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

arstechnica.com

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

#91

Post by smelendez »

KumaBear wrote: post #16
pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

We bought $700 tickets to see a show we really wanted to see, but ended up being unable to make it. We tried selling it on Ticketmaster, where you can in theory set your own price, or accept their "best offer". Our best offer was somewhere in the neighborhood of $150, and given that it was the night of the show, we accepted it. We paid $54 per ticket in "processing fees" when purchasing, and paid $50 in more "process…

Solution that might be anti user friendly. Tickets are bought and assigned to a persons name at time of purchase. They can only be refunded at cost and resold at cost to buyers. Release of tickets refunded shall be reposted for resell at a random time after attempting a refund. This will however allow people to pay for bots that will purchase tickets on their behalf. But I believe a verification system can prevent th…

The problem for seated events is variations on, four people buy tickets together, seats ABCD, and the people in seats B and D drop out. They have friends who would buy the empty seats, but instead end up with a stranger in between them.

Or two people buy seats together, one can’t make it, and now the other person is stuck sitting with a stranger. And they have a friend who also wants to go who is also sitting alone.

The venue might still sell out but it’s a worse experience for everyone. Even groups who all get in together get annoyed by people trying to swap seats or cram in the aisles to be with their friends. Venue staff are stuck dealing with crowd control issues.

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

#92

Post by kevinsync »

shermantanktop wrote: post #39
galaxy_gas wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also what I am experienced. In the music festival world, there is a TM subsidiary, In the same venue you can see fees differ by dozens of percent based on who the Artist, the ones known for being good people are much lower even if the base ticket price is identical

So TM is just the stooge doing terrible things that the artist wants to do, but would prefer someone else take the heat for it? All while the artist engages fans as their parasocial friend, who would never do them wrong? That's cynical enough for me to want to believe it.

Believe it lol [0]

"The acts are responsible for all of it. They set the ticket prices. They created the large fees. Ticketmaster is paid to take the heat. Because the acts don’t want their fans to hate them. Even worse, the fans don’t hate them even when they’re told the acts are at fault, they just don’t believe it!"

For more insight into ticket pricing, see [1]

That said, up until I read this Ars article, I understood what Ticketmaster was and why they exist and kind of had few problems with it or moral compunctions about it; the concert business is cut-throat and it's very hard to turn a profit without some of these tactics in place. I find this new revelation about protecting revenue by actively supporting + enabling the corrupt reseller market to be quite fucking distasteful though!

[0] https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2022/11/17/ticketmaster-swift-...

[1] https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/03/01/the-truth-about-tic...

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

#93

Post by smelendez »

dfxm12 wrote: post #80
prmoustache wrote: post #77

There would be no scalpers if people weren't buying tickets to scalpers. The answer is easy. Don't buy crazy expensive tickets.

The answer is easy. Don't buy crazy expensive tickets. I think this is a knock on effect of wealth inequality. People on here are talking about buying $700 tickets. My first thought is that the price sounds insane, but my second thought is to recognize that some folks have way more disposable income than I do. So $700 might be just another night out for someone else...

I know people who go to a big stadium show every so often and basically don’t spend any other money on music. I know other people who are going to $0 to $20 shows every week.

They feel like different hobbies and communities nowadays, and I don’t think that was always so true.

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

#94

Post by pavel_lishin »

bobthepanda wrote: post #37
pavel_lishin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, the shows are great. But the ticket purchasing experience is only slightly better than a root canal, and is typically more expensive.

It's hard to sympathize with the experience between scalping, which is bad, but also now there's all sorts of priority queues for people with various levels of pay-to-play which are pretty distasteful. AMEX presale, cell carrier presale, etc. all feels terrible. And the show is fun but my local arena renovated within the last decade and now feels like an airport terminal with all the tiered lounges, ripoff concession…

Oh, for what it's worth, I might only go to an arena show once or twice more in my life, to see those "would like to see them in my lifetime before they break up or die" bands.

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

#95

Post by pavel_lishin »

prmoustache wrote: post #78
pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

We bought $700 tickets to see a show we really wanted to see, but ended up being unable to make it. We tried selling it on Ticketmaster, where you can in theory set your own price, or accept their "best offer". Our best offer was somewhere in the neighborhood of $150, and given that it was the night of the show, we accepted it. We paid $54 per ticket in "processing fees" when purchasing, and paid $50 in more "process…

What kind of show sell $700 tickets? Does that include an escort?

The kind where both System of a Down and Korn are playing, and we'd like to see them slightly closer than from an airplane window.

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

#96

Post by eastbound »

leakycap wrote: post #73
jnsie wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.economiclib…

What part of "now they'll slowly die" is discounted by the charts you linked showing they're currently alive? Internet Explorer had something like 99% of the web browser market in 1999. It... slowly died. May TicketMaster follow suit if they continue their greed.

How long is the Ticketmaster-LiveNation exclusivity contract with the artists and the venues?

- Whether 1 and 10 years, the monopoly could fall for another provider in half the median duration. In fact, venues could collide together to replace the monopoly.

- Or, if Tickermaster really provides an extra income to venues able to change the type of venue by an order of magnitude, we might see an elitist top-class of artists, and then a non-elitist second class with more popularity, more decent venues, and affordable prices.

- Then we can talk about why we always hear the same artists on radio.

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

#98

Post by eastbound »

solumos wrote: post #48
vlucas wrote: post #27

There is no business that I hate more than TicketMaster. In 2016, the OKC Thunder were making a playoff run. They just advanced to the finals and tickets were set to "go on sale to the public" at 10am on a certain day. I signed up for an account, got logged in, etc. and kept refreshing the page around 10am that day, card in hand to buy. The second that time elapsed, all tickets were sold out . Yet somehow thousands o…

Ticket brokers control 85%+ of the market. The problem is that they’re completely insulated from any scrutiny by the platforms (Stubhub and Vividseats actively work with larger ticket brokers as well). Punishing Ticketmaster doesn’t really change that dynamic.

Well, start with punishing Ticketmaster like the EU would do, and see whether they don’t find any solution for scalpers.

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

#99

Post by WalterBright »

smelendez wrote: post #91
KumaBear wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solution that might be anti user friendly. Tickets are bought and assigned to a persons name at time of purchase. They can only be refunded at cost and resold at cost to buyers. Release of tickets refunded shall be reposted for resell at a random time after attempting a refund. This will however allow people to pay for bots that will purchase tickets on their behalf. But I believe a verification system can prevent th…

The problem for seated events is variations on, four people buy tickets together, seats ABCD, and the people in seats B and D drop out. They have friends who would buy the empty seats, but instead end up with a stranger in between them. Or two people buy seats together, one can’t make it, and now the other person is stuck sitting with a stranger. And they have a friend who also wants to go who is also sitting alone.…

> but instead end up with a stranger in between them

Offer the stranger $20 to swap seats.

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

#100

Post by mrstone »

saaaaaam wrote: post #58
mrstone wrote: post #29

How many times is Ticketmaster going to be slapped on the wrist before something is actually done? They are clearly corrupt and colluding with scalpers and every 4 years or so the FTC says "hey now don't do that" and Ticketmaster goes back to their old schtick. It's immensely frustrating because they are also a monopoly and no one can feasibly compete with them because they also control the event venues. I guess this…

Alongside the FTC lawsuit the DOJ is looking at breaking up Live Nation

I feel like I've heard this one before. With this administration, I can't seem them actually doing it.
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