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Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

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Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#61

Post by solumos »

EGreg wrote: post #13

The real question is, why is TicketMaster allowed to strongarm venues into essentially perpetuating its monopoly forever?

Ticketmaster + venues are incentivized to maximize primary ticket sales.

Ticket brokers are generally willing to take on the risk of buying up tickets to events on the primary market and constrain supply to turn a profit on the secondary market.

This works because TM and secondary platforms can claim ignorance and control the narrative: “we do our best to prevent bots”/“fans should be free to resell their tickets”

The only way around it is for the government to regulate prices, like they do in the UK (i.e. you can’t resell tickets for more than face value)

That means that TM/venues likely aren’t guaranteed as much profit, and ticket brokering businesses disappear, but both of those things are ultimately net negatives for consumers anyway.

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#62

Post by zeagle »

Well, I look forward to getting another 45 dollars of credit to spend only at ticketmaster in five years through a class action1. Hard not to be cynical about it when the fines when caught are tiny.

1 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/ticketmaster-class-...

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#63

Post by amanaplanacanal »

woah wrote: post #40
username332211 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse still, they want to sell it below market value, but they want to be paid as if they were selling tickets at market value. I remember finding some story about a contract for Ke$ha or Kathy Perry or some other pop-concoction of the previous decade getting leaked (*) , and one of the ways in which the artist got paid was trough a percentage of the tickets to distribute trough unofficial resale channels. The issue…

> The issue that spawned Ticketmaster is that as a class artists are greedy, but they want to pretend they aren't. Being hated is a vital part of that company's business model. Excellent analysis

Yep. Artists make Bank and ticketmaster takes the heat. Win win!

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#66

Post by bombcar »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
yard2010 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their whole business is based on bullying, dark patterns and ripoff, they either go out of business and become homeless or turn out to be the next president of the united states.

> Their whole business is based on bullying, dark patterns and ripoff No. It’s based on monopoly. There are a limited number of venues that can host a modern superstar, generally no more than one per geography, and Ticketmaster made it a point to represent all of them. Which means any modern superstar and their fans must work through Ticketmaster. Which, in turn, enables this nonsense. The cause is monopoly. Not “bul…

It’s worse than that.

The venue contracts with Ticketmaster to hike all the fees and shit, which then get kicked back in some percentage to the venue (and sometimes the band) and Ticketmaster takes the heat.

So the 50% that goes to “Ticketmaster” may be 80% to the venue.

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#67

Post by Atlas667 »

I don't understand why people can't make the logically necessary step to conclude that capitalism promotes cartels because there are profits to be made in cartels.

Capitalism always results in monopolies and cartels. This was known 100 years ago and it is still true now, just not as publicized. I wonder why...

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#68

Post by dfxm12 »

101008 wrote: post #33

I love going to concerts and love going to sport events. Ticketmaster is awful, but most of the ticketing platforms are. I always talked with fellow friends how we would love to start a new startup for this, for selling tickets, a fair one, etc. But of course people in the industry wouldn't want it. Really a shame, because it would be one of those cases where I'd be working on somethign that excites me so I would giv…

There are established alternatives.

eTix is good. The quoted price for a show was $20. I wound up paying $21.65 after fees. The fees were obvious at checkout. I didn't have to sign up for anything or download an app, either (which I don't like about Dice, but they are similarly good otherwise).

The problem is mostly vertical integration & abusing a monopoly over venues of a certain size. I understand I live in a place where there are more independent venues than other places and I'm glad I happen to be into the acts that play them...

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#69

Post by jnsie »

leakycap wrote: post #54
leetrout wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started? Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Capitalists rent seeking all the way through their history and if you put money first in any business venture you will always feel pressure to enshitify. See 1994 Pearl Jam vs TM and monopolistic behavior 30 years ago.

> Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Sorry, this simply isn't the case. Before TM, the best available ticket was whatever the vendor you were dealing with had in their inventory. TicketMaster was started by 3 people who wanted to make the process of getting the "best available" ticket easier than going to all the disconnected ticket-sellers and finding out who had the best ticket. The…

> Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system.

I highly doubt it. The merger with LiveNation made them much more than a ticketing service. They now also handle artist management, concert promotion, and venue ownership. In fact "Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains "monopoly control" over the top 100 amphitheaters and 100 arenas worldwide" [1]

[1] https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-ex...

Re: Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says

#70

Post by [deleted] »

charcircuit wrote: post #34
leakycap wrote: post #4

Hard to care what happens to a company like TicketMaster. As you build your company, ask yourself how they ended up like this. Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started (everyone hating them and seeing them as an evil money grab)? They probably started with a different ethos. A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, o…

2 months ago and the experience was great. Ordering tickets through ticket master was easy and everything went smoothly using the ticket to enter the venue was also smooth.

[deleted]
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