VICE News Presents - Sold Out: Ticketmaster and the Resale Racket (2023 TV Movie) User Reviews

VICE

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 9 July 2023]

In November 2022, Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation were met with widespread public criticism over the ticket sales of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. The pre-sale website crashed within an hour and somehow 2.4 million tickets were sold despite the outage, breaking the all-time record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day.

Ticketmaster claimed that "historically unprecedented demand with 14 million showing up" was the cause, but for so many, it felt like just another example of bad customer service and worse business practices.

Directed by Pieter Colpaert and Nicholas Fraccaro, this film shows how Ticketmaster and Live Nation have caused ticket sales to increase in price and give you no other option to buy tickets or see a show. This has led to the U. S. Congress attempting to revert the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation as it appears to be a monopoly that has led to high prices and worse service.

Swift's tour promoter, AEG Presents, remarked that as Ticketmaster has exclusive deals with the majority of U. S. live venues they had to work with them. Fans have responded by filing a variety of lawsuits.

This should be no surprise to music fans.

All the way back in 1994, Pearl Jam was one of the few bands to try and do something about it. Their complaint with the antitrust division of the U. S. Department of Justice claimed that Ticketmaster had a "virtually absolute monopoly on the distribution of tickets to concerts."

Nobody did anything 29 years ago and here we are today.

Former Ticketmaster CEO told The Los Angeles Times, "The public brought all this on itself. I have no sympathy for people whining about high ticket prices. They helped create this situation where artists have to make all their money on tour. Artists and the market set the prices, and you can't pay a Motel 6 price and stay at the Four Seasons."

This movie might not solve the problem, but it does lay it out well.

Identifies the problem, fails to suggest a solution

[roxlerookie · 7/10 · 29 January 2024]

Good but not great documentary on the problem with concert tickets today.

We learn about the monopoly of Ticketmaster, notably from exclusivity contracts with venues. Ticketmaster requires venues to only sell tickets via their platform, and venues therefore feel obligated to use Ticketmaster.

We also learn about the vertical integration of venues and Ticketmaster, which makes this exclusivity clause often moot, given all the profit ends up in the same pocket.

What the docu fails to do is suggest solutions. The problem is evident, benefits Ticketmaster and their venues, but poisons the experience of most music fans & many artists. We also can't ignore the fact that there will always be people willing to pay extra to attend a concert at the last minute.

Economic theory says that there should be competition to balance things out. It's evident that competition doesn't apply here, so you would expect the government to step in, not as a neo-marxist force, but as a force to maintain competition. There's also a real question of where capitalism should stop, because musicians are almost by definition not businessmen at heart, and it is evident that many want to charge the public what they feel is fair, rather than the absolute highest price any concert goer is willing to pay. That spread on most of the tickets sold simply shouldn't be allowed to be captured by parasitic market forces.

You could plausibly think of a stock exchange where at least... 80% (?) of the tickets are sold in the primary market, and like airline tickets, these tickets would be in your name, you can't resell them, maybe except to the platform subject to a sizeable restocking fee (put option)? And allow the last 20% to be traded in the secondary market anonymously? Fans should be able to buy tickets at prices set by the artist with a transparent level of fees. Some people will always pay up to jump the queue. It's about accommodating both. Many venues and artists are also afraid of Ticketmaster, so maybe vertical integration and exclusivity clauses should be banned?

What is clear is that any concert system that is to the detriment of both the artist and the fans is bad. Market good. Monopoly / cartel bad.