Ticketmaster Vs. The Boss

Ticketmaster, the largest ticket retailer in the world, is in talks with Live Nation, the largest concert promoter in the world, to merge their two businesses together. It’s not the most reported story in the world, though. First off, neither of the two companies is talking about the merge, which tells me the only people losing out on this deal are fans and concertgoers. Just recently I spent almost $300 on Metallica tickets that where priced at $90. Add in “convenience fee” (not sure why that’s in there ‘cause you couldn’t buy them anywhere else,) “shipping and handling fee” (the cheapest way to get the tickets was to send them in the mail…just to print them with my own ink and paper was a $5 fee!,) and of course taxes, which I really can’t complain about; I would rather pay taxes on my tickets then a B.S. “convenience fee.”

But back to the merger for a few then I’ll hand it over to Jersey (No, really)! Ticketmaster and Live Nation would eventually control everything before, during and after a concert, which leaves little room for anything or anyone to step up. In the UK the Competition Commission said the merge could lead to “higher prices and lower quality of services.” More so it would encourage Live Nation to “inhibit a “significant potential rival” from entering the UK market. And that statement goes across the pond too!

Besides the few artists like Danzig who have stepped up and said “get out of my fans’ pockets,” Ticketmaster rules tickets both in the UK and USA. For the last 3 years, in fact, Danzig has used a different site, owned by Artistdirect, to let his fans get presale tickets. Normally the presale tickets would sell out, leaving only a percentage for the box-office to sell, totally kicking out or only leaving Ticketmaster a very small percentage. But Danzig is not the first: Blink182 used their site (again, owned by Aristdirect,) Loserkids.com to do the same thing a few years back.

Now let’s hear it for the man that really hates Ticketmaster, THE BOSS! Bruce Springsteen is pissed off! He’s not pissed because he’s from Jersey, but because Ticketmaster “totally screwed his Jersey fans” by routing fans to buy tickets to a “secondary site” where they were charged way more than the price advertised ($54). Ticketmaster owned that “secondary site” and charged between $200 and $5,000 for tickets to his New Jersey show! The Boss posted a message on his Web site and accused Ticketmaster of “scalping” the tickets! Hell yeah! Give it up for The Boss people!

Then, in a twist of “good call,” New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell said he was “deluged this week by calls from angry music fans” and sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission chairman; not just the complaint line, the chairman! Pascrell asked them to look into Ticketmaster’s practices, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

I would assume that this is huge news for Las Vegas; we’re the entertainment capital of the world and Ticketmaster is used for almost every show on the Strip! But I guess that’s why I am breaking this bad boy open!


PS- Keeping kick ass Bruce!