Justice Department sues to break up Live Nation, parent of Ticketmaster

"We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators," said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. "The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster."

Oh look, they finally discovered the thing anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together knew 20 years ago.

Stop fucking approving corporate mergers and acquisitions you utter fucking dumbasses.

It didn't matter until a billionaire was pissed and her millions of fans were also pissed.
- If it means change, I'll take it!
This is not the result of a prolonged investigation. It's the result of shifting precedent from a neoliberal, Chicago School, interpretation to a more "new deal" era interpretation of monopoly laws. For the last 30 years, monopolies could only be broken up if the corporation bought other companies "with the intention of of forming a "monopoly." We literally had to get rid of all the followers of the Chicago School from the government and replace them with people that aren't as friendly to corporations.

Basically, think of companies forming monopolies as drunk driving. If a court of law were to determine drunk driving manslaughter cases like they've been determining monopoly cases, you'd have to prove that the drunk driver left his house with the intention of killing someone inna drunk driving accident. So they'd always be able to say, "well I didn't leave the house thinking I'd kill someone!" And get away of it. That's how companies and the judicial system have been treating monopoly laws.
- For the last 30 years, monopolies could only be broken up if the corporation bought other companies "without the intention of of forming a “monopoly.”
  
  With the intention of forming a monopoly?
It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.

The best time to do this was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

I hope one day we can go back to buying from the box office without fees.

I just had to pay $17 to buy 2 tickets to a show at a random small venue for my kid.

These service fees are out of control.
- I had to pay sales tax to purchase two tickets from a Ticketmaster subsidiary in a state where we have no sales tax. I even went through the hassle of contacting them and they just blew me off with "it's to cover state and local taxes" which are nonexistant in reality.
- Meanwhile the cost of delivering tickets has never been lower.
- I hope you made sure to tip them at least 20% for the convenience 🙃

I wish more musicians had joined Pearl Jam back in the day, but instead they were left to stand up for fans alone. And now Ticketmaster has only gotten bigger/worse since. 😩

I cannot believe it required Taylor Swift fans getting screwed over for this to finally be looked at, but it's about goddamn time!

Don't mess with the Swifties
- Back in the day, you would camp out or arrive early....stand in line...wait for the record store to open to buy tickets.
  
  All tickets were same price No Internet meant 1st person in line had a real chance to get front row seats Tickets were 30.00 maybe....I paid 40 to see van Halen with Alice in Chains open.
  
  Nowadays, seats are priced at a premium Venues add an upcharge for seats on top of Ticketmaster Fees are almost as much as a ticket Front row doesn't go to fans that camp out, they are sold at a huge markup. No more paper tickets means ticketmaster gets to double dip on fees for a resale...if they even allow resale of your ticket.
  
  Fuck ticketmaster
- Swifties vs BTS fans, no one wins.

Now do the banks and grocery stores and airlines and car companies and farming and...

Imagine having a golden goose like this and literally strangling it with your own greed.

If I was one of those people making outrageous amounts of money off this thing for decades, I would be screaming for the flesh to be stripped clean off the executives managing that business.

Live Nation said Thursday it doesn’t benefit from monopoly pricing, saying that Ticketmaster service charges “are no higher than elsewhere, and frequently lower.” The company noted its overall net profit margin is at the low end of S&P 500 companies.

How do they not make a killing? What are they spending their money on? I can't remember how many years ago it's been since I got a physical ticket besides the ones I had to pay them for to print myself.

No higher than elsewhere

Technically true since "elsewhere" no longer exists because they worked hard to ensure that was the case.
- Lol exactly, hence the monopoly accusations. We're on to you Ticketmaster/LiveNation!
John Oliver did a segment on it. He specifically answered that question if I remember correctly.
- I do remember this episode. They go into it a bit at the 5 minute mark, but didn't get into many specifics.
  
  It looks like Hollywood accounting to me still. If we look at the statements from Ticketmaster's site for answers, we get:
  
  Who sets the ticket price? Artists, promoters, sports leagues, or teams decide how they want to sell their tickets on Ticketmaster. That includes setting the face value prices, determining how many tickets to sell, and when to put them on sale.
  
  How much money does Ticketmaster make from a ticket? Ticketmaster doesn’t keep anything from the face value cost of a ticket. We take a portion of the fees added to the ticket. As a ticketing vendor selected by the venue, Ticketmaster’s portion covers the costs of the technology, people, and resources needed to provide a safe and secure ticket-buying experience. It also covers the equipment and support we provide venues with, helping them to manage their box office and seamlessly get everyone into the venue on event day.
  
  What are service fees? Service fees are an essential cost of putting on a show. The venue sets the service fee rate card and keeps most of the service fees, sharing a portion with Ticketmaster, sports teams, leagues, promoters, and other parties who have a hand in making live events happen.
  
  Can you tell me how many tickets have been sold for an event? For all inquiries on pricing and sales you must reach out to the event organizer directly.
  
  And if we look at LiveNation:
  
  As the world’s largest live entertainment company, Live Nation is the one-stop solution for all your event needs. From corporate events to private live concerts, to social gatherings, our event specialists provide seamless execution, including event planning, experiential marketing, state-of-the-art equipment, live entertainment and more.
  
  And also:
  
  With over 150 venues across North America, we offer unique event spaces, state-of-the-art production and branding capabilities, as well as an experienced staff ready to exceed your guests' expectations.
  
  So while plenty of money is leaving Ticketmaster, a very large chunk of that is likely going right back into several of their other pockets.
  
  The LWT piece also goes into how only a minority of tickets actually go to sale to the public, leaving the rest up for resale, which they also have the potential to get a slice of as well, and they have seemingly done nothing to combat resllers or bots.
  
  So LiveNation I can understand having slimmer margins since they seem to be providing actual services and have overhead on their physical ownings and staff, but Ticketmaster itself still seems to mainly by an app and marketing department.

Shut em down. They deserve jail, suffering, and eternal torment.

Seriously! We've been talking about this for 30 years, can we just get it done already?

Can't wait to be able to afford one of those shows and still not go.

Sickos: "Yes...YES"

I have this permanently saved on my phone. Now you can too!

Not sure how to feel about TS; on the one hand she can bring positive change on small economic issues related to entertainment like this, on the other hand her carbon footprint is inexcusable and she's as much if not more of a blight on the environment as any other billionaire I can think of.

Have you considered that it might not be necessary to feel one way or another about the whole of a person? You can limit yourself to having opinions on individual things they do, and these don't have to be reconciled.
- I hadn't considered that, but now I will.

Just go back to no online presales. You wanna go to a show? Line up. One ticket per person. Fuck you.

The whole industry is a joke.

That would really suck for people traveling to see a popular show. You wouldn't know if you can actually get in until you get there.
- They could do more shows at smaller venues in more towns. I dunno, I'm just mad and so tired of this shit.