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US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

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291–300 of 319 posts

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#291

The 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.

I wouldn't say they're hitting it out of the park; I'd say they've been doing what they were supposed to be doing but haven't in the last 20+ years. Having said that, it's nice to see they've finally woken up after all these years. I want to see them go after the credit card companies. They can start by passing usury laws that cap interest at 10%.

I'd be more interested in capping processing fees.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#292
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like good design, good regulation becomes invisible. Actual wisdom is recognizing and counteracting that bias.

All regulation has a cost. And if based on the track record of the US government, it tends to be high and even potentially introduce weird incentives that solve one problem but create two more.

Lack of regulation has costs too. I’m open to your argument if you can demonstrate somehow what “tends” to be true. I suspect you can’t, and neither can I, which is why we should assess regulations on a case by case basis of their own merits instead of totally unsupportable “regulation good” or “regulation bad” maxims.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> he’s going to drop everything they are working on. Without asking for anything in return?

Yes because his focus and the focus of his department will be different.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#294
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just looking at that last night. [Artist that was super popular in 2006ish] tickets when we went at the absolute height of his popularity were $40 for lawn seats at a local venue [Same artist] at the same venue in the same lawn seating is now $380. What's the difference? Guess who bought the venue.

Can also be an instance of Baumol’s cost disease.

It might be a factor (thanks for introducing me to this concept!) but I doubt it accounts for all of it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Election year is 25% of a single administration's term, why should events be ignored 25% of the time?

Hell, anymore it’s more like 50%.

well at least 50%. I guess everybody forgot there are mid term elections which affect what the administration can do with help of congress.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#296

Let's however not get too caught up in feel-goodism that somehow breaking up Ticketmaster is ridding the live entertainment industry of some external leech that everyone hated. You should realize that venues and artists are equally beneficiaries of what Ticketmaster enables. In a sense they enjoy having Ticketmaster be the hated scapegoat for high prices that they then also enjoy the benefits of. Without Ticketmaster…

Gervaise: "Oh, poor artists.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Live Nation / Ticketmaster is also an excellent example of a bad for consumers monopoly.

Pardon my ignorance here, as I don't actually attend concerts, but to play something of devil's advocate... Isn't the secondary market for tickets- scalpers and such- significantly more expensive than what Ticketmaster is selling the tickets for? Which is to say, aren't the tickets sold below market value? I'm not entirely clear on how there being more competition would help consumers.

Keep in mind that effectively TM/LN sells tickets on the secondary market.

Just because tickets are on the "resale" market doesn't mean they were bought by Jane Doe and she can't go anymore so she's re-listing them. For some concerts only 8% of the tickets are actually available at the listed price, the remaining 92% are all available either as a special offer (credit cards) or given to various individuals associated with the event (such as the headliner) who can then immediately put them up for resale.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely Bruce Springsteen can simply build dozens of venues around the United States if he wants an alternative to Live Nation.

Bruce is probably an investor in Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Many of them probably are.

Do you have a source for that or are you making things up?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bruce-springst...

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#300
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand people like you. A government agency does something material to help the consumer and you just shit talk and resort to base cynicism. Nothing would ever change if everyone was as apathetic as you are.

No one is doing anything to help the consumer. Artists set their ticket prices, tickmaster is a middleman/scape goat. Pretending to go after the scapegoat is just for show.

Guys, I found the Ticketmaster shareholder!
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