Why People Are Ticked Off at Ticketmaster
A screenshot of the unavailable ticket notice
December 20, 2022
Concerns of Live Nation Entertainment commanding a monopoly were brought to light on Nov 15 when a pre-sale for “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” began. As of Nov 18, 2022, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation on Live Nation Entertainment Inc.
According to Ticketmaster, a record-breaking number of bot attacks launched 3.5 billion system requests onto the website. Consequently, several customers endured a long and stressful wait in the queue to purchase tickets.
“I knew I had to do everything in my power to prepare,” Maddy Mlouk, QUEST senior, said while describing her experience buying tickets for Swift’s tour. “The way that [Live Nation Entertainment] handled the situation was so poorly done for the size of their company.”
For decades, Ticketmaster has been the go-to website for buying event tickets. In 2019, their annual report revealed an astonishing total sale of 486.5 million tickets for that year. Live Nation, a venue operator and artist manager, merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Ever since, economic activists have been suspicious of whether the company has too much control over the event industry.
A monopoly occurs when a company has “complete control over the prices of goods and services,” Mr. McWhorter, teacher of AP Human Geography, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Government, explained. Live Nation Entertainment’s potential monopoly is crucial as they wouldn’t “have to be responsive to consumers’ needs so much,” McWhorter continued.
As reported by the New York Times, the Justice Department declared in 2019 that the corporation allegedly broke their merger contract by threatening to drop concert venues if they did not use Ticketmaster. Live Nation Entertainment denied these claims.
A screenshot of Taylor Swift’s Ticketmaster page
Nevertheless, the Justice Department extended their agreement until 2025 and altered the wording of the contract to reiterate the company’s restrictions.
The Biden Administration has been working hard to implement stricter regulations on big businesses.
Unfortunately, people are left with few other options to attend their favorite artists’ concerts, making a boycott near impossible. On December 9 and 10, Bad Bunny performed at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, Latin America’s largest stadium. However, according to the New York Times, the floor, planned to be jam-packed, was left half empty. More than 1,600 fans were told their tickets, purchased through Ticketmaster, were invalid and were refused entry. The president of Mexico is hoping Bad Bunny will return and play for free, but the musician has not responded yet.
Whether it is a tyrannical monopoly or simply bad customer service, everyone should be aware of Ticketmaster and Live Nation as they may have the sole power to hike up ticket prices.
Camila H • Feb 1, 2023 at 1:18 pm
On December 20, Shane Texeira wrote an article titled “Why People are Ticked Off at Ticketmaster”. The article begins by mentioning an issue that arose during the pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s “The Era’s Tour”. Many customers had a bad experience trying to buy tickets and Live Nation Entertainment, the company which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, did not handle the situation so well in terms of their customer service. I appreciate the author for giving context on what a monopoly is as well as using outside opinions from someone who has used the ticketing site before and from a qualified teacher. Texeira brings up the fact that the Justice Department declared that the corporation broke their merger contract in 2019 but Live Nation Entertainment denied this claim. In addition, the article states that the Biden Administration is working on implementing stricter regulations on big businesses. Have they done anything so far? If there were any, what regulations were put in place before Biden became president? Lastly, the article mentions how Bad Bunny’s last show in Mexico was half empty due to invalid tickets. I wonder why exactly were the tickets invalid if they had purchased them directly through Ticketmaster?
Cailyn Delliquadri • Feb 1, 2023 at 11:45 am
The article details the reasons why Ticketmaster’s business model is being called into question. It also explains how the recent event of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket sales has highlighted the faults of the cooperation. I like how a personal statement by a Millikan student was included. In the article, Maddy Mlouk talks about her experience and disappointment with trying to get tickets to Swift’s Eras Tour. I also had a similar experience trying to get tickets and I know that many of my friends feel similarly disappointed and let down. Mlouk’s statement shows how widespread this issue is because it is affecting a lot of people at Millikan. I also liked how Mr. McWhorter was included in the article. Most people know the general information about the Live Nation situation but they might not know the technicalities like what a monopoly is and why it is bad. Since Mr. McWhorter teaches AP Macroeconomics at Millikan, he is the perfect person to get this information from. I knew that monopolies were bad because they allow for one company to have control over an industry. However, I didn’t know that a monopoly makes it so the company doesn’t have to pay as much attention to the consumers. The article made me think about how this could affect fans and concerts as a whole.
Sabrina Lopez • Feb 1, 2023 at 11:11 am
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 20, Shane Texeira wrote an article titled “Why People Are Ticked Off at Ticketmaster.” I personally found this article really interesting because I am one of the people who is ticked off at Ticketmaster. I remember how excited I was when Taylor Swift announced that she would be dropping her 10th studio album, and the excitement only grew when it turned out she was releasing a second part to the album. The 3 a.m. version of the album, personally, included some of Taylor Swift’s best lyrics. My favorites from the album would be “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Midnight Rain”. It was really disappointing to hear from Ticketmaster that they did not have enough tickets for a general sale. I know of so many Taylor Swift fans, including myself, who were not able to get tickets because of Ticketmasters mistake. I thought it was so interesting how it actually went to court. While watching the court hearings, I thought it was really funny how some of the Senators quoted Taylor Swift’s lyrics while court was in session. I think that this article was one of my favorites so far, but I do think the author should have added some of the quotes to the article because I think it adds a sense of personality to the hearing and to the Senators.
Sincerely,
Sabrina Lopez, Grade 11
Jacquelynn Gutierrez • Feb 1, 2023 at 9:35 am
On December 20, Shane Texeira wrote an article titled “Why People are Ticked off at Ticketmaster”. The article mentions that Ticketmaster is a go-to website for buying event tickets and this website merged with Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Thus Live Nation Entertainment has been granted power, possibly too much, over the event industry. This issue became brought into the spotlight due to the recent issues traced to Ticketmaster. Specifically, the website crashing, invalid tickets, and allegedly breaking a merger contract. This issue is a valid topic to highlight because, given the audience largely being high school students, being aware of a situation that may affect the audience is beneficial. Personally, I am glad to be informed on this topic because now I am aware of the possible risks if I were to use Ticketmaster. I admire how the article branched out from singular issues and smoothly delivered other issues linking back to Live Nation Entertainment. Although these issues are concerning, this broad array of details goes to prove that the article is well-written and informative. Additionally, this article also delivers multiple perspectives, including a credible opinion and someone who has experienced these dilemmas firsthand. Along with this, the article transitions to the issues other countries have faced with Ticketmaster and how the U.S. intends to potentially solve this dilemma. Therefore, even though it is concerning how powerful Live Nation Entertainment is over the economy, entertainment industry, and its users I admire how truly informative this article is written and the topic being one that connects to the audience. I only wonder how this impact influences and is influenced by our recent dilemma with inflation.
emma crocker • Jan 31, 2023 at 9:46 am
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 20, Shane Texeira wrote an article titled “Why People Are Ticked Off at Ticketmaster.” The article explained the current controversy surrounding Live Nation Entertainment in light of the recent antitrust investigation opened against them by the Justice Department. I had previously been aware of this investigation following the Taylor Swift pre-sale and I completely agree with the people who are upset as a result of that event. The long, stressful queue wait times discussed in the article have become a regular occurrence when buying concert tickets and I understand the upset surrounding it. While online ticket purchasing has made the process more widely accessible, the glitchy online queue risks obtaining any tickets at all. To add on to the argument about Ticketmaster’s ability to hike up prices, I would like to also point out their “Official Platinum” tickets. This has been a great annoyance when it comes to the process of buying tickets on the website as it allows the company to increase prices up to thousands of dollars for tickets in high demand. When attempting to buy general admission tickets with a standard price of $90, one may end up paying double that amount for the platinum tickets. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and learning more about the concerns of Live Nation Entertainment’s power.
alma • Jan 31, 2023 at 9:15 am
On December 20, 2023, Shane Texeria wrote an article titled “Why People Are Ticked Off at Ticketmaster.” In this article, Shane outlines the borderline entertainment ticket monopoly that is Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment Co. Texeria does this simultaneously with describing recent “scandals” company has endured; The Eras Tours (Taylor Swift) ticket sales, where the website to purchase tickets crashed, leaving many ticket-less, and the Bad Bunny concert where many of the attendees were denied entry because their tickets, that were purchased through Ticketmaster, were deemed invalid. On the topic of the Taylor Swift tickets sales, I feel as if more information could have been added to really prove why people were so upset. For starters, the ticket-purchasing was only the pre-sale event, where Ticketmaster sends pre-sale codes to verified fans of an artist and they get early access to purchase tickets. Now, despite having the early-access code, it did not mean you were guaranteed tickets. Which is why there was such panic when the website crashed. Also, Ticketmaster ended up sending out too many pre-sale codes for the amount of tickets, which led to all tickets being sold out before sales even reached the general public.