A petition created by More Perfect Union is asking for the Department of Justice to investigate Ticketmaster after technical difficulties saw fans of Taylor Swift wait up to eight hours for her tour tickets leading to resell tickets selling for up to $22,000. Read more
Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter and ticket provider, has come under fire after the Justice Department launched an investigation on its alleged antitrust business practices.
The investigation was initiated after the Justice Department received a number of complaints alleging that Live Nation was using its control over concert tours to pressure venues into contracting its subsidiary, Ticketmaster for ticket sales. One of the allegations comes from Live Nation’s competitor AEG, which told the officials that its venues would stand to lose valuable shows if Ticketmaster was not used as a vendor.
As far anyone can remember, the ticketing process for music events has long been a problematic one. Sadly, it has only gotten worse over the years, even with the available technology that, supposedly, should be able to address these issue effectively.
A recent article published in Vulture shed a spotlight on this longstanding issue and how it has adversely affected not only the ticket vendors and event promoters, but even the artists themselves. As such, the continuing debacle raises important questions that need to be addressed. Why do artists still have to comb through their own tickets sold to determine their authenticity? Who is to blame for all this mess? And what have state and federal authorities done so far to prevent behaviors that prevent actual fans from buying tickets and, more importantly, how effective are they?
