Ticketmaster doesn’t innovate and is “too big to care” which is what led to issues during the Eras tour onsale in November 2022.

The issues during this onsale were caused by a novel cyber-attack. While the bots failed to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets, the attack required us to slow down and even pause our sales. Our engineers working behind the scenes built new defenses in real-time, and sales were ultimately able to progress later in the day.

Ticketmaster sets ticket prices and is responsible for price gouging.

Primary ticketing companies like Ticketmaster do not set ticket prices. Tickets are generally priced by artists and teams. It’s their show, they should determine the price of their tickets. A primary ticketing company only gets about 5% of the total transaction, a figure far too low to be the cause of high-ticket prices.

Ticketmaster keeps 100% of ticketing service fees.

Most fees go back to the venue – they typically keep over two-thirds of the service fee. Ticketmaster’s commission is usually about 5% of the all-in price paid by the consumer. So, on a $100 all-in ticket, Ticketmaster gets $5. Venues use their majority share of service charges to help cover the costs of operating the facility and hosting shows, including expenses for staffing, security, venue improvements and more.

Ticketmaster wants to hide fees.

We strongly believe there should be an all-in pricing law in the U.S. so on all ticket marketplaces consumers see the full cost upfront including the face value + fees. Live Nation’s venues and festivals already moved to all-in pricing in Fall 2023.

Ticketmaster opposes ticketing reforms.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster have long supported robust all-in pricing rules, banning speculative ticket selling and other predatory resale practices, enhancing anti-bot legislation and giving artists the right to determine how their tickets are resold. The company proactively advocates for these reforms at the state and federal levels.

Ticketmaster allows bots to get tickets to make more money on the resale of the ticket.

Ticketmaster’s singular goal regarding bots is to stop them, period. Ticketmaster invests more than everyone else in the industry combined to prevent bots from acquiring tickets intended for real fans. The problem is not Ticketmaster’s level of effort, but the arms race with bad actors whose only incentive is to constantly develop new methods of using bots use to circumvent Ticketmaster security.

Ticketmaster has no competition.

Most large venues in the U.S. (stadiums and arenas) are owned and operated by major sports teams, who make the ticketing decisions for their venues. Ticketmaster does not control any of them.

Ticketmaster “controls” ticketing at many large venues across the country.

Many large venues in the U.S. are owned and operated by major sports teams, who are in charge of ticketing protocols at their venues.

Ticketmaster uses venue exclusivity to defend its market share.

Venue exclusivity exists for two reasons: venues hardly ever want to have two primary ticketing companies, and exclusive contracting is the best way for them to get the best deals. In other words, exclusive contracting is not about Ticketmaster; it is what venues want.

Bob Lefsetz, music industry expert
“Ticket prices have nothing to do with Ticketmaster. If anything, a remedy will help other promoters, who will be able to participate in ticket resale by using another platform. But if you think any change is going to trickle down to the consumer, you’re delusional.” read more

Eric Budish, Professor of Economics – University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
“The key point I want to emphasize is that what’s NOT A CHOICE is to set a below‐market price, and then just hope and pray that fans will get the mispriced tickets, and there won’t be a fervent secondary market…that’s just a never‐ending cat‐and‐mouse game between the primary market and the brokers. The economically reliable way to get tickets to fans and not have them get resold, is to either set a market‐clearing price in the first place, or to prohibit resale.” read more

“Pushing for a “Fair Ticketing act,” Live Nation — owner of both the eponymous live music promoter as well as ticketing giant Ticketmaster — is advocating for federal laws that could weaken scalpers’ ability to mark up ticket prices and gouge customers for in-demand concerts…protecting artists’ ability to decide how their tickets can sell on the secondary market.” read more

August Brown, Music Writer
“There are likely no fixes beyond raising prices, adding more dates or shutting off secondary markets.” read more

Jonathan Daniel, an artist manager for Fall Out Boy and Green Day
“If Ticketmaster gets regulated, you’ll invite some new problems, because Ticketmaster solved a lot of them.” read more

Dave Brooks, Senior Director of Live Music & Touring, Billboard
“The reason for the huge difference in price, experts say, is due in part to longstanding consumer skepticism about resale tickets in most of Europe. That’s coupled with a much more aggressive regulatory environment where artists and consumers are empowered to report and remove illegal ticket listings, and where prices are kept low thanks to laws limiting how high tickets can be marked up over face value. ‘The European approach is significantly different from that of the United States, where ticket resale is not regulated and deceptive marketing practices, including the use of deceptive websites and speculative ticket listings, continue unabated despite widespread outcry from consumers.’” read more

Brandon Ross, LightShed Partners Media and Technology Analyst
“So the venues are taking 75%-plus of that fee, and Ticketmaster only 25%. And I don’t think most fans actually understand that.” read more

Bill Werde, Bandier Program Director, Newhouse School, Syracuse University
“Almost none of this is determined by Ticketmaster. The artist determines if they want to use dynamic pricing. The artist sets the prices. And the artist can insist on using a combination of Verified Fan and Face Value Ticket Exchange to ensure that there is no scalping, as Pearl Jam succeeded in doing on their last tour. The only markets where Pearl Jam could not control this is in the markets where States have passed well-intentioned, but horribly misguided laws “protecting” consumers—laws that ban placing limits on resale.” read more

Andy Greene, Senior Writer, Rolling Stone
“But ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also. And the bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’
“It created an opportunity for that to occur. And so, at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans. But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.” read more

Daniel Wall, EVP Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, Live Nation Entertainment
“Tickets are actually priced by artists and teams…It’s their show, they get to decide what it costs to get in. Fans are also told that service charges are Ticketmaster’s way of raising ticket prices. In fact, Ticketmaster does not set service charges, venues do, and most of the money goes to the venues.” read more

Bob Lefsetz, music industry expert
“All I can say is we live in a post-truth society. You make up your own facts. Ticketmaster is the devil and they’re taking advantage of those damn acts and you. This might feel right, but it’s patently untrue.” read more

Daniel Wall, EVP Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, Live Nation Entertainment
“In today’s primary ticketing market, venues are able to organize robust competitive bidding among Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, AXS and others so that if they choose Ticketmaster — the product that a large majority of venues want to buy — they get Ticketmaster at highly competitive prices. Those are simply the facts. And they do not describe a monopolized market.” read more

Daniel Wall, EVP Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, Live Nation Entertainment
“If the government wants to take action that genuinely helps consumers – which is to say, fans – it should pass federal legislation, preempting contrary State legislation, giving artists, sports teams and other event organizers clear rights to set the resale rules for their shows.” read me

Dave Brooks, Senior Director of Live Music & Touring, Billboard
“’They just aren’t designed for high-demand ticket sales, like concerts,’ says Arfa, who describes SeatGeek as ‘a secondary ticketing company that dabbles in primary ticket sales’ while Ticketmaster is better built for large sales. ‘There’s things that we have become accustomed to in the music business’ that Ticketmaster does really well, he noted.” read more

Peter Supino, Logan Angress, Devin Brisco, Ronald Song
“We argue that primary ticketing is a natural “winner takes all” market; if a venue/promoter wants to sell tickets it is in their best interest to use the largest platform with the most data, biggest customer database, and best technology, particularly given promoters often need to recoup substantial guarantees made to artists and therefore have little room for error (Live Nation Concerts L/MSD AOI margins). There are also switching costs and operational uncertainties associated with switching ticketers, which causes many venues to stick with the incumbent. However, that does not mean Ticketmaster will not face competition in the event of a split from Live Nation, particularly given the level of competition Ticketmaster faces currently which has only increased since the merger.”

Ed Vyvyan
“However, if the DOJ did sue for a break-up, we believe it would do so on shaky ground. Not only has the ticketing market become more competitive since Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger, but it is also unclear whether fans or venues would benefit. We also see issues with the original Consent Decree.”

Brandon Ross, Media and Technology Analyst
“. . . [W]e expect a settlement including an extension of the current consent decree and remedies to address the specific business practices. Such a settlement would likely have a very positive impact on LYV stock, minimally removing a large overhang. Other settlements could be accretive to profits. For instance, it has been speculated that the DOJ could be looking at opening Live Nation amphitheaters to third party promoters. Such a move would likely fill more nights at amps, bringing with it high margin revenue.”

“Ticketmaster could well command a better valuation as a standalone company. Vivid Seats, a much smaller ticket reselling platform, trades on an EV/ebitda multiple of over 13 times.” read more

StubHub said 70% of orders for Taylor Swift tickets on its platform are fan sellers as opposed to professional ticket brokers—double what it normally sees.” read more

“SeatGeek committed to all-in pricing on Thursday, but critics say the company has avoided the policy even in New York where it’s the law” read more

“The average resale price for concert tickets on SeatGeek has more than doubled since 2019, from $125 to $252 so far in 2023. For sold-out acts such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen, that number jumps to $1,311, $480 and $469, respectively, the company says.” read more