Justice Department sues to break up Live Nation, parent of Ticketmaster
Justice Department sues to break up Live Nation, parent of Ticketmaster
The lawsuit follows a DOJ probe bolstered by fan complaints following a botched rollout for tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
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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.
My issue with ticketmaster is the shifting cost of a ticket. If you pre-order, you'll spend more than the "face value" of the ticket. And if you wait 2 weeks, and can still get tickets, it's half the face value. There is no face value if the value keeps shifting.
As I recall, they have the venue tack on an extra service fee charged to the promoter. That fee is then split by some petcentage with Live Nation. It allows Ticketmaster to claim low margins on tickets, while basically collecting a bunch of money right up front, before any tickets are even priced.
I do give them credit for running a creative scam this long while staying technically on the right side of the law, but I gave up on going to shows about 8 years ago now.
Between the crazy cost and dealing with rude fans at the shows, I just pass on going now.