I just wanted to post my thoughts on all the criticism that Ticketmaster gets. Not that I care about them, because ticket prices are insane, but because I think people focus on the wrong things if they want change to happen.

 

First of all, no one HAS to go a show if they can't afford it. It's a luxury to be able to do so. And miss me with the weird 'culture' argument. No one goes to a  pop concert for culture and if you say you do you're lying. 
 

The bigger point is that it's strictly an issue of supply and demand. An artist or record company will charge what they believe the public is willing to pay. This is  true of ANY product. So if an artist is charging $900 for seats that were $400 before, it's because people will, and are, paying for it. 
 

Also, if you think that artists will all of a sudden decrease their prices because Ticketmaster is out of the equation, you're delusional. They will charge the exact same amount and just keep a much larger portion of the profits.  That's tea.

 

If you can't afford these shows, there are so many smaller artists that are AMAZING. You just have to discover them. Their shows are small and inexpensive and you get to experience them up close. The audiences are true fans so the energy is lit. Enjoy!

terrible take, so now pop shows are a luxury?  you just love to lick the boot don't you

Oh so you wrote all of THAT to defend a multi million dollar company? I hope you're on their PR team or something because if you're doing that for free... chile...

 

 

 

Are you on Ticketmaster's payroll? 

Edited April 3, 20251 yr by byzantium

6 minutes ago, JanStan said:

First of all, no one HAS to go a show if they can't afford it. It's a luxury to be able to do so.

NOT this take again

 

You cannot be serious…

Ticketmaster IS the problem.

 

In my country, the highest face value for a big pop star concert ticket is only around $150. There's no dynamic pricing, no verified resale, and no unnecessary VIP packages either. Of course, some scalpers still manage to get tickets and resell them at much higher prices, but the ticket vendors themselves never encourage resale or lean into the "supply and demand" logic.

100% agree how are yall gonna complain if you continue to pay these insane prices lol 

I mean, Ticketmaster "isn't the problem" in the sense that it's meant to exist to shield the artists and labels from looking greedy and evil. Doesn't seem to be working so well these days. 

Sure, a website that has overblown dynamic pricing set by default, that charges nearly $100 for service in most cases per ticket, has done a terrible job for over a decade to filter out bots and scalpers and has a very anti user friendly interface isn't a problem 

Supporting smaller artists is great advice in general, but it doesn't address the systemic issue. Fans of major artists shouldn't have to accept price gouging just because they like someone successful. High demand should not justify exploitative pricing models - especially when those models are enabled by monopolistic control rather than true market competition.

If this was SYG I would've told you to please ***

 

To me it's more of the scalpers problem.

Supply/Demand is one thing and should be the way business is done, but the demand is highly inflated by scalpers. If those demand is indeed from real audience, I don't really care about dynamic pricing tbh. The price isn't supposed to be that high even with dynamic pricing, but scaplers inflate them so much.

Edited April 3, 20251 yr by GipJo

That was embarrassing to read omg

i thought it was stubhub and scalpers that were the problem

No I don't agree that only rich people should be able to go to concerts for the glory of capitalism. There should be cheaper seats, that's always been a thing. It's not like any of them are so cheap that a really poor person could go. 

 

Also Ticketmaster is a terrible company who are definitely at least part of the problem. They are the reason why so many fans weren't able to get tickets before the prices increased because of how bad their system is. Also I had an issue and I was told by them to contact customer service and then their customer service just refused to address it because I didn't have an event with them. The issue was one of the things that prevented me from being able to get tickets through their system and them not fixing it means I probably won't be able to use their service again. They don't care though because there are always rich people and bots willing to buy from them. This isn't a good thing and there's no reason to defend it. 

exactly. it's ticketmaster AND your greedy ahh faves are the problems.

Concerts used to be affordable. Even some smaller artists are charging like £40 for theatre tickets now, when they used to be half of that. Live music should be accessible to everyone. Ticketmaster is a monopoly and are at least partially to blame for their platinum tickets and dynamic pricing.

The sooner people realize that the only purpose of touring is to milk fans, the better for everyone. No one tours because they "love their fans" or whatever

Concerts are a luxury, but those prices are far too high. I wouldn't pay some of the prices to see Michael Jackson if he came back tomorrow, let alone any other artist. Some of you have fallen victims to capitalism… hard.

While you are correct that it is on the consumer to decide how they spend their own money and no one is entitled to attend every show they want to, the issue is that the monopolistic nature of Ticketmaster is what leads to insanely high "demand-driven" ticket prices.
 

Because Ticketmaster has exclusive contracts with the VAST majority of major venues in the United States, big artists have no choice but to use their system if they want to do an arena or stadium tour. Meaning there's zero competition in the market and the artist and Ticketmaster can set the price at whatever they want in order to maximize profits. Prices are artificially inflated and it's not truly based on a supply/demand market as you postulate. If there were a few ticket suppliers for a single show, each one would have to compete with each other for buyers in order to maximize their market share, increasing the likelihood that prices decrease instead of getting stuck in a dynamic pricing loop. 
 

These massive corporations exist solely to milk every single cent they possible can out of the American consumer. We do not truly have the "free markets" that we've been brainwashed to believe actually exist. The entire system is intentionally designed this way. This is capitalism. Corporations and a government owned by lobbyists are absolutely to blame for this exploitation. 

It's truly amazing how people can be so brainwashed to the point of arguing against their best interest. 

 

Who needs paid employees when any random person can defend you even after you stomp all over them for FREE? 

Ticketmaster is the problem and are one of the most corrupt companies ever with the way they implemented dynamic pricing. I sympathize with my fellow Liddos because I just had to spend over $500 on Brand New tickets 

31 minutes ago, Venice B said:

Oh so you wrote all of THAT to defend a multi million dollar company? I hope you're on their PR team or something because if you're doing that for free... chile...

 

 

 

Multi-BILLION dollar company*

 

In 2025 alone Ticketmaster/Live Nation's annual revenue was 19 billion with a pure profit of 530 million, which was up 65% YOY.

 

--

 

There's a reason that congress introduced legislation and lawsuits in the US to address the monopolistic practices they employ. It's predatory and only hurts the consumer. Wrong take.

Ticketmaster's problems are their fees and their monopoly with venues and Live Nation.

 

Ticket prices are to blame on touring companies and the artists themselves because they saw how dumb we are on buying tickets at any price so they are milking us until things get out of control and eventually dumb people will start giving their patrimonies for a concert ticket.