe Biden calls for regulation of 'junk fees' in ticketing - Political pressure on the US ticketing market continues to build with President Joe Biden now calling for new laws to regulate "excessive online concert, sporting event and other entertainment ticket fees". In a statement yesterday, the Biden administration said: "Many online ticket sellers impose massive service fees at check-out that are not disclosed when consumers are choosing their tickets".
[Read Full Article] c/o CMU Daily
09 Feb 2023 - Ticketmaster has claimed an early success as sales for Beyonce’s Renaissance tour passed without major incident following the controversy surrounding last year’s Taylor Swift onsale. - In the UK, some users had problems with the Ticketmaster website, while others said they were kicked out of the queue, which in some cases was 500,000 strong. Additional dates have been added “due to high fan demand” - Article c/o Ticket News
26 Jan 2023 - Live music: How Buying Concert Tickets could be made better (BBC)
24 Jan 2023 - Ticketmaster - Live Nation Faces Scrutiny at Senate Hearing After Taylor Swift Debacle
The Senate Judiciary Committee is exploring whether the merger of Live Nation, the giant concert company, and Ticketmaster, the leading ticket seller, has harmed consumers by stifling competition. VIDEO of Hearing
