They should make it illegal for large venues to have exclusivity requirements for these companies. Big stadiums and venues usually had some public assistance, either directly or the public paying for e.g. a train station at the venue - there should be requirements as conditions to that
US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
151–160 of 319 posts
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#152The FTC and DoJ have been hitting it out of the park recently, unfortunately, there are a lot of judges out there that think corps should be able to do anything they want.
Election year. They know the judges won't let anything bad happen to their friends so they can pretend to act tough every four years (when the billionaire class's preferred candidate/party is in office of course).
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-apple...
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-googl...
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/...
It's been nonstop for the whole duration of the admin.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
The FTC leadership has made a number of strange (and in my opinion poor) decisions, beginning with insulting and alienating the agency staff, which had experience that the political appointees lacked. They then proceeded to act without regard to previous agency experience. At this point, it seems like they’re just trying to get their political goals back on track, though it seems a bit late, given that administration…
> insulting and alienating the agency staff What are you referring to here?
Apparently career staffers don’t like Khan. You know; the career staffers that, checks notes, have been at a largely ineffectual FTC for decades. Oh well, at least she’s trying.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#154Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
The monopoly is really the artists, who then delegate to the venues. Like, Bruce Springsteen ticket prices are high because only he is Bruce Springsteen and nobody else is. The real monopoly is on being Bruce Springsteen . Prices are high because of supply and demand for that artist ; Bruce Springsteen can only put on so many shows for so many seats and there is far more demand than that, no matter who is selling the…
I can't believe that when a company owns the venues and the tickets, mandates buying tickets from themselves then adds a huge markup to every ticket someone would actually blame the entertainers for having name recognition.
Surely Bruce Springsteen can simply build dozens of venues around the United States if he wants an alternative to Live Nation.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#156This is great news but : Please also stop giving Ticketmaster your money. Every dollar you voluntarily give them (for a totally optional product, I might add) encourages them to continue their horrible practices. "Ticketmaster is such a terrible company!" he says as he buys more concert tickets from them.
What's the alternative? There's no competition.
Not going to live music, at least in the US.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an election year, don't hold your breath.
How dare politicians implement popular policies to appeal to voters!
I think the objection is the timing. If the administration truly cared about such things, they'd do them in non-election years. But they seem to save up these things for election years so people feel listened to.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#158The FTC and DoJ have been hitting it out of the park recently, unfortunately, there are a lot of judges out there that think corps should be able to do anything they want.
It's an election year, don't hold your breath.
If one party's election-year pandering is legalizing marijuana and enforcing antitrust law, I'll take it.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you arguing that they aren't hurting consumers? Just look at ticket prices over the years as more and more competition was eliminated, as well as the tactics they use to control artists. You aren't going to have much luck I suspect.
Yet nobody seems to ever ask whether or not the merger is a question of survival - would TM or LN poof out of existence if they didn't have this release valve? - or simply just another attempt to stifle existing competition in the market. People who are really opposed to this will probably think this is wildly off base, but if it came to pass...isn't that worse than one company absorbing the other because although th…
If the company is in such a bad state that the only thing keeping it alive is a monopolistic control of the market and much hated business practices, do we really want it running a significant chunk of the economy? Or is it better to watch it burn to allow better companies to emerge?
Personally, I think that if a company can’t survive with competition, it shouldn’t survive. That is a fundamental and necessary tenant of capitalism. It may cause pain in the short term, but it will eventually lead to a healthier market.
As was often repeated back in the Great Recession, if a company is too big to fail, then maybe it’s too big to exist.
Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered what government funding would look like if taxpayers could allocate their tax dollars at their own discretion. I don't think it would be all that functional in practice, but the idea of it seems interesting.
That would be an absolute shit show. But it would genuinely be interesting to see what people value. Right before the inevitable collapse.
I saw a study where they asked people to estimate the budget and discussed how wrong they got it.
We do have a tiny bit of say with the presidential election fund.